In ancient times, when content was transmitted by word of mouth, priests and scholars hoarded and controlled it to withhold information, keep the public in ignorance, and hold on to power. The first breakthrough occurred with the arrival of the printing press. Content became more easily available to anyone who can afford the price of books. The impact of the Gutenberg revolution is a relatively minor phenomenon compared with the impact of the Internet revolution. Content is now freely and abundantly available. Authors, bloggers, podcasters, wiki users, and commentators compete to provide accurate, useful, and up-to-date information, free of charge.
If you want to test my claim of abundance of content, choose any training topic and conduct an online search at amazon.com. Follow this up by googling the search word to discover the astounding amount of online content.
Here’s a strategy that I prescribe to instructional designers:
Avoid creating new content. Instead, create structured learning activities that incorporate existing content.
“Content Is Not Available”
Training designers cannot rationalize the creation of new content by claiming that usable content is not available for their learners’ use. If this is true, and even if we assume that only one percent of the books and only one-tenth of a percent of the online documents are usable, we still have enough content to keep us (and our learners) busy. My suggestion is that we assemble various combinations of the existing content (fully respecting copyright regulations, of course) and design learning activities that require and reward interaction with the content.
When training designers complain that their topics are so specialized, protected, or new that no content material is currently available, I usually challenge them. There are always user manuals, technical specifications, or job aids floating around someplace. In the extreme case where no documentation is available and only a few people have the esoteric knowledge, we still have access to the content inside their crania. We can produce instant content resources by interviewing subject-matter experts and recording their discussions as audio or video.
“We cannot Use the Content in its Current Format.”
In whatever form the content currently exists, we can design effective learning activities to interact with it. Here are training activity templates that are suited for the different types of content sources:
A textra game combines the effective organization of well-written documents with the motivational impact of games. Participants read an article or a book
A replay activity enhances the instructional value of audio recordings. In a typical replay activity, participants listen to an audio recording and participate in an exercise that involves interactive evaluation, analysis, synthesis, application, and similar processes.
A double exposure activity enhances the instructional value of video recordings. In a typical activity of this type, participants listen to an audio recording and play one or more games that help review and apply the new concepts and skills.
The 4-door approach incorporates online content. The website uses four metaphorical doors: library, playground, café, and assessment center. This approach combines the effective organization of online documents (in the library), with the motivational impact of web-based games (in the playground), the power of collaborative learning (in the café), and authentic performance tests (in the assessment center).
Field Studies and Expeditions require the participants to explore the environment of another country, culture, organization, or time period. Participants are given a set of objectives to achieve, information to collect, or objects to obtain. In the process of completing these tasks, the participants acquire new knowledge about the environment and new skills for relating to the local people.
An application activity involves supplying the participants with copies of a job aid. In a sample activity of this type, teams of participants learn different steps and reorganize themselves to master the other steps from each other.
A sampling activity is based on a collection of different samples such as email subject lines or objections from customers . Participants analyze the samples, arrange them in different categories, identify key features, and list quality standards. Later, they apply their discoveries to create new products that meet their needs.
An item-processing activity organizes bits of information, ideas, facts, questions, complaints, or suggestions. In some cases, the participants themselves generate these items. Item processing results in deeper understanding and easier recall of different types of information.
Learning by Design
Here’s something that I have always noticed about the process of training design. The designer reviews, analyzes, and organizes the content into some structured form. In the end, learners are bored with the dead content. In contrast, I use templates that require the participants to explore partially structured or unstructured content and reorganize them into a form that makes sense to them. The result of this dynamic process is in-depth understanding, mastery, recall, and application of the content.
There is ample experimental support that letting people analyze and manipulate the content results in effective learning by the participants. You can explore different activity templates by searching back issues of the GameLetter.