Less is More

As a course developer you want to cover each topic and overall module content sufficiently to provide learners with enough information for the job or real life situations. But, what should you include and what should you exclude? You want the learner to be able to perform the work, but you shouldn’t try to teach them everything there is to know about the topic. You want to ensure they learn what they need to know to do the work but not get lost in a forest of information. So how do you decide what to teach them and how much of each topic to cover?

Recommended steps:
1. Write objective statements
2. Develop questions which will test the learners’ ability to perform the objectives
3. List what learners will need to be able to do
4. List what they will need to know for successful performance of the objectives
5. Outline steps that need to be taken to do the work
6. Map each step to “need to know” statements
7. Identify any problems someone might encounter while completing each step
8. Add the steps that need to be taken to address identified problems to the outline of steps needed to do the work
9. Add examples that show how it is done

Add whatever words are needed to communicate these ideas but don’t add anything new at this stage. This is you minimalist unit of instruction.

Ray Jimenez has a wonderful short piece addressing these concepts.

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs130/1011065179978/archive/1122903861032.html
Cut the Crap!!!
Ray Jimenez, PhD

As Ray Jimenez says “Simplifying your content is a conscious design choice. It means getting into the shoes of your learners and including only what you have thoroughly assessed and determined they really need. What’s not necessary is dropped and what is retained are only the stuff that matters.”

Now look at the questions you wrote for the objectives. Do they cover everything you have outlined? Is there anything that needs to be added to either the questions or the outline based on this review? If yes, add what is needed. What you have now produced is your draft lesson. If possible find one to three members of your target population to pilot the lesson. If you don’t have members of your target population available to field test the training, find someone who doesn’t know the topic and ask them to work through the instruction. Sit with the field test participants as they work. Ask them to identify anything that isn’t clear or if they have any questions. Consider what they say and make revisions that you believe are necessary. Unless you believe something really should be revised immediately, collect and compare all field test comments before making any revisions, and then only make revisions that are critical for understanding the objectives.

This may seem a bit involved but like anything else, a good foundation will prevent or decrease problems down the line. Later on in the process it will likely be more difficult to make revisions.

And following my own advice from this mini lesson, here is where I will stop and ask for feedback. Please provide feedback, questions and comments.

Thank you!

Tags: Design, Feedback, guidelines, Instruction, Training