What about the users?

There are a number of old jokes about computer "users," so since the focus of this effort it e-learning, let's change that term here to "learners." So, how do learners use e-learning to learn?

One thing that I find fascinating as I watch the various e-Learning pages, discussions, blogs, etc. is how often the discussion revolves around the tools used to create e-learning pages, and how rarely they focus on concerns about the user – or more specifically about how users of e-learning learn. It's as if a group of architects got together and talked about the tools of building, and the quality of materials, but ignored the larger concerns of what purpose a building should serve. I think something similar is occurring in the discussion of e-learning.

So, when "building" e-learning, I think there are two main areas that need to be addressed and which lie at the core of its creation:

• How to visualize and present the information to be learned
  
• How the learners will react to and interpret that information
  

Neither of these areas is trivial, and neither has clean and convenient answers that can be addressed by just selecting the right software, the right drop down menu and the right menu choice. All require stepping back from the technology and looking at the content and the learners. So let's take a quick look at the content, or the presentation of learning materials, and at the people who will be looking at them.

I was introduced to Information presentation at a seminar by Edward Tufte in 1994 and have been looking at computer screens with a jaundiced eye ever since. Tufte does not specialize in either computer presentation or learning, so his observations have served as a starting point for a number of interesting explorations. His work, including descriptions of his books, his seminar schedule and a lengthy question/discussion page is available at www.edwardtufte.com.

The biggest question he raises in my mind, and one I have explored at length, involves the creation of a clear mental model of the subject of a lesson. Some theories seem to suggest that if the instructor, or the creator of instruction, has such a model they should keep it to themselves and let the learner discover it on their own. In practice, I have seen instructors who have no such restriction, but simply do not create clear and memorable instruction. The how and the why of this will provide topics for this effort for some time to come.

The other issue that seems to garner no interest is the idea of learner differences. It seems trite to suggest that each learner is unique, but what I am suggesting is that each learner has an individual style that they use to process information. Do they prefer information presented sequentially, or do they prefer to explore non-sequential links on their own? Do they gather all information prior to processing it, or do they process as they go along? Without diverting too far into this topic, the type of differences I am suggesting here related to how learners would view a learning page, and consequently, how instructional designers might consider how that page is constructed.

This may be viewed as something filed under "gravity," with little or nothing that the instructional designer can do (which would also explain why it generates so little comment). In the next installment I will relate some details of research done on learner differences, some conclusions I reached as I reconsidered the results, and suggest an area that is worthy of further research.

R