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I have conducted lots of facilitator led training during my career, in areas such as leadership development, human resources, software training, and coaching/mentoring. And every course that I’ve ever developed or conducted started with a slide which began with the statement, “After completing this course, you will be able to . . . “ That statement was immediately followed usually by 4 or 5 learning objectives, depending on the amount of classroom hours scheduled.
It only seemed natural then, that I use a similar screen in my e-learning courses. And for the majority of traditional e-learning courses which I developed from 1997 until a few years ago, I always included a similar screen in whatever course I was developing.
That is, until my a-ha moment occurred! I’ve got this e-learning development tool which is very powerful and which lets me create some amazing courses. Why, oh why, would I want to begin my course in such a boring way?
And that’s when I started beginning most every course with a challenge. Think about it. What is the most common form of workplace learning? It’s not facilitator-led, or e-learning, or any other formal method. It’s informal. It’s learning from our co-workers on the job, or our supervisor asking us to complete a task without giving us all the steps necessary to do it. I’ve had plenty of those types of learning experiences. I do not ever recall my supervisor approaching me saying, “Chuck, today I’m going to show you how to complete the xyz report. At the end of our meeting, you will be able to . . .” followed by 3 or 4 learning objectives. That’s not how informal learning works.
How many times in your workplace has your supervisor come to you and said, “Hey, I need you to do xyz. Here is a standard operating procedure on how to get that done, or you can look in the manual over there. I think Sally has some notes on this, so you might want to get with her as well. She’s been doing this for a while.” You’ve probably heard something similar to all or part of that statement more than once during your career. That’s how informal learning works. It’s with an assignment in which you may have some idea how to complete, but which may require a bit of “winging it.” If that’s how learning occurs in the workplace, wouldn’t it make sense to replicate that in your course?
Look at the screenshots for a course I developed a while ago. There’s no screen listing formal learning objectives. There is, however, a menu page which kind of serves that role without the “After learning this course, you will be able to . . . “ But the menu page is there to help organize the content for the learner and to help them navigate the course. That’s its primary role. It’s not meant to be a page of formal objectives.
I can hear you asking now, “So Chuck, if you don’t list the objectives, how DO you begin your course?” I begin the course the same way adults receive informal learning. In this course, the supervisor approaches the employee (in this case the learner taking the course) and issues a challenge. “Hey, I need you to complete this task. I’m on my way to an important meeting, so do what you can and I’ll get back with you this afternoon.” Since that’s something we can all relate to, I’ve begun many courses using that approach. For added emphasis – and because Captivate will let me – after the supervisor makes the request (which is done via voice-over as well as text on the screen), I add a path animation to the graphic of the supervisor, and drag him off the screen. Hey, he said he has an important meeting to go to, so in the real world, he would ask you to complete the task and then head out the door. A simple path animation in Captivate allowed me to replicate that. 
Over the next several slides, I incorporated static screenshots, text captions, and invisible hotspot interactions with appropriate feedback for the learner. I’m showing one of those slides here. Again, each slide includes audio which supports the text. Finally, rather than have the course end with “Now that you’ve completed this course, you should be able to . . . “ followed by a re-hash of the objectives, the supervisor returns and comments on the learner’s performance.
Emulating what happens in the real world and issuing a challenge at the beginning of the course reaches out and grabs your learners and brings them into the course, rather than just having them be passive learners reading a screen of objectives followed by some bullet points and then screens of factual information. Reach out to your learners, bring them in, and have them interact with your content. If that’s how we learn in the real world, then wouldn’t it make sense to try and replicate that in our e-learning courses?
I have conducted lots of facilitator led training during my career, in areas such as leadership development, human resources, software training, and coaching/mentoring. And every course that I’ve ever developed or conducted started with a slide which began with the statement, “After completing this course, you will be able to . . . “ That statement was immediately followed usually by 4 or 5 learning objectives, depending on the amount of classroom hours scheduled.
It only seemed natural then, that I use a similar screen in my e-learning courses. And for the majority of traditional e-learning courses which I developed from 1997 until a few years ago, I always included a similar screen in whatever course I was developing.
That is, until my a-ha moment occurred! I’ve got this e-learning development tool which is very powerful and which lets me create some amazing courses. Why, oh why, would I want to begin my course in such a boring way?
And that’s when I started beginning most every course with a challenge. Think about it. What is the most common form of workplace learning? It’s not facilitator-led, or e-learning, or any other formal method. It’s informal. It’s learning from our co-workers on the job, or our supervisor asking us to complete a task without giving us all the steps necessary to do it. I’ve had plenty of those types of learning experiences. I do not ever recall my supervisor approaching me saying, “Chuck, today I’m going to show you how to complete the xyz report. At the end of our meeting, you will be able to . . .” followed by 3 or 4 learning objectives. That’s not how informal learning works.
How many times in your workplace has your supervisor come to you and said, “Hey, I need you to do xyz. Here is a standard operating procedure on how to get that done, or you can look in the manual over there. I think Sally has some notes on this, so you might want to get with her as well. She’s been doing this for a while.” You’ve probably heard something similar to all or part of that statement more than once during your career. That’s how informal learning works. It’s with an assignment in which you may have some idea how to complete, but which may require a bit of “winging it.” If that’s how learning occurs in the workplace, wouldn’t it make sense to replicate that in your course?
Look at the screenshots for a course I developed a while ago. There’s no screen listing formal learning objectives. There is, however, a menu page which kind of serves that role without the “After learning this course, you will be able to . . . “ But the menu page is there to help organize the content for the learner and to help them navigate the course. That’s its primary role. It’s not meant to be a page of formal objectives.
I can hear you asking now, “So Chuck, if you don’t list the objectives, how DO you begin your course?” I begin the course the same way adults receive informal learning. In this course, the supervisor approaches the employee (in this case the learner taking the course) and issues a challenge. “Hey, I need you to complete this task. I’m on my way to an important meeting, so do what you can and I’ll get back with you this afternoon.” Since that’s something we can all relate to, I’ve begun many courses using that approach. For added emphasis – and because Captivate will let me – after the supervisor makes the request (which is done via voice-over as well as text on the screen), I add a path animation to the graphic of the supervisor, and drag him off the screen. Hey, he said he has an important meeting to go to, so in the real world, he would ask you to complete the task and then head out the door. A simple path animation in Captivate allowed me to replicate that. Over the next several slides, I incorporated static screenshots, text captions, and invisible hotspot interactions with appropriate feedback for the learner. I’m showing one of those slides here. Again, each slide includes audio which supports the text. Finally, rather than have the course end with “Now that you’ve completed this course, you should be able to . . . “ followed by a re-hash of the objectives, the supervisor returns and comments on the learner’s performance.
Emulating what happens in the real world and issuing a challenge at the beginning of the course reaches out and grabs your learners and brings them into the course, rather than just having them be passive learners reading a screen of objectives followed by some bullet points and then screens of factual information. Reach out to your learners, bring them in, and have them interact with your content. If that’s how we learn in the real world, then wouldn’t it make sense to try and replicate that in our e-learning courses?
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Your example (boss comes in, gives an assignment, dashes away) is an excellent example of establishing WIIFM. However, I would posit that your fourth screenshot does a better job of replacing the objectives. While that’s posed as a question(which implies a review for me): “How would you get started?” could easily become: “OK. You’ve got your marching orders. Here are the steps you’ll complete to prepare that position description template. Let’s get started.”
This still communicates to the learner what they’re going to figure out by the end of the course, and it does so in the narrative format you’re working with.
The former secondary school teacher in me really feels the need and importance of specifically defined objectives, but, in terms of establishing a sense of “flow” in the learning experience, the objectives slide is a bit of a “thud”.
It’s like the opening credits of a film: many movies these days just jump into the drama and save the credits for the end.
I like your idea (ala the credits analogy) of providing specific objectives at the end.
Lately, I’ve been experimenting with title slide … navigation slide (that can be skipped) … slide that will provide an overview scenario challenge and motivate by demonstrating value & creating expectations … then working through the lesson itself, by following up on the scenario challenge you’ve just presented.
Thanks!
I have been in teaching business at various levels (High School to University and corporate training) for over 45 years. Measurable behavioral objectives were a required part of most structured curriculum approaches. I still use them, but I have mused about taking them out of the critical path of the learning flow. The learner should know where to find them and review them as preparation for examinations etc… There are more creative ways to establish “set.”
You discussed a good point – I think it makes sense if we are just talking about instructional content. However, most of the content that we (ID’s) produce will somehow end up online. if that is the case, there are other reasons to explain the need for an ‘Objectives’ page.
I am referring to Seach Engine Optimization (SEO). When we publish information online, we need to make sure that it meets the requirements established by search engines (or intranet search systems) so that all web pages containing instructional content can be indexed properly. So, even though an ‘Objectives’ page may seem unnecessary for ID’s, it might be necessary to have a properly indexed website.
I think you are looking for metadata for indexing. It would not need to be shown in the content.
