Design for how people learn

Products, technologies, and workplaces change so quickly today that everyone is continually learning. Many of us are also teaching, even when it's not in our job descriptions. Whether it's giving a presentation, writing documentation, or creating a website or blog, we need and want to share our knowledge with other people. But if you've ever fallen asleep over a boring textbook, or fast-forwarded through a tedious e-learning exercise, you know that creating a great learning experience is harder than it seems. In Design For How People Learn, you'll discover how to use the key principles behind learning, memory, and attention to create materials that enable your audience to both gain and retain the knowledge and skills you're sharing. Using accessible visual metaphors and concrete methods and examples, Design For How People Learn will teach you how to leverage the fundamental concepts of instructional design both to improve your own learning and to engage your audience.

Design For How People

LearnJulie Dirksen

DESIGN FOR HOW PEOPLE LEARN

Find us on the Web at www.newriders.com

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New Riders is an imprint of Peachpit, a division ofPearson Education

Copyright © 2012 by Julie Dirksen

Acquisitions Editor: Wendy Sharp

Project Editor: Susan Rimerman

Developmental Editor: Wendy Katz

Production Editor: Becky Winter

Composition: WolfsonDesign

Indexer: James Minkin

Interior Design: Kathleen Cunningham

Cover Design: Mimi Heft

Illustration Production: Jessica Duff

Notice of Rights

All rights reserved No part of this book may bereproduced or transmitted in any form by anymeans, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording, or otherwise, without the prior writtenpermission of the publisher For information ongetting permission for reprints and excerpts,contact permissions@peachpit.com

Notice of Liability

The information in this book is distributed on an

“As Is” basis, without warranty While everyprecaution has been taken in the preparation of thebook, neither the author nor Peachpit shall haveany liability to any person or entity with respect toany loss or damage caused or alleged to be causeddirectly or indirectly by the instructions contained

in this book or by the computer software andhardware products described in it

Trademarks

Many of the designations used by manufacturersand sellers to distinguish their products are

claimed as trademarks Where those designationsappear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of atrademark claim, the designations appear asrequested by the owner of the trademark All otherproduct names and services identified throughoutthis book are used in editorial fashion only and forthe benefit of such companies with no intention ofinfringement of the trademark No such use, or theuse of any trade name, is intended to conveyendorsement or other affiliation with this book.ISBN-13: 978-0-321-76843-8

ISBN–10: 0-321-76843-4

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Printed and bound in the United States of America

About the Author

Julie Dirksen is an independent consultant and

instructional designer with more than 15 yearsexperience creating highly interactive e-learningexperiences for clients from Fortune 500

companies and technology startups to grant-fundedresearch initiatives She has been an adjunctfaculty member in the Visualization Department atthe Minneapolis College of Art and Design, whereshe created and taught courses in project

management, instructional design, and cognitivepsychology She gets ridiculously excited aboutthings like learning applications of loss aversion

or the way glucose is regulated in the brain andshe’s happiest whenever she gets to learn

something new You can find her online atwww.usablelearning.com.

me from saying anything too stupid about brains,although if I did, it’s not her fault), Dave Ferguson,Janet Laane Effron, Simon Bostock, RebeccaDavis, and Mags Hanley (who kept saying “That’s

great, Julie, but how do you apply it?).

The Peachpit/New Riders folks, Wendy Sharp,Susan Rimerman, Becky Winter and, most of all,the lovely and patient Wendy Katz

The people who made it pretty—Jeremy Beckman,who was unbelievably generous with his time andcreativity, Jess Duff, who made everything lookbetter, and Leigh Simmons, who was really patientwith me and who, even though I couldn’t figure out

a way to use it in the book, originated the phrase

“Ninja cake time!” Also, the talented people whocreated the cover, interior design, and layout forthe book.

Michael Allen, who is all you could wish for as amentor, and Allen Interactions for their sabbaticalprogram (which allowed me to write the originalbook outline), and for generously letting me usework I did at Allen Interactions (Bicycles!) in thisbook

Kathy Sierra, who has been a huge inspiration andvery supportive and is more responsible for thisbook than she probably knows

All my incredible friends who have listened to metalk about this project for a LONG time, including

my own Whuppass Girls—Mags (who rates asecond mention), Samantha Bailey, and LoriBaker, along with Kathleen Sullivan, Lisa Boyd,Michele McKenzie, Ann Woods, and Lyle Turner.Also, Susan Quakkelaar and Lisa Stortz for theirhelp and ideas, Jodi Hanson for her expert fashionadvising, and the lovely and supportive Laura andAlexandra Nedved who are Max’s other family

All of the smart, interesting people in my

professional network, including Tom Kuhlmann,who started me blogging and provided a rolemodel for how to do it, Koreen Olbrish, whointroduced me to the learning community on

Twitter and who is an all-around rockstar, WillThalheimer, who has been very generous with hisconsiderable knowledge and advice, Cathy Moore,who I want to be when I grow up, and Jane

Bozarth, who was very patient with my questionsabout all this book stuff Also the rest of my

#lrnchat PLN, the learning technology folks atHarrisburg University of Science and Technology,and the IST program at Indiana University

All of my colleagues who have provided lots ofadvice, ideas, and interesting conversations,including Lester Shen, Carla Torgerson, EdmondManning, Dan Thatcher, Karl Fast, Matt Taylor,the original Studio Z boys, and David Bael (&family)

The people who wrote the books on the inspirationbookshelf: Steve Krug, BJ Fogg, Scott McCloud,

Jonathan Haidt, Robin Williams, Ralph Koster,Donald Norman, Stephen Anderson, Jesse Schell,and Kathy Sierra (who also rates a second

When working within the artificial intelligencegroup at Control Data Corporation on advancedlearning systems, a colleague questioned why wewere using such powerful systems as Cray megacomputers for adaptive learning programs andlearning simulations He understood why

meteorology and military reconnaissance

applications needed them, but why educationalsystems? Meteorology dealt with vast amounts ofdata and yet needed to predict future weatherquickly Airborne reconnaissance had to comparevisual data from separate flights and perspectives

to recognize which objects had moved and whichhadn’t But instruction?

Many people surmise yet today that instructional

software can’t make much computing demand How

hard is it to present and score multiple-choice questions?

I asked my colleague, what causes meteorology

and reconnaissance to make heavy computational

demands? He replied, the extremely large

amounts of data to be gathered and managed, the rapid analysis that was needed, and the need to visualize the results Hmm It sounded familiar—

like working with human learners I asked him howmuch data he thought the human brain might

typically contain and what level of complex

analysis he thought it capable of How would itcompare to our largest computer? What level ofcommon knowledge and reasoning had we

achieved in our intelligent systems? How did thatcompare to working with people? What level ofcomputation might be required to perform the tasks

of a talented teacher and mentor?

With an estimated capacity of somewhere between

10 and 100 terabytes and with little-understoodcapabilities far beyond our most capable

computers, the human brain is phenomenallycomplex It’s amazingly capable and surprisinglyunpredictable It’s both rational and emotional It’sperceptive and yet selectively so It can rememberlarge amounts of data and yet has the advantages of

forgetting And each of us has a unique one.

The challenges of creating highly effective learningexperiences are numerous We’re fortunate thathumans are, in many ways, learning creatures Weare generally eager to learn We intuitively knowthat knowledge is power Skills turn knowledgeinto actionable advantages We want skills andenjoy having them But even with all these

advantages, it isn’t easy to transmit knowledge andbuild skills Thinking of instructional technology ascomputer-delivered multiple-choice questionsreveals how misunderstood the challenges are.Regardless of how instruction is delivered—through instructor-led activities, e-learning, orother means—structuring effective learning

experiences requires knowledge of How People

Learn So much instruction is developed and

delivered through paradigms born of traditionrather than of knowledge They are ineffective.They are boring They are wasteful

And yet, the science of the human brain is not awell-rounded guide for the preparation of learning

experiences Considerations, yes Helpful, yes.Best practices, no Eager for cookbook-like

guidance, many look to research for widely

applicable principles, yet most research findingsare applicable only within narrow confines Whenbrain and learning research conflict with

experience, experience is the better guide Wisdom

in learning design takes years to acquire It takesfocus, dedication, hard work, and an observantapproach Yet through this richness of variedcontext, experience has broad applicability thatcannot be gained otherwise

Through Julie Dirksen’s extensive experience indesigning learning experiences for wide varieties

of learners in very different contexts, she clarifieswhy traditional instructional approaches are soineffective We learn from Julie’s wisdom, forexample, that while practice is important and sooften omitted or minimized, there are more

effective approaches to building long-term

retention than simple repetition We learn whywords are a poor substitute for demonstration andexample We learn the power of context

Traditional instructional design approaches focusheavily on content—getting it complete and

accurate Then making presentations as clear aspossible Then making assessments precise

Concerns about the learning experience, making itmeaningful, memorable, and motivational, may noteven enter into the discussion I guess it’s nowonder that we have so many boring and

ineffective programs

I’m delighted to have this witty, insightful, cleverlyillustrated guide My hope is that it will helpdesigners shed the shackles of “tell and test”traditions from which learners are victimized bypassive presentations of information followed byshort-term retention tests True, most of us had nochoice but to learn from such instruction andsurvive But there’s no indication this should be

the paradigm of choice Watching Jay Leno’s Jay

Walking segments or Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? should be evidence enough that our

educational traditions aren’t working well It’stime to work smarter

Michael W Allen, Ph.D.

CEO, Allen Interactions Inc

CEO, Allen Learning Technologies LLC

Introduction

1 Where do we Start?

The Learner’s Journey

Where’s the Gap?

Identifying and Bridging Gaps

Examples

Why This Is Important

Summary

2 Who are your Learners?

What Do Your Learners Want?

What Is Their Current Skill Level?

How Are Your Learners Different from You?Learning Styles

Methods for Learning About Your Learners

3 What’s the Goal?

Determine Goals

Identify the Problem

Set the Destination

Communicating Learning ObjectivesDetermine the Gap

How Long Is the Trip?

5 How do you get their Attention?

If They’re Not Paying Attention

Talk to the Elephant

Ways to Engage the ElephantSummary

6 Design for Knowledge

Some of the Challenges

Will They Remember?

Helping Your Learners UnderstandHow Much Guidance?

8 Design for Motivation

Knowledge in the World

Putting Resources in the World

Putting Prompts/Triggers in the WorldPutting Behaviors in the World

Clearing the Path

Summary

10 Conclusion

Index

Nobody ever says “I had the most amazing

textbook” or “There was this really great

PowerPoint deck!”

That suggests that a lot of what makes for a greatlearning experience is not about the content, but isabout the way the content is taught In fact, a classcan cover the same material but be very different,depending on how the material is taught:

So what’s the special sauce? How are the twoexperiences different? When it’s two differentteachers, some of the differences are due to

personality or charisma, but those aren’t usuallythe only differences And when it’s an e-learningcourse, there’s no teacher at all How is a reallygood e-learning course different from just reading

a textbook online?

Even more important, what’s the difference

between a learning experience that’s effectiveversus one that gets forgotten as soon as the learner

is done? Even “awesome” classes are useless ifthe learner doesn’t do something different

afterwards While some learning experiences are

“learning for the sake of learning,” I won’t reallyaddress those in this book (Disclaimer: I workwith adult learners, usually in a professionalsetting, so while the book will address examplesfrom multiple contexts, the majority will relate toadult learning experiences.)

For me, the goal of good learning design is forlearners to emerge from the learning experiencewith new or improved capabilities that they cantake back to the real world, that help them do thethings they need or want to do If your learners are

on a journey from novice to expert, how can youhelp them along that path?

This book looks at some of the things involved indesigning great learning experiences:

Chapter 1 : Where Do We Start?

If learning is a journey, what’s the route like foryour learners, and what’s the gap between wherethey are and where they need to be? Sometimesthat gap is knowledge, but just as often the gap can

be skills, motivation, or environment Learn how toidentify each of these

Chapter 2 : Who Are Your Learners?

Your learners see the world differently than you

do, and to design effective learning experiences,

you need to understand their view of the world.

Chapter 3 : What’s The Goal?

The best learning experiences are designed with aclear destination in mind, but sometimes a cleardestination can be harder to pin down than itseems Learn how to determine your destinationwith accuracy

Chapter 4 : How Do We Remember?

Learn about how the brain works to focus on andretain information

Chapter 5 : How Do You Get Their Attention?

The first prerequisite for learning is to get yourlearners’ attention Learn strategies for getting pastthe distractions and helping your learners to focus

Chapter 6 : Design for Knowledge

The most common type of learning experiencefocuses on teaching knowledge Learn strategies tomake this as effective as possible

Chapter 7 : Design for Skills

If you ask the question “Is it reasonable to think

that some can be proficient without practice?” andthe answer is “No,” then you aren’t teachinginformation, you are teaching a skill, and skillsrequire practice Learn strategies for helping yourlearners get the practice they need to developskills.

Chapter 8 : Design for Motivation

If you’ve ever heard a learner say the words “Iknow, but ” then you are probably not dealingwith a knowledge gap, but rather a motivationalone Learn strategies for getting your learners notonly to learn more, but also to do more

Chapter 9 : Design for Environment

We can get people to hold more information intheir heads, or alternately, we can learn betterways to make information available to them intheir environment, so they can get it when theyneed it

Chapter 10 : Conclusion

1 Where Do We Start?

(In which we learn that it’s not always about

what people know, and that you shouldn’t use

a suspension bridge to fix a pothole)

The Learner’s Journey

Are the following statements true or false?

• If you teach someone about how smoking

is bad for them, they’ll stop smoking

• If someone goes to a management trainingclass, they’ll be good managers

• If someone takes a really good web designclass, they’ll be a good web designer

• If you teach someone the right way to dosomething, they won’t do it the wrong way.Did you think any of those statements were

completely true?

No, of course you didn’t, because there are a lot ofcomplicating factors that influence whether a

person succeeds or not.

Learning experiences are like journeys Thejourney starts where the learner is now, and endswhen the learner is successful (however that isdefined) The end of the journey isn’t just knowing

more, it’s doing more.

So, if that journey isn’t just about knowing more,then what else is involved? What else needs to bedifferent in order for someone to succeed?

Where’s The Gap?

There’s a gap between your learner’s currentsituation and where they need to be in order to besuccessful Part of that is probably a gap inknowledge, but as we began to discuss above,there are other types of gaps as well.

If you can identify those gaps, you can designbetter learning experiences

For example, consider the following situations.What could be the gaps for each of these

scenarios?

• Alison is a project manager for a web

design company, and she’s just agreed toteach an undergraduate project-

management class at a design school Herstudents will mostly be students in thesecond year of the creative design

program Most of the students are 18–19years old and are taking the class becauseit’s a requirement for their degree

• Marcus is teaching a two-day workshop

on database design for a new databasetechnology This is the second time he’staught the workshop, and he’s revising itbecause it was too basic the first timearound

• Kim is designing a series of e-learningcourses for a large global company thatrecently merged with a smaller company.The two companies are buying a newpurchasing system to replace each of thecompanies’ older systems The employees

of the smaller company will also need tolearn the procedures from the larger

But is a lot of project management knowledge allthat’s needed to make somebody a capable projectmanager? There’s more to good project

management than just knowing information And ofcourse that will hold true for much more thanAlison’s class Let’s take a look at some of thekinds of gaps can exist for learners

I recently worked with a client on a project toteach salespeople how to create a product

proposal for potential clients The salespeopleneed to be able to choose which product bestmeets a client’s needs, and then to select a series

of options so the product is optimally customizedfor that client

We were working on revising an old course, in

which there were about four slides that listed each

of the product features

And that was it

Information is the equipment your learners need tohave in order to perform Having informationdoesn’t accomplish anything by itself Something is

accomplished when the learner uses that

information to do things

Basically, you want your learners to have the rightsupplies for their journey:

But you also want your learners to know what to

do with that information Having the information

without knowing how and when to use it is likehaving a really great tent you don’t know how toput up or spending a lot of money on a reallyterrific camera but still taking cruddy picturesbecause you don’t have the abilities needed to useit.

If the only thing your learner is missing is the

information, then your job is actually pretty easy,especially living in this information age There arelots of easy, cheap ways to convey information

Another benefit of the information age is that youdon’t necessarily need your learners to carry allthe information the whole way on their journey Ifthey can pick up less critical information as they goalong, you can focus initially on the more criticalknowledge that they really need to have with themthe whole way

As for all the rest of that information, think abouthow you can cache it for your learners, so they caneasily pick it up when they need it If they get theinformation when they really need it, they’ll alsoappreciate it more.

We’ll take a closer look at different ways tosupply information to your learners in later

chapters

Skill Gaps

Let’s say I’ve figured out the start- and end-point

of my journey, I’ve got it all mapped out, and Ihave all the gear I need: Am I now ready to hit the2,000-mile Appalachian Trail?

Probably not

Anything more ambitious than a gentle afternoonhike is probably beyond me at the moment Sowhat would I need to be ready to tackle the

Appalachian Trail? Would more gear help? Moreroute planning?

Not really The only thing that is going to get meready for a major, multi-day hike is a lot of hiking,and even a less ambitious goal would requirepractice and conditioning

Time spent on practice devices like ellipticalmachines or stairclimbers would probably helptowards the goal of a major hike, but in the end,tackling an expert-level hike would require a lot ofpractice on less challenging hikes For example,even if I sat down and memorized an AppalachianTrail guidebook, it still wouldn’t be a good idea totry it if I didn’t also have the necessary

conditioning and skills.

Learners in all disciplines are frequently in thesame situation They get handed the knowledge in abook or a class, but don’t get the opportunity topractice and develop skills

Skill vs Knowledge

Having a skill is different than having knowledge To determine if something is a skill gap rather than a knowledge gap, you need to ask just one question:

Is it reasonable to think that someone can be proficient without practice?