Instructional Design and Experiential Learning

I was reading an interesting blog post on Instructional Design versus Experiential Design: do you have what it takes? by Koreen Olbrish. I have picked out a particularly interesting bit.

Experiential learning is a process of learning by doing. According to David Kolb, an individual learns from personal experiences and from the environment.

1. Having said this, I think it may be incorrect to deduce that elearning/workshops may not be able to provide experiential learning. In well designed programs, the learner can learn by doing and needless to say, he will learn from his own experiences and from the environment.

2. Instructional design is based on the learner's true needs. Therefore, it will be a systematic layout of content if the learner truly needs this. Instructional design is about designing the program such that learning happens. Therefore, the type of instructional strategy suggested above is just one among millions.

3. Even VLEs require to have a sound instructional base. Why? Your environment may be extremely real and may wow the learner. But, if you have learning presented in a manner where they are required to read off a book, attend a lecture in a VLE, or have information which is just difficult to find, this will make it less easy to learn. The learner may be better off with an eLearning program.

4. Even games have boundaries, rules, logic that can be learnt very quickly. If these are defined well in an eLearning program, I think we can design experiential learning. If the learner gets to do things to learn, I think you have a good program. Again, it has to have a strong instructional base.

5. I guess it is great if instructional designers break content into simpler chunks to ensure that they have a greater understanding of the content itself. But how the content should be presented, should be based on the learner's current knowledge and the skills that he wishes to acquire.

6. I am a huge fan of VLEs provided the usability issues are removed. But, I think it may not be right to say that great eLearning programs and workshops cannot provide for experiential learning.

7. I completely agree with Koreen that it requires a different kind of skill set to actually design experiential learning. It requires a lot of research into the learner's reality, the content itself, iteration in the design process, lots of brainstorming, and competent instructional designers, visual designers, and SMEs.

8. Therefore, my point in a nutshell, it is never Instructional design versus Experiential design. If your learners are learning, there is always instructional design in work there. You may not have designed it your self. I remember @Abhinava mentioning the same during his session at the IDCI session. We learn a lot of things unconsciously but this is always backed up by good instructional design.

What do you think?
1. Can we ensure experiential learning in eLearning/workshops?
2. Is experiential design truly possible only in a VLEs?
3. Is instructional design always about simplifying content?

Putting Theory Into Practice

Long time back, we had an interesting discussion on Malcom Knowles' theory of adult education. I have always wanted to blog this and have finally got the opportunity to do so. Malcolm Knowles was a professor of adult education and a believer of democracy. He propagated his product, self-directed learning. He believed in “helping adults learn” rather than “educate them’. (Knowles 1950: 6). During his career, he realized that he was transforming into a facilitator of learning from a teacher. We are all facilitators of learning. Instructional designers ensure that they design strategies that help adults learn.

Malcolm Knowles’ based his theory on the following assumptions:

1. Self-concept: Adults are autonomous individuals who have a clear definition of self. This matures to help the individual transform into a self-directing human being. The adult no longer wants to be lead, he/she goes after goals set by themselves.
2. Experience: Adults accumulate experience throughout their lives. Every adult has a set of prior experiences.
3. Readiness to learn: Adults are ready to learn, acquire knowledge or skill to attain their goals.
   
4. Orientation to learning: Adults look for information that can be applied immediately to attain their goals.
5. Motivation to Learn: We cannot make an adult learn. We can only facilitate learning. For adults, motivation to learn is internal.

Modern practice, a how to book, discusses the role of educators in adult education. As we went through this, we realized that the life cycle was unfolding right before our eyes. Read on and you will understand what I mean. Before we go ahead, I would like to add that this is our interpretation of the theory.

Educators must:

• Set a cooperative learning climate: Encourage learning as a continuous process.
• ‘Friendly and informal’ learning environment
• Flexibility
• Prior experience
• Enthusiasm and commitment from teachers
• Create mechanisms for mutual planning: Identify the training needs by looking at the organization goals.
• Arrange for a diagnosis of learner needs and interests: At Kern, we do this using learner observation and analysis. Based on the analysis results, we create a learner persona.
• Enable the formulation of learning objectives based on the diagnosed needs and interests: The learning objectives are decided based on the learner needs and training needs.
• Design sequential activities for achieving the objectives: Brainstorm regarding the most effective learning solution(s) that need to be employed to ensure effective training. Finalize the instructional strategy design and evaluation metrics.
• Execute the design by selecting methods, materials, and resources: Spending learning time to get familiar with the content. Gather adequate information. Get the content dump validated and start storyboarding based on the ISD, learner persona and learning objectives.
• Evaluate the quality of the learning experience while rediagnosing needs for further learning: First, step is learner testing where we identify whether the learner is comfortable with the course. We find out what he/she thinks about the course. Inputs gained used to modify the course. Finally, we evaluate the effective of the course using the evaluation metrics.

Let us look at how Knowles’ theory about adult education can be put to direct use. Given below are Knowles' principles and characteristics of adult learners and application at work.

Principle 1: Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction.
Characteristic 1: Self directed

Application at Work

1. Conduct a thorough learner analysis by observing the learner and interviewing them. During this phase, ensure that you capture their thoughts on a particular training need identified by the management. This will help understand how they feel about it and what their motivational levels will be. Understand their needs.
2. Conduct learning testing. Let them go through the prototype and encourage them to share their thoughts with you. What do they think about the content coverage? Would they recommend it to a colleague? How effective is it on a scale of 1-10? Analyze the response to identify the trend. Include these in the course to ensure that the loopholes are closed.

Principle 2: Experiences (including mistakes) provide the basis for learning
Characteristic 2: Practical, Experiential Learning

Application at Work

1. Using learner analysis, understand current skill set and prior knowledge.
2. Allow the learner to learn through experience. Through this experience, they realize the consequences of their own decision making.
3. Allow the learner to be the judge of their decisions before telling them what could have been more appropriate.
4. Allow them to make mistakes as it helps in the learning process. Let them learn through their own experience.

Principle 3: Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance to their job or personal life
Characteristic 3: Goal-oriented, Relevancy-oriented

Application at Work

1. Use the learner persona to identify whether you are catering to the ‘what’s-in-it-for-me’ factor.
2. Map to learning objectives every time to check whether to you are on the right track.
3. Ensure that you provide the information that can be directly applied. Do not digress from the learning objectives.

Principle 4: Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented
Characteristic 4: Practical, Goal-oriented

Application at Work

1. Use problem-solution approach to show direct application. For example: For managing angry customers, rather than giving theory, show examples with responses.
   
2. They are not interested in theory, but in how they can put this theory to practice.
3. Keep in mind the learner persona and learning objectives always.

Most of what you have read is common sense. So, lets make it a practice!