I have long questioned the wisdom of starting a learning session with standard time exhausted “Learning Objectives”. It makes me think that the instructor is warning the learners of what he or she is going to do to them.
“No matter what you are now, my magic is going to make you do this.”
What is a clear learning objective. Here’s a definition from my university days (and they were a long time ago): “Clear Learning Objectives: Your eLearning should have clear learning objectives that are communicated to your employees. This helps them understand what they are expected to learn and how their progress will be assessed”.
Let’s tell them how we are going to change them! I don’t know about you, but when someone tells me how they are going to change my behaviour without telling me why I start to feel somewhat anti what is going on.
The clear learning objectives are important in the instructions from the training sponsor to the training designer, but of less interest to the learner.
It is the training designers’ job to sell the training to the learner.
Now any sales trainer will tell you that the initial opening of a sales presentation is the benefits, or what’s in it for the buyer.
When designing modlettes I use my headline to describe what completing the modlette will do for the learner. So, a headline replaces a list of objectives, and provides a benefit for the learner.
Example: “By completing this modlette you will learn how to cook cheap meals”.
My specific headline will read: “How to eat on less than $5 a meal.”
This provides a specific benefit the learner will understand.
Another opening that makes sense and increases interest is to tell a story.
Example:
- In this course you will learn how to deal with angry Customers with a complaint.
- You are in your first week as a retail assistant at a home appliance store. Just after your morning break an obviously angry man with a toaster in his hand comes to your counter and demands to see the manager. How will you deal with this?
Which of these openings would attract your interest the most.
As a learning designer I believe in the following:
- We don’t design for ourselves; we design for the learner.
- We promise them they can achieve a result that will bring them personal benefits.
We are both marketers and learning designers.
Which school do you belong to, the “learning objectives” or the “what’s in it for me”. I would be very pleased to hear your thoughts on this matter, [email protected].
If you want to immerse yourself further there is a very robust discussion going on at https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7150836291624931328/