elearning

When writing a research paper or a blog article, you’re focused on keeping it short and sweet. Get to the point and move on. It can be tempting to apply the same approach to eLearning. But, on the contrary, eLearning is a medium in which saying more can be better; redundancy and repetition are tools in your instructional design toolkit. We’ll take a look at using redundancy effectively in eLearning. Mainly we’ll consider approaches to communicating the same concept in slightly different ways, at different times or different situations.

The unique thing about teaching people is that it’s your job to ensure they’ve learned what they need to learn; and that can take unique approaches for everyone. We can’t simply broadcast our piece, hope the audience gets it, and call it a day. Otherwise, why would instructional designers exist in the first place?

Good Teachers

Think of what it takes to be a good teacher. Is it one who speaks as few words as possible in their lecture? Probably not. Good teachers adapt to the needs of each student. They can identify what students are struggling with and have a follow up that helps them understand the topic better. Maybe they ask a meaningful question, tell a relatable story, or use a role-play activity. And if the first follow up doesn’t do the job, they’ll keep trying. Good teachers have many tools available to help everyone, not just the straight “A” whiz kids.

Why Redundancy is Worth the Effort

When we say redundancy, we don’t mean chanting the same phrase over and over (although that might be effective for brainwashing). We mean it in the good teacher way: preparing alternative explanations in your content for learners who might need it. This might take the form of additional multimedia, questions, feedback, examples, activities, and more. eLearning is about helping the stragglers, not just the people who already get it.

The concern about this kind of redundancy is that it is more work to create because more explanations mean more content.  When we are on a time crunch, it’s normal to ask why create content that only 10% of users might need. However, it is an instructional designer’s job to create the necessary redundancy to teach as many people as possible. That 10% is your main audience, they are the ones who need training (your product) the most.

Adding Good Redundancy

The interactive nature of eLearning offers instructional designers an opportunity to add redundant content that only appear when needed. Additional explanations shouldn’t slow down learners who understood the content on the first try and are ready to move on. Your design should integrate these pieces into the content as a response to user input in the same way a teacher responds to their student.

Provide learners with ways to access the extra content by interacting with it. Display content when learners answer questions incorrectly or choose to dig deeper. Don’t just display everything at once and overwhelm them. Think of more possibilities, cases, common mistakes, etc. that expand on the core concept. Go several layers deep. Collect information from students and subject matter experts; find out what needs further explanation.

A Practical Approach to Using Redundancy Effectively in eLearning

Here is an approach you might use to fully teach a new concept. Start with the core concept but anticipate ways the learner might misunderstand it or questions they might have. A subject matter expert would be able to provide a lot of suggestions in this area. Build content blocks for this additional information but prompt the learner before displaying them. Think of it as a “choose your own adventure” design where more content is presented as the learner interacts with it.

Here is a set of possible ways to explain and re-explain a concept in a lesson. The notes marked with an asterisk are potential core steps that always appear. The rest are optional content that only appear if prompted.

• Introduce the main concept*
• Provide examples
• Explain it again using additional graphics or analogies
• Ask questions related to the materials *
• Provide hints and clarification for wrong answers
• Cover common mistakes and misconceptions
• Display links to additional resources
• Summarize the core ideas and take-aways*
• Provide resources and job aids that can be used later
• Add a frequently asked question about this topic
• Provide a way to collect feedback and questions– respond to them!

Just running through this hypothetical list, we have created 11 different avenues to explain a key concept. However, only 4 of these show up at first; the rest are designed to appear only if the learner expands the section or answers a question incorrectly.

While some learners might have all they need from the core steps, they are likely a small minority and our work as instructional designers is not done. Each additional resource might help a greater and greater percentage of learners understand the content.

Conclusion

Redundancy can be a good thing in eLearning but it’s all in how you apply it. Most learners need multiple attempts to truly grasp a new concept. Instructional designers are constantly challenged to provide a experiences that help push learners over that milestone. We have to anticipate where learners could get lost and prepare content to get them back on track. Consequently, we also have to find clever ways to check if the learner needs to see the content or not. These are all things to consider in using redundancy effectively in eLearning because redundancy itself is neither right or wrong– it’s how you use it.

Instructional designers are often given the task of turning manuals into eLearning. That sounds easy enough given that the manuals are already a finished product that say what they need to say. But we know that there are core differences between these types of resources; that’s why it’s usually not the best approach to dump a stack of manuals on a new employee. Manuals are intended to communicate specific steps in the briefest way possible. They are structured to be easily referenced and are mostly print focused. They assume you already know what to do with the information they are presenting. eLearning, on the other hand, is intended to be an experience that brings the learner to the point where they can do something they couldn’t before. So, we’ll look at converting manuals into eLearning by adding engagement; ways to keep the learner’s interest and attention.

Here are some areas to consider in when looking for opportunities to add engagement to some otherwise dry manuals. And to do it without change the accuracy of the information being taught.

Structure & Guidance

Structure is the order you present your content and how you transition between concepts. Learners remember things they were previously told about (priming), things that appear at the beginning and end of a list (primacy and recency effects), and things that are grouped together logically (segmenting). Learners also benefit from context, stating where the knowledge is relevant and what you should already know before starting the course.

These and many other learning effects can be used to structure your content. Consider how you can use segment and order the information. Furthermore, provide details on what you’ll learn in this course and what you should already know before getting started.

Suggestions

• Break up and order your content in a way that makes sense to learners
• Use introduction and summary activities to bookend chapters
• Navigate and transition through each topic to tell a story or illustrate a workflow

Informal communication

If formal communication is the barebones text of the manual (the absolute minimum of what you need to know), informal communication is everything else around that. These are the pieces that explain the concepts or share personal anecdotes. Where formal communication is succinct and accurate (like a dictionary definition), informal communication can highlight, clarify, or provide motivation. Think about how you would explain a concept in person to someone who isn’t getting it right away–  you wouldn’t tell the learner to just read the definition over and over again. Instead, find ways to add a personal touch where it might be needed most.

Suggestions

• Include additional explanations in a casual tone separate from the “main” readings
• Share anecdotes and stories that complement the materials
• Suggest common mistakes and how to avoid them

Multimedia

Multimedia means simply using more than one media to communicate your information. Undoubtedly, some knowledge work best as videos, infographics, or simulations. You wouldn’t try to teach someone to tie their shoe using plain text. In the same way, we want to find the best way to illustrate your concepts beyond text. Visual diagrams, infographics, and animations are better at showing processes and relationships. These kinds of multimedia, when used correctly, are much more likely to stick with the learner.

Suggestions

• Present important concepts using multimedia that fits
• Create infographics that learners can keep as a job-aid for later
• Ensure your multimedia is aligned with Mayer’s principles of multimedia learning

Feedback

Feedback provides immediate information to the learner in response to an action. Consider how often teachers ask their students “do you get it?”. They do this to ensure the learner is following along and to gauge if more explanation is needed. It also produces new opportunities to teach when learners have their brains working on a challenge. Think of your eLearning course as a kind of teacher that anticipates when to check-in on its learners. Find ways to add feedback events in your training.

Suggestions

• Prompt learners to get their input throughout the content with interactive elements
• Give meaningful feedback beyond right and wrong
• Show outcomes based on the learner’s response

Application

Application shows how the knowledge being taught is used in a new situation and context. It’s important for learners to see theoretical concepts applied in reality, possible variations, and repetition of consistent elements. Altogether, these experiences help learners understand the knowledge far more than just reading the usual manual descriptions and steps.  

Suggestions

• Use case studies and examples to illustrate concepts in action
• Provide practice problems and questions the learner can use repeatedly

Assessment

Assessment involves checking that the learner actually understands what they need to. This helps prevent learners from moving on unless the have adequate knowledge of the materials. Formative assessments are used along the way to find out areas where the learner needs improvement. Summative assessments occur at the end to confirm the learner understands the content.

Suggestions

• Add knowledge check questions along the way to keep learners on the right track
• Use quizzes and exams at the end of chapters to prove learners know their stuff

Conclusion

While it may seem to be a simple and common task, converting manuals into eLearning gets at the core value of instructional design. Manuals serve an important purpose in every organization, but they do not satisfy training requirements by themselves. That’s why we suggest converting manuals into eLearning by adding engagement and .

The next time you are given a manual and are asked to “you know, make it engaging”, try comparing your materials with areas above. Hopefully they inspire ideas that build on the core materials with a little extra engagement.