e-Learning Leadership Blog

Shake Up Your e-Learning in 2012

by Ethan Edwards, chief instructional strategist

Over the holidays, I had the pleasure to visit Alabama for the first time.  I enjoyed seeing new sites (and check off one more state capitol from my list of places to visit) and sample local customs.  My hosts offered up a snack unfamiliar to me:  a Georgia Milkshake.  You make a Georgia Milkshake by taking a glass of buttermilk and crumbling corn bread into it.  It sounded strange…not bad, necessarily, but I couldn’t quite imagine wanting to drink buttermilk with crumbs in it.  As when faced with any new experience, I had to choose what to do: to reject the idea, reluctantly agree to sample a tiny bit, or enthusiastically take a full portion.

Well, I took the full portion, and let me tell you, it was delicious!  To be fair, just as I feared, the first encounter with the crumbly buttermilk was a challenge to my expectations of what is good as set by my past limited experiences; but very quickly the delights of the combination became apparent, and we were soon talking about different variations on the combination. 

That little encounter reminded me once again how important it is for us to always be open to what is new, and even more, how it is often our duty to push boundaries lest we find our lives unreasonably constrained.

Nowhere is this more important than in designing
e-learning.  We all profess interest in improving our training, yet very rarely do I see examples of designers trying anything new.  Tired presentations of content with senseless test questions permeate training.  Tool manufacturers create structures that really only help the designer replicate the kind of lessons we have already grown tired of…only now it’s easier to make them.  Advice from experts for ways to improve our e-learning too often takes the form of superficial changes of little substance…like some new backgrounds to use or a new way to make buttons.  (If I’m dissatisfied with drinking milk, putting it into a prettier mug isn’t going to make the milk any better.)  Even more expensive solutions and technologies, like 3-D avatars, are too often used to simplistically dress up an essentially passive learning program, rather than transforming the core interactive model that leads the student in new ways of exploration and learning.

So as we start the New Year, I encourage you to treasure the new.  As long as we continue down the same paths we are already disappointed by, there’s no way we can hope for better outcomes.  Unless you are absolutely content with the effectiveness of every bit of e-learning you created in the last year, then it is imperative that you force yourself to try new ideas.  And don’t just take a tiny sip of the new milkshake, armed with the foregone conclusion that nothing but the routine is practicable.  Be bold; attempt something you haven’t tried before.  You may get too many crumbs at first, or you might get a big gulp of sour buttermilk, but with a little trust in experimentation, you’re sure to discover something incredible that can become part of your everyday routine and really enhance the success of your learners.