Forgive me for asking, but does it? Because so much e-learning I see still falls into this category.
If you’ve answered ‘yes’ (however sheepishly) I’ll guess there’s a good chance that you chose your e-learning authoring software on the basis that it was easy to convert existing PowerPoint presentations into something more ‘interactive’.
This is still a major selling point pushed by many software vendors. Import your PowerPoint slides into our gloriously quick and easy-to-use authoring tool and then add some interactivity to those slides.
Sounds like a miracle, doesn’t it? But guess what? You still have a PowerPoint presentation. It’s just that now it requires the learners to do endless clicking to get through it.
Now I know that at this point some people get frustrated with me and go, ‘but Andrew it’s all very well you having a go at me for creating a dull piece of PowerPoint-like e-learning but I haven’t got time to do all that instructional design stuff you think I should be doing.’
Well, let’s take a step back from that for a minute.
First, imagine you are the learner. Seriously, would you willingly click your way through what you’ve just produced? Unless you suffer from desperately low self-esteem and think it’s your lot in life to be miserable, then the answer must surely be ‘No’.
Second, this is a bit like saying, ‘I’m a chef but I don't have time to do proper, authentic cooking. I rely entirely on pre-packaged food and a microwave. So if you come and eat here, you’ll just have to put up with second-rate food’.
Bet you wouldn’t willingly book a table at that restaurant, would you?
Finally, do you really expect your colleagues and your learners to respect your skills and professionalism if this is the best you can do?
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