E-learning: do not just convey abstract information. Instead, create practice.
Sergey | Thursday, February 11th, 2010 | No Comments »Summary:
Our brains digest information by translating it into practical knowledge on the level of neurons. Design your learning in a similar fashion and rewarded thou shalt be.
Organizations want to change behavior, but often just give information and hope for the best
The problem is quite simple: in the vast majority of cases organizations need courses that change the behavior of their members (employees). Change in behavior can include increased sales efforts, higher work safety or just finally getting a grip on that piece of software the IT guys installed last month. In practice, however, the same vast majority of the courses do not specifically aim at changing behavior. Instead, they are designed to merely transfer knowledge to the learners, and the hope that the added knowledge will have an actual impact on organizational performance.
Well, hope is just that – hope. If we want to change the way people behave, we must use the instructional design that promotes behavioral change. Instead of thinking about which fancy multimedia is best to present information, e-learning developers should turn their attention to the daily practices of their learners, and provide them with actionable information to enhance these practices.
How our brains work and what this means for learning
The word “actionable” here is not just a fancy term to make the whole idea appealing to the business managers who decide to buy e-courses (although they sure dig it). In fact, “actionable” refers to the way information is hardwired in our brains, and I am not talking just memory, I mean the utterly basic physical level of brain cells storing knowledge. A recent article on a neurological study using MRI scans revealed that references to regular objects are stored in the multiple areas of our brains. These areas correspond to three dimensions: 1) the way we interact with the object (hold it, kick it, etc), 2) how does the object relate to food and 3) how does the object relate to shelter. Cool, eh? Three very basic variables define how we remember an object, and – here it comes – all of them are related to the everyday practice of doing things!
A different mentality is needed
Of course, our brains are capable of storing all kinds of information – but the one that is directly understandable in terms of specific action has the most impact on our lives, while its more abstract counterpart is readily forgotten. This is a great challenge for organizations to change their ways of thinking about learning as “information transfer”. We are all used to that kind of learning in schools, colleges and universities. Organizational learning is different, because it is ultimately pragmatic and requires an immediate impact. Both e-learning developers and their clients need to be more sensible to this crucial difference, which unfortunately does not always happen in our experience.
