Two Pitfalls of e-Learning…and How to Avoid Them

Ruth Clark and Richard Mayer have outlined some pitfalls of e-learning design in their book ‘e-Leaning and the Science of Instruction’

If you ever purchase e-learning, take be aware of these pitfalls to avoid buying an inferior training course:

Pitfall #1: Losing Sight of the Job

Courses must be designed to address the specific skill set you are trying to improve. Sometimes designers make the content so generic that the skill you’re trying to improve isn’t addressed completely, or not at all.

Start with a ‘Job and task analysis’ to give you a focus of what to look for in the training. This is also a great roadmap if you’re working directly with the course designer – these requirements can be your ‘checklist’

Pitfall #2: Media Abuse

Some designers go nuts and add as many features as they can into the training: audio (music and narration), on-screen text and animated visuals. Often this overloads the learner’s sensory system and ‘processing’ capabilities and causes less learning rather than more learning.

Find a balance between interesting material and sensory overload!

Know Quality, Know Profit…No Quality, No Profit

We have an easy-to-use training tools built into our Cloud-based Management System platform. If you’d like to see if it can help improve how you manage your training activities, schedule a demo. We’d be happy to spend 10 or 15 minutes with you to see if it’s a fit…

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