Presenting E-Learning and Design Concepts
Becky Feiran
What is e-learning?
• “E-learning is the use of electronic technologies to create
learning experiences” (Horton, 2011, p.1).
• “What is abundantly obvious is that there is some uncertainty as to what
exactly are the characterisics of the term, but what is clear is that all forms of
e-Learning, whether they be as applications, programs, objects, websites, etc.,
can eventually provide a learning opportunity for individuals” (Moore,
Dickson-Deane, Galyenb, 2011, p. 130).
• “We define ‘e-learning’ as teaching and learning that are delivered, supported,
and enhanced through the use of digital technologies and media. We consider
that e-learning may encompass face-to-face, distance, and mixed mode or
blended delivery models” (Brown & Voltz, 2005).
E-LEARNING is broken down into the following varieties:
• Standalone courses: “Courses taken by a solo learner. They are self-paced without
interaction with a teacher or classmates.”
• Learning games and simulations: “Learning by performing simulated activities
that require exploration and lead to discoveries.”
• Mobile learning: “Aided by mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablet
devices, mobile learners participate in conventional classroom courses and
standalone e-learning while out and about.”
• Social learning: “Learning through interaction with a community of experts and
fellow learners. Communication among participants relies on social-networking
media such as online discussions, blogging, and text-messaging.”
• Virtual-classroom courses: “Online classes structured much like a classroom
course, with reading assignments, presentations, discussions via forums and other
social media, and homework. They may include synchronous online meetings.”
(Horton, 2011, p. 2)
Instructional Design
• Design is decision, it governs what we do and “involves judgment,
compromise, tradeoff, and creativity. Design is the 1001 decisions,
big and small, that affect the outcome of your e-learning project”
(Horton, 2011, p. 2-3).
• Design starts with a goal…what do you want to accomplish?
• “Instructional design requires selecting, organizing, and specifying
the learning experiences necessary to teach somebody something.
Good instructional design is independent of the technology or
personnel used to create those learning experiences” (Horton, p. 3).
• Effective e-learning starts with sound instructional design.
E-Learning Design
• “By ‘design’ we mean the planning or working out of the e-learning
resource. This combines tasks including lesson planning, instructional
design, creative writing, and software specification” (Brown & Voltz,
2005).
• E-Learning Design is using best instructional design in creating an online
learning experience.
.
Designing effective e-learning: GOALS
STEP 1. clarify the goal of your project—what matters to your organization? How
will your project directly contribute to that organizational goal?
• Your overall goal tells you what really matters. To clarify this goal, you need to
answer two questions.
– The first question is "What matters to your organization?" In other words, what is the
single most important measure of success for your institution? Try to answer in three
words or fewer, which focuses your goal.
– The second question asks how your project will help accomplish that goal. While elearning may not accomplish the goal by itself, you must be able to state how it will
contribute.
(Horton, 2011, p. 9-10)
Designing effective e-learning: LEARNING OBJECTIVE
• STEP 2: Write the overall learning objective. This objective states how your elearning changes the learner. It describes the end result of learning.
– What will the learner create, decide, do, know, believe, or feel?
– Who are the learners that must accomplish the goal?
– What are the prerequisites for the objective?
(Horton, 2011, p. 9)
Designing effective e-learning: LEARNING OBJECT
• STEP 3: Each learning objective requires us to design a learning object to
accomplish that objective. That object requires two types of content: learning
activities and tests.
• Learners complete learning activities in order to learn. Three types of learning
activities required:
– the learner absorbs knowledge by reading or watching;
– the learner does practice or discovery activities to deepen learning;
– and learners complete activities designed to connect what they are learning to their lives and work.
• Only after specifying the activities can we make choices of what media to employ:
words, pictures, sounds, and so forth.
• Tests are questions or other actions to verify that learning occurred and the objective
was accomplished.
(Horton, 2011, p. 9)
More on Learning Objects
A simple definition from Horton, 2011: “A learning object is a chunk of electronic content that
can be accessed individually and that completely accomplishes a single learning objective and
can prove it” (p. 47).
The learning OBJECT accomplishes the learning OBJECTIVE.
“Most people create the learning activities first and then, if time permits, tack on a few
multiple-choice test questions. A better approach is to create the tests as soon as you have
defined the learning objective. It may seem illogical to create the test before creating the
learning that the test measures, but the test is the best guide to designing learning activities”
(Horton, p. 50).
Tests clarify the objective. “There is no clearer and more precise statement of a learning
objective than a test question that measures whether that objective has been accomplished. If
the test is valid, passing the test indicates accomplishing the objective” (Horton, p. 50).
Analyze Learners’ Needs and Abilities
CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:
► Motivation for learning. Why would learners devote the time and effort necessary?
► Psychomotor skills. What is the level of the learner’s working memory capacity?
► Attitude and mindset. What are learners' attitudes toward learning and toward authority?
► Mental discipline. Can they skip quickly among simultaneous tasks or do they need to complete one
task before moving on to another?
► Communication skills. How well can they read, listen, speak, and write?
► Social skills. How well do learners work with others?
► Talents and intelligences. Verbal, visual, logical, mathematical, musical, performance, athletic,
intrapersonal, or interpersonal?
► Media preferences. Video, graphics, voice, music, or text?
► Background knowledge and experience. What do learners already know about the subject?
► Learning conditions. Where and when will they learn? How much time do they have available?
► Locus of control. What do learners have power over?
► Style of prior education. What kinds of learning have learners participated in?
► Digital fluency. Is the potential learner digitally naive or a digital native?
(Horton, 2011, p. 13-14)
Identify What to Teach
THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY TO FIGURE THIS OUT…
Essentialism is a technique to focus learning on essentials needed to accomplish goals— and omitting
everything else. With essentialism, the educator gives a project and provides the means to accomplish the
activity, including expert advisors to answer questions that the learners have. This quickly establishes what
needs to be taught and what doesn’t.
Gap analysis asks what is needed to close the gap. What do those at the target level create, decide, or do
differently? And, is the difference a result of what they know, believe, or feel? Probe the gap by
interviewing people on both sides of the gap.
Analyze how work is done by deconstructing from the goal to the job, to the tasks necessary to complete
the job, to the decisions and actions that are made to complete the tasks. Once you identify the individual
decisions and actions, determine what abilities the learner must acquire to perform each action or make each
decision.
Ask “those in the know,” because insight into what people need to learn can come from asking those who
routinely interact with them and observe their behavior. For example, a teacher knows what the standards
are; colleges know what they want students to know and be able to do as well.
(Horton, 2011, p. 14-15)
“Instruction is only effective if it teaches the
right things. For example, problems often occur
when we teach low-level, explicit knowledge
that learners already know, could figure out on
their own, or will never apply.”
(Horton, 2011, p. 31)
Set Learning Objectives
What the project will accomplish…
Everything stems from the objectives. From the objectives, we identify prerequisites, select
learning activities, and design tests. Good objectives focus efforts, reduce false starts, and cut waste
enormously.
A learning objective does three things:
 First, the objective states the intent, that is, what will be taught.
 Second, it identifies the target learner.
 Third, it identifies starting requirements.
Learning Objectives SHOULD BE
CLEAR: A learning objective should be clear to everyone involved with it. The objective must
tell the project's management team what you intend to accomplish. It must give the designer of
learning activities specific targets to achieve. And it must communicate the "what's in it for me"
to the learner.
PRECISE: The learning objective must specify the required learning in enough detail that we
can measure its accomplishment.
WORTHY: Your learning objectives must all contribute to accomplishing the underlying
organizational goal. Responsible developers continually check their objectives against the
organizational goal: "Why am I teaching this?“
(Horton, 2011, p. 18)
Six Types of Objectives:
Learning objectives can be set up in this way:
By experiencing this course, lesson or topic, the learner will:
Primary objectives (be able to ...)
► Create or design an X that does Y.
► Decide X, given Y.
► Do procedure X to accomplish Y.
Secondary objectives
► Know X about Y
► Believe X.
► Feel X about Y.
Criteria: Has the Learner Met the Objective?
“We teach so that learners can apply what they learn, not merely accumulate knowledge.” (Horton, 2011, p. 24)
•
People apply learning in real-world situations. As part of the objective, we need to specify what those
situations are: events that trigger application of learning, conditions under which the learner must act,
and resources the learner will need in order to apply learning.
•
For each objective, we should realistically state how successful learners should be in applying what they
learn.
Quantifying the degree of success is not easy, but we can adapt metrics such as these:
► Percent of learners who will accomplish the objective perfectly.
► Average error rate.
► Time required performing the task.
► Results produced in a specified period of time.
(Horton, 2011, p. 24-25)
Identify Prerequisites of the Learning Objective
For each objective, identify the requirements for learning to take place, that is, its
prerequisites. Prerequisites specify the abilities, knowledge, beliefs, and feelings learners
must possess before they can begin to accomplish the main objective. These prerequisites may
have prerequisites of their own. Thus, objectives develop in a cascade downward from the
top-level learning objective as we repeatedly ask what the learner must know before
beginning an objective.
To identify prerequisites for an objective, ask why learners may fail to accomplish the
objective. Do they not recognize the need or misperceive the situation? Do they lack a crucial
fact? Are they stumped on how to proceed, or are they afraid to take the next step? Or, are
they just unmotivated or uninterested?
To state the problem as an objective, ask what the learner must be able to create, decide, or
do and what the learner must know, believe, and feel.
(Horton, 2011, p. 26-29)
Better Objectives = Better E-Learning
“For better e-learning, reduce the number of Know objectives. With
information readily available online and onboard mobile devices,
people seldom fail for a lack of knowledge. It is more likely that they
are unable to apply their knowledge. Focus more on Create and Decide
objectives to emphasize application of learning. And consider whether
a lack of performance is due to the fact the learner does not believe
what you are teaching or does not feel it is important.
If so, increase the number of Believe
and Feel objectives”
(Horton, 2011, p. 32).
How to Accomplish the Objective
“Up to this point, you have considered only what you want to accomplish, not how you will accomplish it. You have not
even decided whether e-learning is part of the solution— or even if learning is necessary. “
(Horton, 2011, p. 35)
As a designer, openly consider all the possible ways to meet objectives and pick the
best solutions for your learners, your mission, and your situation.
Possible solutions include standalone e-learning, games and simulations, virtualclassroom e-learning, physical- classroom learning, coaching, referring learners to
existing learning materials, interacting with a social network, searching online
resources, letting learners find solutions on their own, and changing external factors to
make learning unnecessary.
(Horton, 2011, p. 36)
APPROACHES TO OBJECTIVES
Conventional standalone e-learning “leads learners individually through structured sequences
of learning experiences chosen to accomplish specific learning objectives. In this form of
learning, people interact with e-learning through a computer or mobile device. This is a proven,
flexible approach” (Horton, 2011, p. 36).
Games and simulations “let learners discover knowledge, polish skills, and experience the
consequences of a variety of behaviors. Games and simulations require effort, time, and money
to develop, so we want to use them wisely, that is, where they are the best solution” (Horton, p.
36).
Virtual-classroom courses “structure learning on the model of a physical classroom. Scattered
learners connect through an online meeting tool. An involved teacher may lecture, make
assignments, and initiate discussions among learners directs activities” (Horton, p. 37).
Physical-classroom learning is used because “some learners, subjects, and situations are not
suited for e-learning, but can still be handled by an old-fashioned physical classroom. Physical
classroom activities include lectures, question-and-answer sessions, seminars, symposia, and
other face-to-face activities” (Horton, p. 38).
Coaching: “Instead of a formal learning program, the best solution may be to assign a coach,
mentor, or advisor to each learner. Apprenticeship is one of the oldest and most effective ways of
learning” (Horton, p. 38).
APPROACHES TO OBJECTIVES
Referring to learning resources: “Instead of teaching an objective directly, you may choose
to send learners to existing resources that can teach it for us. Such resources include other
courses, podcasts, e-books, paper books, blogs, and other sources of well-researched and
structured learning materials” (Horton, 2011, p. 39).
Searching online resources: “Instead of providing the answer or providing specific resources,
you can teach learners to find the answer for themselves. Sophisticated search engines and vast
online resources mean that much of what learners need to know is only a few seconds away.
Teaching facts, figures, and simple procedures makes less and less sense every day” (Horton,
p. 40).
Interacting with a social network: “One of the most important uses of social networking is
to serve as a source of education, guidance, and information for learners. As such, it serves as a
human performance-support mechanism. Learners, at any time, can ask their networks of
friends, experts, and fellow learners. Answers are not limited to short text answers; they can
include any appropriate media and can include ongoing conversations” (Horton, p. 40).
Letting learners find the solution on their own: “Instead of directly trying to accomplish an
objective, we challenge learners to accomplish the objective on their own. In this case, we do
not specifically tell learners to conduct a search, refer to a social network, or consult specific
materials” (Horton, p. 41).
APPROACHES TO OBJECTIVES
Changing external factors: “Learning and information are not the solution to all problems.
Often the best way to meet an objective is to change factors outside the realm of learning.
These may be organizational or business factors. They may involve changes to economics or
technology” (Horton, 2011, p. 41-42).
Blending if necessary: “If all objectives can be perfectly met by one approach, great! Your
design and development task just got simpler. If not, you must either adapt one approach to
handle objectives for which it is not ideal—or you must mix or blend approaches within a
single course, lesson, or topic. Strike a balance. A blend of more than a half-dozen approaches
may seem chaotic to learners and frightening to your budget committee. Remember that all
objectives are not equally important. Some must be taught perfectly—others, only
competently. Even though an approach is not the best possible way to accomplish an objective,
you can often apply your creativity and hard work to make it work adequately. (Horton, p. 42)
Decide the teaching sequence of your objectives
Three Main Sequences:
Bottom-up sequence (teach prerequisite objectives before teaching the objectives that require these
prerequisites) Novices benefit from this structure because they lack extensive knowledge in a field. The
bottom-up sequence is much like the way traditional schooling is organized.
Top-down sequence (assumes learners have all the prerequisites, and, if not, that they will access the
objects that teach the prerequisites they are missing) It is often used for efficiency of learning because
learners encounter only the content they explicitly request or clearly need. “The top-down sequence is also
good for experts who already know much of a subject and can quickly identify gaps in their own knowledge
and skills. Top-down sequencing is well suited for just-in-time learning where learners seek out just the
nuggets of learning they need at the moment of need.”
Sideways sequence (allows learners to investigate the subject freely, meeting prerequisites as they are
encountered) “The sideways order, because it is less predictable, can add excitement to the learning process.
It is a good choice for discovery learning where learners must discover and integrate separate bits of
knowledge. And it is good where you are teaching learners to learn on their own as they cope with a
complex, dynamic situation—like many work environments today.”
(Horton, 2011, p. 47)
How to Accomplish the Objective
To accomplish learning objectives, we typically require three
types of learning activities: Absorb, do, connect.
 Absorb: the learner is physically passive, but mentally active.
 Do: the learner practices, explores, and discovers.
 Connect: learners connect what they are learning to their work,
their lives, or their prior learning. (Horton, p. 51)
Finally, decide on which media to utilize…
“Once you have prescribed the activities necessary to accomplish the
objective and the tests necessary to verify that accomplishment, you can
turn to selecting and specifying the media necessary to implement the
activities and tests. Each object may require a different mix of text,
graphics, sound, voice, music, animation, and video.”
“Now that all media are technically possible, and most are economically
practical, we need to exercise judgment to pick the media that most
directly and effectively express the ideas we want to get across. That is, we
must look for the natural language for the learning experience we want to
create.”
(Horton, 2011, p. 61)
References
Brown, A., & Voltz, B. (2005). “Elements of Effective e-Learning Design.” The International
Review Of Research In Open And Distance Learning, 6(1). Retrieved
from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/217/300
Horton, William. e-Learning by Design, 2nd Edition, 2nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons P&T,
9/26/11. VitalBook file.
Moore, J., Dickson-Deane, C., Galyenb, K. “e-Learning, online learning, and distance learning
environments: Are they the same?” Internet and Higher Education 14 (2011) 129–135.
Retrieved from https://scholar.vt.edu/access/content/group/5deb92b5-10f3-49db-adeb7294847f1ebc/e-Learning%20Scott%20Midkiff.pdf