Learning Design

Designing for learning

It may sound all too obvious, but learners learn best when they are engaged, when the tasks they are doing are meaningful and when they have the necessary resources and supports to enable them to complete the tasks effectively.

Of course, we all know when effective learning has occurred. It is when learners are able to do something they couldn't do before (the learning experience) or can now do better. In reality, this often means solving new problems by applying what they have learnt.

So at 9L we design experiences for learners that are are built around:

• Engaging tasks
• Relevant resources and tool
• Appropriate supports
• Opportunities to apply their learning.

How does this play out when applied to a real client? Well, consider the following scenario...

Client: Major Insurance Company

Problem: To make learners compliant in auditing insurance claims in various areas (such as motor vehicle insurance).

Old solution: Present factual information in a Power Point like presentation; test learners retention at the 'end' of the presentation.

Nine Lanterns (new) solution: Create an authentic office scenario, where the learner receives an email from their manager requesting they audit a number of insurance claims from 3 different customers.

The learner proceeds to open each claim form in turn, and identify the points at which the claim is problematic; and what is wrong at each of the identifiable points (e.g. lacks required information; the form is wrongly completed; information given is not specific enough).

The learner can obtain a Hint at any point; and also ask advice from a 'virtual colleague'. Once learners have audited each claim by annotating the claims forms, they submit their work. Feedback is then given to each of their 'annotations' – how (not just if) they are either correct or incorrect.

The 9L Learning Architecture

We have created a Learning Architecture that provides for:

Tasks, which:

• Focus on real-world activities
• Enable the learner to produce something of value and application
• Directly relate to their role or position in the workplace
• Are complex and open-ended (problem based), often with multiple solutions or answers.

Resources and Supports, that:

• Give access to people and information that learners would seek and use in real life – such as 'experts', colleagues and 'real' documents
• Provide different perspectives on the same task
• Scaffold (support) the learner to apply knowledge to new problems
• Look and feel (visually) like real life 'things' and people – PDAs, computers, phones, etc.

Tools, that enable:

• Learners to articulate what they know
• Learners to reflect on what they are learning
• Performance of real life tasks
• Represent the actual tools (forms, documents, electronic tools such as a PDA or computer) that learners would expect to use in real life.

Feedback, which:

• Is 'rich', describing how a learner is correct/incorrect
• Encourages self-reflection
• Is often provided in the form of model or expert responses