One of the mistakes commonly made when e-learning developers formulate a course is to use excessive background music and content, and irrelevant graphics on-screen.

According to Clark, R.C., & Mayer, R.E. (2003) in the book “E-Learning and the Science of Instruction”, the Coherence Principle states that all unnecessary information in multimedia messages should be eliminated, such as sound, images and words as they harm the learning. The learning can be improved only when unnecessary music or sound, graphics and words are removed from e-learning courses. As by adding interesting but irrelevant materials to e-learning courses, the learner can get distracted.

The three principles which instruction designers should follow:

1. Avoid extraneous sounds in e-lessons: According to the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia, the capacity of human memory is very limited. It predicts that adults will learn more deeply from multimedia presentations which do not contain any extraneous sound. Music can be used at the beginning of the course to make the learner focus on the course. Right and wrong sounds can also be used in the internal assessments.

2. Avoid extraneous pictures in e-lessons: This principle states that adult learners want to build the structure or image of the course as they read the content on-screen. The image placed in the course should complement the thinking process and not distract learners.

3. Avoid extraneous words in e-lessons: This principle states that simple, basic and concise on-screen text helps learning. Therefore, we should avoid using long phrases and sentences and instead help the learner by using sounds sparingly, adding complementary images and simple and concise on-screen content.

Thus by applying the coherence principle, eLearning developers can make their course effective and interesting. Also, remove the unnecessary multimedia that hampers learning.

Related posts:

1. Applying Modality Principle in eLearning Design and Development
2. Translating and Localizing eLearning to Reach Global Audience – CommLab’s Experience
3. Elements of Storyboards

When you hire an employee, it is essential that you train the new employee on your Company’s policies and processes. This helps the employee know about organizational culture, values and vision. New employee training programs help employees in quickly adjusting to their new environment and delivering the goods in compliance with the organization’s policies and processes.

Moreover, as the business grows, you need to modify the existing processes for better results. That may call for new skills on the part of your employees. In this regard, process training plays a crucial role in employees’ acquiring new skills and making a smooth transition into the new process. It immensely boosts the employee morale and keeps them motivated to perform better to reach the Company’s goals.

However, can companies afford employee training, which can be expensive at times? It is an undisputed fact that employee training has many advantages for small as well as large companies. Nonetheless, companies cannot have their employees out of work for several days as this can hit their exchequer. Therefore, the best available option is online training where they can reap more or less the same benefits with online training as they do with full-fledged training. This is because online training provides employees with on-the-job training. This means that employees can train themselves while working from their workstations and implement immediately what they have learnt.

In addition, with online training, companies can save their resources while training their employees much faster. They can provide training to a large group of employees at a convenient time by keeping content-rich learning material just a click away from their employees. Employees can access the content and learn new information and skills without moving from their workstations. As a result, companies need not forego the employees’ production time.

Moreover, by offering e-learning courses, companies can have a rich pool of knowledgeable employees who can handle various work situations. Thus, they can take advantage of new technologies and operational settings to take their businesses to the next level.

Thus, companies should not be contented with hiring the best-of-the-industry workforce. They should properly train their employees on company-wide policies and processes. Only then can they achieve best performances from their employees. And it is here that e-learning comes in handy for the employer.

Do share your thoughts on the same.

When you think of e-learning, what comes to mind? I think everyone now uses e-learning in some form and most of us do so without realizing it. In the simplest possible terms, just hooking onto the Internet and reading how to use a piece of software you recently purchased is e-learning because you’re using an electronic means to learn something. Get it? Now, that’s not exactly what I’m talking about, but maybe you’re getting the idea of just how much you may be using e-learning unwittingly.

In reality, individuals use e-learning to learn new software or take university or accreditation courses. Imagine how many more people can gain qualifications by using their computer at home! The stay-at-home mother who wants to be able to gain more skills for the day she returns to work, or the high school leaver who needs qualifications to get his first job, or the pensioner who wants to supplement his income with a part-time job need to get familiar with new technology or update their knowledge. The number of individuals who could benefit from e-learning in one way or another is almost limitless.

On the corporate and governmental fronts, e-learning can be the way to standardize training and be able to offer training simultaneously to all personnel, regardless of their geographic location. If a company has a rolling induction schedule (like in the construction industry), carrying it out via e-learning would be a smoother, uninterrupted process, compared to constantly having to schedule trainers and venues that are limited by space. E-learning opens the floodgates as to what can be offered to employees in a more cost-effective manner.

We all need to continually learn and expand our skill sets professionally and this is where I think e-learning is most beneficial for the employer and employee. Employers who offer continuing education tend to have a higher employee retention rates because:

• Employees feel valued by their employer, so they stay
• Let’s face it, the employer doesn’t have to continually train new staff which can be expensive for an organization.

The problem lies in offering the continuing education cost-effectively without compromising productivity. This is where e-learning comes to the fore.

Imagine being able to train employees in a new procedure without having a significant drop in productivity. I can hear some say, “Tell her she’s dreaming!” No, it is possible! E-learning is a means of providing the training to all our employees efficiently manner in this new procedure we’ve just made up. Our employee doesn’t have to sit in a boring, usually too warm, classroom environment, but rather he or she can continue working as normal and, as time allows, can take the course at his or her own pace at the individual’s own workstation. This means the employee will have a much higher retention of the course, the advantage being that he or she can go at his or her own pace, review information when he or she needs and take the time to absorb the material, not to mention sitting in familiar and comfortable surroundings.

It’s a well-known fact that people have an average attention span of about 20 minutes, so if they are sitting in a 60-minute classroom, a minimum of two-thirds of that information is going in through one ear and out the other! Yes, you are usually presented with half a tree’s worth of paper outlining everything that was reviewed during the course, but honestly, who reads that stuff?? E-learning courses have the capacity to engage the employee in a variety of ways (visual, aural and cognitive) which will hold the learner’s attention and can then assess how well the knowledge was absorbed and given in the form of feedback to the employer.

So, an advantage of e-learning in business is that you can actually gauge your Return on Investment (ROI) by a physical means. While e-learning can cost more upfront, it is actually less expensive in the long term because the company maintains a higher retention rate, more productive staff and fewer ongoing training expenses.

In the final analysis, e-learning is a very flexible tool that can be used in a myriad ways. It is only limited by one’s imagination. So, instead of feeling daunted by the notion of jumping into the e-learning waters, we need to embrace it and dip our toes in because, really, what do we have to lose? We may learn more about ourselves as well as gain some new knowledge in the process.

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My response is a bit off tangent. Please bear with me and read on…

A snack in Western culture (and in most other cultures) is a type of food not meant to be eaten as a main meal of the day, but to assuage a person’s hunger between meals, providing a brief supply of energy to the body. The term may also refer to a food item consumed between meals purely for the enjoyment of its taste. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snack_food)

Quoting from Dr. Patrick Nemechek’s blog, “For every 100 calories difference in your diet, your weight will go up or down approximately 10 pounds in the course of 1 year. If you think about it, that’s the rate at which many of us put on the weight in the course of a year. Eating 100-200 calories per day is equal in calories to about 1 snack per day!” it is clear that snacks have a very detrimental effect on one’s health by insidiously increasing body weight, resulting in many health maladies like hypertension, diabetics, cardiac disease.

If we start substituting snacks for proper meals, we don’t need the good doctor’s diagnosis of what will happen to our health and well-being. We can predict it ourselves. At best, a snack may be consumed for the enjoyment of its taste, that too infrequently and in the smallest of portions, definitely not the Dagwood-typeJ. We need well-balanced meals, a major portion comprising unappetizing things like raw vegetables to maintain good health. We should not lose sight of the fact that we eat to live and not to enjoy the taste of what we eat.

Continuing in the same line of thinking, if we think that we can substitute serious, focused study that involves hours of hard work to gain deep insights into a subject with “knowledge” gained from twittering or similar kinds of exchanges in social networking, we are fooling ourselves. It applies to e-learning too, a domain in which our company operates. In my last month’s blog, Learning Predictions – 2010, I mentioned the increasing demand for quick-fix learning solutions. Organizations are asking for more learning “pills” rather than instructionally sound comprehensive e-learning courses that have been subjected to adhere to robust learning design principles and processes. Well, Alvin Toffler predicted this craving for impermanence and shortcuts decades ago. It is now every much here, whether we like it or not.

So, what do we do, as learning professionals? Our professional values and ethics will guide us. We will have to advise our customers what is best for them in the long run, what is important but not urgent.

In the language of arithmetical ratios, a snack is to nutrition is as twittering is to learning.

Thank you for reading my blog and for sharing your comments.

RK Prasad
CEO

As an instructional designer, I have worked with many Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). I came across several SMEs who lack the experience of working with an instructional designer, hence making them aware about the process of creating an e-learning course. It goes without saying that SMEs play an instrumental part in developing an effective e-learning course.

SMEs are connoisseurs in their field of work. They possess immense knowledge of the subject, contribute content, source materials, reference links, prioritize topics and concepts, check the content for technical accuracy, etc. Failure on an ID’s part to incorporate constructive information in the course can result in an ineffective e-learning product.

A good SME respects project timelines, understands learning objectives, the learner’s motivation and does not force every bit of content in a course. Before the start of any project, it is good to spend some time to get to know the SME. This ice-breaker forms the basis of a relationship of trust between both parties. Usually, SMEs are very willing to help and share their knowledge if you build a good relationship with them. The following are my observations on my interactions with SMEs.

Introduce e-learning to the SME. Explain what good e-learning is, its capabilities and limitations. Discuss timelines and the process of creating an e-learning product from concept to finish. To provide a better understanding, create a special project plan discussing each step of the project and timeline. Be specific about time commitments, such as an estimate of each task and the final deliverable dates. This will help both parties to stay on track and meet deadlines.

Discuss the SME’s role in the creating the product. Ask SME to schedule his time for your project and prepare him for the task on hand. Help him identify your training needs, audience and their motivation and learning objectives. Make sure that the SME is accessible for clarifications on the content during the development process. Communicate what you want, how much you want at each step of the project. Also, invite the SME to attend the kick-off meeting. He will be able to know and understand the target audience and the client’s needs.

Before your information-gathering meetings, do your homework on the subject. Read all you can on the topic before approaching the SME with a question or two, when in doubt because this wastes his time. Instead, create a question bank which the SME can answer in an organized manner.

While some e-learning companies have internal SMEs, often, the client too provides the vendor with internal experts. Respect the SME’s time. Plan deliverables, schedule meetings or phone calls according to his convenience.

It is possible that SME loses focus on the learning objectives. As an ID, you should help him stay on track. He may want to include unrelated content. Allow him to step into the learner’s shoes and ask,”How will the learner use this piece of information on the job?” Keep the extra content aside and find innovative ways to make it useful to the learner.

Update the SME during the development stage. If possible, share any available content. Ask the SME to proofread the course on completion of the first draft. Create a checklist with detailed instructions on proofreading the course. Your checklist can include details relating to consistency and clarity of the content, accuracy of review and assessments questions, technical accuracy of the content and flow of the course, etc..

By incorporating the above-mentioned points, I continue to enjoy a good working relationship with SMEs. Keeping them informed and involved during each step of the course creation process will lead to an effective alliance for your e-learning project.

What are your thoughts on the same? Do comment and share your knowledge on what it takes to be an instructional designer and what was your experience working with SMEs.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Related posts:

1. ADDIE Model and its Utility in Instructional Designing
2. The Real E-Learning Standards
3. The Process for Implementing Instructional Design