NexLearn Simpact May '09

May 2009 Edition

“There's a force in the universe that makes things happen; all you have to do is get in touch with it. Just let things happen...and be...the ball.” —Ty Webb

We all laughed when Chevy Chase’s character offered these words of wisdom to Danny the caddy in the movie Caddyshack. But is there any real-world truth to Ty’s belief that if you imagine it, it will happen? Two psychologists think so.

In a new study featured in Psychological Science, Washington University psychologists Christopher Davoli and Richard Abrams suggest that the imagination may be more effective than we think in helping us reach our goals.

Researchers instructed a group of students to conduct a visual search task while imagining that they were holding the monitor they were looking at (not actually holding the monitor, just imagining that they were holding it). Members of another group, meanwhile, were instructed to perform the same task while imagining their hands clasped behind their backs. Of the two groups, students that imagined holding the monitor spent more time and effort on the task and conducted a more thorough analysis. Davoli and Abrams suggest the results indicate that simply imagining to perform a task may have effects that are similar to actually performing the task. “The imagination,” claim the research duo, “has the extraordinary capacity to shape reality.”

The mindset of students can dramatically affect the effort they put toward—and the knowledge they take away from—a learning experience. We know that a negative attitude can affect employee performance during a training session. Some employees may think that they already know the information and shouldn’t be forced to take an e-Learning course, while others might believe they’re too busy to fit training into their schedules. No matter the excuse, a negative attitude typically results in a negative learning experience.

In their article for Wired magazine, University of California Associate Professor John Seely Brown and visiting scholar Douglas Thomas describe how online gaming and simulations disguise learning so participants are more willing to enter the experience with an open mind.

“Unlike education acquired through textbooks, lectures, and classroom instruction, what takes place…is what we call accidental learning. It’s learning to be—a natural byproduct of adjusting to a new culture—as opposed to learning about. Where traditional learning is based on the execution of carefully graded challenges, accidental learning relies on failure. Virtual environments are safe platforms for trial and error. The chance of failure is high, but the cost is low and the lessons learned are immediate.”

The authors also explain how using games and immersive learning simulations can promote more comprehensive learning.

“…The learning [in games and simulations] …is tied to practices but those practices are not solely the practices of game play or even skills such as resource environment. They are, instead, the skills of learning how to use one’s imagination to read across boundaries and be able to find points of convergence and divergence…to understand their relationships to one another.”

The key message to take away from this article is to never underestimate the power of the imagination. Create interactive and engaging e-Learning courses that immerse employees in the training material. The more active employees are in the learning process, the better chance they’ll have to experience the “aha” learning moment that allows them to reach their goals.

BlogBites
Check out these recent e-Learning blog posts:

Twitter Learning
Tony Karrer discusses the latest communication tool that’s taking the world by storm. Can it be used as effective training tool?

Ten Commandments of e-Learning
Clive Shepherd offers his list of must-do tasks when designing interactive, e-Learning content.

Five Questions
George Siemens answers questions about learning models, basic skills, and the current education system.

If you have a great blog (or know of one) that you want to share, send us the link. We just might include it in a future Simpact edition. Send the link to our Expert.

May Survey

Which communication media do you use most frequently?

Twitter

Facebook/MySpace

Texting

Last Month’s Survey Results

Where do you typically get content for your e-Learning courses?

We use ready-made content from existing courses.

We conduct interviews with SMEs.

We repurpose content from company manuals.

Ask the Expert

Question:
I was recently promoted to oversee employee training for our company. My biggest challenge so far is getting people to finish the online courses we’ve developed. Any suggestions?

Answer:
First things first, congratulations on your promotion. Now, on to your question. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why your employees are giving up on the training because we simply don’t have enough information to evaluate. However, I can tell you that poor reception to e-Learning courses can often be traced to one or more of the following issues:

The course features little interactivity, so users become bored and frustrated.
The course content is irrelevant to common employee behavior or tasks, so users become bored and frustrated.
The media files used in the course are so large that playback on the LMS (or other delivery system) is slow and choppy, so users become bored and frustrated.

Notice a common theme developing here? Your course must be interactive and engaging with relevant information and appropriate media components to capture and maintain employee interest.

Have a question about e-Learning or Simulation-based Learning? Send it to our Expert.

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