Ten Ways to Engage Online Learners (Part 1)

>> by Ann-Marie Grissino and Harmon Singh <<

Summary: This article looks at how online course authors can engage their audiences and reviews strategies for pulling learners into scenarios, encouraging experimentation, and using gaming techniques in e-learning. This article also glimpses into the world of e-learning on a handheld device.

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Acquiring knowledge requires learner motivation. But, what motivates learners? To some, it's using new technology. To others, it's a certificate after course completion. These are just parts of the answer. Motivation for learning is based on learners' needs (what it is that they need to know), the strength of that need (how quickly it must be learned or how important it is to learn the material), and the students' knowledge of consequences after learning (for example, getting a certificate, a raise, a job, or recognition).

Strategies for Engaging Learners

Successful learning environments should also provide intrinsic motivation by promoting challenges, piquing curiosity, and enabling active participation. This is where current e-learning falls short and this is where we, as instructional designers and e-learning authors, can improve.

In short, engage the learner any way you can. Here are ten effective ways in which you engage the learner.

1. Use Gaming Techniques

One way of engaging the learner is to use gaming techniques. Why are kids hooked for hours on games? How can we use game strategies in online courseware? Let's look at some examples.

Game Applications in Learning

One airline uses gaming techniques to teach employees about business performance and financial strategies. Employees play with virtual chips, recording revenues and paying expenses. The goal is to make money. Players complete a year-end balance sheet and income statements, sometimes making costly mistakes. During the second round, they look to reduce costs, grow revenue, or stretch resources. They learn about the consequences of their choices.

Another example involves a course about real estate rules and regulations using a gameboard offered by LearningWare (www.learningware.com). The results showed significant success rates according to LearningWare, an e-learning services firm.

A third example shows how the University of Texas worked with Digital Medial Collaboratory and produced a game-based solution to learning entry-level job skills. They also claim very positive results.

Games We Can Adapt for Online Delivery

Bringing games into your courses requires creativity. Think of these common games and how you can employ them online:

• Backgammon
• Card games, such as Poker, Hearts, Gin Rummy, Bridge, Solitaire
• Charades
• Checkers, Chinese Checkers, and Chess
• Dominoes
• Go
• Memory or Concentration
• Rock-Paper-Scissors
• Tic-Tac-Toe
• Twenty Questions

Also, include features that make games such as Trivial Pursuit®, Monopoly®, and Clue® so successful.

Use expertise from existing game development strategies. For example, the Academic Gaming Review (http://www.gis.net/~pldr/) provides free educational game scenarios, boards, and rules mostly about historical subjects. Although your course might not be history-related, you can adapt the concepts presented here for your own courses. Interestingly enough, one game called Ancient Near East requires that players control a Middle Eastern country and use its resources to develop it.

Look at these web sites for learning resources:

• www.TwitchSpeed.com (the portal of www.Games2Train.com)
• North American Simulation and Gaming Association (www.NASAGA.org) hosts an online conference about online games
• www.LifelongLearning.co.uk discusses the use of board games for topics such as workplace issues, communication skills, and performance building.
• www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/Resources/games.htm. This site lists extensive game-related learning topics.

The concept of game technology in learning is surging forward in industry journals. But, if the suggestion of games in courseware still offends the boss, don't use the word "game." Instead, tell her you are employing a creative strategy to promote interactivity.

2. Incorporate Role Playing

The second suggestion for engaging learners involves role-playing in online environments. To help you get started along this line, try these role-playing ideas:

• Investigative role-playing: Players try to solve a problem or riddle by themselves or against others, similar to murder mystery games.
• Live action role-playing: Players interact with each other in a virtual environment. For example, in multi-user Dungeons (MUDs), many users play an online game at once. (See www.topmudsites.com for a list of MUDs.) Combine this with live chats in a course for an application with real-time features.
• Character role-playing: Players take on another's persona, for example, the CEO or IT Director.

3. Tell a Story

Storytelling is an art and a compelling one. Storytelling can capture the imagination, set a scene, and draw in learners. Try these ideas.

• Offer a mentor or expert in your courses who provides advice; include questions where there doesn't have to be one correct answer and let three experts justify the different answers. The expert or experts might provide concrete examples where the advice was extremely beneficial.
• Storytelling often includes danger around every corner. Include obstacles or challenges to overcome, for example, the possibility of bankruptcy in a financial planning course.
• Let each player choose cards that have parts of stories. The cards guide the plot. Place the cards in categories from which players choose, for example, Financial Decisions, Marketing Initiatives, and Organizational Issues for a business strategy course.

4. Build in Flexibility

Games can spark interest and make boring topics fun. However, to engage the user we must include flexibility. We learn by choices and seeing the effects of those choices. We also learn from mistakes.

So, include choices in your courses. A course-of-action decision requires that the learner predict outcomes. It's the act of predicting that engages the learner and promotes the learning. Allow students to make mistakes, follow different paths, and view consequences of errant choices. However, ensure that students can return to the juncture or replay the event so that they can correct mistakes.

5. Include Drag and Drops That Require Thinking

Drag-and-drop actions certainly enhance interactivity, but they make users think first. Here are some ideas:

• Management training courses could let learners read departmental proposals and drag them to either an in- or out- box for additional consideration.
• One course by KnowledgeNet lets users drag power cable plugs to the right power cable socket.

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Example of drag and drop from KnowledgeNet.

Ann-Marie Grissino is President of Keypoint Consultants, Inc., a firm specializing in online communication design and delivery. Ann-Marie has won numerous awards including an Excellence and Best of Show for e-learning development. In October 2002 Ann-Marie participated in the Technical Communication Delegation to China. She can be reached at (919)-562-2464 or at amgrissino@keypointconsultants.com.

Harman Singh is the President and CEO of a North Carolina-based e-learning solutions company, Sikhya Solutions. Sikhya Solutions provides custom e-learning software and solutions, including authorGEN, a family of products that help content authors and instructional technologists develop and deliver knowledge to their audiences. You can contact him at hsingh@sikhya.com or visit his website at www.sikhya.com.

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