Class summary: Learning Experience Design Foundations 2

In the previous blog, I provided an overview of the class "Learning Experience Design Foundations I." Though these were not the first two classes in the Instructional Design degree curriculum, it makes sense to share insights and a summary from the foundational classes first before writing about more specialized courses.

Class Competencies

• Course Planning
• Ideate Solutions to an Instructional Problem
• Create a Storyboard for an E-Learning Solution
• Create a Mockup of an E-Learning Module
• Plan a Usability Test

Brief summary

Learning Experience Design (LxD) combines the best practices from instructional design and user experience design, with the goal of creating human-centered, goal-oriented learning experiences. 

The previous course explored the first few steps in the Design Thinking process: Empathize and Define. This Foundations II class covers the remaining steps of the process: Ideate, Prototype, and Test.

Ideation techniques for learning experiences, rapid prototyping such as storyboards and mockups, and usability testing of the e-learning were covered in this course.

The assessments included ideating an e-learning solution to address an instructional problem,  developing a storyboard and a mockup of the e-learning module, and creating a usability test plan to evaluate and refine the e-learning solution.

Ideating Solutions to an Instructional Problem

The Ideation Process 

In the Design Thinking Process, generating ideas (ideation) is a crucial step that requires dedicated space and time to think, discuss, and experiment.

When ideating about e-learning solutions, it is useful to review what e-learning is compared to what it isn't. For example, e-learning is an organized package of instruction designed to close a skills/knowledge gap, not a standalone activity delivered by technology. It is not just a video of a live, in-person class. The design aims to fill a gap in knowledge or skills related to the Design Thinking process, specifically the phase of ideation that occurs between identifying an instructional problem (a problem that can be solved with instruction) and starting the development of an e-learning solution to address that problem.

Ideation comes after the empathize and define phases of the Design Thinking process. The Ideate stage prepares you for the next phases of the Design Thinking process, which are prototyping and testing.

Ideation can help you:

• Ask good questions
• Use your team's unique perspectives
• Explore new possibilities to solve a challenge
• Ensure diverse representation in the solution

Brainstorming is a way to promote divergent thinking, but it requires careful planning and facilitation for brainstorming to be useful in a group setting. Some people are faster to share their ideas, while others may still be processing and thinking well beyond when the session ends in real time, and they want to contribute innovative ideas in later days or weeks. Ensure that you accommodate both preferences, and note that you may want to have people brainstorm ideas individually first or find an online community to bounce them off of, especially if you're a team of one person.

Ideation, Learning Theories, and Instructional Design Models

Although ideation is a creative process, it is helpful to consider learning theories and design models as a structure or guardrails to help you keep the learner's needs at the forefront of your mind as you brainstorm and utilize other ideation practices.

Steps for aligning learning theories, instructional design models, learners' needs, and instructional goals include:

• Gain a clear understanding of the learner and how they can be successful, including their social and emotional needs
• Clearly outline your instructional goals, setting, skills, and knowledge to transfer, and the end goal of how the student will demonstrate their learning
• Once your learner's needs and educational settings and context are clear, you can choose the best match for a learning theory
• Then you'll be able to match up the best instructional model to structure the learning

Some of the benefits of using this structure of learning theories and instructional design models include how it helps you:

• Talk through and discuss the best fit for the learners, the educational context, and the setting
• Identify new ways to determine possible evidence of learning
• Inspire more “how might we” questions based on the problem statement
• Decide how to customize the learning experience to suit specific learners

Creating a Storyboard for an e-learning Solution

The prototype phase is the fourth phase of the Design Thinking Process, which connects the potential solutions from the ideation stage to the final e-learning solution to build. 

Refining Possible Solutions

To start refining or narrowing down the choices for potential solutions, consider prototyping using convergent thinking, where you apply logic and critical thinking to make informed judgments and identify the correct solutions or answers. This differs from the divergent thinking used in the ideation process.

Sorting and narrowing down the choices from a successful ideation process can be overwhelming. Considering how the potential solutions support learner needs can help provide criteria to choose from, to narrow down the choices. If you are working with a team of faculty, designers, and stakeholders, hosting convergence sessions can help you find consensus on the best ideas without judgment of whether the ideas are good, bad, right, or wrong.

When evaluating each potential solution, you should consider how well each idea addresses the three domains of learner needs: 

1. Affective Domain Needs (Feelings, Emotions, Attitudes) 
2. Cognitive Domain Needs 
3. Social Domain Needs  

For more information on choosing an idea to prototype, see this article from Interaction Design Org.

Storyboards:

See this article from The eLearning Designer’s Academy to learn about written (text) storyboards, visual storyboards, and how to use each type.

Although technology (software) can make storyboarding easier to share and collaborate on, some people prefer to physically manipulate the components of a storyboard (using paper, scissors, markers, and physical photos).

Storyboards are used for planning, gathering feedback, and refining the e-learning module ideas to help you better address instructional goals and learner needs.

Your e-learning solution will undergo several rounds of testing and receive feedback from stakeholders to identify areas for improvement. The storyboarding phase is an ideal place to iterate and evolve, as it is easier, less expensive, and less time-consuming to change compared to changing developed courses.  

Potential questions for reviewing the storyboard:

• Are all the necessary elements in place? Did you forget any?
• Is it clear what assets and elements will be used, such as templates, graphics, and videos?
• Does every element of the design stay focused on the learning objectives?
• Are there gaps where more content is needed to make the course more coherent or flow better?
• Are there areas that do not focus on the learning goal? Can you cut them?
• Does the storyboard clearly explain how the content will be structured and developed?
• Does it fit with your company's culture? Check your branding and style guides.
• Will learners understand navigation and their course progress as you walk through the storyboard? Is the content and navigation easy to follow and understand step by step? 

Instructional Strategies

 What are instructional strategies in this context? 

Instructional strategies are teaching techniques that encourage learners to apply specific knowledge and skills. This enables the learning experience designer to determine the plan and method for instruction, plan for learner engagement, and embed practice and examples into lessons, among other tasks. Think of learning theories as how people learn, and instructional strategies as how to organize and present the learning experience.

Examples of instructional strategies:

• Scenario-Based Learning
• Problem-Based Learning 
• Case-Based Learning
• Learning through Exploration and Discovery (LEAD)
• Microlearning
• Personalization
• Gamification

Your learners may not recognize the instructional strategy, but they should experience it if you've considered the learner’s journey and how your choices shape the storyboard. To make your learning experience more effective, ensure that there is     

Content Framework in E-learning

Instructional content refers to the materials (such as text, videos, audio, and graphics) that learning experience designers use to communicate information to their learners. In a storyboard, designers organize and refine the instructional content that will eventually be used in the e-learning solution. 

Consider how instructional content can be used to support the instructional strategies, address instructional goals, and meet learner needs. What resources will you use to teach those concepts and skills? Add these resources to the storyboard in the appropriate location, so stakeholders can see how the content supports the concepts and skills to be learned and help them visualize the final experience.

Storyboards often include:  

•     placeholders to describe text that will be included (not the final text yet)
•     scripts for audio narration
•     images or placeholders that represent videos, graphics, or other media
•     notes and placeholders about navigation and branching choices, the learner will have once it is built
•     descriptions of activities and assessments (not the final activities yet)
•   links or descriptions of resources to link to

Scaffolding is an instructional technique that provides learners with varying levels of support as they develop new knowledge and skills, much like the support scaffolding offers painters or construction workers in or outside of buildings.  As learners gain competence, these supports are gradually removed, much like scaffolding is removed when a part of a project is complete in the physical world. This support helps give learners confidence and independence during their learning journey, so it is essential to consider this when storyboarding.

Scaffolding is focused on three areas:

1. What learners can't do
2. What learners can do with assistance
3. What learners can do independently

Chunking is another useful practice in storyboarding, which is breaking content into manageable blocks or chunks of information. This helps lower the amount of working memory or cognitive load required at any given time. Since there are no live instructors to guide the pacing and progress of the training, chunking is especially important in e-learning.

Content hierarchy is another consideration when storyboarding. Designers need to have a good idea of how content should be sequenced.

E-learning Content Strategy

Knowing which content to use in e-learning is another important strategy to learn. You will often use a mix of custom and existing materials in learning design to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and increase engagement in learning. 

For curating existing content, learning experience designers must know how to source and use content responsibly.  Not all materials are available for free and open use. There are intellectual property laws that allow content creators to decide how (or if) their content is used by other people.

Another important part of content strategy is ensuring that instructional content and materials are relevant to the instructional goals and credible enough for learners to trust them as accurate and objective.

Although you may not identify all relevant content at this early stage in the process, the storyboarding stage is an ideal time to begin collecting it.

The content in a storyboard makes sure the learning activities support the instructional strategy. Quality content, when sequenced and integrated properly, will connect the instructional strategy to the learners’ experience.

Review of UDL Guidelines

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework is used by learning experience designers to select instructional content and plan learning activities. UDL guidelines are organized into three areas:

• Engagement (why)
• Representation (what)
• Action and expression (how)

E-learning Storyboards

A storyboard is a type of prototype used to validate ideas inexpensively, visualize designs, and share them, increasing the effectiveness of training.

Prototyping benefits include:  

• helping you visualize and implement your ideas  
• allowing you to further explore the idea  
• enabling you to find potential problems with the e-learning solution 
• communicating the idea to others, helping them envision and evaluate the concept  

Prototyping takes time, but it ensures your design is ready for development before you invest too much time and resources.

Types of Prototypes

Types:

• wireframe and sketch
• storyboard
• mockup
• working prototype

If a prototype is to be used by stakeholders to evaluate the layout/interface, then use a low-fidelity prototype that is not functional, such as storyboards and mock-ups.

If a prototype is to be used by stakeholders for evaluating interactivity, multimedia, navigation, and assessments, then use a high-fidelity, fully functioning prototype.

A storyboard presents a learning experience in a sequential, linear order, providing details about key aspects of the design, including the content to be used.

Storyboards:  

• plan content and flow of learning to align with learners’ needs
• integrate instructional strategies 
• chunk and scaffold concepts and skills
• plan and use the production budget effectively
• communicate ideas to stakeholders and developers   

Creating a Mockup of an E-learning Module 

A mockup is a static, low-fidelity representation of the course or training that focuses on its appearance, feel, and operation, providing a visual depiction of e-learning solutions to the team and stakeholders. They present how the e-learning solution will present content, concepts, navigation, interactivity, and visuals. 

Mockups provide an opportunity to experiment with new layouts and rearrange components, allowing for the efficient use of time and resources to gather feedback, iterate, and enhance usability.

Mockups should represent the look and feel of the e-learning solution, even without the final text and images.

Considerations for mockups:

• Layout Patterns
• Contrast in images and text
• Color
• Typography
• Spacing
• Navigation Tools

Applying Visual and Graphic Design Principles for E-learning

Visual design principles are used in e-learning to improve the learner experience, guide learners through their learning journey, and support the activities and assessments provided. This does much more than make the finished product look nice; it helps designers achieve instructional goals.

Visual design principles and theories include:

• Composition
• White space
• Visual hierarchy
• Alignment
• Movement
• Contrast

Usability Best Practices for the Optimal Learning Experience

Usability is a crucial consideration in e-learning design because each time learners interact with a new e-learning product, they must learn how to use it effectively to achieve their objectives. You can mitigate the risks of users becoming frustrated or "lost" in the navigation by being intentional about designing the learner experience with usability best practices and the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines.

Accessibility is one consideration. People cannot learn if they cannot access and use e-learning technology.

Usability measures how easily a user can use technology, including the functions and aesthetics that enable learners to navigate e-learning courses and perform tasks effectively.

A mockup will not have full functionality, but should address usability issues and plan for how to accommodate them in the final functioning solution. 

Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design

Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group proposed ten heuristics for user interface design in 1994, which are general principles of good user interface design that designers can use:

• Visibility of system status
• Match between the system and the real world
• User control and freedom
• Consistency and standards
• Error prevention
• Recognition rather than recall
• Flexibility and efficiency of use
• Aesthetic and minimalist design
• Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
• Help and documentation

UDL Guidelines and Prototyping

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework aims to minimize barriers to learning so that all learners have genuine learning opportunities. The UDL guidelines are organized in three areas (called principles) reviewed previously in this article: engagement (why), representation (what), and action and expression (how) to design learning. Guidelines include considering perception, language, and symbols, as well as physical actions, expression, and communication.

Also consider the diversity of your learners: how they learn, how they access learning, technology, and resources, and how they demonstrate achievement. Ensure that all learners can easily access, navigate, and interact with all parts of the e-learning solution. In other words, you want to ensure that your e-learning experience is accessible, which is beneficial for all learners.

Four general principles of accessibility are represented by the acronym POUR: 

• Perceivability – Identify the intended elements of the web experience, using human senses. 
• Operability – Access all interactive elements and controls in the interface. 
• Understandability – Comprehend the content, meaning it is logical, consistent, at the appropriate level of difficulty, using the appropriate tone and language.  
• Robustness – Access all aspects of the experience and its functionality, no matter what technology or device is used.  

Planning a Usability Test

Usability Testing of an E-learning Design

Usability tests focus on the relationship between the learner and the e-learning solution, relating to the ease of use. Usability tests help measure how well learning content is delivered by the delivery method, system, or interface.  These tests are documented in a usability test plan.

 Testing can involve:

• observing someone using an e-learning solution
• a series of planned tests with steps
• questionnaires that rate their experience

A usability test can help you understand:

• How learners complete tasks
• the amount of time to complete a task
• the enthusiasm or satisfaction about the product
• changes to increase satisfaction and success

Usability testing impacts both the budget and the schedule for your project. Costs include the type of testing, the type of staff and equipment required, and the necessary space.

Four questions that will help you make key decisions for your testing plan:

• Do you want a moderated or unmoderated test?
• Would you prefer to conduct testing in person or remotely?
• Will the testing be exploratory or comparative?
• Will guerrilla testing provide important information? (testing in the real world instead of a controlled environment)

Usability Testing Plans 

A usability testing plan is a formal document that outlines the process for testing an e-learning product. The design team utilizes the input of stakeholders, such as a learning and development manager or another organizational leader.

Components include:

• Basic information about the product
• An overview of testing (purpose, objectives, and scope of testing)
• Participants
• Methods: tasks, tests, and the setting for testing
• Severity ranking and plan for analysis of results

The methodology comprises the following parts of the usability test plan: participants, test setting and equipment, roles, and usability tasks. In the usability testing plan, the term "participants" refers to the individuals who will participate in the test and interact with the e-learning product. Participants are carefully selected to represent the target learners, ensuring that the test results are accurate and useful.

The equipment includes the specific type of device the learner will interact with, such as a smartphone, tablet, or computer. It will also include the equipment used to monitor the test itself, which may include recording software, online conferencing software, or other devices

Common roles in usability testing may include trainers, facilitators, data recorders, observers, or participants.

Usability tests are based on usability tasks—specific short activities that yield measurable results—and help the learning experience design team and stakeholders understand how participants use the e-learning solution to complete specific actions.

Metrics collected in usability tests can be behavioral (what the learner does) or attitudinal (what they say or think).

Common behavioral usability metrics include the following: 

• Duration metrics: how long it took to complete a task or spent on a screen 
• Errors: misclicks
• Direct success: how often a user completed a task successfully following the steps you expected
• Indirect success: how often a user completed a task successfully but followed a different path or process than expected
• Fails: when a user did not complete a task and left the task or system altogether
• Navigation: use of search, navigation, or back button 

Attitudinal usability metrics include the following:

•     Satisfaction: how satisfied a user is with their experience
•     Ease of use: how easy a user found using the e-learning solution
•     Appearance: how attractive they found the screens and layout
•     Credibility: how much they trust and value what was presented

• time on task
• success rate
• user errors 
• error-free rate
• time to locate an object on the screen
• time to complete a task

• preferences on the placement of commands
• opinions on the screen layout
• feelings toward the design or aesthetics
• thoughts on a specific aspect of the e-learning solution
• predictions of what a learner might like or not like

There are three broad categories of usability metrics: effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction.

Quantitative usability tests yield data in numbers. Quantitative tests are used for comparative studies to see how learner experiences differ.

Qualitative usability tests yield data in narrative or text form. Qualitative tests are used in exploratory studies to understand how participants interact with the e-learning product. Qualitative data can be collected through interviews, verbal walk-throughs, or observations.

Learning experience designers need to align testing with objectives by

• understanding the overall purpose of the e-learning product
• knowing the performance goals for usability testing 
• researching how long similar tasks have taken (i.e., finding information on screen) and how users interact with other e-learning products with similar formats and interfaces
• determining expectations for each screen and how users will interact with it

Four areas to consider in e-learning specific to usability testing are: 

1. learner's comfort
2. learner's orientation
3. learning process
4. feedback and support

Usability performance goals are identified after you select the type of metrics to be collected, but before testing begins.

As part of the usability testing plan, learning experience designers outline how they will utilize the data collected during the testing process. They need to know how they will organize, analyze, and report usability data.

You will create a section in your usability test plan that explains how you will determine the severity of problems and decide what to address first. This section will be written at a high level, meaning that you will not address specific findings because you have not yet done the usability testing.

Part of the usability testing plan process involves deciding and explaining how you will determine what needs to be done and the order of importance. Usability testing results should guide your iteration and refinement of your e-learning product. By including this in your usability test plan, your stakeholders will understand how you will use the information from usability testing. 

Thanks for reading this overview of Learning Experience Design Foundations 2! The next blog will be about the analytics class.