eLearning Should be a Walk in the Park - or a story about my lunch hour.

Imagine you're taking a walk down a path in a park.  It's hot and sunny, but there is a nice breeze blowing.  You're alone just enjoying the day.  As you walk the path you notice in front of you that is is turning to the left, but you can't see what is around the corner.  You continue on wondering what you will find if you keep going.

As you round the bend you can see that there is a stream running along the path.  You look down and see a Mamma duck and her 3 teenage girls.  You think to yourself:

• I've never seen ducks this old still with their mom
• how old are they?
• when will they leave?
• why haven't I seen this before?

You walk further wondering if you will see the same snapping turtle you saw a few weeks ago.  Sure enough he is out of the water on the bank.  You wonder:

• how old is he?
• how long will he stay out?
• how big is he?
• will my picture be able to convey how big he is?

Continuing along you pass people walking dogs, playing with kids, out running enjoying the weather and you think to yourself....

• Why can't elearning be like this?
• Why aren't courses more self exploratory?
• Why can't I discover my own answers?
• Why can't I come up with my own questions about the material?
• Why can't it be this fun?

Matter of perception must be considered.  What is a giant flower to you may be only 1 cm big to me, but it's still a flower.  Fun elearning to you might not be to me, but it may still be required for us each to learn.

How do you try to appeal to the many that might have to take the course you are required to create?

How do you make it more about discovering?  How do you let the learner make their own decisions?  Would it not make sense that if they can do these simple things they would have greater interest in the material.

Let them explore.  Give them a path to follow, but they them wonder what else is out there.  Let them wander off the path and explore on there own.

Make it fun.

For a great collection of resources that can be used to explore on your own and come up with ways to let your learners explore; take a look at what's come out from the Backchannel of #mLearnCon.

A big thank you to David Kelly (@LnDDave) for his tireless dedication to collecting the resources for all in his blog "Misadventures in Learning".