Sunday, March 17, 2013

Top Ten Mistakes in eLearning


Stock images with txt
Unedited blocks of txt
Unnecessary animation
Txt plus identical audio
Inconsistent navigation
MCQs on nouns from text
No ‘doing’
Annoying music and sound effects
Corporate crap/Educational hubris
Condescension

6 comments:

John Howard said...

Hi Donald, could point us to some examples of good eLearning that don't make these mistakes? Thanks, John

James Allen said...

Hi Donald, a very useful list. Like John Howard I'd be interested to see an example of 'good' elearning. What do you think is excellent in the marketplace and why?

jay said...

It's more than txt. Remember the venture capital guys VCs who thought they’d struck gold? “Just imagine reducing the cost of instructors….” “Employees can learn on their own time.” A few voices such as Roger and Me stammered WTF? You can't take the people out of the learning.

A level or two above txt, I detest some of these venal aspects of eLearning.

Endless shovel-ware
MEGO - my eyes glaze over
Read, read, read, quiz, repeat
Help is the dead community forum
Volume deal for a library of obsolete crap
1.2% completion rate typical (1.2%!!!!)
Superfluous cartoons
Gratuitous graphics

I may or may not have been the first person to use eLearning on the open web. It was so obvious, I suspect hundreds of us thought it up simultaneously.

Nonetheless, it's a bummer that we had to go through a doofus stage to hammer eLearning into something practical.

Also, while we're only talking 15 years ago, technology is delivering 100x the juice it sputtered out at the dawn of eLearning.



kntspl said...

HI Don,

I agree with 9-10 of your 10 mistakes in eLearning.
I design "high-end" PowerPoint decks. I purchase some IStock photos and then place minimal text. This can be a very powerful way for speakers/teacher to make their point.

Thanks for your post.
Lisa

Marjorie said...

Can you define the acronym MCQ for us?

Donald Clark said...

Sorry Marjorie - Multiple Choice Questions - note that I don't condemn these per se, only the habit of testing on nouns and not understanding. Good ones are fiendishly difficult to write.