3/21/2011 Learner centric design - a new frontier?

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Learner centric design - a new frontier?
Originally published Training Journal, February 2011

Does conventional instructional design put learner needs centre stage or do

other considerations hog the limelight? Jam es Cory- Wright inv estigates.

Skip to section:

Suspicious minds
Learning design - a new model?
Virtuous circles of reform
New solutions require fresh thinking
Learner-centric design - Tips

"The only thing that interferes w ith my learning is my education,” said Albert
Einstein after assimilating - presumably by informal means - the value of irony.
You don't have to be a genius to find institutionalised instruction not to your
taste. Theorists have poked conceptual holes in the relationship betw een teacher
and scholar for millennia - but w hat to do about it? Surely w ith cutting-edge
technologies at our fingertips and access to archives of peer-review research at
the touch of a button, those in the business of learning design can finally create
an environment for the transmission of knowledge based around the person w ho
really counts - the learner?

The term 'learner-centric design' is like a rabid pitbull terrier - in that it's both quite
ugly and difficult to pin dow n. How ever, if w e w ere to attempt a definition of the
concept, obviously the interests, needs, abilities and preferred learning style(s) of
the student w ould be pre-eminent. Surely any kind of tuition w orth its salt should
place the learner squarely at its heart? But sadly the vast majority of courses and
solutions fail in the sense that they give the individual little or no choice as to how
they w ish to direct their learning and fail to dovetail w ith w orkplace culture or
business objectives. After all, being learner-centric for its ow n sake without being
relevant to desired business outcomes is mere indulgence.

While classical theorists have pointed out the shortcomings of formal education
(Ebbinghaus, Illich, Becker) and others have pushed the boundaries of our
understanding of learner needs (Piaget, Rogers, Vygotsky), this know ledge in
itself has not necessarily brought about a learner-centric utopia. Indeed, it could
be argued that unless learning design professionals are very careful on a day-to-
day basis, much of the deep theoretical underpinning can fly out the window at
the expense of the bottom line.

If w e are to remedy this situation there are three key questions to w hich w e must
provide cogent answers:-

How can w e introduce new practices to maximise learner engagement?

What are the barriers to reform?
What have w e all to gain from embracing this brave new world?

Suspicious minds
Much 'traditional' e-learning tends to spoon feed, is over-directive and is
presented as linear chunks of content often in the form of a series of screens
w hich have to be w orked through for the learning to be deemed to be completed.

It could be argued this approach is based on a lack of trust of employees, w here

the assumption is that they w ish to somehow avoid the training by cheating,
skipping screens and other sub-prime behaviours. Such - arguably misplaced -
suspicion is key to understanding w hy some workplace training fails to properly
engage or deliver high-impact results, among their target audiences and also fails
to examine abilities and competencies. In some quarters, there is a management
fear of formal employee assessment and a misguided belief that this smacks of
Big Brother and will lead to insurrection at the barricades reminiscent of
Kronstadt, 1921. This attitude impedes progress towards the lofty goal of
accurate learner assessment - and beyond that the demonstration of value, ROI
and other things w e hold dear.

Nobody, for example, w ould advocate a relaxation in the w ay driving tests are
assessed. And, who is to say that our collective performance in the w orkplace
isn't as vital to the UK as the proficiency of our drivers? Another great thing about
ramping up assessment compared to other aspects of the process is that it's
relatively cheap to implement - and therefore highly cost effective.

A more learner-centric approach to learning design w ould not only result in a more
enlightened and progressive outlook tow ards employee training, there is also a
growing economic imperative to do so. According to the recent CBI Ready to grow
survey "nearly tw o-thirds (63 per cent) of UK firms plan to target training more
effectively, ensuring that resources are focused on those areas and activities

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yielding the best return." How might this manifest itself in terms of best practice?
What new methodologies could be adopted in order to ensure learner
engagement, transmission and retention as w ell as achieve the business results
that really matter at minimum cost?

I think the answ er is relatively simple. As much as 90 per cent of the budget of a
conventional e-learning solution can be spent on click-throughs and the other
10% on assessment. This is because so much time and money is expended on
tailoring everything to an exact fit - on-brand and on-message. Keeping content
on-brand is vital but the subtle bit is deciding what needs to be on-brand and
w hat doesn't - and w hat's already out there that the learner can use and benefit
from.

Learning design - a new model?

Our team at Brightwave is in the process of trying to change e-learning culture by
promoting the value of high impact communication campaigns alongside a freer
approach to learner exploration and discovery that caters for varying learning
styles. This is a view supported by training guru Martyn Sloman, w ho recently said
the profession requires "both a new mindset and a new skillset which is designed
to meet individual rather than collective needs."

Instead of the conventional 90-10 approach, a genuinely immersive and engaging

user-experience could be created by spending half the budget on an activity-
centred microsite containing games, video content (drama, expert vox pops, etc.),
elements of social netw orking and bespoke apps. Tw enty per cent could be spent
on an intranet holding downloadable detail and the remaining 30 per cent could
be invested in more effective forms of assessment that are robust, substantial,
meaningful. Assessment that really measures performance, aptitude and ability.

So resource allocation and aspects of project management would alter - but what
effect w ould it have on the person actually designing the learning? Perhaps the
role for the learning designer needs to change to being a collaborator w ith
subject matter experts. Most of their role w ould be researching, unearthing and
collating existing high quality content. Key to the learning designer's new role
w ould be questions such as:-

What already exists internally?

What content is generic and can be sourced externally?
What advice and guidance can you give the learner to help themselves such as
items for 'further reading' and 'further view ing?

In essence it's more velvet glove than iron fist - providing trainees w ith a range of
materials to gain the required knowledge but not prescribing any set path. It's
like - 'here's all the stuff you need - it's up to you how you do it.' Analogies w ith a
driving test are yet again relevant here - taking a reasonably rigorous exam to
see if your formal / informal learning blend has been effective in helping you attain
a certain level of proficiency.

We need a more learner-centric approach that's a) contemporary and b) treats

learners as adults, assuming they'll find their ow n w ay and they'll learn for
themselves - providing they know w hat's expected of them in the first place. After
all, isn't this how most of us already use the internet, searching for w hat we need
and discarding w hat w e don't? This improvised approach to information gathering
may not be an exact fit, but w ould be more appropriate than the current one-
style-fits-all orthodoxy.

Such blue-sky thinking is all very w ell and good, but would it push development
costs through the recession-hit roof? Au contraire. In fact it could w ell be cheaper
to identify and link to existing relevant sources on the net such as YouTube,
Videojug and TED, rather than spending scarce resources on re-presenting all
content in the client's own image. Some learning professionals are starting to see
the value of this new wisdom, but it w ill take a w hile for this meme to take hold in
the heart of many corporate HR and PR departments.

And could end-users deal with this hi-tech, open-ended approach? Most people’s
relationship w ith computers has long since moved on to levels of sophistication
and familiarity w ay beyond those of the organisations that employ them or the
instructional designers who design and create the learning experience in the first
place!

Virtuous circles of reform

The advantages of providing learner-centric solutions w orthy of the name are
manifold. Firstly, it would result in improved employee engagement - the Holy Grail
of HR. This in turn w ould lead to increased economic competitiveness, an outcome
the Treasury seems intent on wasting billions of pounds of taxpayer's money in
other realms to try and achieve.

A 50-20-30 approach - or something resembling it - would also allow learning

designers and developers to really apply their talents rather than be restricted by
needless departmental turf w ars and spending countless hours drawing lipstick
on pre-existing content. I w ould argue if ever there w as a concrete w ay of

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demonstrating genuine value to existing and potential clients - this w ould be hard
to beat.

Alongside these laudable benefits there are the spoils of market-share w ar for
the victor - £39 billion w ill be invested in w orkplace training the UK this year. The
Young Turks responsible for innovatively grabbing even 0.1% of this pie w ill have
to loosen their figurative belts for years to come. Time w ill tell if it will be new
start-ups or existing players w ithin the sector that grasp this lucrative opportunity
by realising one crucial thing - that the modern, mostly informal w ay people learn,
is closer to the random acquisitiveness of a magpie than the focussed training of
a sheep dog.

Staying w ith comparisons from the animal kingdom - as any immersive, engaging
e-learning course on cat skinning w ill inform you - there's more than one w ay to
skin one. As 2.0 technologies begin to mature, so there is a grow ing
sophistication in the w ay they are employed to enrich the w ay w e learn. Face-to-
face business training is increasingly being replaced by online, on-demand
interactive webcast services such as LiveTime Learning, w hich provides bite-sized
key skills at a fraction of the cost per user than tw entieth century techniques.
Other new initiatives such as the Open University's Openlearn programme - w hich
allow s absolutely everyone access to more than 6,000 hours of tuition across
twelve topic areas - are to be applauded too.

New solutions require fresh thinking

These are exciting days in the w orld of learning design, both for those of us within
the industry and those commissioning our services. But w e need to invest a little
more faith in the ultimate end-user and provide them with w orld-class w orkplace
learning and assessment - creating solutions that make a significant difference
and instil positive change.

For this to occur w e must realise that the profile of a typical recipient of w orkplace
training has changed. This means that old (present) models of e-learning not
based on accurate notions of how we use technology should be abandoned. New
approaches need to be developed - arguably based on the ideas expressed
above - reflecting the best and latest research on the formal and informal
acquisition of know ledge. Allied to this, prevailing industry trends strongly suggest
such change is not only w elcome but somew hat inevitable.

As someone once said: "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of
thinking we used when w e created them." Any idea who came up with this pearl
of w isdom? Albert Einstein of course...

Learner-centric design - Tips

1. Questions to ask - w hat changes do you w ant to see in the learner? What are
the learning objectives and key messages you want to instil in the learner? Do
these dovetail with your business objectives?
2. Think about the real profile of your learners and how they use technology to
learn informally and how this can relate to your organisation
3. Provide and develop materials in order to appeal to a wide range of learning
styles (games, video, sound, factsheets, FAQs, intranet, social netw orking)
4. All learning materials should be relevant to the w orkplace activity and not be
patronising, demeaning or 'fun' for the sake of it
5. Identify w hich parts of the content can be accessed from existing sources (this
may not mean an exact fit) and which parts need to be on-brand, on-message
and entirely bespoke
6. Where relevant, provide comprehensive and meaningful assessment that is as
challenging as a driving test - in so much that passing it is a genuine
conformation of competence
7. Ensure the learning is immersive for the learner not w ith novelty (such as
animation for the sake of it) but is sophisticated and as targeted as possible
for the job in hand. This may require using diagnostic assessments
beforehand to identify exactly w hat the learner needs to succeed in their job.

James Cory-Wright is Head of Learning and Design at Brightwave

Other resources you might find useful:

Blog: Putting design into context

Blog: Less is more - no tragedy
Blog: Kidult learning
Brightidea: Style and substance

Call us on 01273 827676 or email us at enquiries@brightwave.co.uk to find

out more about our corporate learning solutions and how we can help your
business.

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