We wound up the last blog post with the question, “Even if I manage to craft measurable behavioral objectives, how far would I succeed in MOTIVATING my learners?”
If you are, by any chance, landing straight on this post, please visit the earlier two posts, before taking off from here.
Motivation is a wonderful state of mind. If I am motivated to do something, I wouldn’t let anything – anything – stop me from going after what I want. I just wouldn’t rest till I accomplish my mission. It’s as simple as that!
The same philosophy applies to my learners as well.
As an instructional designer, if I succeed in MOTIVATING my learners, I’ve successfully covered 75% of my task. The rest would just fall in place.
So, how do I motivate?
One of the most cherished advertising/marketing secrets is to sell the BENEFITS of a product and not the product itself. If I manage to sell the benefits, I’ve sold the product.
In a way, it is the same with my learners as well. If I sell them the benefits of the course I’m crafting for them, I would see them getting automatically motivated to learn. Job done!
The greatest truths, as they say, are the simplest.
Now, how do I sell my learners the benefits of the course? I don’t meet them in person, I don’t talk to them over phone. I need to communicate with them only through the course. And, the ‘hand-shake’ happens on the Objectives.
That’s how Objectives become a very important phase of the course. If the motivation needs to happen, it can happen only here. If I need to grab my learners’ attention, I can do only here.
How I design the Objectives makes all the difference. Instead of being bookish with my verbs, however appropriate they may be, I need to convert them to benefits. Here are a few instances that would explain this point.
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Instance 1:
How it is:
At the end of this course, you will be able to identify essential components of client servicing.
How it could be:
In a while from now, say an hour, you would have learned how to easily earn that precious smile from your customer; and possibly, the sale.
Instance 2:
How it is:
At the end of this course, you will be able to comprehend various types of solar energy systems.
How it could be:
It should not take longer than an hour and a half for you to appreciate the beauty of solar energy and various ways by which the sun’s bounty could be harnessed for the benefit of human kind.
Instance 3:
How it is:
At the end of this course, you will be able to demonstrate how an applicant’s loan application could be processed.
How it could be:
On successful completion of this course, you would have become quite confident about analyzing various critical parameters that would help you to successfully process loan applications that come your way.
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Interestingly, this tiny effort to strike a chord with my learners, would transform the very way I handle the subject.
The conviction that I need to always keep my learners in my mind, helps me to mould and shape up the content in a way they would like to see it.
The sensitivity and sensibility employed on the entire course architecture is very much worth it, because, at the end of the day, I craft the course ONLY for my learners.
And, I succeed ONLY when they enjoy the learning experience.
(Nirmal Ranganathan, Instructional Designer, C2 Workshop)
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