e–Learning by Design – Second Editon

William Horton is a leading e-learning consultant and president of William Horton Consulting, Inc. He is the author or co-author of numerous books including E-learning by Design , Designing and Writing Online Documentation , Leading E-learning , Evaluating E-learning , Using E-learning , Secrets of User-Seductive Documents , E-learning Tools and Technologies , Getting Started in Online Learning , and The Web Page Design Cookbook .

1 DESIGNING E-LEARNING. What is e-learning? Definition of e-learning. Varieties of e-learning. What is e-learning design? Start with good instructional design. Apply design to all units of e-learning. Design quickly and reliably. Identify your underlying goal. Analyze learners' needs and abilities. Identify what to teach. Set learning objectives. Identify prerequisites. Pick the approach to meet each objective. Decide the teaching sequence of your objectives. Create objects to accomplish objectives. Create tests. Select learning activities. Choose media. Then redesign again and again. Re-design but do not repeat. Not your sequential ADDIE process. Make steady progress. In closing. Summary. For more. 2 ABSORB-TYPE ACTIVITIES. About Absorb activities. Common types of Absorb activities. When to feature Absorb activities. Presentations. About presentations. Types of presentations. Best practices for presentations. Extend presentation activities. Readings. About reading activities. Assign individual documents. Create an online library. Rely on Internet resources. Best practices for reading activities. Extend reading activities. Stories by a teacher. About sharing stories. Tell stories that apply to learners. Best practices for stories by a teacher. Extend stories by a teacher. Field trips. About field trips. Guided tours. Virtual museums. Best practices for field trips. Extend field-trip activities. In closing. Summary. Pick Absorb activities to accomplish objectives. For more. 3 DO-TYPE ACTIVITIES. About Do activities. Common types of Do activities. When to feature Do activities. Practice activities. About practice activities. Drill-and-practice activities. Hands-on activities. Guided-analysis activities. Best practices for practice activities. Extend practice activities. Discovery activities. About discovery activities. Virtual-laboratory activities. Case studies. Best practices for discovery activities. Extend discovery activities. Games and simulations. Use games as single activities. Extend game activities. In closing. Summary. Pick Do activity to accomplish learning objective. For more. 4 CONNECT-TYPE ACTIVITIES. About Connect activities. Common types of Connect activities. When to feature Connect activities. Ponder activities. About ponder activities. Rhetorical questions. Meditation activities. Cite-example activities. Evaluation activities. Summary activities. Extend ponder activities. Questioning activities. Why use questioning activities? Encourage learners to ask the right people. Encourage good questions. Insist on good answers. Best practices in questioning activities. Mechanism for asking questions. Enable questioning at the right time. Assess learners and learning. Extend questioning activities. Stories by learners. Have learners tell stories. Good stories are hard to tell. Evaluate storytelling fairly. Best practices for storytelling activities. Extend storytelling activities. Job aids. About job aids. Glossaries. Calculators. E-consultants. Best practices for job aids. Extend job aids. Research activities. About research activities. Scavenger hunts. Guided research. Best practices for research activities. Extend research activities. Original-work activities. About original-work activities. Decision activities. Work-document activities. Journal activities. Best practices for original-work activities. Extend original-work activities. In closing. Summary. Pick Connect activities to accomplish learning objectives. For more. 5 TESTS. Decide why you are testing. When are formal tests needed? Why are you testing? What do you hope to accomplish? What do you want to measure? Measure accomplishment of objectives. Select the right type of "question". Consider the type question you need. Common types of test questions. True/false questions. Pick-one questions. Pick-multiple questions. Fill-in-the-blanks questions. Matching-list questions. Sequence-type questions. Composition questions. Performance questions. Pick type question by type objective. Write effective questions. Follow the standard question format. Ask questions simply and directly. Make answering meaningful. Challenge test-takers. Combine questions effectively. Ask enough questions. Make sure one question does not answer another. Sequence test questions effectively. Vary the form of questions and answers. Give significant feedback. Report test scores simply. Provide complete information. Gently correct wrong answers. Avoid wimpy feedback. Give feedback at the right time. Advance your testing. Hint first. Use advanced testing capabilities. Monitor results. Make tests fair to all learners. Test early and often. Set the right passing score. Define a scale of grades. Pre-test to propel learners. Explain the test. Prepare learners to take the test. Keep learners in control. Consider alternatives to formal tests. Use more than formal, graded tests. Help learners build portfolios. Have learners collect tokens. Adapt testing to social learning. Adapt testing to mobile learning. In closing. Summary. For more. 6 TOPICS. What are topics? Topics are learning objects. Examples of topics. Anatomy of a topic. Design the components of the topic. Title the topic. Introduce the topic. Test learning in the topic. Specify learning activities for the topic. Summarize the topic. Link to related material. Write metadata. Design components logically and economically. Design reusable topics. Craft recombinant building blocks. Design consistent topics. Avoid the "as-shown-above" syndrome. Integrate foreign modules. Example of a docking module. What to include in a docking module. In closing. Summary. Templates for topics. For more. 7 GAMES AND SIMULATIONS. Games and simulations for learning. Example of a learning game. How are games, tests, and simulations related? Do you call it a game or a simulation? Demos are not true simulations. How do games and simulations work? What do we mean design? Why games? What can games do for us? When to use games. Types of learning games. Quiz-show games. Word games. Jigsaw puzzles. Branching scenarios. Task simulations. Personal-response simulations. Environmental simulations. Immersive role-playing games. Design games for learning. Design to accomplish learning objectives. Express the goal as a specific task. Pick the right sized game. Emphasize learning, not just doing. Specify challenge and motivation. Manage competitiveness. Provide multiple ways to learn. Create a micro-world. Specify the game's world. Specify characters and important objects. Create a storyline. Create a back story. Specify the game structure. Assign the learner's role. Make the game meaningfully realistic. Specify rules of the game. Design a rich, realistic environment. Provide a deep, unifying challenge. Define indicators of game state and feedback. Specify the details. Sketch out the user interface. Write the words. Specify the graphical style. Specify other media. Engage learners. Hook the learner. Ask learners to suspend disbelief. Set the context. Provide real-world prompting and support. Present solvable problems. Adapt to the learner's needs. Challenge with time limits. Let learners try multiple strategies. Program variety into the game. Involve the learner. Teach through feedback. Provide intrinsic feedback. Inject educational feedback where needed. Provide continual feedback. But give crucial feedback immediately. Confront bad behavior and choices. Defer lengthy feedback. Anticipate feedback (feedforward?). Enable learning through a variety of experiences. Provide complete, detailed feedback. Help learners correct mistakes. Offer abundant practice. Acknowledge achievement. Progressively challenge learners. Challenge learners. Ratchet up the challenge. Give closure between phases. Control the rhythm of difficulty. Require consolidating small steps. Manage game complexity. Beware combinatorial explosion. Menu excursions. Mission-sequential structure. Short-leash strategy. Safari structure. Breakthrough structure. Simplify learning the game. Guide actions with instructions. Explain the game clearly. Start with training wheels. Assist when needed. Show solution after a few attempts. Let learners request assistance. Include pertinent hints. Simplify the display for quick response. Minimize distractions. Accept all successful actions. Design coached task simulations. Plan progressive interactivity. Architecture of coach-me activities. Let the learner control coaching. Design branching-scenario games. Harvest storyline ideas. Pick a situation. Map objectives to scenes. Derive specific objectives to teach. Translate objectives to a story. Specify each scene. Thread together the scenes. Add context-setting scenes. Use games as e-learning courses. In closing. Summary. For more. 8 SOCIAL LEARNING. What is social learning? A definition, sort of. So what? Consider the varieties of social learning. What is not social learning? What is the group? How do we "design" social learning? What do we mean by design? The role of the designer. Decide where and when to use social learning. Make learning more reliable. Make learning more enjoyable. Teach difficult subjects. Implement learning quickly and inexpensively. Build a network to support the learning in the future. What social learning requires. What is required of learners. What is required of the organization. Patterns of interaction. The elements of social learning. Combine patterns for complete activities. Social capabilities of software. Send targeted messages. Meet real-time. Discuss asynchronously. Broadcast sporadic messages. Post message sequences. Collaboratively create documents. Share creations. Vote and rate. Filter messages. Establish a point of contact. Set up and administer a team or other group. Facilitate rather than teach. Define the duties of the facilitator. Establish a code of conduct. Intervene in cases of bad behavior. Grade fairly in social learning. Assess against objectives. Use available evidence. Ways to assess learners. Set criteria for messages and posts. Or, forego individual assessment. Extend conventional activities for social learning. Extend Absorb activities for social learning. Extend Do activities for social learning. Extend Connect activities for social learning. Use proven social activities. Share what you learn. Back channel for presentations. Brainstorming activities. Team-task activities. Role-playing scenarios. Comparison activities. Group-critique activities. Encourage meaningful discussions. Design discussion activities. Ensure learners have necessary skills. Moderate discussion activities. Perform message maintenance. Promote team learning. Meet the requirements of a successful team. Form a team from individuals. Align goals of team members. Learn who can do what. Adopt team roles. Pick a leader, at least to start. Team processes. Set norms of behavior. Team warm-up activities. Fade out support. Design activities for teams. Engage in open inquiry. In closing. Summary. For more. 9 MOBILE LEARNING. What is mobile learning? Start with worthy goals. Learn from the whole world. Take advantage of teachable moments. Teach in the context of application. Teach "outdoor" subjects. Make learning healthier. Learn more of the time. Enable virtual attendance. Reduce infrastructure costs. Prepare for an increasingly mobile world. Adapt existing learning for mobile learners. Enable participation in classroom learning. Accommodate mobile learners in the virtual classroom. Let mobile learners take standalone e-learning. Make social learning mobile. Performance support. Use the capabilities of the device. Design for the learner, environment, and device. Design for the mobile learner. Design for the environment where learning occurs. Design for the mobile device. Design guidelines for overcoming limitations. Design for easy reading. Maintain contact with learners. Design for the devices learners already have. Use learners' time efficiently. Fit text and graphics to the display. Provide low-bandwidth alternatives. Design for imperfect network connections. Enable "download and go". Simplify entering text. Follow established user-interface guidelines. Remember, paper is a mobile device. Reuse existing content. Real mobile learning. Mobile discovery learning. Distance apprenticeship program. Architecture tour. Inject mobile activities into other forms of learning. Extend conventional activities for mobile learning. Extend Absorb activities for mobile learning. Extend Do activities for mobile learning. Extend Connect activities for mobile learning. In closing. Summary. For more. 10 DESIGN FOR THE VIRTUAL CLASSROOM. Create a virtual classroom. Why create a virtual classroom? What are Webinars and virtual-classroom courses? Decide whether you need a live meeting. Select and use collaboration tools. Select your collaboration tools. Slide shows. Breakout rooms. Conduct online meetings. Plan the meeting. Prepare for the meeting. Announce the meeting. Manage the live online meeting. Activate meetings. Include follow-up activities. Design Webinars. When to use Webinars. Pick activities to teach. Design virtual-classroom courses. Select a qualified teacher. Teach the class, don't just let it happen. Plan predictable learning cycles. Respond to learners. Provide complete instructions. Simplify tasks for learners. Deal with problem learners. Follow up after the course. In closing. Summary. For more. 11 CONCLUSION. How we will learn. Where we are headed. How we will get there. What has to happen. Secrets of e-learning design. Just the beginning. APPENDIX ESSENTIALISM. Essential essentialism. Set up the test. Supervise the test. The role of test subjects. The role of the expert. Role of the test conductor. Analyze test results. Record needed learning. Identify the learning approach. Infer design principles. Make testing better. Overcome the Hawthorne effect. Leave the lab-coat behind. Test a twosome. Provide all real resources. Reassure test subjects. Watch the video fully. Conduct enough tests. Pick valid test subjects. Recap: Master the essentials of essentialism. INDEX.