Want an Engaging E-Learning Course? Start with a Case Study.
Before I worked for an e learning company that suffered through a number of problem in course. The company was fully committed for delivery time and best quality of work and already had sufficient training. However, they were concerned that people weren’t serious about the procedures.
So they put together some case studies where they told the story of how each problem happened and how they could have been prevented. In all of the cases, the people disregarded the safety training.
To this day, I can recall many of the details and solutions that could have prevented the problems because the way the cases were presented (and of course the emotional impact).
Engaging E-Learning Courses Are Relevant
A lot of elearning consists of mostly linear click-and-read courses. Those courses are fine for sharing information, but often they’re not very engaging or memorable. In fact, one of the things I’m asked most is how to get past the click-and-read course and make something more engaging.
My first rule of thumb is to make sure it’s relevant to the end user. If it’s not relevant, odds are you’ll resort to gimmicks to make it seem engaging.
Engaging E-Learning Courses Can Start as a Case Study
If you don’t have time for a fully interactive course, and you don’t want to build an information dump, do the next best thing—transform your content from information dump into a meaningful case study.
Cases studies are still mostly linear (although you can make them interactive) but the content is framed in a way that provides context and meaning. Because of this, they get past the information dumping that plagues many courses.
A few considerations:
· Find the relevant viewpoint. Courses don’t exist in a vacuum. Most compliance courses have some connection to the person’s day-to-day function. Find out what that is and then frame the content around that connection. A good place to learn more is by interviewing those who take the courses. Ask them when the information is important.
· A case study present as a story. There are a lot of ways to tell a story. You can go from A to B to C. Or you can present it from a unique angle. The key is to tell a good story that is contextual to the person’s need. A common approach is the “day in the life of _____.”
· Keep it simple. Don’t provide details that aren’t required. Not only does that take extra thinking to create but it could cause you to go on confusing tangents. Also, we’re not always the best story tellers so the simpler the better.
· Flip the perspective. Tell the story from the perspective of the customer or someone other than the learner. Instead of telling the learner what they need to know. Show them how not knowing affects others.
If you’re stuck in a place where all you get to build is linear courses, on the next one try a case study. Pull your content into a story that is engaging and relevant to the end user.
