3 Brainstorm Ideas for Your Next E-Learning Course

Tom,

What you wrote in the “Magazine Cover” section hits the nail on the head. It reflects the approach I’ve taken in the last year creating sales training courses for a large retailer.

I’ve tried to incorporate the principles of effective copywriting into my recent courses. Marketers and Ad professionals have a certain respect for their audiences that we as learning designers/developers should learn from. Marketers realize that their audiences can easily walk away, change the channel, turn the dial, etc. We sometimes think we hold our learners “hostage” and don’t respect that autonomy.

There are many sites dedicated to effective copywriting… I’d like to see you explore this more in your blog. It’s done wonders for the quality and effectiveness of my courses so far.

Thanks!

Here is an idea I once had that came to me in an unusual way. I was working on a course for a rather confusing new banking application. I had many SMEs who, along with myself, were on the project to build this application. Each SME headed up a very specific aspect of the project. I was constantly gathering information and learning for each SME as the project evolved and the application was getting closer to launch.

So, for the course the participant entered the course as a project team member and was introduced to each SME and their role in developing the app. The participant’s job was the same as mine, to interact with each SME and learn as much as possible about this new application. The SMEs were represented as cartoon characters and through the course I even added phone calls and e-mails that the SMEs sent the participants with important info about the application. The participants really liked the search and find aspects of it, plus they learned a little bit about the process the back office has for developing new systems.

I’m currently working on a short, live session that will be videotaped and then turned into eLearning. It’s a pretty familiar topic: goal setting (including the SMART formula). We’ve decided to do it as a game show – Reach That Goal!

In the qualifying round our MC will talk about the importance of having a vision that’s detailed, then our 3 contestants will share their visions and the audience will select the two contestants who will go on. In the eLearning module the learner will make the choice and get feedback if they don’t agree with our studio audience.

In the Challenge round we’ll work through the SMART formula one letter at a time by giving criteria, then having the contestants explain how their goal fits them, and having the audience vote on which contestant’s goal fits the criteria better (we have little wireless voting pads and software that tabulates them for a real game show feel, but we could just as easily give them cards to hold up and count the vote). For the eLearning, this will give the learner a chance to make their selections and they’ll get some feedback about them. At the end of the Challenge round we’ll add up the scores and one contestant will go on.

In the Bonus round we’ll look at creating a plan. We’ll define milestones, deadlines, obstacles, strategies and reviews then ask our contestant to share an example from their plan.

Our final skill testing question asks them which of these 3 words will NOT help you: Persist, Persevere, Procrastinate? A correct answer takes us to the Celebration slide and then we say once again, it’s time to play Reach that Goal because goal setting never ends.

We’re all pretty excited about this idea. We looked at other ideas: a dialog with a guru, a comedy sketch, a talk show interviewing a famous historical figure, using a familiar process like making an egg salad sandwich, or taking a vacation in Tuscany, but none of them really grabbed our imaginations.

This promises to be fun, lively, exciting and motivating.

I like this as a starting point. Here are some other ideas:

1. Create a menu and the learner has to choose the items for success
2. Create a survival kit where the learner stocks the kit by completing sections of the course.
3. Have a mock interview. You interview the candidates and choose the one that best matches the criteria of the course.

I like the emergency room idea. We created a course where you built a house. As you completed a part, you added to the house.

We’re working on one right now where you have to travel through a city. We’re experimenting with providing alternate routes so that there’s not only one way as much as there are places to go to get information. An experienced learner can go the shortest route and a new employee can take a longer one.

Tom,

Great suggestions. I’ve used similar presentation approaches for many years now. One in particular that I like is the “Wally and Beaver Clever method”. That is, an older, more experienced mentor is showing the young, nieve, newbie the ropes. The youngster asks all of the lead-in questions and the SME tells him/her all about it. I’ve even developed immersive interactions where “The Beav has figured it out and demonstrated that he can perform task X, now it’s your turn to show that you can do it too!”

If you are designing elearning in an environment where you have some creative freedom, it’s great to give your characters a personality and write in a style that suits that mental image. I’ve used personalities such as: John Wayne (easy going, unshakeable) teaches Marty McFly (hyper, gregarious) or James Bond (refined, articulate) teaches Shaggy from the Scooby-Doo cartoons (needs to be told what to do every step of the way). Not only do my learners have fun trying to figure out what the personalities of the characters are, but it’s a lot of fun to write in a manner that helps to define a specific character, pilgrim….

Hi Tom and Community of Commentors:

Great ideas from everyone!

Like Al, I’ve used the Mentor/Newbie approach, and it really works. This approach helps the ID to creatively address the Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes (KSAs) that the team identified during the Gap Analysis meetings with the CLO and the SMEs.

Another idea: Create a focus group scenario for software skills training. (I haven’t tried this, yet, for soft skills.) I’ve facilitated several focus groups over the years, and really valued the feedback we received.

A focus group scenario could really open the creative flood gates when you design and develop your course. And, it’s somewhat similar to what @Jeffrey designed for his project as he describes above.

In addition to your (Tom’s) idea of borrowing from magazine cover designs, I’ve used ideas from Web sites. For example, one of Apple’s Web pages caught my eye a few years ago, and the mockup I created worked well for my project.

I love the magazine idea! I also really appreciate Steve’s comment: “We sometimes think we hold our learners “hostage” and don’t respect that autonomy” [to choose to do something else]. A big part of understanding adult learners is realizing that they have all sorts of other responsibilities competing for their time and attention. I have had lots of conversations with Nurse Ratched types who don’t believe you should have to make a course fun for learners because “they should do it because it’s their job.” Well, okay, they make take the course because it’s their job and they’ll check it off their training plan and get a nice certificate… but will they learn anything?

Regarding the mentor/newbie scenarios, those can be very useful but they are so often used that they have real potential to become old hat. If I remember correctly, Tom wrote a post about ways to vamp up this type of scenario by using conflict, making trouble for the characters, etc. What happens if the newbie does something the wrong way, for example?

Thanks, Tom, for another great post!

I recently created a Talk Show on Privacy topics for an annual compliance training complete with commercials. There were two segments with commercials separated by an infomercial. This allowed us to touch on the linear information on the three topics the SME wanted to touch on. By the end of the 10 minute course module, at the very least they knew what website to go to to find more information about Privacy. Knowing that the key is really training people where to look when they need the information instead of trying to force it into their long term memory. Once we had the script set – the development went very rapidly – using a combination of still photos, animation, and audio was fun and easy.

Dear Tom, it’s so nice to wake up (early Wednesday morning, in Sydney, Australia) to inspirational ideas for creating learning!

I especially like the flexibility of the magazine cover – this puts learners in control (though it is an illusion, as the designer has limited their options, so to speak)!!

Also, I really like the mock panel idea – sometimes feedback ( especially if it is critical in some way, and depending on the audience) can be a bit confrontational – so using a mock panel – and making it “funny” means that the message gets across and your learners need to think how this applies to them – great suggestions! Thanks so much!!!

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Hi Tom,

These ideas are brilliant! Thanks for letting us in on some of your creativity. We’re always on the lookout for quirky ways to engage our audience.

Steve (in Toowoomba, Australia)

I’d like to add my thanks to those from others reading this early in the morning in Australia!

This post reminded me of an exercise I once designed for classroom training, for mortgage lending staff. After learning how to calculate borrowing power (the maximum amount the bank would lend, based on income, etc), workshop participants were placed in an ‘auction’ situation. They had to work out the borrowing power for their ‘customer’ and then bid to buy a property on their behalf. This morning’s post has inspired me to try and convert this idea into elearning format.

I hope that more people will share their creative ideas – it’s inspiring. Thanks, Tom, for your weekly posts – much appreciated.

Diane

Hi Tom

Thank you for your valuable info. I really want to try these in our elearning course.

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Great post Tom. I love the magazine cover idea. In fact, it is something I want to use right away, I have a concern though. Will it be too much to phrase sentences like 10 best ways to increase your monthly bonus (sales rep) or 7 secrets to impress your boss etc? Does phrasing the intended purpose of the course this way, give false ideas or set false expectations for the learners? This kind of “excited” phrases will definitely make sure they are eager to go through the course. My concern is saying things on the cover which do not fall through at the end. (Now that I read what I just wrote, its naive to think this way. But want to know your take on this)

@Deepali – I think you bring up a great point about expectations.

There’s a lot we can learn a lot from magazines and other media on how to create excitement around our elearning.

Your point about “energy” phrases is a good one in that “teasers” should be relevant to the content. It’s no different than aligning learning objectives to your content.

I think it’s a fun idea and a good example of how powerful framing can be in learning.

Thanks David for the feedback. I think I am going to use the “teasers” and “energy phrases” as you call them. Learning from other types of media is what makes working on e-learning course so much fun. I can ‘borrow’ from other media, and yet make it educational and interesting.

Tom,

Thank you very much for the fillip to our creativity. It is easy to fall into a rut because of the ever present deadlines.

I have two ideas to share –

1. we have once converted a goal-setting workshop into an eLearning course. We built in an online workbook for the participants to actually write (type) down their goals just like they can do in a workshop and save it on their system as well as online.

2. For a course on Foreign Corruption Prevention Act (FCPA), we reversed the sequence by conducting a kind of quiz first and based on the result, served the relevant content. The course was like a game with points and for the wrong responses, there was a choice – a hint, help in terms of resource links or complete explanation.

Thank you once again.

Hi Tom,
This is one of the cool ideas. Using characters to present a course like the one in Television Talk shows. In addition, you said that the writing style should be teasy and provocative.

I think the first idea comes from Television and radio production background. It is a pretty good as we have softwares to create characters for scenarios for the learners.
T
The second idea also sounds pretty cool as the writing in the media is dependent on the kind of story they are making and audience. We can use most of these writing techniques in the E-Learning writing depending on the kind of content.

Exactly true–creating content is an educational experience not only for the learners using it, but for the person who creates it. The preparation of learning material is an involved process. Just like preparing a semester’s worth of lesson plans, it doesn’t happen overnight, and the information doesn’t travel directly from the writer’s head and onto the online course.

Preparing a lecture or course material requires you to think more thoroughly about the subject than you normally would. Oftentimes, while collecting and organizing information, you find out there are some holes in your understanding. One’s efforts to fill these holes not only enrich one’s own expertise on the subject, but may be platforms for further research and learning.

Question: How do you respond to non-creative types (i.e. supervisors) that react to non-traditional (i.e. non-boring) approaches with,”Our audience is too [fill in the blank] for such a ‘cutesy’ approach.” ?

I am implementing an LMS within a large organization. We have a great discussion board feature and are having a difficult time getting people to use this feature. Do you have any tips?

Great post,
I am currently developing some eLearning products for training sales people. I will definitely consider some of your ideas and those in the comments section too.
Thanks Greg