E-LEARNING IS MATURING
E-Learning is definitely the skills training standard today. And, it’s continuing to evolve.
Initially, developers became excited about the technology and spent their time converting PowerPoints to the medium. Didn’t work!
They are now learning to adopt multi-sensory learning as the better approach to education and training, particularly when skills acquisition is an ultimate goal.
Many of the foundation skills and competencies — so critical to our schools and to the workplace — can be achieved through the use of multi-sensory e-Learning. Learners, using multi-sensory e-Learning, demonstrate any number of improvements: “more confidence, higher motivation, peer mentoring, collaboration, and enhanced self-esteem” (Means). They are also able to handle more complex tasks and “acquire a basic understanding of how various classes of computer tools behave, and a confidence about being able to learn to use (the) new tools” that they will encounter in the years ahead (Means).
“Compared to conventional classrooms with their stress on verbal knowledge and multiple-choice test performance, technology provides a very different set of challenges and different ways in which students can demonstrate what they understand” (Means).
And, so it is proving to be in our adult work world. Organizations that are moving from print material instruction to the multiple benefits of multi-sensory learning are leaping ahead. These wiser organizations are beginning to realize that approximately 40% of their workforce cannot assimilate anything written above a 4th grade reading level.
Multi-sensory media instruction is the most flexible solution. It offers privacy to the adult learner, ease of use, scheduling flexibility, and stands ready to offer initial or just-in-time training as needed.
The learning world has changed. Both the reading majority and the less adept readers will benefit from the e-Learning advances that are available today.
And for that reason, among others, when considering e-Learning solutions please make certain that the courseware you are creating, or choosing to purchase, is rooted in full-motion video, graphic animations, and/or simulations. Critical, too, is the inclusion of optional word-for-word audio so that both the fluent and non-fluent readers can learn.
More on Wednesday – – –
— Bill Walton, co-Founder, ITC Learning
December 18, 2017
www.itclearning.com/blog/ (Mondays & Wednesdays)