Have you ever found yourself watching a movie, reading a book or completing a task that resulted in everything in the real world disappearing around you?
For example, you are engaged in something and all of a sudden you realise that you are a real person in the real world and everything around you starts reappearing. I had this exact experience while I was completing an eLearning module. Being the learning nerd that I am, I just had to pull apart the experience and understand why it had the impact that it did.
Tell your learners to strap themselves into a rocket ship because after this blog, the learning solutions that you create for them, will send them shooting into space (or whatever world you decide to put them in).
For example, you are engaged in something and all of a sudden you realise that you are a real person in the real world and everything around you starts reappearing. I had this exact experience while I was completing an eLearning module. Being the learning nerd that I am, I just had to pull apart the experience and understand why it had the impact that it did.
Tell your learners to strap themselves into a rocket ship because after this blog, the learning solutions that you create for them, will send them shooting into space (or whatever world you decide to put them in).
You may be thinking (I studied psychology, I know what some of you are thinking)…
“Oh this is all about making solutions look cool but are they missing the point of achieving the actual learning objectives?”
Fear not!
The team at Belvista Studios is all about adding value and actually making a difference to the business goal that the learning solution was set out to achieve in the first place. You don’t need to go all ‘Cathy Moore’ on us (some of you will get this, basically she is a famous instructional designer who is all about ‘real world’ and business objective focused learning solutions). We are 100% on board with creating solutions that achieve the business objective and learning outcomes at hand but for the purpose of this blog, that’s not where our focus is.
The module that inspired me to write this blog, transported me to another world and it was this world that I experienced effective learning. I learnt what the designer had intended for me to learn and I knew exactly what I needed to do in the real world to meet the business objective. At the end of the module, I was in awe (from the perspective of a learning experience designer) at how I had just experienced something ‘fun’ and learnt something new all at the same time. Without the exciting world that they had created, I would not have so easily learnt what I did.
The module I completed had a hub that resembled a world with multiple locations and I was tasked to visit each one. The world wasn’t dull, it was exciting and bright and reminded me of a game I used to play in my childhood. From the moment I started the module, my playfulness was activated, my attention was captured and the world around me disappeared.
Here is how you can transport your learner to an engaging world...
Select an engaging world for your learner to transport to. If possible, select a theme that in some way relates to the content of your module. For example, if you are designing content for a local government, create a virtual world where the learner visits different parts of the local city (e.g. parks, the aquatic centre and the town centre). If you are designing learning for a travel company, you could make the hub a map of the world and each learning chapter could be visited through clicking on a different country.
Once you have selected the world that you want to transport your learner to, ensure that you incorporate the theme throughout the whole learning experience. This is crucial in order to keep the learner engaged in that world. This includes the language that you use. For example, if you select a theme that resembles a music festival you could use language like, “It’s time to rock on and continue to the next section” or, “To avoid any treble we recommend reading these guidelines” (Lanka, 2018). A bit of humour never goes astray.
So what world can you transport your learners to? Remember, the number one important thing, is to design the learning in a way that meets the business goal and learning objectives. This tip of transporting your learner to another world is just a great enabler for engagement.
If you are interested in engaging your learner at a whole new level, contact our passionate founder Kim Tuohy who can brainstorm options with you via kim@belvistastudios.com or by connecting with her on LinkedIn.
Invest in Yourself
If you like topics like these and want to develop yourself more, check out our creator hub here. Our creator hub offers a range of templates and services that aim to support you in developing, improving and growing to meet your future needs in the instructional design and eLearning industry.
Grab the freebies such as the exact storyboard template we use, as well as case studies on how to create an induction and branching scenarios. There are paid templates to support you with writing a contract, quoting, managing a project and writing proposals. 💙💜
References
Lanka, J. (2018). 60 Corny Music Puns That Are Completely Hilarious. Retrieved from https://thoughtcatalog.com/juliet-lanka/2018/03/60-corny-music-puns-that-are-completely-hilarious//
Fear not!
The team at Belvista Studios is all about adding value and actually making a difference to the business goal that the learning solution was set out to achieve in the first place. You don’t need to go all ‘Cathy Moore’ on us (some of you will get this, basically she is a famous instructional designer who is all about ‘real world’ and business objective focused learning solutions). We are 100% on board with creating solutions that achieve the business objective and learning outcomes at hand but for the purpose of this blog, that’s not where our focus is.
The module that inspired me to write this blog, transported me to another world and it was this world that I experienced effective learning. I learnt what the designer had intended for me to learn and I knew exactly what I needed to do in the real world to meet the business objective. At the end of the module, I was in awe (from the perspective of a learning experience designer) at how I had just experienced something ‘fun’ and learnt something new all at the same time. Without the exciting world that they had created, I would not have so easily learnt what I did.
The module I completed had a hub that resembled a world with multiple locations and I was tasked to visit each one. The world wasn’t dull, it was exciting and bright and reminded me of a game I used to play in my childhood. From the moment I started the module, my playfulness was activated, my attention was captured and the world around me disappeared.
Here is how you can transport your learner to an engaging world...
Select an engaging world for your learner to transport to. If possible, select a theme that in some way relates to the content of your module. For example, if you are designing content for a local government, create a virtual world where the learner visits different parts of the local city (e.g. parks, the aquatic centre and the town centre). If you are designing learning for a travel company, you could make the hub a map of the world and each learning chapter could be visited through clicking on a different country.
Once you have selected the world that you want to transport your learner to, ensure that you incorporate the theme throughout the whole learning experience. This is crucial in order to keep the learner engaged in that world. This includes the language that you use. For example, if you select a theme that resembles a music festival you could use language like, “It’s time to rock on and continue to the next section” or, “To avoid any treble we recommend reading these guidelines” (Lanka, 2018). A bit of humour never goes astray.
So what world can you transport your learners to? Remember, the number one important thing, is to design the learning in a way that meets the business goal and learning objectives. This tip of transporting your learner to another world is just a great enabler for engagement.
If you are interested in engaging your learner at a whole new level, contact our passionate founder Kim Tuohy who can brainstorm options with you via kim@belvistastudios.com or by connecting with her on LinkedIn.
Invest in Yourself
If you like topics like these and want to develop yourself more, check out our creator hub here. Our creator hub offers a range of templates and services that aim to support you in developing, improving and growing to meet your future needs in the instructional design and eLearning industry.
Grab the freebies such as the exact storyboard template we use, as well as case studies on how to create an induction and branching scenarios. There are paid templates to support you with writing a contract, quoting, managing a project and writing proposals. 💙💜
References
Lanka, J. (2018). 60 Corny Music Puns That Are Completely Hilarious. Retrieved from https://thoughtcatalog.com/juliet-lanka/2018/03/60-corny-music-puns-that-are-completely-hilarious//
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