In for study advice? Do it the easygenerator way

"Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught".
Sir Winston Churchill

When I think about the old school e-Learning, where e-learning is presented as a linear pathway, I immediately get an allergic reaction. In the old school approach the pathway is mapped out by the instructional designer and the learner has no choice to make its own track. The linear approach is so not in line with the usual way we people behave in everyday life. We have the tendency to go of the laid-out paths and ignore patronizing signs like 'Keep of the grass' when it obstructs us in our track. Therefore we strike upon our own paths. And this feels good! Even when it means we might risk a fine.

When I come upon a linear e-Learning, the question that always comes to mind is: are we instructional designers so capable that we think we can create a generic learning path that is applicable to all learners?  I don't think so. I think we should have a more adaptive approach and invite the learner to influence their own learning path.  Such an approach takes into account that everyone has different learning needs. We have to put the responsibility where it should be: with the learner. Let's treat the learner in an adult way. Just as we trust the people we work with to make choices in the way they execute their job, we should also trust them in defining their own learning needs. I think the learner will experience this like a breath of fresh air!

How do we make it possible? In the design you take the learning objectives or business goals as a starting point. These objectives are tied to both the learning content as the questions within an assessment. In the assessment you can create navigation rules like: when the learner scores 60% or more on this objective, the learner should be advised to navigate to a part of the course. You can make a combination of rules to organize the navigation; you can even combine the outcome of multiple objectives to build navigation rules.  

I want to emphasize that with our adaptive e-Learning the learner is in control. The results of the questions in the assessment determine the outcome of the study advice. He can either choose to follow the advised path or to walk the general pathway. Alongside the study advice easygenerator shows the learner which objectives he has to achieve to finish the course successfully. This is displayed in the course outline. During the course the learner can check how he's getting on in achieving his objectives and view which learning content belongs to which objective. Besides that he can also see which parts of the e-Learning have already been dealt with and which parts have to be discovered yet.

I am convinced that easygenerator has created an adult approach to e-Learning. We keep on looking at other possibilities. At the moment we are working on implementing scenarios. I invite you to contact me when you want to discuss or explore the possibilities of easygenerator in an online demo. You can contact me at b.vandegriendt@easygenerator.com

Beatrijs van de Griendt, Instructional Designer