Bridging the gap between educator and learner can be highly gratifying. When you get it right, the signs are everywhere – your learners are engaged with your materials from the beginning, test scores are high, and most importantly, retention and performance are measurably improved for weeks and months after the learning activity has been completed.
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When you get it wrong, the signs are painfully clear, but the reasons may not always be obvious. Whether you are building activities conventionally or online (e-Learning), the road can be fraught with peril if you are not mindful of the hazards along the way. Making that all-important connection with your learners does not happen by accident. There are fundamental principles you can easily miss.
On the following pages you will discover 12 principles to guide educators when developing learning activities. Applying these principles and the helpful insights suggested with each, will help avoid the hazards that can appear after content publication.
Principle #1: Attention and engagement are not mutually exclusive.
What message does the billboard convey to you?
If you were driving by this billboard at 60 mph, how would you parse the message? Some drivers might perceive this message to be: “Stop Rampy Chevrolet. Now!” Is this the intended message? Probably not. Does it achieve the desired effect (to sell Chevrolets)? Probably not. What’s missing?
Attention, engagement, distraction and boredom
No one wants to be boring. And no educator wants their materials to be dull. In e-Learning, it is all too easy to be seduced into using “eye-popping graphics” and superfluous media in the effort to be more exciting and to prevent boredom. But this temptation to demand attention often comes at the expense of engagement and learning. All the eye-popping graphics in your learning materials are not capturing Johnny’s attention.
What is attention?
John Dewey was an educator and prolific author in the early and mid-20th century. Dewey defined attention in a learning environment as “the unity of the action of the mind.” He observed that true attention is achieved when the learner brings three vital elements to the task at hand:
- TO WHAT: a degree of heightened focus, and:
- FOR WHAT: a sense of purpose – the anticipation of something (of measurable benefit) coming in the future, and:
- WITH WHAT: a connection of the learning activity with the learner’s past experience.
A lesson from advertising
Think about your first encounter with the billboard you saw earlier.
- Did it get your attention? (Maybe)
- Did you anticipate a benefit ? (Probably not)
- Did you associate some part of your own experience with the message? (Not likely)
What’s true in advertising is also true in e-Learning.
Demanding attention is not enough
You cannot demand attention any more than you can persuade someone to buy something they don’t want.
Edward Tufte is a contemporary author on information design and data integrity. In 2003, he wrote an article for Wired Magazine, railing against, among other things, the alarming emphasis of style over substance in PowerPoint presentations. In this article he made a similar case about attention and learning when he said: “Audience boredom is usually a content failure, not a decoration failure.”
There is nothing inherently wrong with using compelling imagery and media in your learning materials as long as they augment your message with substance rather than distract with irrelevant “eye-candy.”
Attention without engagement is merely distraction.
