IDCI: LH Theory by Abhinava

Saturday, I had an opportunity to meet fellow IDCI members at Adobe, Bangalore. It was great to meet and interact with instructional designers from other companies. I was finally getting to meet the people I interact with online through Twitter, Ning, Linkedin, and blogs. Everyone was extremely friendly and the quick coffee before the session helped me catch up with everyone.

Abhinava (@Abhinava)presented on the LH theory. LH theory or the love-hate theory is a philosophy Abhinava swears by for successes in life and work. Abhinava started the session by making us think about ourselves as learners. He posed several questions such as when do you learn, what do you learn, how do you learn. Most things we learn are not necessarily through formal training. After discussing these, he summarized by saying that we learn when there is a need. He linked this need to the Maslow's theory. Abhinava asked us to reflect on the concept of Love and Hate. You can view Abhinava's presentation here.

What does it mean to design using love?
Designing using love means:

• Giving the learners positive motivations to meet a need or help them gain something
• Design a 'feel good' learning program
  
• Providing a source to love such as the company itself, the narrator of the course, and so on
• Taking your time to provide continuous, ongoing reinforcements to ensure that learning occurs
• Ensuring that you have the learner's buy in every step of the way by providing logical reasons/explanations
• In other words, ensure that the learner understands the consequences of learning
• Works well for motivated learners and those with high EQ

Designing using hate means:

• Giving the learners negative motivations to force them to protect an existing need or to avoid some kind of loss
  
• Forcing your hand to ensure that they learn to avoid repercussions
• Ensuring that you remove the source of hate as soon as the objective is met to ensure that learning is sustained
• Providing quick, useful information that the learner needs
• Ensuring that the learner understands the consequences of NOT learning
• Works well with learners with 'I do not care' attitudes
  

Remember the following points:

1. Use both love and hate wisely. Too much of hate is detrimental to learning. Too much love is wasted if there is no need.
   
2. Do not try and trick the learner. Be honest and transparent.
   
3. Design for the learners and not for the content.
   
4. Ensure that the source of love is available always and the source of hate is removed as soon as its objective is met.
5. It is not about IDs or the content. It is always about the learner.
   
6. Love your learner always and they will love you back.
   

Abhinava also touched upon another very interesting aspect. I have been thinking about this for very long. What does Instructional Design encompass? Just the content? Just designing strategies for the course? Well, no! It involves a lot more than that. So, let us see what it involves:

1. Identifying the problem: What is the current gap that the organization is trying to fill? How can this problem be solved? Training may not be solution. You may realize that the organization needs to relook at their structure or processes. Training may also not be the sole solution. You may need a combination of changes to make it an effective solution.
2. Understanding the learner: Identify need: How is filling this gap (if through training) going to cater to the learner's need? How will they benefit? Identify motivations: What are their internal motivations? What are their attitudes? Will they want to take this course? Why or why not? Understand learning environment: Where will they take this course? How much time can they take out from their daily work? Are there any disturbances? Are there any factors that will hinder learning?
3. Understanding the content and identifying the ID strategy: ID is not about page level strategies only. It is about the macro strategy that will bind your learning program together. It is about effectively connecting the different learning solutions together.
4. Delivery medium: Identifying the most effective medium/media to delivery learning.
   
5. Implementation plan: Ensure a successful implementation plan to ensure retention and application of knowledge.

On the whole, the session was highly interactive and informative. Looking forward to many more! (For IDCI members: If I have missed anything or misunderstood something, feel free to add/correct me!)

8 Tips for the Training Department

Given below are two views on training:

Jaya: I have a list of courses that I am supposed to take. Most of them are irrelevant as I know most of what is covered. These elearning courses are updated regularly. But this typically means that that they change the names in the scenarios and then ask us to take the course all over again. There are a few courses that we are required to take every year because of some rules set by the U.S Government. It seems pointless to go over the same course over and over again.

Ravi: I attending a classroom training when I joined. This session was on product knowledge. I found it very useful as it helped me understand the products we were dealing with. I am sure I will benefit from any other training my organization wishes me to attend. I would like training on communication skills.

Here, we have two individuals with completely differing viewpoints on training. Interesting, isn't it? The first individual works for a big software company and the other works as a shop floor marketing personnel. Most software professionals will give you a similar response. Why are the viewpoints so different? Jaya hates training, while Ravi is open to it.

Let us look at the reasons why Jaya is against training.

1. Learn About Everything Under the Sun
The training/HR department has about 200 courses on their LMS. A huge list of courses is shared with an employee and they are asked to take it in their own pace. This is mandatory. A person will check if employees are completing the course. Therefore, Jaya clicks next on most of the courses and therefore, manages to finish her list of courses. Does the training department do any research at all? Do they know they know how their employees feel about training? Do they have any clue as to what their employees need and what they don't? Do they consider the employees motivations? Employee says: Why do I have to learn about communication skills? I don't interact with clients anyway! Having employees take courses that are not relevant does not help the cause. It does more harm actually.

2. I have enough work, Thanks!
Most employees (and not necessarily software professionals) will tell you this when you ask them whether they have time for training. This is because:
a. They do not see value in training. They do not feel the need to invest time in training as they are sure they know all there is to know.
b. They do have lots of work. They have pressing deadlines, but the training department insists that they complete specific courses within a given period of time. They are distracted as they are more concerned about a deadline looming over their heads.

3. It is just sooo boring...yawn!
Most software employees will tell you how boring the eLearning sessions are and how they click them away! The course do not interest them and therefore, they do not give it a moment's thought. An hour long course is over in a matter of minutes. What is worse is that they would have done extremely well in assessment section. Therefore, they feel confident that they know everything.

Let us look at the reasons why Ravi is pro training.

1. I benefited from it last time!
Simple! Ravi has a positive attitude towards training because he very clearly benefited from it the last time. He feels confident that any training that his management suggests will help him work better.

2. Thirst for Knowledge
Ravi feels he will benefit from a course on communication skills. He obviously realizes that he has lots to learn in this area and that a training program may be a great idea.

I have already blogged about How to tackle a demotivated learner? So, now I am going to share a few tips for the training department.

STOP churning out courses because you have to!
The training department has a budget allotted for training. That's great! But, please do not churn out unnecessary courses! Stop trying to fill in your employees' calenders just because you HAVE to! Most employees in the corporate world are over exposed to training. Remember Ravi? Another reason he likes training was because it was new to him. Try newer ways of teaching. Avoid stuffing eLearning/ILTs down the employees throats! Avoid packing their days with unnecessary training.

START investing time in research
The training department (especially of software companies) has no excuse for not trying to understand their employee's needs. Do some research. Understand the skills sets required for a particular role, map the competencies of employees, and suggest courses. Understand what your learner's motivation and attitudes are. Use this valuable information to design a powerful course that will make a difference.

PLAN well for training
Ensure that your employees do not feel the need to balance work and learning. Ensure that you have their deadlines, schedules, and time in mind when you plan training. This way neither work nor learning gets affected. DO NOT make them choose between the two. The employee will always choose work. If it is a core skill, give them time off work to take it. Ensure that you make their training as smooth as your possibly can.

DESIGN a powerful course
How? The learner is taking an hour or so from his/her work to learn. Give them something that excites them and makes them think. After a full day's work, it is extremely tiring to go through boring training. Give them a breath of fresh air. Make their learning experience a memorable one. Ensure that they do not feel like they are putting in extra effort to take and finish the course. Do not make them regret the time they have invested in this.

STOP ruining it for others
There are so may demotivated learners and the main reason for this is lack of respect for learners. Value their time and treat them with respect. Please do not hold a gun to their heads and say LEARN! Encourage a climate of knowledge sharing. Make them want to learn. Bad training programs poisons the employee's mind against learning itself. A job of a trainer/ID is tough as it. The job is made twice as hard with bad experiences with training.

START exploring newer ways of teaching
See what works for your employees. Avoid resorting to tried and tested modes of delivering learning. Try newer ways of teaching things. Explore how you can encourage social learning at your workplace. How can you get people to learn from each other? Use effective combination of solutions to deploy learning.

DO NOT insist on employees taking the same course over and over
The learner should have the option of revisiting a course if he/she wishes to do so. Do not impose this on them. If you have a rule saying certain courses have to be taken every year, use different ways of refreshing their memories. This could be in the form of handouts, discussion, quick games/scenario-based checks, and so on.

CUSTOMIZE your courses
Most training departments buy off-the-shelf products for soft skills and for technical training, they arrange classroom sessions. If soft skill such as communication is a core skill, then no off-the-shelf is going to cater to the needs of your learner. If soft skill is not a core skill but a concern, no off-the-shelf is going to help! Why? If your employee does not communicate with client face-to-face but only over emails and audio conference, the scenarios in off-the-shelf course may be very general and may not cover these. You need a course that will include scenarios that the learners face in their day-to-day lives. Therefore, off-the-shelf is anyway a bad idea. If you are buying a ready made course, ensure that you have it customized for your needs. Technical training, on the other hand, can be very dull. Ensure that you decide a mode of delivery that will allow active participation. Also, ensure that it is not theoretical and you give information that the employees can actually use.

Think about the effect your courses are having on the learner's psyche. If it is a negative one, stop what you are doing immediately and rethink your approach. Please do not ruin it for other who are trying to do their jobs right. If it is positive, pat yourself on your back and continue to change lives for the better.

Can Online Learning Environment Kill Motivation?

Ros Aini posed a question in my previous post, "Online learning environment can demotivate online learners. What do you think are the aspects that contribute to this matter?"

I am going to try an attempt answering this question based on my experience and what I have read/heard. If you think you disagree, please help me learn more by sharing your thoughts. If you agree and would like to add and give more clarity, please feel free to do so.

First let me clarify, online learning environment can demotivate online learners is a generalization. What aspects of online learning environment kill learner motivation?

1. Choosing the wrong learning environment for your learner
Your research should help you identify which is the most suitable learning environment in which your learner will learn. A virtual world such as second life may not be suitable for all online learners. You may realize that your learner prefers to read/write than actually 'be' in an environment where they can explore.
Tip: Always arrive at a solution (whether online or otherwise) based on research. You will be closer to getting it right.

2. When the learner control is zero
When you opt for a learning environment, ensure that it is designed such that the learner can decide their own learning path. Most online learners prefer to decide what they learn and how they learn. Avoid forcing your learners down a structured learning path. Several clients insist that the Next button be disabled till they attempt a practice. Give them the choice. If the practice is challenging enough, they are going to want to take it.
Tip: Give them several options such read, listen, do, experiment, share, and so on to learn.

3. When navigation is poor
Navigation plays an important role. Think about this, you have used a virtual world (VW) to teach. Your learner spends ages learning how to navigate within this VW and is not comfortable with the controls. Finally, he gives up frustrated about the fact that he is not getting it right. Poor navigation makes the learners feel dumb. And, no one enjoys this feeling. Navigation can kill motivation even if the training material is really good.
Tip: Ensure navigation is intuitive. The learner should spend minimum or no time learning how to navigate in the learning environment.

4. When system specifications are not shared upfront
Imagine this. You have provided several hyperlinks to blogs and wikis. The organization in which your learner works provides restricted Internet access. The learner tries to click on the link, but gets a 404 error. How frustrating would this be for the learner?
Tip: Always state the system and bandwidth requirements. Or design keeping the learner's bandwidth in mind.

Other than these, what else could demotivate an online learner?
- A know-it-all-peer who makes the learner feel very small, thereby making him reluctant to share his thoughts online again
- The learner may constantly doubt the authenticity of content and feel confused about what to internalize
- No access or an opportunity to interact with 'true' experts
- A learner may feel overwhelmed with the amount of information that is out there

How to tackle a demotivated learner?

A demotivated learner is any IDs nightmare. Don't we love it when learners are highly motivated, thirsty for knowledge, and realize the 'what is in it for me' even before the course begins?

Symptoms of a demotivated learner:

• During interviews, they frown over the concept that you are going to teach.
• They do not appreciate the fact that HAVE to take the course. (I can't blame them.)
• They try to convince you that they know everything they need to about the concept (you know otherwise through research).
• They tell you that this course is not going to be useful for them as this concept will not help hone their core skill.
• They are against the mode of delivery (elearning, ILT, or plain training) because of bad experience in the past.

The situation is very, very dangerous if you spot all the five symptoms in your learner profile. How do you tackle a demotivated learner? Find answers for the following:

1. What can I do to ensure that the learner takes the concept seriously? How can I make it interesting for them?
2. How can I show them that they do not know everything they need to know about the concept?
   
3. How can I show them that this concept if mastered is going to help them work better?
   
4. How can I change their bias against the mode of delivery?

To answer all these questions, I would first recommend that you have a nice long chat with your SME. This is important because my suggestions are going to require the SME's approval.

Suggestion 1: Challenge the learner
The learner thinks he/she knows all there is to know about the concept. Well, challenge him/her then. Design a very hands on course. The intention is to make the learner perform tasks designed keeping the theories of the concepts in mind. We want the learner to realize for themselves, 'Oh! I did not know that' or 'This is probably more effective than how I have been going about it'.

Suggestion 2: Do not bore them with theory
Please do not tell the learner blah blah blah. You will lose the learner even before the end of the screen. They do not want to hear the theory. Stick to pure application. It is definitely easier to describe a theory. Try teaching a theory with absolutely no words. Use tasks and examples. This is incredibly challenging for the ID and SME. But, trust me, the experience is absolutely worth it.

Suggestion 3: Ensure that your course is visual
This learner profile is not going to read anything more than two lines. Avoid content. Make it visual by displaying images/animations of examples. I avoid content heavy screens by using a bigger fonts. Try it sometime.

Suggestion 4: Encourage social learning
Introduce videos from YouTube, share blog links, create or encourage learners to join discussion forums. Do all that you have to and bring them in contact with other people. Encourage them to share their ideas with peers and experts. I do not have to stress the important of social learning.

Suggestion 5: Design challenging knowledge checks
Design the tasks keeping in mind the learner's reality. Make them curious about things. Ensure you grab their attention. Ensure that the answers are not obvious. Design assignment that have no correct answers. Encourage them to post reports or assignments on blogs/forums. Allow them to discuss their ideas and answers with others.

These are my list of suggestions. If you think there are other suggestions that help tackle a demotivated learner, please share them.

Grab Your Learner's Attention

Why are gain attention strategies important? Within the first few minutes of the training program, the learner decides whether this course is worth his/her time or not. An effective gain attention strategy has the power to increase the motivational level of your learner.

Using this, you can:

• Arouse their curiosity.
• Make them think about a particular concept.
  
• Make them laugh or break the ice.
  
• Help them grasp what is going to be covered in the course.
  
• Build expectations.
  

Basically, it will make your learner want to see what comes ahead. Imagine! The learner is actually interested in learning. He/she is going to give you and your training program a chance. What qualifies as a gain attention strategy?

1. A pre-test that tells them where they stand at the beginning of the course
For example: Before we begin this module, let us attempt a brief questionnaire to identify your personality trait.

2. A challenge thrown their way
For example: You are a customer care executive at a call center. You have several customer calling you for information. You need to provide them with the information they require and close the close quickly to take the next call. How many calls can you close by end of day?

3. A problem-solution approach
For example: You have been appointed as the manager at SimCom. You manage a team of six smart and talented people. Your teams performance has been very poor over the past few months. You need to motivate your team and ensure that each person gives his/her best to this project. Your boss is keeping a close eye on you. Good luck!

4. A statistical report
For example: Attrition rates are within the range of 30-60% in the BPO industry. The typical reasons for attrition are salary, work timings, better jobs, and so on.

5. Did you know?
Did you know that The Big Five is a group of animals of Africa: cape buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhino. This term was coined by hunters because of the challenge of hunting these wild ferocious animals when cornered.

6. A comic strip

7. A story/drama
You are a detective. Weird things have been happening at Reth City. Reports show that the number of males have been accelerating rapidly and no one seems to know the reason behind this. You have been offered this case. You need to go to the city to understand what is happening. You can talk to the city dwellers. If they seem secretive, you can look around the city for clues. Your assistant, Shweta, will hand out reports, newspaper clippings to help you crack the case. Hurry!

You can think of several innovative ways to design grab attention screens. If you have come across any, share them.

Designing Effective Assessment Questions

Have you seen the following message before an assessment module?

On completion of this module, you will be awarded a certificate.

To me, this seems like the carrot stick technique to ensure that the learner takes the assessment questions. Another 'force' mechanism is disabling Next. You can only move forward if you attempt this assessment. If the learner is not motivated to take the assessment, he/she is not going to take it. He/she will just select an option randomly and move ahead.

Have you ever been told that we are designing a template for the assessment questions and therefore we can have only traditional MCQs? Or maybe you have been told that you must have 5 MCQs, 2 true or false and 3 fill in the blanks. Sheesh. Each testing point should be tested using the most effective assessment type. We have nothing against MCQs but we do have something against templates and standards that add to the project constraints. It is hard enough to create a assessments that challenge our learner without having this to contend with.

Assessment questions should be designed based on the learners and their motivation. If the motivation is high, please go ahead and use MCQs. (Though, we still believe that each testing point corresponds to an effective assessment type.) In cases where learner motivation is low, avoid traditional MCQs. According to me, fill in the blanks and true or false do not qualify as challenging questions and therefore, I will not classify them under assessment types. Let me show you some interesting examples of non-traditional assessment questions.

(Click on the images to view them clearly.)














I had a lot of fun looking for these examples. Hope you had fun reading this!