When I was a young girl my bedroom walls were plastered with posters of my idol, The Bionic Woman. “Jaime Sommers” was a teacher-by-day and a secret government agent on the weekend. On top of catching bad guys using her robotic superpowers, she was kind, vulnerable and funny. I absolutely adored her.
(Photo: 1970’s Blogspot )
What made Jaime so compelling was that despite being powered by electronics you never thought of her as a robot or a machine. She was a perfect blend of high tech “tools” with the personality and warmth of being human. Her nemesis in season three were the Fembots, an army of (supermodel) female robots who pretended to be human but were suspiciously absent of emotions and empathy. What made this story such a hit was that it fit an archetype (Star Wars, Dr. Who, Apple, 2001, etc) … the struggle of human over machine.
In many ways, eLearning struggles to be a superhero “hybrid” of human and machine. Despite the best of intentions, eCourses can sometimes feel generic to the learner. This impersonal quality of eCourses can make students feel that they are in for a boring, institutional learning experience. It also undermines the integrity of eCourses as being taught by a real teacher.
Students take a lot of cues from their surroundings in our classes, why should online learning be any different? Some eCourses desperately need saving. Here are some “Bionic” lessons we can all learn:
Lesson #1: Don’t Be a Fembot
I have seen MANY courses that look like no one is actually teaching them. Where is the teacher? Who are they? Whoever is going to be grading and (hopefully) interacting with the learner should have a “human presence” in the course. Some ideas to personalize your course:
– Create a welcome video or screencast
– Paraphrase articles in your own writing “voice”
– Experiment with engaging titles and assignment names.
– Start a Twitter page for the course that they can interact with (embed it in a side block)
– Personalize your sidebar with quotes and/or graphics so the course looks lived in and not like a hospital waiting room
Lesson #2: Build Relationships with (and between) the Learners
We gravitate toward relationships. One of the biggest drivers for young adult learners is social interactions. Asynchronous does not mean asocial. Building connections with and between students is often the key to making them feel valued as part of a learning community. There are many ways to build relationships including:
– Try to respond personally and in a timely manner to student submissions.
– Offer a synchronous time when you can be available “live” at some point during the course.
– Offer a Forum for peer-to-peer FAQ support as well as group discussions. They often can solve one another’s problems.
– Use social media like Instagram, Pinterest and Vine
– Try to add a collaborative aspect to the course. A wiki, google doc, etc. can all allow for “group work”.
– Put a feedback loop (Survey Monkey, etc) in the course and listen to their suggestions.
Lesson #3: Go Bionic!
There is only so much Jaime-in-the-kitchen we can wait through before we want to see the cool stuff. Moodle is full of ways to add the other prime human motivator … novelty. Novelty is the secret to making a course more “alive” and engaging. How to add curriculum-related novelty? Gamify your course.
a) Add activity triggers that reveal additional videos, pictures, etc, when certain conditions are met.
b) Reveal the learning in progressive stages. Nothing is more boring (and intimidating) than a big long course that’s just sitting there like a massive textbook.
c) Use Badges or labels to reward them for passing tests, exploring links and viewing learning objects. Encourage them to be active rather than passive learners.
d) Add a randomized glossary in a block at the top. Glossaries can contain facts, photos or other learning objects in small engaging bite-sized pieces. You create the bank of entries and the randomizer does the rest. The goal is for your course to look fresh and interesting each time they log in.
Just starting out gamifying your online courses? Be sure and check out my guide called How to Start Gamifying Your Online Course.
… The key to creating a more “Bionic” eCourse is to enjoy the technology but never forget that it’s real live humans interacting with it. This approach doesn’t just make the learning more engaging for the learner … it makes it more fun to teach as well.
Do you have any other ways to personalize or add “life” to your eCourses? Add your comment below or drop me a note!
Your tips are fantastic! I’m using some of the suggestions you have provided as I build my e-learning courses. It is, without a doubt, a learning process. You have so many valuable tips and examples that will help me focus in on what really counts in an e-learning course. I build for adult learners, but the flavor is essentially the same…they want to be engaged, challenged and impressed.
I especially loved the analogy between e-learning courses and the Bionic Woman. Makes sense. Thanks for the article…well done!
Thanks, Jane! I appreciate the feedback. I think that many people assume adult learners don’t need to be engaged at the same levels as younger learners and that’s a mistake. The types of motivators might be a little different but as you said, engaged and challenged is still the name of the game. Thanks for the comment!
Thanks very nice blog!
Thank you, Saleh!