An Introduction to SAM for Instructional Designers
The ADDIE model is probably the most well-known approach for mapping out the course design process. But it isn’t the only game in town these days. One popular alternative is SAM: the Successive Approximation Model. Created by Allen Interactions, SAM offers an instructional design approach consisting of a few steps that you repeat as many times as necessary. These iterations address common instructional design pain points like meeting timelines, staying on budget, and collaborating with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). So what is SAM? And how is it different from ADDIE? Is one better than the other? Let’s dig in and uncover some answers to these questions. What’s the difference between ADDIE and SAM? ADDIE and SAM are two different approaches for crafting learning solutions that share some similar language. To better see where they differ, it’s helpful to understand how each of them works. Let’s start with ADDIE. ADDIE ADDIE stands for Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate. It’s a linear approach—like a production line—with each step depending on the successful completion of the previous one. To borrow some terminology from project managers, ADDIE is a “waterfall approach.” And in a traditional waterfall method, analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation are all treated as ordered steps in the overall development process. While this model is preferred in many organizations, some folks say this sequential approach contributes to many of the challenges faced by instructional designers, including: Prolonged development cycles: Have you ever had your project come to a screeching halt in the development phase? It’s not uncommon for new training or technology requirements to emerge in the project development phase, bogging down your productivity with re-work. Communication challenges with SMEs and stakeholders: Even the most thorough explanations and storyboards are still open to interpretation. And with a sequential approach, SMEs and stakeholders typically don’t get to try a hands-on version of the project until well into the development phase. This can mean it’s not until you’re near the end of the project—when you’re out of time and money—that you discover your vision doesn’t match theirs. No time for testing: When projects run out of time or money, what’s the phase of the process we tend to skimp on? In my experience, it’s testing. Shortchanging this step may save you time, but with risky downsides like a training product that doesn’t work—or work effectively—to address a critical performance gap. Successive Approximation Model (SAM) SAM, on the other hand, is considered to be an “agile approach” that can be scaled from basic (SAM1) to extended (SAM2) to suit your needs. Both SAM models use iterative cycles to create the end product right from the start—all while continually analyzing and refining your work as it’s being produced. Proponents of using agile methods for creating e-learning claim that models like SAM can alleviate many of the challenges discussed above—in particular, improving the project team’s visibility into the instructional design process and reducing development time frames. The basic process—SAM1—can be a good fit for smaller projects or teams. This flavor of SAM is a simple model with three iterations of the familiar instructional design steps of evaluation, design, and development. Using this approach, everyone’s ideas and assumptions can be discussed, prototyped, and tested early on, bringing you closer to a usable product more quickly. And what if your project is more complex? That’s where SAM2 comes into play. SAM2 is an extended take on SAM1. It consists of eight iterative instructional design steps spread across three project phases: Preparation, Iterative Design, and Iterative Development. In addition to the incremental cycles, another notable feature of the SAM2 model is the preparation phase. It consists of two steps to help you prepare for your design and development work fast: gathering information and then holding a brainstorming and prototyping meeting known as a “Savvy Start.” Which is better—ADDIE or SAM? When it comes to evaluating which design model is a better fit for you and your team, it really boils down to what you’re trying to achieve and what your work environment will support. When applied in the right situations and fully committed to by everyone involved, SAM’s flexibility can get you to a successful final course fast. Its iterative approach both helps you use prototypes to get stakeholder buy-in quickly and also makes it easy to pivot should your course requirements change. However, many instructional designers work in organizations that have embraced agility in theory but not so much in practice. Applying an agile approach like SAM can be difficult when your environment doesn’t encourage rapid feedback or flexible processes. In those cases, ADDIE’s waterfall model may be a better choice. Because ADDIE is a waterfall method that’s been used for years, it might make clients, stakeholders, and even team members more comfortable. And while it’s still not as flexible as SAM, many people find an adapted version of ADDIE that includes some iterative loops does a good job of splitting the difference between both methods. More Learning Whatever design model you follow—whether it’s ADDIE, SAM, or another one entirely—weighing your options for more thoughtful, responsive development practices can be a great way to build collaboration and grease the wheels for smoother training rollouts. Start by digging into these related articles from the archives. An Introduction to ADDIE for Instructional Designers What’s the PADDIE Model of Instructional Design? Best Practices for Effective E-Learning Project Management How to Manage E-Learning Project Scope Creep What design model is closest to how you really work? What are your thoughts on ADDIE vs. SAM? We love hearing from you, so share your thoughts in a comment. Follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.399Views0likes19CommentsPost-Course Evaluations for E-Learning: 60+ Questions to Include
If you're designing e-learning, you might want to include a post-course evaluation for learners to complete once they finish the training. The post-course evaluation is a survey-style questionnaire that gauges participants’ reactions to the e-learning they just took. The information and feedback you gather through post-course evaluations will help you improve your course and future training materials, so it's definitely an important step. You might be wondering which questions to include in a post-course evaluation survey. It's a common dilemma for course creators—which is why we’ve compiled a helpful list of over 60 potential questions. You likely won’t use every question but can pick and choose the ones that are most relevant to your project and subject matter. Course Expectations Rate your understanding of course expectations and assignments. Did the course cover the content you were expecting? Why or why not? What topics would you have liked to see addressed that were not covered? Course Structure and Content Rate your understanding of the course structure. Rate the consistency of the course content with the objectives. Rate the relevance of the subject matter or course content. Rate your confidence level for completing the knowledge or skill presented. Rate the amount of material covered. Rate the quality of the examples presented in the e-learning. Rate the availability of the instructor via email or online discussion. Rate your enjoyment of the course. Rate the course workload. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this e-learning course? What part of the e-learning course did you find most useful and interesting? What additional material would you like presented in the course? Was the content arranged in a clear and logical way? Why or why not? Did the content adequately explain the knowledge, skills, and concepts it presented? Quizzing Rate the relevance of assignments, quizzes, and tests. Rate the quality of the questions asked in the quizzes. Rate the variety of the types of quizzes. Was the quiz feedback timely and relevant? Why or why not? Did the quiz feedback present new knowledge? Were the quizzes presented at adequate intervals? Did the quizzes cover and test the material presented in the course? How could the exams be improved? Were the review sections before the quizzes useful? Did the practice questions make good learning tools? Timing How much time did you spend on this e-learning course? How many hours did you spend completing activities related to the course? Was the amount of time it took to complete this course appropriate? Why or why not? E-Learning Pace and Navigation Rate the pace at which the e-learning course advanced. Rate the ease of navigation. Did the e-learning unfold in a clear direction? Did you understand where you had to click to move forward? If not, why not? Rate the e-learning access setup or LMS setup. Visual Design Rate the overall visual design of the course content and materials. Rate the legibility of the text and fonts in this course. Rate the amount of corporate branding (logos, corporate colors) used. Rate the quality of the photography used in the course. Rate the use of animations in the course content. Multimedia Rate the amount of multimedia used in the course. Rate the quality of multimedia used in the course. Rate the amount of photography used in the course. Rate the amount of audio used in the course. Rate the quality of audio used in the course. Rate the amount of narration used in the course. Rate the voice and quality of the narration used in this course. Did the narration add value to this e-learning module? Why or why not? Interactivity Rate the amount of opportunities for interactive learning. Was the interactivity suitable for the content? Why or why not? If you did some group work, did you enjoy working with your group? Did you utilize any links to external websites? Did any of the activities help you gain a clearer understanding of the subject? Did case studies and scenarios help you gain a clearer understanding of the content? Rate your opportunity to interact with other virtual students. Rate how isolated you felt from other students. Rate how much you missed direct, in-person interaction with other students. Overall Experience Rate the technical quality of the course materials. Rate how confident you feel about your knowledge on the subject. Rate the availability of technical support. Identify three important concepts or ideas that you learned in this course. Identify three ways you will change how you do your job based on what you learned in the training. Identify three ways to improve this e-learning course. Make two suggestions to improve understanding of the course content. Would you prefer to take this course online or in the classroom? Why? Based on this experience, would you take another e-learning course? Why or why not? Did you encounter any technical problems during the course? If yes, elaborate. In Sum Obviously, this is just the tip of the iceberg! There are many other questions you might want to ask depending on the subject matter and purpose of your training. Can you think of any big ones we've left out? If so, please feel free to share them in the comments. And if you want to learn more about post-course evaluations, check out these helpful articles: Tips for Creating Effective Post-Course Evaluations Post-Course Evaluations: What E-Learning Designers Need to Know Follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.300Views0likes44CommentsGet to Know The 4 Levels of E-Learning
If you work in e-learning or training, you’ve probably heard people refer to the levels of e-learning before. But what does that mean? In the e-learning industry, there are four generally accepted levels of e-learning that will, in turn, affect the learning experience, cost, and development time of your project. Today, you’ll get a high-level look at all four levels. Once you understand the key components of each level, you’ll be better equipped to estimate the time—and also cost—of future projects. Level 1: Passive Interactivity Level 1 e-learning is a passive experience, where the learner just consumes information. There’s little to no interactivity with the course and the learner mostly reads and moves forward by clicking Next. In fact, some refer to level 1 as the “click next” style of e-learning because of its low level of interactivity. These courses include static text and images, and little to no multimedia. Quizzes in level 1 courses are usually straightforward multiple choice and true-or-false questions. Level 1 e-learning, while simple, does have its place: it can be a quick way to cover simple rules or procedures. Check out these examples to get a better understanding of what level 1 courses look like: View Example View Example Level 2: Limited Interactivity At level 2, e-learning courses start to incorporate some multimedia. Courses at this level can contain audio, some video, basic animations, and a few simple transitions. This level of content is often accompanied by narration and click-and-reveal interactions. Level 2 quizzes start to incorporate drag-and-drop interactions and matching activities. If you’re looking for a nice middle ground with a richer learning experience without too much development time, level 2 e-learning is probably a good fit. Here are some examples of level 2 courses: View Example View Example Level 3: Complex Interactivity With level 3 e-learning courses, the interactions become even more sophisticated. In this level, you can expect to include extensive audio, video, transitions, animations, and more. Quizzing can involve branched, scenario-based questions that allow learners to explore multiple paths and feedback levels. Level 3 e-learning is usually a good fit if you’re looking to teach learners more complex skills, for example, if you’re creating a course for new nurses on patient care. Here are some examples of level 3 e-learning: View Example View Example Level 4: Full Immersion Level 4 e-learning uses all of the components in levels 1, 2, and 3, plus gamification or simulation. These courses may incorporate 360° images, games or complex gamification, scenarios, avatars, or interactive videos. These courses are more immersive than other levels of e-learning. As learners interact with the course, they receive feedback on their choices. And in some cases, their choices might even impact the content they’re presented with next. This makes level 4 e-learning excellent for learners who need to practice real-time decision-making skills. Although these courses take the longest to develop, the learner experience makes it well worth the effort. Take a look at a few examples: View Example View Example Wrap-Up Now that you know about the four levels of e-learning, you’re ready to identify which one a new project falls under! This will help you appropriately estimate the time and assets needed to create the course. Are you looking to learn more about e-learning development? Check out these helpful resources. What You Need to Know to Create Amazing E-Learning 6 Easy Ways to Make More Compelling Interactions for Your Online Courses Here’s How I Transformed This Static E-Learning Content What level of e-learning is your favorite to create? Let me know in the comments below. Follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.299Views0likes25Comments5 Ideas for Turning Boring Bullets Into Engaging Interactions
Bullet points. They’re one of the easiest ways to break up lots of content and highlight important information. But the trade-off you make when you rely too heavily on bullet points in e-learning is a critical lack of learner engagement. After all, a slide full of bulleted text doesn’t really invite learners to think deeply, internalize the information you’re sharing, or interact with it— all activities that spark learning. So, how do you go about reimagining bullet points into something more inviting and interactive? And what are some creative ideas for presenting content that’s better than bullets? Keep on reading for answers to both of those questions. How to Reimagine Bullet Points One mainstay of presentation design is the good ol’ 50/50 slide layout. You know the one I’m talking about … where half the slide is a bulleted text box, and the other half is an image—often decorative? That slide layout can work well for presentations because a presenter can give the audience some context for those bullet points. But that same approach doesn’t work as well for an entire e-learning course. Screen after screen of bulleted text—no matter how compelling the audio narration or animations accompanying it—can be tedious and difficult for people to absorb and retain. To break out of that pattern, start by reframing those bullet points. Here are two techniques to try: Transform the bullets into a content outline. Start by morphing your bullet points into steps or top-level topics, and then bucket the other bullet points that support ideas underneath. From there, you look for information gaps and brainstorm questions learners might have. If you have speaker's notes or scripts to work from, you might find some of the answers you're looking for in there, but others might require further investigation. No matter how much work is in store, going through this process helps you organize the material, flesh out the content, and surface some creative ways to morph it into almost any of the interactions we’ll explore in this article. Imagine the “big picture” story behind the bullets. Another great technique is to piece together a narrative from your existing bullet points based on the topic or theme of the source material. For example, try creating some characters who embody bulleted dos and don’ts (a hero and a bully, for instance), or draft a quick backstory where applying the information in the bullet points would come in handy. Both of these ideas can be especially helpful when you want to design a branching scenario to make your content more relatable and interactive. 5 Ideas for Engaging Interactions With your bullet points organized, it’s time to start thinking about ways of using them as the foundation for a more interactive experience. Let’s take a look at five ideas for doing just that! 1. Use a Clickable Image Clickable images are one of the easiest ways to leave bullet points behind and invite learners to interact. Instead of giving learners a bunch of bulleted text next to a static picture, isn’t it much more inviting to urge them to explore that image in detail? See for yourself how much better that kind of learning experience can be with this super-cool example from Richard Hill, built with the labeled graphic block in Rise 360. With the labeled graphic block in Rise 360, you can easily add an animated GIF and some markers full of all the helpful information and resources you want to share with learners. That’s certainly more stimulating than a list of bullet points, don’t you think? 2. Create a Tabs Interaction Another easy way to reimagine bullet points is as a tabbed interaction, as you can see in this brilliant and beautiful Storyline 360 download from Montse. Creating a tabs interaction from a bulleted list is so easy to do. In Rise 360, just add an interactive tab block and pop in your content. Or, to quickly build a more custom tabbed interaction in Storyline 360, save some time and grab this free, easily customized Storyline 360 download. 3. Make an Interactive Video Adding hotspots to a short video is another great way to turn passive bullets into a more active, engaging experience for learners. Check out this Storyline 360 download that features three ways you can use interactive video for some design inspiration. Think video is too expensive or time-consuming? Think again. With Content Library 360 videos—like the ones featured in the example above—right at your fingertips, you have countless creative options for using video in your projects. Want to create your own video? Nowadays, almost anyone can shoot good quality instructional videos with the camera on their smartphone and edit them just as quickly using free or low-cost apps—or the built-in video editing feature in Storyline 360. To learn more about creating your own images and video, check out the pointers in this article, 4 Tips for Taking Your Own Pictures for E-Learning. 4. Design a Scenario One super-engaging way to rework static bullet points is to incorporate them into feedback for learners. Scenarios are a great way to give learners a chance to explore, practice, and learn through their choices—like in this Rise 360 example. This project uses a scenario block to branch to different outcomes depending on the learner’s choices. It illustrates one way you can use scenarios to help learners practice their upselling skills. And it’s a whole lot more engaging than a lengthy list of do’s and don’ts. Looking for some more inspiring examples of scenarios in action? Grab this handy Storyline 360 scenario template for prioritizing tasks or this Storyline 360 law enforcement-themed scenario starter to begin playing around with the possibilities. 5. Build an Immersive 360° Experience With the 360° images feature in Storyline 360, you’ll find you have all sorts of clever new ways to share text content. Add your 360° image and some interactive markers that entice learners to explore and interact. Or give learners a guided tour experience with navigational nudges that help move them through the experience. For some creative inspiration, check out one way you can combine audio, video, a scenario, AND 360° images in this brilliant, interactive storytelling example from Bianca Woods. Ready to get started with building your own immersive 360° interaction? Dive into this super helpful article from Sarah Hodge for some pro tips. Summing it Up Swapping boring bullets for enticing interactions doesn’t necessarily take a lot of time—just a little creativity. I hope the examples I’ve shared spark your imagination and inspire you to think of new ways of presenting information. What’s your favorite creative alternative to a bulleted list? Have an inspiring e-learning example to share? We’d love to see it! Leave me a comment below, or better yet, share your great ideas in our Building Better Courses forum. Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and Twitter. And if you have questions, please share them in the comments.199Views0likes28CommentsAn Introduction to Bloom's Taxonomy for Instructional Designers
Learning objectives are at the very core of the instructional design process, and rightly so. Without them, how would we know what content and activities to include in our courses? Unfortunately, the learning objectives are often poorly defined, making it hard to determine if learners are meeting them. Enter: Bloom’s Taxonomy! Benjamin Bloom, the creator of Bloom’s Taxonomy, specifically designed this classification system to help instructors, and instructional designers, clearly define learning objectives—and, in turn, create courses that meet learners’ needs. Let’s take a closer look at how this instructional design principle applies to e-learning. What Is Bloom’s Taxonomy? In their original work, Bloom and a committee of educators identified three domains of learning: cognitive (mental), affective (emotional), and psychomotor (physical). However, when most people think of Bloom’s Taxonomy, they think only of the cognitive domain. The cognitive domain is divided into six categories, each representing a cognitive skill level. Each category is associated with a set of verbs, or cognitive processes, that describe what learners should be capable of doing: Knowledge: recognize, recall, list, name, memorize, define, locate, identify Comprehension: interpret, illustrate, summarize, explain, match, paraphrase Application: apply, choose, organize, draw, generalize Analysis: analyze, differentiate, classify, categorize, distinguish Synthesis: create, plan, produce, construct Evaluation: evaluate, judge, criticize, compare, appraise Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Write Learning Objectives Once you know the expected cognitive skill level for learners to achieve and the specific knowledge or skills the course covers, you’re ready to write your learning objective. How? Simply combine the subject (the learner), the verb (what learners must know how to do), and the object (the knowledge they need to acquire). For example, “At the end of this course, learners will recognize the five cognitive skill levels in Bloom’s Taxonomy.” Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Design Activities As you’re designing your course activities, it’s important to refer back to the learning objectives and let the expected cognitive skill level guide your choices. If your learners need to take the course content and apply it to their jobs, you could build a scenario that allows them to practice doing that. If they simply need to recognize a list of terms, a multiple choice question could be just the thing. Let’s look at the six cognitive skill levels again, this time with an example of a suitable learning activity: Knowledge: a multiple choice question asking learners to identify the correct answer from a list of terms. Comprehension: a free-response question asking learners to explain their understanding of something. Application: a scenario in which learners need to make decisions based on the information they learned. Analysis: a sorting question where learners classify terms or concepts into the appropriate category. Synthesis: a free-response question that asks learners to outline a plan of action. Evaluation: a scenario where learners compare and contrast the options available. As you can see, you can use certain activity types for more than one skill level. It all depends on how you design those activities. And this is only the beginning—there are many more activities that you can design to help your learners achieve each of these cognitive skill levels. Resources Hopefully, this article has you thinking about how you can apply Bloom’s Taxonomy to your instructional design process to create clear, concise learning objectives and design activities to support those objectives. Want more instructional design tips? Check out these articles: An Introduction to Instructional Design Personalization Principle: Speaking to Your Learners Instead of at Them Multimedia Principle: Adding Graphics to Words Improves Learning Contiguity Principle: Keep Graphics and Related Text Together Redundancy Principle: Should You Duplicate Narrated Text on Screen? Coherence Principle: Less Material for Better Learning How to Match Question Types with the Skills You’re Testing How do you use Bloom’s Taxonomy to design e-learning? Share your ideas in a comment below! And remember to subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and X (Formerly Twitter).199Views0likes33CommentsAn Introduction to the ADDIE Model for Instructional Designers
If you’ve been around e-learning a little while, you’ve probably heard of ADDIE—the most commonly used instructional design model training designers use when crafting learning experiences. The acronym stands for: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. The five phases of the ADDIE model are designed to help guide you (and your team) through the course design process. Essentially, it’s a roadmap for building training that ensures learners meet specific objectives. New designers have a tendency to want to jump directly into development (I totally get it; that’s the fun part!), but it’s important to understand the bigger picture before making that leap. Let’s take a closer look at what each phase of ADDIE entails. Analyze According to the ADDIE model, the first thing you should do when you’re handed a new training project is a detailed analysis. What do you need to analyze? Three of the most critical analyses carried out by instructional designers are: Training Needs Analysis: This should be the first type of analysis you complete because it identifies whether the training is needed at all. This analysis identifies what performance improvements are expected and how they’ll be measured, which is critical in identifying whether training has been successful.Read more: How to Do an E-Learning Needs Analysis. Audience Analysis: Once you confirm that training is needed, it’s time to analyze your learners. Knowing key demographics and background information about your learners will help you identify the information they need to know and the best way to present it to them.Read more: How to Do an E-Learning Audience Analysis. Task Analysis: Now that you know what your course is about and who will be taking it, it’s time to take a close look at the specific processes and tasks you’ll be training learners on by breaking them down into step-by-step chunks.Read more: How to Do a Task Analysis Like a Pro. Once you’ve completed these analyses, you will have a much better idea of the who, what, where, and why of your e-learning. As a next step, it’s a good idea to compile these findings into your first deliverable: a project plan.Read more: How to Plan E-Learning Courses Like a Pro. Design Withthe analyses out of the way, you’re ready to start development, right? Wrong! Don’t skip the first “D”! Starting to develop your course without completing the design phase is like building a house without a blueprint. It makes much more sense to start with a clear plan of how everything in the course will be laid out and how the text, multimedia, and navigation will fit together. The deliverable you create depends on your time, budget, resources, and what you’ve outlined in your project plan. Typically, one of two deliverables comes out of the design phase: Storyboard: Thisdocument lays out the elements of the course that will appear on each slide. This may include text, imagery, and narration script. Deciding what to include in a storyboard depends on the project. For example, if your project includes audio narration, you’ll need to include a script with your storyboard. If you’re building a storyboard that you’ll hand off to a developer, you’ll need to add detailed notes for them. Read more: Storyboards for E-Learning: What to Include? Prototype: Thistypically includes sample slides to test and identify whether specific features or concepts work. The prototype lets a stakeholder get a feel for how the course will look and function before developing the entire course and all of its features. Read more: E-Learning: Storyboard vs. Prototype. Once you’ve got your blueprint for your course, you’re ready to jump into the fun part: development! Develop This is the phase where you (finally!) get to build out your e-learning content in an authoring app. The development part of the ADDIE process typically contains two sub-tasks: Content Creation: Inthis phase, you choose and add the final graphics, multimedia, colors, and fonts to make your course look polished and professional. You’ll also use your authoring app to build out activities, quizzes, interactions, and functional navigation to create an engaging course. Read more: The Basics of E-Learning Course Creation Apps. Testing: Onceyou’ve created your content, you need to test it. Things that need to be tested and reviewed include spelling, grammar, learning objectives, navigation, and flow. Testing is typically done during the development process instead of after, so the developer can make changes as testers identify problem areas. Read more: Top 4 Tips for E-Learning Quality Assurance (QA) Testing. Implement Once your course is fully developed and thoroughly tested, you’re ready to share it with your learners. Not sure how to do that? Check out this article to find out more about your options: How to Share E-Learning Courses with Learners. Evaluate Whenyou progress to the evaluation phase, you need to go back to the very first phase of the ADDIE process, in which you (hopefully!) completed a training needs analysis. During that phase, you identified specific performance improvements that your training would address, as well as how to measure those improvements. The evaluation phase is where the rubber meets the road: Did your training result in the real, measurable performance improvements you identified in your needs analysis? While the learners’ opinions and feedback about the e-learning matter, it’s critical to ensure your training achieved the goals you set at the start. Want to learn more? Check out these articles: Post-Course Evaluations: What E-Learning Designers Need to Know How to Measure the Satisfaction of Learners Taking Your Online Courses Wrap-Up Andthere you have it! Those are the five phases of the ADDIE model. Having a solid foundation of each phase will ensure you end up with a high-quality course that meets the needs of your learners. Interested in learning about other instructional design models? Here are a few related articles: An Introduction to SAM for Instructional Designers An Introduction to Bloom’s Taxonomy Measure the Effectiveness of Your E-Learning Course with Kirkpatrick’s 4 Levels of Evaluation The Presentation/Application/Feedback (PAF) Model An Introduction to Instructional Design Follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.199Views0likes17Comments10 Things You Can Create with Rise 360 Instead of an E-Learning Course
When an employee is missing a behavioral or performance mark, it’s not uncommon for orgs to assume that an e-learning course is a surefire way to address the problem. And if you’re not in a position to push back against these kinds of assumptions, odds are good that you’ve got a substantial backlog of courses on your plate. If that sounds all too familiar, here’s some good news: creating a full-blown e-learning course with custom interactivity from scratch can be overkill, especially if the risk of a learner failing to perform a task doesn’t put the organization in substantial jeopardy. That means you’re probably better off designing something that’s faster, cheaper, and easier to create than a course—at least for some of those backlogged projects. That’s where Rise 360, the web-based authoring app in Articulate 360, can really come in handy. With loads of prebuilt and customizable ways to present content, Rise 360 is a great option for making creative projects that aren’t just your typical e-learning course. The best part: your boss will think you’ve been working on it for days, when Rise 360 projects take only minutes to make! But don’t take my word for it. Check out these 10 course alternatives your fellow e-learning pros have cooked up with Rise 360 ... Ever been asked to create a course for a topic you’ve already covered elsewhere? It happens all the time. We create lengthy e-learning courses on a topic using rich supporting content that somehow gets lost in the mix. Want to pull that content out and make it the star of the show? Do what Anastasia Laur did and create a collection of Self-Study Resources. I love how Anastasia combined the list block, the tabs block, and the statement text block to create a sleek, totally custom lesson that sets learners up for testing success. Folks love to read and learn from great content in all its many forms. With an interactive e-book created in Rise 360, you don’t need your learners to tote a novel around to learn from you. Rise 360 content is inherently responsive, which means they can read and learn on the go from every device. While we’re talking about the joy of reading, here’s a surprisingly immersive option for engaging folks: create a text-based adventure game like this one from David Fair. By interspersing the story with reflection points (created with the quiz lesson type in Rise 360), David broke up a lot of content and made an engrossing and personal experience. Want to bring folks in your organization up to speed on the outcome of a big initiative or some vital research? It can be a challenge to present data in a way that’s compelling and easy to understand. But with Rise 360, you’ve got loads of creative options for bringing information to life. Check out this brilliant (and award-winning!) idea for summarizing information from Laura Lowden. Laura’s example features a cool custom interaction integrated right into her Rise 360 project using a Storyline block. So clever! Worried your learners will greet the prospect of training with some skepticism? One of my favorite strategies is to use a stand-alone quiz or pre-test to help build buy-in for learning. Creating a myth-busting quiz or a thought-provoking pre-test in Rise 360 is super quick and easy—and a great way to challenge a skeptical training audience. Time to ditch the old paper-based quick reference guide that’s way too bulky to be very “quick” to use! Check out this online quick reference tool which uses the accordion block in Rise 360. The accordion blockis great for chunking lots of information so it’s easier for folks to absorb. Need to create some scenario-based activities? In this interactive scenario, Tom Kuhlmann uses visual assets he created in PowerPoint along with the flash card interaction in Rise 360 to create an engaging exercise that gets you thinking. Learn more about how Tom created this cool example in his blog post “How I Built This Interactive Scenario.” Looking for a fresh way to show off your work? Don’t miss this example of an online portfolio created by Stephanie Hartnett. Whether you’re imagining a portfolio to spotlight your own work, or highlighting the work of others, assembling an online portfolio in Rise 360 is easy and the results are beautiful. (I might steal this idea and put my own spin on it by creating a portfolio of example courses I can use when working with Subject Matter Experts.) Online portfolios are smart and on-trend for creatives—and so are interactive resumes. Take this interactive resume designed by Nicole Legault. Instead of a static document, Nicole used Rise 360 to create a memorable experience that highlights all of the key areas covered in a typical resume: goals, work history, education, and general background. I really love how she incorporated a labeled graphic lesson as a sophisticated portfolio. Something like this could be a great way to highlight your team’s work—or a way of tooting your own horn just before your next performance review! Have a lot of video content but not sure what to do with it? Why not organize it and provide some context? For an example of what that might look like, here’s some curated learning content on the topic of leadership, pulled together by embedding videos from YouTube. By combining video with additional learning resources and self-reflection prompts in Rise 360, you can quickly create a great independent study resource or a powerful component in a blended training program using content you may already have. Discovering loads of creative inspiration is such a time-saver when you’re stuck for an idea, isn’t it? And with a tool like Rise 360 in your back pocket, bringing your creative ideas to life is easier than ever. Already getting creative with Rise 360? How are you using it to lighten your project backlog or transform training in your organization? Please share your experiences with us by leaving a comment below. Want to try something you learned here, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.102Views0likes13CommentsHow to Do a Task Analysis Like a Pro
Task analysis is one of the cornerstones of instructional design. But what is it, really? The name says a lot: you analyze a task, step by step, to document how that task is completed. At first glance, this seems like a straightforward thing. But even the easiest tasks can be quite complex. Things you do every day might seem simple when you first think about them. But what happens when you eliminate internalized or assumed knowledge? Take sending an email. Easy, right? Maybe four or five steps? Click the New Mail icon Enter a Recipient Enter a Subject Enter your email text Click Send But what about carbon copy or blind carbon copy recipients? What if you need to attach an invoice or picture? What app do you use to create the email in the first place (or are you sending from Gmail in your browser)? For that matter, from which device are you sending the email? Suddenly that “simple” task is a set of processes, organized by device, operating system, and application, with various subtasks along the way accounting for mailing list complexities and the purpose of your email. As I was writing this I came up with about a dozen different variations, all of which would need to be closely analyzed and broken down precisely. Even the most average task has a lot behind it. This is why understanding how to do a task analysis is so important to becoming a successful instructional designer. When instructional designers create training, they’re teaching the learner how to accomplish something. Task analysis helps you focus on what they’re going to do and how they’ll do it (don’t worry so much about the why; that comes later). The easiest way to illustrate the process is with an example. Let’s say you work at a midsize media company and your boss asks you to complete a task analysis on how the company’s social media manager does her job. They want this documented for training purposes for future hires. That means you’ll need to: Identify the task to analyze Break down the task into subtasks Identify steps in subtasks Let’s take a closer look at each of these steps. Step 1: Identify the Task to Analyze Tasks are the duties carried out by someone on the job. The social media manager carries out a lot of duties, so you need to be able to break them down into broad activities (aka tasks!) and focus on them one at a time. Don’t worry about all the little things that make up the task; we’ll get to that in a second. Here we’re looking to paint with broad strokes. One of the social media manager’s tasks is to add new content to social media sites every morning. Your tasks should describe what a person does on the job and must start with an action verb. So, in this case, the first task to analyze is “Add new content to social media.” Step 2: Break Down the Task into Subtasks Once you identify the task, you need to identify the subtasks, the smaller processes that make up the larger task. Remember in the email example above where I mentioned attachments and carbon-copying recipients? That’s the kind of thing you capture here. These should also be brief and start with an action verb. Continuing the social media manager example, you need to find out the subtasks of adding new content to social media. You can figure this out by talking to or observing the social media manager. Through this process, you discover that the subtasks for adding new content to social media are: Check the editorial calendar Add new content to Twitter You’re making good progress! You can now move on to Step 3. Step 3: Identify Steps in Subtasks Now it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty. You’ve identified the task and broken it down into subtasks. The final step, then, is to identify and list the steps for each subtask. Do this by breaking down all of the subtasks into specific step-by-step, chronological actions. The key here is to use a “Goldilocks” approach to detail: not too much and not too little. Use just the right amount so learners can follow the instructions easily. Again, as with tasks and subtasks, your steps need to start with an action verb. So, putting everything together from steps 1 and 2 and then breaking the subtasks into steps, your final task analysis would look like this; 1. Adding new content to social media 1.1 Check the editorial calendar 1.1.1 Navigate to the calendar webpage 1.1.2 Click today’s date 1.1.3 Click newest article title to open article 1.1.4 Click inside article URL bar 1.1.5 Copy URL for article to clipboard 1.1.6 Highlight title text of article 1.1.7 Copy the title text to clipboard 1.1.8 Close the calendar 1.2 Add new content to Twitter 1.2.1 Navigate to Twitter account 1.2.2 Log in to Twitter account 1.2.3 Click Tweet button 1.2.4 Paste article title from clipboard 1.2.5 Paste article URL from clipboard 1.2.6 Click Tweet button to publish There are several ways to approach task analysis. It’s a fine art deciding how far down the rabbit hole you need to go with detail. Instructional designers can debate for hours whether saying “log in” is enough or if that needs to be broken down further into “enter user name,” “enter password,” and “click the login button.” Again, it all comes down to figuring out how much detail is just right for your audience. Wrapping Up That’s it! As you can see, while creating a task analysis boils down to “just” three steps, there are a lot of nuanced decisions to make along the way. Remember the Goldilocks Rule and always consider your audience and the seriousness of the subject matter when deciding just how nitpicky you need your task analysis to be. After all, there’s a marked difference between how much detail a learner needs when they’re learning how to perform brain surgery versus filling out their timecard. Do you have any do’s and don’ts of your own for completing a successful task analysis? If you do, please leave a comment below. We love to hear your feedback! Follow us on Twitter and come back to E-learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.99Views0likes18CommentsAn Introduction to Instructional Design
As an instructional designer, I’ve had my fair share of blank stares when I tell people what I do for a living. E-learning? Instructional design? When I talk about my job I may as well be speaking in tongues. If you’re reading this article, I’m guessing you’ve been either on the giving or receiving end of this kind of interaction. Let’s take a few minutes to break down what instructional design (ID) is, what instructional designers do, and why it’s an important part of e-learning development. What Is Instructional Design? Fundamentally, you can think of ID as the process of taking information and framing it in a way that makes it interesting and easy for learners to understand. That might be a little oversimplified, but it’s a good place to start. The ID process is usually based on one of many different theory models. The one that’s best known and most widely used is called ADDIE, an acronym for the five phases in the model: Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate. Here is a brief overview of each phase: Analyze: This first phase of the ID process is arguably the most important, as it allows you to identify the key elements you will need to design an effective e-learning course, such as the training needs, the learning objectives, and the learner profile. Design: During the design phase, instructional designers take everything they learned during the analysis phase and start planning and structuring the content. This includes the project’s learning activities, exercises, assessments, visual design, and interface design. The document produced during this phase of development detailing all these decisions is called a storyboard and serves as a blueprint for the course. Development: The development phase is where instructional designers take the storyboard they created in the design phase and actually create the activities, exercises, graphics, etc. This phase also involves beta testing and debugging any issues that turn up. Implementation: This is the phase where the course is uploaded to a Learning Management System (LMS) or put online so learners can access it. Evaluation: After the implementation phase, the course is evaluated to measure how well it achieved the objectives detailed in the analysis phase. The course evaluation may result in revisions and an updated version of the course. The ADDIE approach is the current ID standard. Of course there are other ID models, such as the SAM Model, but they aren’t as widely used. To take a deep dive into the ADDIE model, check out this article. What Do Instructional Designers Do? The people who practice ID are often, aptly, called instructional designers, but there are a lot of other names used for this role: training designer, instructional technologist, e-learning designer, e-learning developer, educational technologist ... the list goes on! Now that you’re familiar with the ID process, maybe you’re wondering, What does an instructional designer actually do on a day-to-day basis? One thing I’ve always loved about this role is the wide range of activities it involves. Here are some of the things instructional designers do during the course of a project: Analyze training needs Analyze audience / identify learner profiles Define learning objectives Identify the appropriate learning strategy for a given course Rewrite and restructure content according to learning objectives Create multimedia elements to support content (images, audio, video, etc.) Create assessments to test learner knowledge / skill acquisition Design the course’s look and feel (color scheme, fonts, slide layouts, player, etc.) Storyboard the course prior to development Develop the course in an authoring tool Deploy the course on an LMS Measure the course’s impact on learners’ work performance The ID role varies from organization to organization. Depending on the size of your team, you may find yourself doing more or less of the above-listed tasks. Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list and is merely intended to give you an idea of the kinds of things instructional designers do. Why Does Instructional Design Matter? I think Tom Kuhlmann said it best in his article What Everybody Ought to Know About Instructional Design: “Without instructional design, the learner might or might not get the information they need. Because of instructional design, you can get the learners to cut through a lot of extraneous information and get right to the important stuff.” If you’re building a course, chances are you’re doing it because you want learners to acquire new knowledge or skills. Solid instructional design will help ensure that happens. Wrap Up Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the basics of instructional design and why it's an important part of the e-learning course creation process. If you want to continue learning more, here are some other articles you may want to check out: Instructional Design Basics for E-Learning Development 8 Simple Steps for Creating Online Training How to Do an E-Learning Needs Analysis How to Write Good E-Learning Objectives for Your Online Course 4 Easy Ways to Organize Content for E-Learning 5 Habits of Effective Instructional Designers And remember to subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and X (Formerly Twitter). And if you have questions, please share them in the comments.99Views0likes47CommentsBasic Elements of an E-Learning Course
When something’s new, it can feel complex and difficult. And when you’re first getting into e-learning and you view a finalized course, it’s hard to imagine what all the moving pieces are. However, when you pull back the curtain and look at the most basic elements of an e-learning course, you’ll realize that most courses are made up of the same fundamental components. If you’ve taken or designed at least one online course, you should recognize most of these course building blocks. While there’s no rule saying you must include these components in every course, it’s helpful for new e-learning designers to be familiar with the basic elements and where they fit into the overall course structure. Course Welcome or Opening This is the first thing your learners see when they open your course. In addition to welcoming learners visually, it usually provides options for navigating the different sections of the course. Remember that the welcome content sets the tone for your course, so it’s important to start off strong! Here’s an example of a welcome screen created in Rise: Here’s an example of a Content Library welcome template you can insert into your Storyline 360 project: Instructions Depending on the type of course you’re creating, you may want to include instructions to help learners understand how to navigate through the course. If you’ve built your own custom navigation using a slide-based authoring app, you could use arrows, callouts, and text to point out the important features of the course player. Noteworthy features include navigation buttons, resource tabs, a transcript menu, and help buttons. If you’re using the built-in course player that comes with your authoring app, you may not need to go into that level of detail. But even if you’re using standard navigation, it’s still helpful to let your learners know if they need to turn on their speakers, whether there’ll be a quiz at the end, and how much time they should set aside to complete the course. If you’re using a web-based app, like Rise, it might look something like this: If you’re using a slide-based app like Storyline, a simple instructions slide could look more like this, for example: Learning Objectives Objectives give learners an overview of the course goals. Usually presented in bullet point format, the list shows actionable tasks the learner should be able to do after completing the course. However, objectives don’t have to be listed in bullet point format. Often, it’s the client, business partner, or organizational style guide that requires objectives to be presented that way. There’s a trend in the e-learning industry to find creative alternatives to the bulleted format. For example, you could create an accordion interaction in Rise so your learners can explore the different objectives at their own pace, like in the screenshot below: Or, if you’re using a slide-based tool like Storyline, you can create a stylized objectives layout to catch your learner’s eye: Here are some additional resources and discussions on making bullet points more engaging: Convert Your Bullet Points to Interactive E-Learning with Video Five Surefire Ways to Get Rid of Bullet Points Ideas on Getting Rid of Bullet Points to State Course Objectives Reducing Bullet Points and On-Screen Text Animating Bullet Points — Is It Possible to Animate More Than One? Content This section is the meat of your course, where all the learning happens. Here you can include text, images, charts, tabs or timeline interactions, scenarios, screencasts, videos, and much more. There are many different ways to present your content, but here are a couple of ideas to get you started. Text and Images Example created in Rise Content Library template available in Storyline 360 Scenarios Example created in Rise Content Library template available in Storyline 360 Timeline Interactions Example created in Rise Content Library template available in Storyline 360 Depending on your content and course objectives, your course could include just one or two of these elements, or all of the above and much more! Let your objectives guide you through the creation process and help you decide how to best present your content to help your learners reach their target. Practice Activities The purpose of practice activities is to help learners strengthen their skills and knowledge. As such, they should include content presented earlier in the module so learners can apply what they just learned. Here’s an example of a practice activity you can create in Rise: And here’s another example created in Storyline 360: Knowledge Checks & Assessments Knowledge checks and assessments are quizzes at the end of each topic, module, or course, where learners can test their progress during a module. The main difference between the two types of quizzes is that knowledge checks do not generally count toward the final score, while assessments do. They might look like typical quizzes (i.e., true/false, multiple choice, etc.), or take on a more casual format, such as a scenario in which learners must make decisions about what to do in a real-life situation. Check out this example of a quiz question created in Rise: And this one created in Storyline 360 : Summary At the end of each topic, module, and course you’ll often find a summary of the key points from that section. They can include links to additional resources to help highly motivated learners take their knowledge to the next level. In Rise, that could look something like this, for example: Or if you’re working in Storyline or another slide-based app, you could create a slide like this one: Contact Info & Resources At the end of each course you’ll usually find contact information for the trainer or subject matter expert (SME) as well as some additional resources to help support learners as they apply the skills they’ve learned in the course to their jobs. Typically they include one or more of the following: Contact information: People to contact for help or questions about the course Continued learning: Additional resources beyond what was in the course Job aids: Handouts from the course that can be used as performance support In Rise, you could create something that looks like this, for example: Or you could build a slide like this in Storyline or another slide-based app: Final Thoughts As a course designer, you have unlimited options for combining e-learning elements in your courses. Your experience level, combined with expectations for your course and learners, will influence many of your choices. If you’re a new e-learning designer, try covering these common elements to start. Good luck! Leave a comment or post in the forums if you have any other questions about these e-learning elements or want to share ideas for combining them in unique ways. Follow us on Twitterand come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.99Views0likes27Comments