Getting Real Results: How to Add Dramatic Power to Your e-Learning

Have you ever received a message like this? “Your e-Learning mission, should you accept it, is to design and develop an e-Learning simulation to:

• Change and improve the job performance of managers, sales reps, or customer service specialists to support our organization’s business goals;
• Use any e-Learning media, but keep the technology simple, and the ratings by participants high;
• Keep development costs low by designing and writing the content for this simulation in three to four weeks; and
• Make the interactive design and navigation options so simple that the programmers and computer artists can have a test version ready in another three to four weeks.”

That mission is very similar to the actual requirements clients have set for the e-Learning simulations I will discuss in this article. A pharmaceutical company asked for, “A three-hour CD-ROM game to review and practice discussing new product knowledge with customers, using our recommended selling skills ... but it must be developed in a month. And the budget is really low.” A financial brokerage firm made this request: “Make the simulation a gold standard for online management development ... but because of our firewalls and security systems, you can only use HTML, no memory storage, no add-ons, no nothing.”

This article summarizes how the tools of dramatic structure turned these impossible requests into cost-effective simulations (one for CD-ROM, one for an Intranet) that strengthened the on-the-job performance of sales reps and managers.

What is an e-Learning simulation?

Before discussing the simulations that resulted from these requests, let’s make sure we’re on the same screen with a shared definition of “e-Learning simulation”: an e-Learning simulation strengthens participants’ ability to carry out their work responsibilities by presenting a series of interactive challenges that are similar to actual work processes and interpersonal communications the participants will encounter on their jobs. (After you read the article, you may want to change this definition to fit your own situation and preferences.) This article will not cover simulations of complex procedures or entire markets. For the design of highly technical simulations, see Michael Schrage’s Serious Play: How the World’s Best Companies Simulate to Innovate. (I have listed all the books I reference in Sidebar 1. You can purchase your own copy of most of these from online booksellers.)

Media for e-Learning simulations

You can design an e-Learning simulation for most digital media — Intranet/Internet, CD-ROM, kiosk, interactive videodisk. This list will probably soon include personal digital assistants, or PDAs. We can even build PowerPoint presentations around a simulation; instead of lecturing in the abstract, present the content in the context of a typical work situation and include some interactive exercises or just a few screens of “What would you do if ...” thought questions.

The foundation of an e-Learning simulation

Initially, to meet challenges like this, I put on my instructional designer hat, interviewed subject specialists, and asked a game designer for some examples of simple game play that wouldn’t require costly programming and animation. But when I tried to put those three pieces of the puzzle together, the simulation turned out to be either too “trainery” (and boring), or a lot of fun, but not clearly relevant to the needed on-the-job performance improvements or changes. After some painful student edits and feedback, I discovered the importance of a fourth component of an effective simulation: rigorous dramatic structure.

Just deciding to develop an e-Learning simulation doesn’t ensure it will be effective. A series of typical work assignments and challenges could turn out to be as boring as a typical day on any job would be to someone who didn’t understand or care about the work situations. And if participants are bored with self-study units in an e-Learning simulation, they skim or stop using the simulation altogether. How can we hold participants’ attention and commitment to a simulation over a period of three days or three weeks, or even just for one hour? The design needs to engage participants with challenges that interest them in addition to providing the instruction, practice opportunities, and feedback that will ensure they actually learn. To impact the performance of employees in ways that achieve on-the-job results, designers can start building an effective simulation by setting up a foundation grounded in the four cornerstones shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Foundation of an effective simulation

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