Put Learning in Context

Dean is a model employee. He’s punctual, cooperative, and consistently produces high quality graphics work on time. However, he failed his company’s e-Learning program about the laws for creating a diverse workforce—three times. If you’re Dean’s boss, how should you react to his uncharacteristically poor performance? Should you emphasize the importance of studying and make Dean retake the course until he receives a passing score? Or, should you analyze the e-Learning program to determine where the training went wrong?

It’s common to encourage employees to take and retake training until they receive satisfactory scores. Repeated exposure to instructional material typically enhances the level of comprehension for learners. Sometimes, though, poor results can be linked to the learning course itself. e-Learning programs developed without target users in mind can actually hinder learning.

You can follow these guidelines to create contextual learning material:

• Consider goals – Determine what you want your users to accomplish. Keep in mind that each goal must be aligned with the overall objectives established by your organization.
  
  
• Take into account multiple learning styles – Combine relevant interactive strategies and media components with instructionally sound material to offer multiple options for users to connect with the information. You should also use media elements that best suit the material and target user preferences.
  
  For instance, if you are creating a course about accounting procedures, you’ll probably want to avoid including a lot of animated graphics. There are a couple reasons for doing this. First, the images don’t have anything to do with the accounting procedures and won’t enhance the learning. And second, your target users are most likely Logical or Organized learners (visit nexlearn.com for information about the Learning Style Continuum), which means they typically prefer material presented as text, charts, checklists, and timelines. Superfluous content or media components may actually confuse or frustrate users, which might lead to an apathetic attitude toward the course and even the learning content.
  
  
• Incorporate user experience – Before developing learning programs, research your target users. Determine their knowledge of the topic prior to taking the course, so you can present the information they need and only the information they need. Also, consider competency requirements for the real-world scenarios you plan to simulate. Would you expect a simulation that asks users to identify appropriate legal terminology to appeal to both financial department employees and graphic designers? In most cases, of course not.

The key to developing effective learning opportunities is to place the training material within the context of the knowledge and experience the user already possesses. Use familiar terminology, stories, or case studies to help target learners put the information in a perspective that makes it relevant to them.

With this information in mind, let’s revisit Dean’s situation to determine why he may have failed the training. We know that Dean is a talented graphic designer who excels at creating vivid imagery. Since he specializes in creating graphical elements, it’s safe to assume that he’s an Expressive or Experimental learner that responds best to animated features, multimedia presentations, or highly interactive learning activities. However, since the text-based e-Learning program focused heavily on the details and definitions of specific laws for creating a diverse workforce, it failed to present a learning opportunity that matched Dean’s experience and preferred learning style.

As Dean’s manager, it is your responsibility to provide the tools necessary to help your employees succeed. (In this case, making sure the training fits the employee.) You should have first determined whether the topic was appropriate for Dean in his current position (user objectives/company goals), if the program’s media elements offered the most effective learning opportunity for Dean (take into account multiple learning styles), and if the material was put in the appropriate context for Dean’s experience (incorporate user experience).