E-Teaching

As Instructional Designers, a typical question we get asked is how can you possibly teach a subject you barely know? My answer (depending on who is asking the question) varies from a staid ‘The SME knows the subject and I know the medium’ to a provocative ‘Instructional Design is actually a science that includes methods to decipher and present alien content.’

The point is that designing and writing for e-learning requires an Instructional Designer to deal with a variety of subjects. The ingenious Instructional Designer is required to sift through realms of information to actually create a structure that works. Finally, the ensuing product should not just COMMUNICATE but also TEACH the audience in question.

So, who is this audience? The audience could be eager children, who are conveniently categorized in the K-12 segment. At other times, we design to help a teacher teach. But often times, in case of adult learning, we are desperately trying to teach people who don’t really want to learn.

Does this mean that we have a tougher job than real-time teachers? Not really! We don’t have to contend with different personalities in a classroom setup. But, at the same time, we need to keep the virtual students engaged from the time they begin the course to the time they successfully complete their assessments. This, in fact, is the crux of effective instructional design.

As a child goes back home thinking about a nice game that helped him or her learn about addition or as a production manager drives back home happy at having finally cracked the principles of financial management, I know that they will not thank the virtual teacher behind what they learnt. But, I do know that we, in some small way, are helping in making learning more accessible, more cost-effective, and yes much more funJ
So, when caught in realms of alien-sounding content, just think about what you want to say to the person who will view the course, and there you will have your answer.