Seven Magic Keys to Create Motivational E-learning – Explore the First Three!

Motivation is an essential ingredient of e-learning, and it is a crucial success factor for companies to consider in designing and developing training. If e-learning is not motivational, it results in higher dropout rates, low learner engagement, and poor job performance. However, creating e-learning that is motivational is not as easy as following a recipe. It involves a whole lot of good instructional design standards and careful consideration of certain important factors that directly impact the way e-learning looks and feels by the end of its development process. Michael Allen, in his book Guide to E-learning, calls these factors ‘keys’—keys to build interactive, fun, and effective learning programs.

In this blog, we will look at the first three keys Allen describes in his book, and see how they enhance online learning courses. These keys are practical and easy to implement, and their presence or absence in your e-learning will likely affect the entire training – at least to the extent that it aims to provide motivating and engaging learning experiences.

1. Build on Anticipated Outcomes

A simple yet effective way of building interest and motivation in online learning courses is to show learners the different benefits of the training – prime learning motivators such as self-esteem, skills, and competencies are a few examples. These learning benefits can be communicated through the learning objectives or instructional objectives of the eLearning course. That being said, do not simply list the learning objectives. A clear learning objective should

- State what the learner will be able to do on completion of the eLearning course in terms of behavioral change

- Be framed with an intention to allow learners demonstrate specific knowledge, mastery of a skill, or change in attitude

Perhaps, an example of a good, motivation-driven and performance-based learning objective is when a learner is put to “work” immediately on a stated task – not just to make learning active but also as a means of determining the right level of challenge and practice needed for each learner going forward.

Pre-assessments can be used to help learners demonstrate what they know, what they can and cannot do almost immediately. This way, when learners try and fail, they will know (or be told by a voice-over) what they are going to be able to do when they finish the learning. This is a far better approach of putting the message across than simply asking learners to glean the purpose of the training from reading a list of objectives.

2. Put the Learner at Risk

Allen, in his book, asks: ‘When do our senses become most acute? When are we most alive and ready to respond?’ He argues that it’s when we are at risk. Our senses are acute when:

1. We sense danger and are forced to take decisions to avert it and protect ourselves
2. A win/lose situation presents the possibility of conquering a challenge

In eLearning, a sense of risk can be implemented using gamified courses.

Gamification in eLearning is the application of game-based elements such as point systems and leaderboards to promote learner engagement and motivation. Gamified courses are also known to energize learners primarily by putting them at risk and rewarding them for success. Agreed that it is easy to point to the rewards of winning as the allure; but it is also the energizing capabilities of gamified courses that make them so attractive. Learners feel good to be active, regardless of whether they are winning or losing.

Sure, competitive environments using gamification in eLearning can be easily created. However, it does have its own share of problems if overdone. Pitting learners against each other in a win/lose environment may render the strategy counterproductive. Sometimes, it’s difficult to prevent learners from perceiving themselves as ‘losers.’

That being said, many companies expect outstanding results from learners at the end of riskless learning programs. But the truth is, a lot of learning occurs through making mistakes. Our brains are wired to be resilient in the face of challenges and danger. People like overcoming challenges. Go ahead and put your learners at some measure of risk.

3. Pick the Right Content for Each Learner

It is not enough for learners to know there is value in the training they are going to undertake – this is only the initial motivation to get them involved. The training must also some real value to keep them thoroughly engaged.

Earlier, when eLearning was just beginning to spread its roots in the corporate world, there was a widespread belief that it will someday make practical the adaptation of learning content to the different needs of individual learners. David Kolb enunciates this brilliantly by positing that no instructional path is ever the same for two learners. In simple words, not every learner learns the same way. Besides, a one-size-fits-all solution seldom results in a greater return on investment. 

Tell, test, done – the most prevalent form of instruction has been perpetrated on the learner for decades. Organizations are known to choose this over other, better forms of instruction because it’s simple and cheap. In this approach, learners are first asked to take a course. After a while, they take a test and their results are issued.

However, to ensure learners receive information that is most relevant to them, this approach can and needs to be re-sequenced to achieve a remarkably different but effective instructional process – put the test first i.e., adopt a test-and-tell approach. The advantage gained by putting the test first (a pre-training assessment) is illustrated in the table below:

Tell and Test

Learners are forced to wait for the test (which is usually at the end of the course) to reveal what is really important to learn.

All learners receive the same content and have to slog through it with no choice to skip. (This is also a serious violation of one of the most important adult learning principles—adult learners have a tendency to be self-directed and the restriction on navigation is not a good instructional practice.)

Learners in a tell-and-test approach become passive as they try to learn whatever content is on offer – content which they hope will prove to be useful at some point.

Test and Tell

Learners immediately confront the challenges the course will enable them to tackle in real-life. They also witness instantly what it is they need to be learning.

Here, content is divided into small modules, each addressing a specific learning objective or a skill. Learners are given an opportunity to skip content they already know, as evidenced by the pre-training assessment.

In well-designed test-and-tell approaches, learners are bound to become active learners. These learners seek learning modules that are most relevant to them and will allow them to put to use.

In a test-and-tell approach, the assessment’s objective is to test the readiness of the learner for learning. When the pre-training testing indicates a learner has not reached an acceptable level of proficiency, alternate instructional material or support can be provided to remedy the situation*.

*It is recommended that records of these individualized programs be kept using a learning management system; for they can be really helpful in responding to the learners’ evolving competencies. The results can also act as a measure of progress and achievement for every learning objective each learner is pursuing. Areas of weakness in which the training can assist are selected for the individual learner.

Concluding Remarks

As you can see, the first three magical keys focus majorly on how to best present the content to learners to foster motivation and engagement. In the next article, we will explore the other four magical keys to creating motivational eLearning, including the importance of contextualized learning, intrinsic feedback and why delaying feedback is crucial to maximizing the degree to which the learning content can be retained. Will be back soon!