Whose heard of Cecil B DeMille? The great director of the silent film era. His epics such as the Ten Commandments and Cleopatra still rank as amazing spectacles. But many great silent directors fell foul to new technology. Back then it was sound. Now it’s the internet.
Online learning has taken off. Educational institutions and corporations have embraced learning management systems for a number of reasons. It’s always there, therefore learners can ‘learn’ in their own time. It’s cost effective, especially where training is linear such as workplace health and safety, it’s environmentally friendlier > less printing, and if utilised properly it can build a community of learners.
The problem with some LMS’ are that they are so often one dimensional. There are pdf’s to download and instructions. Learner’s log on and log off and log is a good choice of words here. ‘I slept like a log.’
When I deliver training, I am conscious of the people in the room. Are they engaged and interested? Are they enjoying themselves? Are they learning?
LMS’ should also engage learners and if they don’t, they aren’t doing their job.
The interface is the first place they arrive at. It should be planned and built to engage and motivate.
John Caples’ AIDA is about good advertising…
Attention … get their attention
Interest … and their interest
Desire … stimulate their desire
Action … forge action
It’s not about downloading online documents. Self directed learners want more of an experience.
Like a good website, static elements are not enough anymore. Consider multi=media, chatrooms, links and moderate. Keep the conversation going.
Don’t be afraid of new technology, but direct it like CB.
The big thing in education now is MOOCs Massive Online Open Course. Every uni in the world is just about wetting pants in anticipation of the predicted huge wave of MOOCs that is going to sweep the globe any minute now. However when QUT did research on new students and MOOCs they found that students don’t want entirely online courses. This doesn’t mean that they enjoy lectures and tutorials, no they still hate them as much as ever, probably more so now that they know hoe easy it is to produce entertaining multi-media presentations in different contexts. I’m sure students often wonder why they have sit through incredibly dreary powerpoints when interactive multi-media technology is in their pockets (smartphones). What students DO want however is that old Cecil B DeMille touch, they want social interaction, they want to flirt, they want to show off, in short they want the old-style University of California uni-student experience. They want to live the legend.
Hi Steve. I want to find out more about MOOC’s. And your right. I like shopping but sometimes I wonder why I’m also expected to check myself out, pack my groceries and pay too! There are some clear winners here and the customers aren’t always the ones are they?
Online learning? Blended learning?
In ancient Sparta they had slaves called pedagogues (that’s where it came from,) who would sit behind their ‘student’ with a stick and hit them when they weren’t paying attention.
We had ours. Happy Harris. What a legend!
Remember c…..y Kidd? What a nice bloke hey? Or old Ted Gill, he was a real new age sensitive guy too.
Another trend with uni students, and Im sure there is research out there somewhere to support what I and some of my colleagues know to be true through anecdotes, is that students don’t expect to be doing any work outside of tutes and lectures. They expect to be hand fed. Given all the shortcuts to pass the test.
This has led to the invention of the “inverted classroom” (you can google) which has a great deal of support and I think it’s a winner!
Red Ted. Now there’s a memory. A really advanced teacher. “What do you think this is son, Bush week?’ Remember? He really instilled a love of learning