Tips for meeting learning objectives, and measuring success?
June 22, 2014 12:00 AM
Hello all! A quick question for those who have spent some time with instructional design.
Mainly this question is in regards to the initial design phases.
During the instructional design process, what are some ways you can use to gauge that the learning objectives are being met, and that the E-learning course is going to be effective for the learners?
Just wondering if anyone has any advice or tips to share about methods you use during the ID phase (to ensure the course will stays "on track" from the beginning, then into storyboarding, and also through the development phase)?
Now much of the time will give some parameters of what the learners need to learn. The question is how to plan and build on that, and measure success for meeting the objectives.
Does anyone have anything additional they could share as far as methods used or advice? Or links to any Website articles that discuss this? Thank you!
Discussion (2)
That is definitely the million dollar question. It is probably the most discussed ID topics ever. And of course, there is no right answer, only lots of ideas that might or might not work for you.
Couple of tips:
1. Start with your business goals. What are you trying to achieve? Say, you work at an airport and you are building a course on luggage handling. The business goal is to reduce lost luggage from 2% to 0.5% via teaching people about proper handling and documentation. There you go, very measurable and very clear.
2. If you cannot find a measurable and clear business goal related to your learning, rethink if you need that learning course. If you don't know if it changes anything, why would you do it? How would you know if it changed anything? Was this money well spent or lost?
3. If you have a clear business goal, it will be easy to break it down into learning objectives. It will also help make learning objectives relevant for your learners and action-oriented, not knowledge-oriented.
Compare:
A) After this course, you will know how to operate Luggage Handling Machine LMH-001. (Erm.. Why would I want that?)
B) After this course, you will sort luggage with LMH-001 faster and with less mistakes. (Ooh, sounds like I'll get a bonus or at least less citations next month!)
4. Read about ROI in learning:
http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/1141/show-me-the-roi
http://www.astd.org/Publications/Books/Measuring-ROI
etc etc etc - hundreds of books
5. Read about Kirkpatrick’s model and its various enhancements. Again, hundreds of articles everywhere.
6. Get in touch with or at least subscribe to blogs of people who deal with this on a daily basis. My absolute favourite is Cathy Moore:
http://blog.cathy-moore.com/2013/06/three-simple-but-powerful-ways-to-get-love-from-your-leaders/
http://blog.cathy-moore.com/2013/11/how-to-create-a-training-goal-in-2-quick-steps/
and virtually every other blog post.
7. I'll also be happy to talk to you and your specific challenges. Get in touch via sergey@branchtrack.com.
Thanks so much for taking the time to respond and provide the link resources, as well as your own tips. These ideas help quite a bit, and it's always good to hear how others approach that area.
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