"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." --Maya Angelou
What is Learning Designed by Correy Adams?
I believe an online learning experience should be four things:
relevant
effective
aesthetic
and fun
With a background in Art education, I understand the principles of both pedagogy and design. As a learning designer, my goal is to motivate my learners to engage in metacognitive processes that will allow for deeper knowledge transfer to occur. To accomplish this goal, I like to utilize the ADDIE model of instructional design.
Designing for Clients:
I like the ADDIE model because it provides a logical plan for both development and evaluation to take place. During the Analysis phase, specific training gaps/needs of the client are determined. I love working with content experts because it’s exciting to learn about new industries, new people and create new ideas together.
Designing for Learners:
I also need to know my learners: their prior experiences, prior knowledge, training needs and learning style preferences. I need to know what is relevant to them. When designing for adult learning, both relevance and clear goal setting help drive motivation and post-training achievement. I strive to make that a priority in my design.
Designing for Knowledge Transfer:
Toward the end of the “Analysis” phase, I utilize Bloom’s Taxonomy as a resource to write clear objectives with strong, measurable, action words. I also utilize Gagne’s nine instructional events to help provide a solid framework for the overall instructional experience. Once the objectives have been identified, I can start to gather resources and plan instruction: I can start to design.
Research-based Design:
Just like artists use tools to create their master pieces, I use a variety of research-based design principles to create my virtual learning experiences.
First, I identify what type of instruction I’m am designing (concepts, procedure, process, principles, etc). Then I select the best research-based principles to guide my instructional development. I am familiar with both Richard Mayer’s principles of multimedia design (coherence, modality, contiguity, etc) as well as Dr. Ruth Clark and Chopeta Llyons e-learning principles of instruction.
--Now we have the pedagogy and theory, but let’s not leave out the fun.
Designing for Engagement:
According to game design experts such as J. Shell, strong goals, appropriate levels of challenge, endogenous rewards, engaging stories and team collaboration can all be used to drive motivation and thus achievement. I love the challenge of making a “basic training” course effective, yes, but also memorable and fun. I often put myself in my learner’s place thinking, “would I enjoy this training experience?” According to Michael Allen and his “magical keys” for enhancing e-learning motivation, “novelty, suspense, fascinating graphics, humor, sound, music and animation,” can all engage learners when designed well.
Designing for Active Learning:
Active learning also drives motivation and increases positive attitudes toward learning experiences. I strive to keep my learners actively engaged throughout training with anything from exploratory interactions, such as click boxes and rollovers, to highly active, simulated screen experiences. If it’s determined that learners would benefit most from a scenario-based design, the creative writer in me smiles. I especially enjoy the creative challenge of working on scenario-based projects, such as Mission Possible, which enveloped the learner in a “secret agent” experience.
Designing for Quality:
As a teacher, artist and learning designer, I stand by my professional performance. Evaluation is the last, but quite possibly, the most important part of the design process; for it is through evaluation that the true value of the design is revealed. Using evaluation methods (such as quizzes and surveys) will help me determine whether or not training was effective both in terms of knowledge transfer and learner satisfaction. I want both my learners and my clients to agree that my training experience was relevant, effective, and both time and resources well spent.
Designing for Inspiration:
Finally, I can’t help but approach each project like it's my own, personal work of art… because it is. I use my artistic talents and experiences as well as the formal design principles of art to create striking visuals, engaging stories and effective practice experiences. It’s important to me that the “tone” of the experience comes across on point from the very first slide… down to the very last.
Just like when I was a classroom teacher, I want my leaners to feel prepared and confident when implementing their new skills. I want to not only motivate my learners to achieve their goals, but hopefully inspire them to create new ones. I suppose you could say I approach each design project like an installation work of Jean-Claude & Chirsto: an engaging educational experience wrapped in an epic work of art.
--If you are curious enough to click on that link… that’s Schell’s Game Design lens of Infinite Inspiration at work. ;)