Designing World-Class E-Learning - Roger C. Schank

The world has changed. And the ways of teaching and learning have also changed. Learn in this summary of "Designing World-Class E-Learning" how Roger Carl uses technology as a way of learning to revolutionize companies.

Unlike the traditional way, digital education has the facility of being cheaper and can be disseminated to a significant number of users.

In addition, it is not limited only on the subjects of the school grade, being possible that anyone, with any type of knowledge, can share it.

Regardless of your niche, such as welding, biscuit techniques or even corporate training, any sector can benefit from a good course, structured on how to transmit information.

About the book "Designing World-Class E-Learning"

In the book "Designing World-Class E-Learning", the author describes the secrets of a good e-learning program.

He emphasizes the use of digital employee training within a company, but his methods also work in other situations.

Schank establishes the basic principle that makes e-learning work: learning by doing. He traces methods using scenarios and simulations that allow the student to put his new ideas into practice immediately.

Understand in this summary how IBM, GE and Harvard Business School are succeeding in the age of E-learning.

About the author Roger C. Schank

Roger C. Schank, Ph. D., is a noted professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, and is the founder and president of CognitiveArts, an e-learning development company.

He also manages Schank Learning Consultants. He is a writer, speaker, and inventor of new multimedia training tools. Roger C. Schank founded the Institute for the Learning Sciences at Northwestern University and directed the Artificial Intelligence project at Yale University.

Schank has published more than 125 articles and books, including "Coloring Outside the Lines," "Dynamic Memory," and "Engines for Education."

To whom is this book indicated?

The book is a practical instruction manual recommended for training and development managers.

Also recommended for anyone who wants to know and learn how to build e-learning experiences.

Main ideas of the book "Designing World-Class E-Learning"

• Digital teaching is cheaper than other ways to teach several people at once. For once created the system, any number of people can learn by it;
• Include learning through practice, as that is how people learn naturally;
• Learning is meaningful when it helps people achieve their goals;
• The will to learn arises from the process of having expectations and failing to reach them; people learn to correct what they have done wrong, so that they can reach their own expectations in the future;
• Do not try to teach too much, as students will suffer from too much information and will not be able to learn;
• Divide the content into segments of knowledge;
• Do not rely on the habit of memorizing, have employees do tasks;
• Use surveys and interviews to create realistic scenarios based on what people actually do in your organization;
• Provide training at the appropriate time, when people need it to deliver results;
• Keep your students interested by creating relevant, entertaining, and practical content.

Download the "Designing World Class E-Learning" Book Summary in PDF for free

Do you have no time to read now? Then download the free PDF and read wherever and whenever you want:

Overview: Concept 1 - The value of e-learning

E-learning can be efficient, inexpensive, and convenient because it allows learning to occur at any time. It is economical because after built the teaching program, it can be accessed continuously by any number of students for a long time.

However, effective teaching is more than just putting your training manual on a website. For it to work, incorporate the natural principles of learning based on how things really work.

Learning through practice is crucial. This is how humans learn and how the rote learning process works. People learn by analyzing what they have done right or wrong. It is for this reason that a person becomes more effective in a function as he gains experience.

In this way, the best way for an employee to learn is to work on a role that requires the skills you prioritized. With practice, the employee will eventually learn.

According to Roger C. Schank in "Designing Word-Class E-Learning" the downside of learning by practicing is that it can be expensive and dangerous. When you scale someone inexperienced to work, costly mistakes can occur, such as damage to expensive equipment, for example.

Therefore, training programs may be a more considerate alternative. However, the traditional form of education - short-term memorization of information that may not appear on a day-to-day basis - does not provide good training.

A solid training focuses on knowledge about real experiences. Its basic principles are:

• Creating a learning experience is captivating;
• Formulation of simulated situations in which students can practice content;
• Use of real experience as a guide, since humans learn more from reality;
• Development of practices similar to the work that will be carried out by the student.

Overview: Concept 2 - Using the Principle of Learning by Practice

Learning by doing works and this is how children learn. A child asks for a cookie, but if she does not order it correctly, she will not receive it. So she learns the right way to ask. This basic principle of learning can be applied in different areas of life.

After all, the key to learning anything is to have a goal. People want to learn to achieve their goals.

People are open to correcting their mistakes or accepting advice on different approaches. For learning to be effective, objectives must reflect the real desires of the student, not the coach.

It is important that you know the motivations of your employees to create good e-learning experiences with the practical approach.

Because employee goals are anchored to better job performance and personal, financial, and professional rewards for performance. Use your training program to help them achieve their goals.

Avoid the traditional education model. Unfortunately, many companies fall into the usual patterns. They hire panelists, create detailed manuals, and develop internal universities that offer structured courses. This kind of program does not work because it ignores two central foundations of the learning process.

Initially, students should internalize procedures that can be used to improve their work performance, which means they need to try new methods and get help in case of a failure.

Also, to remember a new technique, you have to practice it. Learning is built on people's expectations and even their faults when they do not meet their expectations.

So when you develop a teaching program, allow students to live experiences that may be related to past experiences, and then provide opportunities for practice, practice, and more practice.

This type of approach works because learning in practice teaches nonconscious knowledge, while the traditional method teaches only conscious knowing. Non-conscious knowledge is what helps you accomplish a task naturally.

Even top executives can benefit from this type of training. To function, people need to be motivated to learn and be aware that that simulation will help.

Overview: Concept 3 - The Four Steps to Creating an Effective Electronic Teaching Method

1. Begin by developing training for a job that is based on defined and repeatable skills, as these are the most receptive to learning;
2. Decide on your most important training need. Find a role model in your organization that has already done what you want others to learn. If no one has ever done the work, make the process work before attempting to deploy a training program;
3. Find the best experts on the subject in your company, people who can provide the information you need for the program;
4. Collect employee stories and use them to develop real-world simulations and different scenarios. When students enact, they practice taking action decisions. So make use of text, animation, video and other techniques to create dramatic scenarios based on reality.

Overview: Concept 4 - Learning from the experience of other companies

According to "Designing World-Class E-Learning", as a growing number of companies have used e-learning, their experiences provide many lessons about what works and what does not.

As an example, IBM used the GROW method to create simulations that would be experienced by employees before they attended a class.

To illustrate these scenarios, the company used photos and a number of pros and cons. Students can make choices and then check the consequences of the choices made.

IBM has identified e-learning as a good pre-training method for employees before they enter the classroom.

Electronic teaching programs used by companies AG Edwards, Walmart and Enron have demonstrated that these principles determine a good training program:

• To keep students interested, show how difficult content, such as complex financial products, can be applied in real-world situations;
• When you provide access to resources, such as research materials needed for planning, let students decide how much they should research, but make their tasks more difficult if they do not research enough;
• Even if you have concrete information, such as poll results, talk to as many people as possible within the company to hear their experiences. This allows you to base your scenarios on the culture and atmosphere of your organization;
• Do not make your training too understanding. Do not overload trainees with too much information at once;
• Use third-person scenarios in which the learner counsels someone, so you do not evoke negative reactions as employees think they will never be in that situation.

Overview: Concept 5 - Developing a powerful e-learning system

An e-learning program must be tailored to your organization. Roger C. Schank tell us to follow these principles:

• Incorporate stories, simulations, goals, practices, fun and failure;
• Give learners the opportunity to fail and contemplate why they fail, as people learn this way. When people repeat successful behavior and try nothing new, they also learn nothing;
• Unleash emotions and feelings through realistic simulations, as people tend to better remember something they have lived more intensely. Do not try to write "false realities" that will never occur in the daily life of the company;
• Provide adequate training when people are really looking for help, so they are motivated. A good time is after someone has had a flaw and needs corrective help;
• Let the apprentice teach himself, since people act naturally in this way;
• Do not demand that people simply decorate facts, procedures, or activity lists, since remembering alone does not become a "learned" skill. People should act on what they learn, so include practice in their program;
• Offer varied experiences that take into account different learning styles. For example, some people like to go deeper without explanation, while others like detailed explanations of what is going to happen;
• Start each class with a hook that makes the employee feel like learning. Instead of starting with a long and boring presentation of what lies ahead, start by giving people a powerful experience that evoke feelings and then ask them to do something about it.

Overview: Concept 6 - Creating the Menu and Developing the Course

According to "Designing Word-Class E-Learning", use the basics of e-learning to create the scripts and dramatize them. The fundamentals are the content segments and learning objectives of the learner. Each section consists of a procedure or series of actions that a person performs so regularly that he can do it without even thinking about it.

You must divide the content into various skills that employees will use on a day-to-day basis, such as receiving a complaint or dealing with a complicated customer.

Do not try to teach just generalized principles, people learn through repeated experiences and practice. To define the sections, collect data about the goals of those you want to teach. What can not they do? What mistakes are you making and why?

The answers to these questions should be used as the basis for creating the material and the scenarios. Select images and descriptions that illustrate skills and actions. In addition, create exercises based on options and activities that occur in real life.

Provide the opportunity for the learner to correct their mistakes, such as choosing a better decision. Always give feedback explaining why an action is incorrect.

As an example, we can imagine a scenario in which the apprentice is playing the role of manager in a new department.

Schank says to make the student participate in several meetings with different employees, deciding how to help each one of them. After each choice, the manager can see the consequences it brings if a mistake is made.

Keep your scenarios as real as possible so that learning is meaningful and can provide opportunities to practice.

What do other authors say about it?

Ed Catmull, author of the book "Creativity Inc." advises: always give more preference to people than to ideas, because creative people create good ideas, but good ideas can be destroyed by bad teams.

In the book "The Lean Startup", the author Eric Ries says that the true productivity of a startup is measured by the systematic search for the right things to do. In the lean startup, every product, every characteristic and every advertising campaign is understood as an experiment to achieve validated learning.

Complementing the author's idea of e-learning, Jeff Cobb, author of the book "Leading the Learning Revolution", has some incredible tips that can be applied in structuring your course, creating a memorable product.

Okay, but how can I apply this to my life?

After learning about the six concepts explained above, it becomes easier to understand and apply the principles of effective e-learning. This helps avoid the most common mistakes in creating a digital education system.

The various concepts taught above will give you support for designing an e-learning system based on the concept of learning by doing.

Start recording your course, even if it is not perfect, and make improvements according to need and time. The students' own feedback is enough to improve various aspects.

So you're beginning to pick up resources and later you can re-launch a revised, more complete version.

Did you like this summary of the book "Designing World-Class E-Learning"?

Did you like learning about the new ways that E-Learning can be developed to increase its efficiency? To learn deeper about the topic, be sure to purchase the book by clicking on the image below: