Everything about ILT

How can an ID add value to an ILT?

ILT requires as much instructional design as an eLearning does. Even if PPT is the backbone of your presentation, an ID can do a lot. Make sure the course is real.

• Give your slides character: You can do this using a template or interface for your presentation. Define a theme for your ILT. Think of adjectives (vibrant, cool, fun, strong) that help define the character of your ILT. 
• Visual Look and Feel: Use placeholders for images. Rather than screens than look flat, introduce elements that give more depth to your slides. 
• Instructional Flow: Keep a very close eye on the visual flow. Since ILTs are instructor-led, we tend to take the instructional flow for granted. Transitions, logical breaks, activities need to be positioned well. 
• Mix it up: Ensure that your program does not over-use a single method of interaction. For example: Do you over-use role plays. Role plays can be very distracting and can go on a tangent. Also, too much of it will be an over kill. Use a healthy mix of role plays, games, group activities, debates, quizzes, and so on. 
• Readable and useful information: Keep only the necessary information on screen. Avoid too much text. Otherwise, the learner will read it rather than listen to your instructor. 
• Planning: Ensure that you set time for every topic, activity and break. This will ensure that the topics are well spaced out and conducted in a disciplined manner. 
• Interact with the SME: If the SME dumps information, do not accept. Push them to understand that the key goal is to help the learner learn. Ask them "What will the learner do with this information?" Avoid theoretical information. Simplify to help the learner understand the crux. 
• Interact with the trainer: Ensure that you give all the information - learner profile and mix, your expectations, client's expectations - that the trainer needs to deliver it the way you planned it in your head. Ensure that you are there to answer any queries about the learners and the program. If required, connect the trainer to the SME to ensure clearer understanding of complex topics. 
• Pilot: Insist on a pilot with atleast 10 learners. Attend the session and see how the learners react. Capture feedback and plug it into your course. Keep a gap of at least 10 days before the training goes live. Pilots are useless if you are going to have the first session the very next day.

How do you know that you have selected the right SME?

• Collaborative: You want to work with SMEs who are open to discussion and collaborative. Avoid working with SMEs who stuff information down your throat (easier said that done, agreed.) Be tougher if required. Let them know that if you are not convinced, it won't go in the program. 
• Availability: You want to work with SMEs who have the time to interact with you and revise the content as many times as is required to make it work. Avoid SMEs who are doing too many things at a time. Chances are that you will get a half-baked product or work that you cannot revise because he is never available. 
• Timelines: Your SMEs should stick to the timelines set. It is important that they understand that you are working as per a schedule. 
• Learner-centric: When the SME writes content based on the learners, you know you have hit jackpot! The SME has to keep in mind the end objective while writing a content. Let's face it is easier to write a book than write content for a specific audience. It requires a high level of customization. You need to understand their world and realities to connect with them. If your SME gets this, you have a crucial ingredient for a great program.
• Right attitude: I have heard SMEs say "There is no way the learner will do this." Well, its our job to encourage them to see the value in it and show them how they can do this. Let us do everything we can make him see this. If we don't believe in it, how can we make the learners believe in it. If something radical needs to be done, we want the SME with the right attitude around. We want a SME who believes that iterations are part and parcel of good work.

What makes a good trainer?

• Asks the right questions: I was surprised when a trainer called me and said "Please tell me about everything about the learners." After I finished, he actually said "I wish I were part of the contextual inquiry, it really helps understand the people better." This is exactly how you want your trainers to start. Trainers must understand that the central point of the training are the learners and not the content. 
• Prepares well in advance: If you get a call at 10:00 in the night and trainer says, "I am unable to view the activity page." You have every reason to panic. Trainers must spend necessary time preparing for the training. I have heard trainers say "It's a piece of cake. I have been doing this all my life." You may be confident about the domain, but you have to spend time preparing for your session. 
• Reliable: You don't want your trainer disappearing a few days before training. Imagine you are trying to reach him and his phone is switched off! You need reliable trainers who will reply promptly to mails and answer or return your calls. The trainers should have a calendar that is handy to check availability of dates. You do not want to work with trainers who are clueless or disorganized. 
• Stick to the process: When you have training programs in four different zones of the country and have to train 400 people, you want to ensure that the trainers stick to the process. The training has to be uniform to a large extent. Trainers must not skip important topics or activities because of lack of time. 
• Timing: It is important for trainers to stick to time allotted for each topic. I have come across trainers who spend ages on the first few topics and run through the rest. They have to space it out well. 
• Judge learner's reactions: I had an opportunity to witness a veteran trainer in action last year. He always had his finger on the pulse. He observed the learner's reactions closely. When he realized that interest level was dwindling, he quickly moved to a light or interesting activity to charge them up. It is important for the trainer to understand what the audience needs at that point in time. 
• Respect the learners: I also happened to witness a trainer reprimand a learner for not getting it right. Let us understand that if the learner is not doing it right, it is our fault and not theirs. We are not teaching it right. 

• Feedback should be specific to the incident and not to the learner. If you pick on the learner, your audience is going to turn against you. I have seen this happen.
• Don't talk down to the learner. You are not teaching them something. You are just facilitating learning. You are helping them explore concepts for themselves. You really don't know more than them. If you think you do, they will do their best to prove you wrong.
• Stay out of their personal space. Do not lean into them and stand uncomfortably close to the learner. Do not force them to answer your question thinking you are encouraging them to talk. They will feel cornered.

• Keep the energy levels high: If the trainer is sloppy and drained, the learners will not listen. There are trainers who just make you want to listen to them because they have that energy reverberating through them.
• Involve the learners: A good trainer makes the learning come from the learner. He only guides them to reach the possible answers. The learners feels like he has discovered the points himself. the trainer keeps an open mind to other solutions and acknowledges them. Give the learners the power and make them feel good. 
• If you don't know, say you don't know: I have heard trainers laugh about how they say they will get back to the query and evade it completely. Hello! Learners/students recognize this trick. They will respect you more if you say you don't know and will have to check. Also, ensure that you do get back to them later. 

What makes a good client?

Clients who take an active role in the training are definitely great to work with. We had four top level individuals attend pilot sessions. The learners felt good that they were being looked after and we had tremendous respect for these individuals because they truly cared. You want to work with people who genuinely seek the feedback of the learners and share it with you. Clients must ensure that venue is suitable for training and everything is available for the training to progress smoothly.

I am sure there is a lot more we can add to my lists. Please feel free to do so. (I have to stop somewhere! :))

Designing Product Training - Challenges and Solutions

About the project: We had to design an induction-product training for employees of a global bank. We had to share the history of the bank and share information about the products.

The challenges:

1. The learner profile was diverse. We had people who had varied roles and experience. The course had to cater to the needs of a new joinee and also cater to the needs of an existing employee who has moved to a new vertical. 
2. It was essential for the learners to not only know about the products in their vertical, but also to understand what other products the bank had to offer. While the learner is interested in understanding the products that he/she is going to deal with, why would he/she be interested in learning about the other products? The motivation to read about their products was high and the motivation to read about other products was low.
3. The learners had to take other trainings along with this one. Therefore, 'the what is in it for me' had to be clear enough. We had SMEs sharing ocean of information. An overdose of information will kill any motivation to learn.
4. Information had to be readily accessible. Interest levels for different topics were varied. 
5. Through learner analysis, we knew that most people did not absorb anything during inductions and mostly learnt things on the job. 

The solutions:

1. Since the learner profile was diverse, we ensured that product information was available a click away. Therefore, the learner can select the topics that interest them first and check the others later. 
2. It was important to show the relevance. We had to make the learners understand why they needed to know about credit cards even if they belonged to investments. How did we do this? We told them: You are the face of the bank for your customer. Your customer sees you as the one-point contact with the bank. Therefore, if he has any queries about the bank or its products, he will ask you. In this situation, how would it look if you didn't have an answer. Wouldn't you rather be sure, confident, and helpful? We started each topic with a gain attention where a person is stuck in an embarrassing situation where he/she couldn't answer a simple query.  
3. Our strategy was a simple one - customer-centricity. We did not list features, plans, tariffs, blah blah blah. We shared scenarios of real customers and showed them how they benefit from the product. We filtered information and ensured that only the most important information was covered in this section. We had the detailed product training for phase 2. Therefore, there was no need to include everything in this course. We ensured that we identified a common structure for all products and shared similar information. The main idea was - What kind of questions will customers ask you? And, how can you answer these?
4. We ensured that information was available upfront. The learner can explore which ever topic she wishes from the menu page. We also ensured that the topics were relatively short, say 7-10 minutes duration. To keep the interest levels high, the testing points were also designed as customer queries.
5. Inductions can be overwhelming for new joinees. They think they have a lot to learn and no context to learn it in. How will he remember which product to suggest if he doesn't understand the context? We defined the context right at the beginning to ensure that they absorb the information.  

With this strategy, what the ID was doing was simplifying the information to make it easier to read and understand. Imagine you have PPT with a list of products and its features and you need to show this from the customer's point of view and make it interesting and easy to read. It was a challenge which we thoroughly enjoyed. Do you have similar experiences of tackling Product Training or Inductions differently? If yes, I would loved to hear them.

The Grays in Learning

I was reading Donald Clark's latest post on Funny Exam Answers. I found the Neils Bohr's incident particularly interesting. Read the post to understand what I am referring to. This had me thinking.

• Do we always assume that there is only one way to do something or one right answer?
  
• When we design assessments, do we fail to take into consideration that there may be more than one right answer?
• Do we ever consider that the subject we are dealing with may have gray areas and is not necessarily black and white?
  
• Do we take into account the fact that there are several variables in a real situation? Are we making it too simplistic and therefore, unusable because we fail to include the various permutations and combination that exist in real life?
• Do we restrict our learner's imagination and insult their experience by giving them multiple choice questions that keep in mind only one aspect of real life?
• Do we given them type in answers and then reprimand them for getting a spelling wrong or for not writing things the way we taught them?

I remember an incident from my college days. My English teacher would recite a poetry and would ask us to interpret the meaning of a verse. I would always wonder that there are several interpretations that can be drawn out from poetry. It all depends on the way you look at it. Most of the times, we are going to have different people interpreting different things and very seldom there is one right answer. Also, I think we want our learner to think of several situations. They should be able to apply what they have learnt in different contexts using their discretion, knowledge, and experience. We do not want to make all learners similar by expecting them to behave in the exact same fashion. We want to encourage them to think and make the right choices. Read another post that I had written some time back on Exercises that help reflect on gray areas.

Recently, we developed a small learning nugget on understanding your consumers and positioning a product. This nugget was meant as a refresher for an ILT program. The objective was very clear. The learner should be able to apply what he learnt during the ILT. He should be able to observe the farmer and his realities, identify what type of consumer this is and position a product accordingly. This was the learner's first experience to eLearning. During Learner testing, we realized that they wanted much more. They wanted more cases, they wanted to compare farmers, they wanted more variable factors and increase in complexity. Simplicity is fine, but pointless when it fails to capture the real influencing factors. The common misconception may as well be that simplicity means fewer variables. What I now understand is that multiple variable factors is far more realistic. So is it about simplicity vs. reality? Are we trying to equip the learners to deal with what is real or are we massaging their egos that giving them easy stuff? That's the question that needs to be answered.

The Art of Giving Feedback

(Photo Credit: Veer)

Giving feedback is truly an art that one needs to master. Before I go ahead, let me make it clear that I am referring to feedback given for assessments. We had this really interesting #KernLearn session on Twitter last week on Designing Assessment in eLearning. Given below is the transcript.
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rnarchana 1. Do assessment questions aid learning? How can they be designed so as to enrich the learning experience? #KernLearn
partvinu #KernLearn yes, they do, the strategies are dependent on multiple variables, formative or summative, blooms level, audience maturity etc
shana1729 @rnarchana 1) IF designed better, assessments enrich, otherwise kill learning. understand learner motivation n design acordingly. #KernLearn
shana1729 @rnarchana how to design assessment in elearning- a guide: http://bit.ly/1x8C7 #KernLearn
shana1729 @rnarchana A) Numerous no. of qn kills interest B) design in innovative way- dare 2 move out of traditonal methods, yet learnable #KernLearn
shana1729 @rnarchana C) Make assessments more visual, but avoid unnecesary images. In elearning, a dry screen de-motivates learner.. #KernLearn
shana1729 @rnarchana D) Challenge the learner (if the profile of learner fits it) E) Make it game based F) Design around a story..#KernLearn
shana1729 @rnarchana F) Don't let learner think that "I am being examined" #KernLearn
shana1729 @rnarchana #KernLearn 2. I think max is 10 if it is designed in traditional methods - mcq, mmcq etc..
geetabose 1. Assessments in refresher courses: used an exercise to help learners recall skills & clearly identify areas to brushup & focus. #KernLearn
geetabose 1. What was special abt this exercise - it cud guide learners across levels based on response & help zero in on thr focus area. #KernLearn
rnarchana 2. Assements in eLearning: How much is too much? Any thumb rules you follow? #KernLearn
geetabose @rnarchana Clearly depends on the key testing points identified and their impact on learning outcome... 1-2/ LO is a good measure #KernLearn
geetabose RT @shana1729: F) Don't let learner think that "I am being examined" #KernLearn | this is an interesting point...
rnarchana 2. Learner will think its too many only if he does not see the purpose. If designed well, a quesn will have him wanting more. #kernlearn
geetabose For adult learners, their motivation is high if they know upfront they r being examined & know the consequences @shana1729: F) #KernLearn
rnarchana 2. 2 many/2 little is relative. How many testing points do U have 4 the learning objectives is. imp & R they motivating enuf #KernLearn
partvinu #KernLearn 3 screens 1 AQ, and final assessments generally 1 per objective, or 2 per topic
geetabose RT @rnarchana: 2 many/2 little is relative. How many testing points do U hav 4 learning objectives is imp & R thy motivating enuf #KernLearn
geetabose Most critical aspect of assessments that aid learning is the 'diagnostic' feedback that the learner receives - #KernLearn
rnarchana Assessments should have rewards and punishments. Increases impact. These should be designed based on the learner's motivations. #KernLearn
rnarchana RT @geetabose: Most critical aspect of assessments that aid learning is the 'diagnostic' feedback that the learner receives - #KernLearn
rnarchana Designing assessments is not about tricking the learner into making errors. It is about making them think rather than guess #KernLearn
geetabose Use assessments creatively- enable learners to demonstrate knowledge, explain reasoning, develop argument or evaluate a situation #KernLearn
geetabose What's the most creative use of assessment that you have seen? Share some examples? #KernLearn
vijeesh @rnarchana Assessment Qs: Response and analysis based assessment Qs can work wonders #KernLearn
vijeesh @rnarchana 2. 10 interactive and motivating Qs per half an hour #KernLearn
vijeesh 1. Most important! RT @shana1729: @rnarchana F) Don't let learner think that "I am being examined" #KernLearn
rnarchana An example for interesting assessments: http://tr.im/OpPJ Check Employee Security, Front Line Loss Prevention, #KernLearn
rnarchana Examples of interesting assessment in ELearning http://tr.im/OpQB Check examples of scenario based learning #KernLearn
rnarchana Examples of interesting assessments in eL http://tr.im/OpRE Check Pre-Op intro and Main Surgery #KernLearn
varmarashmi RT @rnarchana: 2. 2 many/2 little is relative. How many testing points do U have 4 the learning objectives is. imp & R they motivating enuf #KernLearn
varmarashmi RT @geetabose: RT @shana1729: F) Don't let learner think that "I am being examined" #KernLearn | this is an interesting point...
varmarashmi RT @geetabose: Most critical aspect of assessments that aid learning is the 'diagnostic' feedback that the learner receives - #KernLearn
varmarashmi Assessments enhance learner involvement and interaction (also visible in twitter sessions) #KernLearn
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While there are several thoughts here that interest me, the one that mattered most is the one shared by Geeta: Most critical aspect of assessments that aid learning is 'diagnostic' feedback that learner receives.

Tell me something...

1. While designing feedback, do you ever think, 'How will my learner react to the tone of the feedback?'
Why is this important, you ask? What is the standard feedback that you use "That is correct. or That is incorrect? I will tell you what I think is wrong with these (I could be biased as I hate conventional ways).
a. It just sounds too robotic! The learner will find no joy in getting it right. On the other hand, if he does get it wrong, it is going to have 'zero' impact on the learner.
b. It sounds condescending. If your learner is the sensitive/timid/introvert/self-respecting type, he is going to be offended. Learner motivation dips and you have lost him.

What can you do instead?
Think about the tone. Think about the feeling that you want to evoke in your learners. Use direct feedback to make them feel good (You are right! or Absolutely! or We agree!). Use milder (but still effective) ways to tell him he got it wrong (Oops! or Nope. or Really? or Are you sure?). Please do not reprimand. We want to encourage him to learn and not make him feel small.

2. Do you ever think about what you want the feedback to do?
For example, how does the following feedback help?
Feedback for incorrect answer: That is incorrect. Rakesh falls in the low income group.

This learner has got this assessment wrong. This means that 'something' went wrong. She has not understood what you have explained previously. (Remember that is also not her fault) This is your opportunity to ensure learning is checked. This is your chance to set things straight. Here, you can explain why Rakesh falls in the low income group. If you don't, the learner is not going to go back and check (not even the studious ones go back). He will move ahead and your learning objective is already in danger.

What can you do instead?
Do not underestimate the role of feedback. It can play a very crucial role in checking misconceptions/understanding. We all know that assessments are designed to check understanding. But checking does not mean identifying whether they got it right or wrong. By checking, I mean providing them the rationale. Tell them why they went wrong. It is not important to prove them wrong but to make them understand why it is wrong. Even if the learner gets it right, the rationale reinforces all that she has learnt. When she reads it, she feels good that she also had the same logic in mind. If it was good guess work, at least she can read why it is right.

3. Feedback can be more than just text!
Text is just one way of giving feedback. Coming back to a point that I have touched briefly, what is the desired impact? Do you want to the feedback to have a high impact? Make the learner think? Use more than just 'That is correct. or That is incorrect.'

What can you do instead?
Audio: You can use audio to let them know how they have done. Audio is a very powerful medium of getting feedback across. You must have seen how games such as Mario Brothers, Pacman, Tetris, and others use audio to indicate whether your move was a good one or bad.
Visual: Show the consequence of an action as a visual. For example: image of a happy or a angry customer.
Rewards and punishments: Add a challenge and raise the stakes. This ensures high impact. Some simple ways to do this could be points system, a (virtual) pat on the back, a big jump ahead, happy ending, and so on.

3. Choose my feedback strategy based on my learner.
But most importantly, chose your feedback strategy based on your learner (or as we say at Kern, learner persona). Why? Imagine this.
Your learner has to take your course because your research shows that this is a skill that he needs help with. But your learner believes otherwise. He thinks he knows everything he needs to about the topic.
So what will you do? I would suggest you go for rewards and punishments. If you go by the conventional method, he will think he knows better and that the exercise itself must be flawed. So, challenge him. Trust me this works like a dream. At the end of the course, the learner still feels good about himself and he has also learnt a lot.

If your learner persona is a shy type who is afraid of getting it wrong, keep your strategy fairly simple. Encourage him all the way and he will do his best to learn. Therefore, chose your feedback strategy based on who your learner is. Understand their motivations and design your feedback accordingly.

Next time you are writing feedback for an assessment, ask yourself 'What do I want to do with this feedback?' (I pray the answer is not 'nothing' :)) Let us work on mastering the art of giving good feedback. Do share instances of how you use (un)conventional feedback to teach better.

Understanding Your learners: All things that you can do wrong

Jai and Prachi live in Bangalore with their 2 year and 2 month-old son, Druv. Druv is an active kid. He loves watching Hanuman and Jungle Book. He repeats words as soon as he hears them. He stays at home with his grandparents and parents. They typically converse in their mother tongue. He is the darling of the house. Thinking it is time, the parents start looking for a school for their son. They research the best schools in the area. They visit a few and select one. They approach the faculty for admissions. A faculty member mentions that the kid is a little younger and therefore, the parents will have to meet the headmistress. An appointment is made with the headmistress. The parents and Druv finally meet the headmistress. The headmistress takes a few plastic fruits and asks Druv to name them. Druv gets Apple and Banana right. She then shows him a watermelon. Druv has never seen a watermelon before and therefore, refuses to answer her. She continues to ask him the name of the fruit. Finally, Druv gives in an says "Stop it!" and talks in his own language (child talk). The headmistress says, "Your son does not know English. How will he fit in class?" She asks Druv's mother to ask a few questions in their mother tongue. Druv promptly answers all these questions. The headmistress watched him closely. She then tells the parents that their son may have a speech problem. She says that she has been in this industry for a long time and has seen several 2 year olds. Children of his age should be able to speak a complete sentence. The fact that Druv was unable to do so and was blabbering shows that Druv has a speech problem. She suggests that they take him to a spastic society and get some tests done. She also suggests that they come back with the test results. She mentioned that this school also took in special student and therefore, she can help them. The parents were shocked and quite stunned to react. The parents were later extremely angry and offended. They checked with Druv's pediatrician. She was equally angry. She explained that kids at the age of two connect a few words together and cannot be expected to talk fluently.

VIBGYOR High is the name of this school. This is a real incident. The parents discussed here are people very close to me. Druv is like my very own son. I also have a two year old son. He does not talk in English and cannot talk complete sentences. He only connects two or three words together. So what was my reaction to this? Why am I sharing this here? I am absolutely appalled by the headmistresses behavior. Why?

1. You do not judge kids based on their behavior the very first time you meet them: Children are different at home and extremely different in front of new people. The headmistress who has seen several 2 year olds should have known this. Before you reach such conclusion, you must spend some time with the child.

In our realm: Do you make rash judgments about your learners based on their behavior the very first time you meet them? There is always more that what meets the eye and it is your duty to understand the complete picture before you describe a learner. Remember how offended the parents were. If you jump to the wrong conclusions about your learners, you are going to offend the company.

2. Stress interviews are not for learners: At home, you may teach your kid names of cars rather than fruits. How can the headmistress expect the kid to name the fruits without understanding what he already knows? Is it a crime for the kid to not know what a watermelon is? She should have made the kid feel comfortable, rather than forcing him to answer. Is a stress interview really necessary for kid?

In our realm: Do you make your learners feel comfortable when asking them questions about their work? Do they feel like they are being 'tested' or judged. There is no doubt that it is exactly was this headmistress was doing. Judging the kid...

3. Do not expect the learner to 'know': Any kids goes to school to learn languages, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. The headmistress had no right expecting the kid to know English and names of fruits.

In our realm: Do you assume that your learners must know certain things? When you meet your learners, you must be free of preconceived notions of how they must behave, they must know, and what they need to learn.

4. Handle learners with kid gloves: The headmistress should have been more sensitive to the parent's feelings. She should have shared her thoughts on the kid's speech in a very tactful and sensitive manner. You cannot just declare such things out loud. If you want the parents to take you seriously and not get offended, you must ensure that you have enough facts and that you consider their feeling before giving them that information. This headmistress was hardly professional. She neither took the time to understand the kid better, nor did she handle the parents well.

In our realm: Do you identify learning gaps after a detailed analysis and backed by research? Or do you general push a list of courses that you think may solve a surface level issues? Be sensitive to your learner's and client's needs. Treat them with care and more importantly, with respect.

Please do not put your kid in VIBGYOR High. If the headmistress is like this, imagine how the staff would be. All children (learners) are different. Each has a different learning curve. Some kids start walking earlier, some starts talking later, and so on. It would be wrong to pass judgments without really understanding them. Someone I know started talking only when he was 5, does this mean he that he had a speech problem? I don't think so. He speaks fine. If headmistresses and teachers don't understand that each child is different, I dread the day when I have to put my son in school! Finally, I really don't understand why schools want to take only the so called 'smart' children. What is great in taking the cream and showing to the world that you get the best grades? Take all children and do the same and that would be truly great! Do we have the option of making just the smart learners take the course? No. This would be crazy! Infact, our focus is on the so called low performers. At this point, I must warn you: When you request your client to share names and numbers of learner who you can talk to, they may give you their best performers. Ensure that this is not the case. You want to talk to all 'types' of learners and not just the management favorites.

My last and final point: During learner analysis, please do not be this headmistress! Acting as she has, you will only damage the learner and the learning. Understanding your learner requires higher EQ. Be human...

Exercises that help reflect on gray areas

Think about this:

1. The objective is to get your learners to design better forms. The exercise shows a form in which the user wants to change his password. The learner can add/modify elements in the form to ensure that the errors are minimized.
   
2. The objective is to let the learners know that consumers are loyal to particular brands for specific reasons. The exercises makes the learners reflect on their own brand preferences and their reasons for it.
   
3. The objective is to let the learners understand their personality style and their traits. The exercise requires them to respond to particular situations. Their personality traits are displayed based on their responses.
   

Can these kind of exercises have one correct answer? The answer is no. In most instances, the answers are bound to be subjective and/or there are several correct answers. So, do you avoid these completely? No. These exercises are extremely powerful. They make the learner think, reflect, and respond based on their experiences and knowledge.

How may times have you been told by a SME or a client that all exercises must have the right and wrong answer? I have heard this often. Why is it so important to tell the learner, 'That's correct/That's incorrect.' Everything cannot be classified under black or white. As in most cases, there is a lot of gray area. Why do we get scared of designing exercises for this area? I had an interesting discussion on twitter with @thoughts and @manishmo.
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@rnarchana: All exercises must have RIGHT answers. Why this mindset? There are times when there are no right/wrong answers. The aim to make them think!
@thoughts: @rnarchana Exercises without correct answers can be an activity; perhaps not an assessment.
@rnarchana: @thoughts 1. exercises that teach/reinforce 2. exercises that assess the understanding. With quesns that have no rite ans, u cannot assess.... Just elaborated on your thought I guess. What I am trying to say is 'Activity' is a powerful learning tool too
@manishmo: @rnarchana So what do you want the learners to think (exercises w/o rite answers)? There's always a direction you are trying to push toward
@rnarchana: @manishmo Yes. Ex: Exercise that reinforces that we form perceptions based on material things (cars/clothes) is subjective; no right ans
@manishmo: @rnarchana But even in this case we want to move learners to the direction of "don't form perceptions".
@rnarchana: @manishmo Actually no. This exercise was only meant to make the learner conscious of the perceptions they make unconsciously.
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This discussion encouraged me to blog this to get my thoughts on the matter together (Thanks Manish and Geetha). Further, I had this interesting discussion with Geeta (my boss and mentor). I was explaining how the SME had requested that we insert a right/wrong answer feedback even though there were none.
Me: Why does everyone assume that learners have absolutely no prior knowledge and experience that they can use to make an approriate reponse? Why do we not encourage them to think and reflect?
Geeta: This is because most SMEs and IDs still promote the educational system followed in schools. The learner is not allowed to think. They treat adult learners as K12

Why is it so important to control everything? We should start letting the learner take responsibility for his/her own learning. This does not go to say that we should avoid exercises that provide correct answers. Exercises can play one of the following roles:

1. Exercises to teach, reinforce, and reflect on a concept
2. Exercise that check the learner's understanding

Use a healthy mix of these in your training program. As Geeta rightly suggested, we should look at opening the learner's minds to new possibilities rather than restricting them to what we suggest is the right answer. When using exercises without right/wrong answers, remember:

• The aim is to make the learners reflect on a concept based on their experience and knowledge. Their answer is bound to be very subjective.
  
• Do not use this assuming that that will come up with the right answer that you have in mind. This may not be necessarily true.
• Use these are teasers. The learner may get curious and conduct their own search online to get their thoughts in order or even better discuss with a peer.
  
• Provide all the information that the learner may require to make an informed decision.
  

I am working on a really challenging project. We have included several instances where we leave the learner to come up with the answer. We encourage them to share their answers, thoughts, and responses with their peers and experts in a social networking forum.