NYNP blog post 9-10-09

Waking up learning content: Patti Shank's tips
Notes from the opening session of The eLearning Guild's online forum on Instructional Design

The eLearning Guild's online forum on Best Practices in e-Learning Instructional Design and Management opened today with a session by Patti Shank, President of Learning Peaks, titled "Boredom-proofing Learning Content: Tips for Making Learning Content Compelling."

Shank presented a useful (and not boring) session, offering five overarching design techniques for keeping learners engaged:

1. Focus on making a great first impression. If learning content doesn't look interesting from the first moment, the learner will be inclined to believe that it's boring before they even get started and will begin to tune out immediately. Just as first impressions are important in life, they are important in learning.

2. Design the content so that it gets noticed. People are wired to notice content that is vivid, unusual, unexpected, or emotionally charged, so learning content should include these characteristics.

3. Promote your learners' curiosity. An easy way to do this is to ask questions or be provocative.

4. Reduce the amount of telling. Make the learning meaningful by challenging learners to analyze, compare, practice, and otherwise think for themselves.

5. Use humor.

For more info about the forum, you can go here: http://bit.ly/mEnNV.