Educational Design Developments That Will Stand The Check Of Time
Instructional design trends that will remain
In recent years, interest in design-based development has exploded with a number of significant advances in adaptive eLearning approaches. This trend is not surprising as designers are often at the forefront of innovation. It also reflects our growing understanding that learning can be different for each person and that classroom content must be tailored to the individual learner. This increased interest has also led to contributions from various disciplines such as psychology, neuroscience, and education.
As a result, design-based development is likely to continue as one of the top trends in classroom design over the next few years. In fact, many companies go so far as to say that it is the future of eLearning. Because of this status, and the fact that it will nonetheless become an important area of research and practice, it is important to sift through the various elements and trends in classroom design to see which ones have worked.
This article examines the three main trends in classroom design so you can create an effective training program for your staff.
eBook publication
eLearning 101: How to Create the Perfect Curriculum for Your Business
Company training courses can be a significant cost factor. Should your company consider offshoring to a bespoke training program that uses eLearning?
Best training methods for employees
Since the advantages of using eLearning platforms are manifold and their use is now common practice, the question remains: What is the best training method for employees? The answer is simple and not surprising: the best training method is the one that works.
This is where instruction design comes into play. It can help make eLearning engaging, relevant, cost-effective, and create lasting education. There are many aspects of classroom design that are important, but here are three aspects that are most important in developing the best training methods for employees:
- Presentation & delivery
- Storytelling & Authenticity
- Engagement & interaction
Let’s take a closer look at each of these points to understand what aspects of classroom design help develop the best training methods for employees.
Presentation is more important than ever
One of the biggest trends we’ve seen is the increased focus on presentations. Instructional designers are moving towards more engaging content with more images and videos that help learners retain more information and increase interactivity with course content.
The presentation was prioritized because it offers a level of engagement that moves online courses from static pages of boring text to engaging lessons that keep learners busy. After all, a high quality presentation is key to captivating the audience!
Here are some of the most important things to keep in mind when presenting and delivering training content:
Mixed media content
Mixed media content includes text-based content accompanied by graphics, charts, images and videos to help learners visualize concepts and make connections between different points in the text.
Visual learner types
Not everyone is a visual learner – and this is important to understand in order to improve the learning experience – but the vast majority of us are. These learners learn best when information is presented graphically (as opposed to written out) to visually support the learning objectives and add meaning to a concept or idea without the need for extensive reading or text-based instructions
Immersive perspectives
Multimedia projects now offer an immersive experience where users can explore different modalities such as geographic, auditory and 3D. Both work together to create an immersive environment where multitasking and interacting with the material is common. For example, users can click on real places, be transported through time or see three-dimensional objects rendered in real time.
Increased focus on accessibility
It is important to make all content accessible to all users. This means that your website is compatible with screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, and subtitles in video clips so that the hearing impaired can read along.
Mobile device compatibility
With the rapidly growing number of mobile users accessing content online, educational designers no longer have the luxury of designing content without considering mobile needs. This means smaller text sizes that are better suited to the screen size, as well as features like offline reading and voice-over options so that users can still access their content when no service or WiFi is available.
Use storytelling and authenticity
The use of succinct, authentic storytelling has recently grown in popularity as it can help effectively grasp the gist of complex information without resorting to details that many learners may not understand.
Core learning concepts often allow learners to reach 80% of the way – the 20% is then reserved for more traditional, fact-based approaches.
Stories speak emotionally by offering vivid images while providing information that learners understand internally. Linking them together in meaningful ways through storytelling will improve memory consolidation and learning outcomes.
To use storytelling in your classroom design, remember:
- Use visceral images and videos as they can tell a story just like written language
- Incorporate authenticity using real people and examples
- Determine what is important to your audience so that you can better reach them
- Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable and open about your personal stories
Authenticity is just as important when designing lessons as it is when creating excellent training content. In the past, authentic teaching was considered an insignificant part of the learning experience. Today, however, it is one of the most prominent subjects in classroom design. This is evidenced by the growing popularity of security flaws, virtual simulations, and modern gamification techniques that use real-world concepts such as money or currency for rewards.
One way to achieve authenticity is design thinking. At the heart of Design Thinking is that it provides a framework for continuous improvement that starts with people’s needs and uses empathy, creativity and prototyping to generate solutions. It’s also collaborative and generative. Design thinkers have a habit of asking questions to solve problems rather than providing solutions.
To demonstrate how this can work in practice, a company can ask itself: “What do our customers love about our products?” Instead of “How can we make our company more profitable?”
Focus on engagement and interactivity
Another trend we’re seeing is a strong focus on interactivity and engagement. The focus on engaging and interacting with the audience seems obvious but should be repeated.
After all, an eLearning training curriculum is not effective if the audience is not preoccupied with what they are learning. Interactivity and engagement have become so important in lesson design, in part because of the introduction of many new educational methods that require frequent interaction, such as peer discussions, between learners and teachers, or between learners and other learners. Here are some ways to increase engagement and productivity:
Gamification
Game mechanics have been incorporated into many courses, including interactive games where players must follow the objectives given at each level in order to continue playing as they level. In general, the higher the chances of getting higher scores in a game by completing various tasks in the course of the game – such as word searches, crossword puzzles, etc. -, the better the learner’s result. The idea is that whatever we can do to get learners excited about our courses will keep them engaged and motivated throughout the course, which will improve memory performance and memory consolidation.
Experience-oriented learning
In this case, a teaching designer builds an immersive experience into their course by adding graphic organizers and visuals to help learners come up with abstract concepts and make connections between real objects and topics being studied. The experiential teaching uses sensory receptors such as sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell so that learners feel really involved in what they are doing.
By using these approaches, learners become more involved in their eLearning. Both learners and teachers benefit from this and can bring more creativity into their work, learn difficult topics faster, strengthen mental muscle memory, develop higher-level thinking skills such as problem solving, process new information and keep what they learn longer because their brains throughout the course activity is more active.
Build effective e-learning with these instruction design trends
eLearning is the way of the future and has already helped so many companies train their employees effectively and efficiently. However, there are many options to choose from, and creating an exercise program can be challenging and time consuming. Additionally, you want to develop the best method of training for your employees and there are cost considerations to be considered at every level of organizational planning.
The answer is: instructional design. There are many strategies and trends to try out, but the three that are effective and proven are: perfecting presentation and presentation, using authenticity and storytelling, and focusing on engagement and interactivity. Apply these strategies and watch your eLearning results skyrocket!
Download the eLearning 101 eBook: How to Build the Perfect Curriculum for Your Business to discover action points that you can follow to launch a bespoke L&D strategy for your team. It is required reading for companies weighing the pros and cons of outsourcing and wanting to learn more about curriculum design from industry experts.
