The Total Learner Experience

Serving your learner

My natural inclination is to design for the imagination. I've long believed that if you give students the best tools to create with, that they then can transfer that knowledge to other applications. By the end of my time at the k-8 school, where I taught the same students for 3 consecutive years, I had 3rd grade students creating Flash animations and writing action-scripting. To me this was a major accomplishment, indicative of incredible potential for these students to become producers of multimedia, interactive projects. Every year, however, the complaint was that the students weren't learning how to format papers in Word. The parents saw computer class as a support to the other academic classes, not as a curriculum in its own right.

Now that I am working with students who have been traditionally under-served, I wonder about my own obligations to provide opportunities for academic success. Should this curriculum emphasize more immediate academic skills, formatting papers, learning powerpoint? Or should I emphasize their personal expression and storytelling through exposure to professional graphics, audio and video software applications.

I already know where I stand on this. I am still in touch with the majority of my inspirational art teachers. I learned more about how to present myself professionally from them than any of my drudgerous academic classes. I don't know if I can inspire disaffected students with any software app, but I feel that it's more likely in Alice, than it is with Excel.

charming game #1

While there are plenty of games that get it wrong, I thought I might review a couple of games that get it right. Word Vine is one such game. It's premise is simple: link words to create inter-connected compound words on branching relationship. An easy level uses tree, sauce, apple, trunk. I'm stuck on a hard level with time, tower, prime, bell, cow, cash, machine, gun, minister, ivory, tower, zone. So what do I like about this game this morning (and last night, for a really long time)?

• Simple task-- It is well within my skill set to make compound words and to click and drag small icons onto a hotspot.
• "Educational"-- I'm not shooting stuff. I wouldn't be anyway, but I like figuring out this little verbal puzzle.
• Visual-- Solving the harder puzzles requires tapping into some region of the brain that handles visual relationships; it's difficult to solve the harder puzzle (at least for me) without physically (virtually) dragging the word shapes onto some of the twining branches.
• Aesthetics-- It's pretty. I like the soft greens.

I'm always trying to figure out how to combine content and gameplay. I can envision a social studies content game which links concepts, dates, and historical figures. How about a branching vine of German philosophers or early 20th Century artists?

--Dolly

Crafting the Total Learner Experience

I design a lot of eLearning... but I also am a learner myself, and find myself taking quite a few online classes (especially since I'm pursuing a graduate degree online).

One of the reasons I think your eLearning probably sucks is because you may have not considered the "total learner experience" when you designed it.

Recently I had a moment of epiphany. You know what I mean, I’m sure you’ve had them as well. For me it led to what you’re reading now. I was in line at Starbucks, closing in on being late to a meeting, trying to beat the clock and get a jolt of caffeine before having to commence with my standard dog and pony show, when it hit me: Too often during my busy day, while I grind out deliverables, get content written, check off to-dos... somewhere along this busy road of work life that I travel every day, I lost a sense of purpose.  

As I left Starbucks with my venti, non-fat, triple shot, it became so clear to me: where was the learner? Did he or she even matter anymore? I had lost the sole purpose of what I should be doing: making sure I create the type of learning intervention that would not only transfer knowledge to improve performance, but also engage and motivate to action. It really should be all about the learner!

As you consider for yourself what a "total learner experience" may mean, keep your focus on the learner. Put the brakes on just a bit, slow down, and ponder what you’re doing to them. You may be causing more harm than good.

The bottom line is: until organizations synchronize their business goals with practical, usable employee training focused on engaging and motivating learners, business will continue to suffer compromised performance.

After my insightful Starbucks moment, I began to ponder what a learning experience should mean for the learner. Many instructional designers are focused only on the course content, and not on the Total Learner Experience, or TLE. The learner's experience with a course begins the moment that student starts to access the course. I formulated this definition for the Total Learner Experience:

A successful Total Learner Experience should promote the cohesive integration of informational resources into the overall structure of a course delivery system. A course delivery system contains every component designed to facilitate a learning intervention, including the interface access point for the course, which could be a learning management system, corporate intranet, or a simple web page.

Successful consideration and application of the Total Learner Experience enables the learner to:

• easily find, access, and consume the appropriate learning intervention.
• be engaged, motivated, and enthusiastic throughout the learning intervention.
• transfer understanding into action after the learning intervention is completed.

The critical aspect in implementing a successful TLE involves crafting a non-corrupt, pure, instructional message that meets the objectives for both the organization and the learner.

I'm surprised how often I'm asked to create "shovelware"... just take manuals or slides, add some narration, and then throw them online. On the other extreme, I've seen considerable resources put into high-resolution, non-interactive "video-based" learning that may be pretty, but still perpetuates the "learn by listening" nonsense that has become the buzz of the day.

When you begin your design, be sure to try and keep the total learner experience in mind. It may help you formulate more relevant learning interventions.

Sharp content or content that remains focused on the learner should pass these Six Rules of Design Simplicity:

Six Rules of Design Simplicity
Show meaningful context	Is the information relatable to the learner’s real-world or on-the-job experience?
Present evidence and credibility	Are you able to demonstrate subject matter expertise and relevance to the learner? Will they trust your message?
Remove invasive user interface clutter	Is navigation intuitive? Is the user interface closing in on your content?
Remove irrelevant visuals	Do the visual media support the instruction?
Strip out jargon and corporate-speak	Do acronyms, marketing language, and industry buzzwords run rampant in your content?
Remove barriers to content	Can the learner easily access the content without unnecessary log-ins, restrictive or confusing LMS design, intrusive pop-ups, and uninstalled plug-ins?

mind numbing games

I spend a portion of each day playing this almost mindless game on Facebook. In brief here are the non-linear steps to playing this game:

• View Credits and Purchase Games: Each day I receive a certain number of credits based upon accomplishments and prize purchases. I must log in each day to claim and use these credits or they will expire. I use these credits to purchase the variously valued games offered.
• Play Games: Obstensibly this is the primary reason for the entire game, but it actually takes the least time of all the steps. There are 3 games--Concentration, Bejeweled and Soduku.
• Purchase Prizes: With the points I earn, I purchase prizes in certain sets which then allow me to move up levels, earning further points and playing more difficult puzzles.

Yawn.

But strangely compelling. And I wonder why. Here's what I came up:

• Time Commitment: Besides the daily login, I don't have to spend a preset, particular period of time on the game. My puzzles, my points and my level accomplishments are saved indefinitly and if I go away for a time, there is no penalty.
• Gameplay: While I dislike the Concentration and Bejeweled games--boring and unachievable--the Sudoko game is a well-rendered, easily playable version. Now that I have ascended up the levels, it has become mildly challenging and I'm looking forward to the more difficult stages.
• Achievement: I do feel like I have various methods of achievement within the game, such as best times, percentage accurate, sets of prizes purchased and moving up the levels.
• Easy entry: Besides a short load time, I can play a quick game with other commitment. I don't have to remind myself of the backstory.

So, so what? Clearly when designing educational or training games, these features should be considered and likely included.

-d

Microsoft's Digital Literacy Curriculum Sucks. Surprised?

http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/citizenship/giving/programs/up/digitalliteracy/default.mspx

I work as a program director for a non-profit devoted to mentoring and tech literacy in low income 7-12 graders. As such, I am often looking for useful curriculum related to a wide variety of programs, tasks and skills. I am often in debate with myself and others if it is better to provide the students with practical skills related to secretarial-type work or to explore the outer boundaries with projects in graphics, animation and web design. Our approach is to focus on allowing students to explore and produce with the more creative software while providing auxiliary work with students who see the value of learning the more practical Office suite.

Not wishing to reinvent the wheel, I regularly look for clear, self-directed lessons suited for my students. Oh, and free or cheap, because we're a non-profit. I've looked at Microsoft's Digital Literacy Curriculum several times to see if we can use it to demonstrate proficiency. Now I can hear some of my techie friends slapping themselves in the head, about to eviscerate me because I even mention the Evil Empire. Let me introduce you to the real world outside of your basement and Silicon Valley. Most people out here in the light, don't care or know about Open Source. They are just grateful that they can reliably turn on their computer and spit out some information. Their focus is on their work, not arguing about the benefits of Ubuntu versus Morphix.

Back to the Digital Literacy Curriculum, it sucks. No surprise there, it is a Microsoft product. Now I know I am late to the bandwagon, but I've still got to pile on. Everything about Microsoft sucks. I am a native proud Mac user, but practicality has required me to have a fairly good working knowledge of the Windows world. I work with Microsoft as a recipient of donated software and OSs as part of our non-profit work. Each month when I need to report our usage I curse in my head. It's almost as though they take pride in having an interface that is clunky and unusable. For a company that's flush with capital they sure are stingy with any ease of use or follow through to their systems.  The Digital Literacy Curriculum reflects this attitude. It's almost as though Microsoft is full of idea-men with no one to come back to ensure quality control. hmmmm....

I've looked at it before at work, but I wanted to give it a more detailed fish eye if I was going to record my impressions. Here on my mac computer I cannot even log into their curriculum because I don't have Internet Explorer. Really, I mean, really? Can Microsoft not see the writing on the wall. Nevermind that I'm on a Mac. What about all those people out there who are using Firefox or Chrome? (Too bad I can't round out that list with Netscape... I like 3s.) Why is it that they are so dead set on protecting their product that they cannot break their walls of paranoia and protectionism to become more welcoming and user friendly?

24 hours later...I had to reinstall IE, or maybe I didn't. It had been set to "work offline" which took a while to find. They have two tools pulldown menus that do not have the same functionality. It would be cooler to pretend like I don't have "user error" issues.  Everyone has user error issues; those of us with healthy self-image can own it. Anyway, accessed the curriculum at long last.

I was disappointed. After all my sturm und drang getting it set up, it wasn't horrible, it was just typically boring. A metallic voice read some prose to me; the sound screeched through my veins like fingernails on chalkboard. There was a lot of tasteful blue and gray on white. It was just dull. And basic. Now, I do have to consider the fact that this is designed for neophytes, people who still need basic computer skills. Just because people are ignorant shouldn't mean that they should get bad training; that's perhaps one reason that they are ignorant in the first place.

This material is clearly not current, and likely I shouldn't even be wasting breath on it. The last update was October 2007 which is so last century in Internet terms. Except it's not. I get emails regularly from Microsoft touting this curriculum. They just sent me another disk encouraging me to use it with my clients. More of the same didactic lecture and demonstration that is already failing learners all over.

--Dolly

Suck Quotient-- 2

usability	1 the actual content was fine, getting to it was an exercise in perseverance and patience.
aesthetics	2 non offensive
innovation	1 no
accuracy	4 the content was correct, just dull
fun	0 none

**Note
I was going to look at version 2 to be all fair and balanced, but while it worked when I first accessed it, once I installed the add ons that Microsoft recommended, I ended up with a black screen, no content. You win Microsoft!