Deconstructing eLearning

eLearning Yay? or Nay?

What is your experience with eLearning?  If you are like many of us you may have a love/hate relationship with eLearning.  The reality is that a lot of eLearning kinda suck in its design.  According to Tim Slade, author of The eLearning Designer's Handbook, eLearning fails to hit the mark because of these three things:

1. It is not designed for how people really learn.

2. It is not the right solution for the perceived problem.

3. It is not focused on performance (meaningful learning).

What is eLearning?

If we are going to critique eLearning, I guess it is important to have a common definition for it.  I agree with Slade's simplistic and concise definition as any learning experience that takes place on a digital device.  eLearning can be synchronous (instructor-directed) or asynchronous (self-paced). It can be interactive or passive. The book goes into detail about this but here is a simple graphic of some examples of the different types of eLearning.

What are the benefits?

💰Many eLearning courses can be mass produced and distributed much more cost effective than other courses.  So price is usually a deciding factor when people opt for eLearning.  

⏰Time is another benefit.  eLearning courses are available when the learner needs it. 

🌎Another benefit is that eLearning courses are not limited to any location due to that fact that they are delivered via an internet-connected device. Therefore eLearning courses are able to be sent globally.

Design & Development

The design and development of eLearning is not a linear process. It is very messy. If you do not follow some kind of design and development process you risk wasting a lot of time on an unsuccessful eLearning product. The two processes looked at in this chapter are the ADDIE (a waterfall approach that focuses on each phase of a project being completed sequentially) and the SAM (an iterative approach, where the project will go through several phases of building, refining, and improving.), neither are perfect, they are focused on process rather than design but both offer a model of development that could be successful at times. Whatever approach is used Slade has 3 non negotiables when it comes to the design and development process of eLearning:

More to Come

As I continue to read this book, I hope to learn more about the construction of eLearning courses and more specifically how to deconstruct a learning objective or skill and turn it into an eLearning course.  We shall see... If you would like to follow along you too can download this book here on Amazon. (or just click on the picture of the book at the top of the post) 

Reference:

Slade, T. (2020). The eLearning Designer's Handbook: A Practical Guide to the eLearning
Development Process for New eLearning Designers Paperback E-Learning Academy. ISBN: 979-8615125300

Slade, T. (2020). The eLearning Designer's Handbook: A Practical Guide to the eLearning