When Interactions Go Bad
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about interactivity in e-learning, not least of all because Shelby Watts and I will be presenting in the E-Learning Guild’s online forum next week on Interactivity on a Budget.
The most expensive interaction, of course, is the one that doesn’t lead the learner to the behaviors you’re trying to drive. (Yes, Gayle, training is about doing something different.) This is one of the things that make corporate learning environments unique. Because every interaction teaches something, right? But when a business spends money to create training or other learning opportunities, they have (or should have) a pretty specific idea of what they want the learner to do as a result of the training. Training on ethics should lead to more ethical behavior. Training on Speaking the Language of Electricity should lead to more fluency with, well, the language of electricity.
So just because an interaction teaches you something doesn’t necessarily mean it is effective. After all, Guitar Hero teaches you a skill. It’s just not a skill that’s helpful if you go to play a guitar, right? So the first key to an interaction is that should help to develop knowledge or skill that is helpful on the job.
This is one of the key tricks to creating effective interactions in e-learning. Interaction should be there to do something beyond just make the user click a button, or flash a pretty picture on the screen. If you can’t connect the interaction to what the learner needs to know or do when they finish the course, skip it. That way, you can save up your budget for the interactions that can more effectively drive business results.
Tags: Interactions