Ways e-Learning Course Differs From a PPT Presentation?

[GerryWaz]

Hi!

Forgive the "lazy person" request here but I'm looking for something like a simple list on something like "Top 10 Ways an e-Learning Course is Different from a Traditional PowerPoint Presentation".

We have an immediate need something at a high-level for our SME developers new to doing e-learning, and I don't want to recreate the wheel if something is already out there.

Thanks!

[DavidAnderson]

That's actually a great question and depending on the types of presentations and elearning courses, I think you're going to get some different lists.

I'd say the primary differences have to do with information vs instruction. Information is a component of instruction, but instruction includes additional components such as: practice, feedback and evaluation layers. Feedback and practice are two main differences between information and instruction.

Instructional strategies such as sequencing, chunking and even the design and display of the content is also important. In most cases presentations will only "tell" the learner where elearning courses would engage the learner in practice and provide feedback.

Not a list but maybe it helps?

[DavidAnderson]

Michael Allen has a list of Presentation vs Interactivty in his Guide to Elearning: Michael Allen's guide to e-learning ... - Google Books

[GerryWaz]

Thanks, Dave!

Appreciate the ideas. They're great. Pretty much what I was thinking also but what I have not taken the time to put down into something newbies can relate to.

Hope some other people wade in here.

Actually have that book by Michael Allen. Need to get it out of mothballs . . .

Best!

[DavidAnderson]

I think the challenge comes from some of the innovative ways presentations are being used for instruction. Common Craft and Duarte come to mind and while they may not include practice and feedback, in many ways they're providing better information than a lot of elearning courses.

One idea might be to use your own organization's elearning and presentation models and use those as the list headings. Depending on your audience, "elearning" and "presentations" could mean different things to people. If you said, something like "here is our presentation model and our elearning model. Let's talk about how they're different" you might connect well with newbies.

[DavidAnderson]

OH and I hear you about the Allen book. I tend to push it aside for all the new ones that come out but find myself going back to that one more than most. He could put a new cover on it and say, "2nd Edition" and I'd buy it and consider it just as valuable:-)

[GerryWaz]

Originally Posted by David Anderson

He could put a new cover on it and say, "2nd Edition" and I'd buy it and consider it just as valuable:-)

ROTLMAO. Guilty as charged for that too for some books from some authors. And maybe some software companies . . .

[Jeanette]

Gerry I'd also add that elearning provides a way for learners to practice & explore (if it's done right, that is ) ... providing a level of immersion that you couldn't get w/just PowerPoint. The explore part is especially powerful, I think, being that traditional PPT is usually painfully linear.

[Mary Wise]

I agree with David and Jeannette! You can sum it up in two words: instructional design. I'm fighting this very battle with an SME now. She doesn't want to add instructional objectives, scenarios, or assessments to her extremely verbose PPT presentations because she wants the learners to be "partners," not "students". I've made my case, telling her "Sure, that's fine, but you can't call it training, because it isn't!"

[GerryWaz]

I hear you there, Mary!

We have trainers who may take a PPT (usually filled with mainly bullet point slides) that they have delivered live in class and just publish it with AP. This then gets used for some required training.

I can sympathize a bit with them when they say that's all they have time for these days of reduced staffs and increased responsibilities and impending deadlines. Many of them have pressure cooker type of jobs and have no resources to hire somebody or give it to someone else. They have at least exposed people to the material.

And we in corporate can't do the development for them.

But in my mind, "mere exposure to words or terms" does not equal training or learning or potential application by the learner.

So I'm still strugging to present SMEs and newbies a "50,000 foot view of differences between telling and training." Something really simple that they can absorb quickly to get them on board to try to do better for their learners.