Comments on: Does President Obama Support Locking Your E-Learning Course Navigation?

By: Blair R

Blair R — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:25:22 +0000

Does anyone translate this approach to a workshop? Having a station with info/lecutre/trainer presentation, the HR video at another station and the policy manual at another.

Learners have workbooks and are directed to complete the challenge/scenario using the resources in the room.

Comments? Questions?

By: Gene

Gene — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:19:08 +0000

I don’t think anyone should be forced to sit through anything. Prove to me you can master the knowledge and skills and you’re done.

I design courses for automotive technicians. The most effective and well received courses consist of three major components.

Theory of Operation (structured)
Diagnostic Scenarios (very popular)
Multiple Choice exam (not popular)

Because the audience varies from tech school grads to Master Technicians, we allow free reign through the courseware, mainly to ensure that Master Techs don’t waste their time.

Most experienced techs skip the Theory of Operation content completely and challenge the scenarios and tests.

Inexperienced techs may try to challenge but often fail. They can challenge again. We never lock the course. But this may not be the best use of their time.

By: Are Your E-Learning Courses Pushed or Pulled? - The Rapid eLearning Blog

Are Your E-Learning Courses Pushed or Pulled? - The Rapid eLearning Blog — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:23:20 +0000

[...] Does President Obama Support Locking Your E-Learning Course Navigation? [...]

By: Judy Unrein

Judy Unrein — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:48:08 +0000

Tom, I agree that locking the navigation can frustrate the learner and ultimately detract from the learning experience. And from my experience you are correct that compliance regulations do not literally require IDs to lock elearning courses.

What they do require is that learners spend a certain amount of time taking the training (as in California AB-1825, as Jim mentioned above). While we can (and do) derogatorily refer to this as merely “seat time” and cry that the regulations should be changed, this is the situation that we are faced with today.

So my question is (for Tom and all of you), other than locking the navigation so that the user is forced to spend a certain amount of time on each page, how would you ensure that a course met the seat time requirements?

By: abdirisaaq sh ali ahmed

abdirisaaq sh ali ahmed — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 11:24:04 +0000

Dear teacher Tom
Iam very interesting the topic of locking e-learning course,it showed me so important things about the course and Iinterested to participate my views about the discussions,the great article is the way we processed the new tecnologies of e learning subjects.in my view the president barack obama will increase to focuss social education, technology and science , he will not close or lock the e learning, the president has a fresh mind that will support all community development issues

abdirisaaq sh ali ahmed
e-learning course student

By: MaryLea

MaryLea — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:10:45 +0000

Regarding Tom using Obama as a flipant way of getting our attention…MEOW! Go ahead and stress yourself out look forward to the future like your leader is and accept the good and bad that comes with it, even if it means reading Tom’s bad jokes (Sorry Tom had to do it!)

Good article – we let users navigate back to slides using the left hand side as a topic or module title to review the information then we turn off the navigation once we test if it’s compliance. If it’s something more light hearted like an overview, we leave the navigation on.

By: tom

tom — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:53:10 +0000

Good discussion. Dr. Dror's presentation sounds interesting. However, I find that a lot of these research studies don't always relate to real world application. Testing how people remember simple pieces of information is not the same as trying to integrate more complex information in an elearning course with some sort of performance improvement. I did find an interesting article (PDF link) by Dr. Dror, that is relevant to the discussion here. Ultimately, you have to do what is going to work best for your project and sometimes the learner and learning isn't the primary objective.

By: Laura Moreno

Laura Moreno — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:26:23 +0000

I agree with many of the points made about adult learning theory and self-directed learning. Let me add feedback/communication into the mix. With proper assessment and feedback, the learner can be directed to the page they skipped over in a sequence, or re-introduced to the basics as a refresher. Side not: A self-directed course can also communicate a sense of confidence management has in the skills and knowledge of the learner which can increase motivation.

By: Samantha Meemken

Samantha Meemken — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:40:58 +0000

I’m new to this blog and find it so refreshing. Great article and dialog in the comments. Course navigation/architecture is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. As we can see here, there are many considerations to make. Thanks again for the thoughtful insight.

By: Chris Rogers

Chris Rogers — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:06:06 +0000

Good thoughts on design and navigation, Tom. Good thinking on the appeal to the president. Leave it to one Community Organizer to turn to another for help on the topic!