A simple conversation with a friend at a street tea shop can have a more emotional impact than attending a grand party in a lavish hotel. The grandeur of an event does not guarantee meaningful interactions. What truly matters is the emotional connection between people. This applies to corporate training as well. While technical knowledge and design complexities may be necessary for training, they are only effective when the learner is emotionally invested in the learning content.
Thus, it is essential to show empathy towards learners to engage them better rather than to coerce them into learning.
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Empathy does not come from dry analysis. It is felt by an understanding of the learner’s needs. It requires the human touch. We should understand that technical advances are the tools that aid us in achieving our goals, but they are not the solutions themselves. We should not allow technology to overwhelm us, as primitive humans were overwhelmed by stone daggers. Learning designers must evolve with technology but refrain from delegating their design thinking to machines.
In this context, this article discusses the fundamental aspects of a creative and memorable learning experience that may be overlooked in the new technological rush, similar to the Gold Rush, which eroded many human values.
Top 3 Contributors To A Memorable Learning Experience
A chip in our brains can make us more humane or robots. We are at a crossroads. We must know which way we are going. Only then we can decide if we are going where we want to go.
1. Language
We believe language is the greatest tool for creating a memorable learning experience.
Written words convey most messages, even in sophisticated learning designs. Therefore, the design should focus on language as much as they do on elements such as “interactions,” “navigation,” “response-feedback strategy,” “audio design,” “gamification,” “scenario threads,” “graphics user interface,” and “branching.” Not recognizing the significance of language is like building decorated concrete walls in the learning space and asking the learner to travel through the maze for “engagement.”
The language is considered done if it is free of grammatical errors and a sentence focuses on one idea. To add to the woe, there is a new trend to delegate the language-building task to ChatGPT and the like. The core selling point for this trend is cost-effectiveness, as if cost-saving is the primary goal of developing learning content.
This article is not about language, but it needs to be mentioned that language is not only about vocabulary.
Language is primarily about the persona of the message. It is about the tone, the flow, the charm, and the context.
Creating an emotionally safe and supportive learning environment fosters trust and openness, making it easier for learners to engage with the learning material. Language plays a momentous role in creating this environment.
2. Context
Writing in the context of the learner’s world is as significant as speaking in the language they understand. Abstract concepts do not hold the same meaning for all organizational roles. Let’s examine the concept of “efficiency.”
It does not mean the same to a frontline employee as it means to the middle management. Middle managers might view efficiency as optimizing resources and achieving departmental objectives. They may focus on factors like resource allocation, project timelines, and meeting performance targets to ensure the smooth operation of their teams. On the other hand, a frontline employee may perceive efficiency as having more immediate implications for their day-to-day work.
For them, efficiency could mean minimizing repetitive tasks, reducing workflow bottlenecks, or improving work-life balance. For an executive from the senior management, efficiency may be primarily tied to financial metrics such as maximizing profits and minimizing costs. They may see efficiency as streamlining processes, increasing productivity, and achieving strategic goals within budget constraints.
One of the effective ways of writing in the context is to identify what the learner will do with the knowledge and provide contextual examples.
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Telling the learner about “What Is In It For Me” is not context-building. It is one of the introductory statements. Contextual writing is an art to make the information relevant to the reader. It is an integral part of the lucid flow.
Examples, non-examples, scenarios, and conversations involving characters in contextual settings, real or imagined, contribute significantly to building the context for the learner.
3. Flow
Lack of flow is the greatest distraction in the learning experience process. To comprehend this, let’s first understand the fundamental difference between the natural learning experience process and the formal acquired learning experience.
In the natural learning process, guided or unguided, our consciousness about the world around us is the most significant stimulator for learning. The level of our mindfulness determines the extent of the details we perceive, which come to us from all directions in complex ways. In this environment, we learn naturally, consciously or unconsciously. However, in formal learning settings, the degree of internalization of information depends on the learner’s focus and attention.
This is why the flow of the learning material is a prerequisite for a memorable learning experience success in formal settings because flow keeps the learner focused.
Bonus: What Is Flow In The Context Of Learning Experience?
Let’s experiment.
Could you raise your head and concentrate on your breathing for thirty seconds? Did you realize that all living beings breathe in and out in the same space?
We all are connected in one way or the other. This “bonding” creates our life experiences. In the same way, every word, sentence, paragraph, and screen of a learning module is interconnected to each other seamlessly. Or, that is how it should be.
The writer should think of the end before they begin. They should never write down the sentence if they have not composed it first in their mind. They should compose a paragraph after they know what the next section will contain and why. The writer needs to understand why they are writing what they are writing so the reader can follow their path.
In short, they should think before they do.
Creating a content structure is the first step toward building a meaningful flow, but the task does not end there. It just begins. The final output of a content structure is the composition of the learning material. This composition is not just the sequence of lessons and topics. It is at the level of thought, context, and relevancy.
Why almost always does the “Course Overview” lesson consist of one screen for “Course Introduction” and one for “Course Objectives?” Why does it almost always not include a question-answer section?
The flow is not about following a template. The flow is about creating a template based on the learning needs.
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