"Ever wondered why the water drains counter-clockwise in the wash basin?" You spring the question at me.
I smile, thinking, pondering over the question for a while. Unable even to guess, I respond, "Mmm... very valid question. Interesting." I smile once again and move on.
That's it. End of my inquisitiveness! That's me, the casual observer.
Now, you walk into a school during lunch time. Kids come running out, frolicking. Watching them in the merry mood for sometime, you find that a few of them are more aggressive than other kids. And, eventually, you also find that they are the ones who lead. You wonder how. This question nudges you to go forward in your search and refer some relevant material on the subject. You're not a casual observer.
Going forward, a scientist takes his findings to the laboratory, sets certain hypothetical conditions and initiates a research to find out the cause behind the effect.
Now, finding out why the water drains counter-clockwise in a basin, is a much easier task for a scientist to accomplish, than to fix defined parameters on the human psychology. How does one, for instance, attach a numeric value to a soccer player's exhilaration when he hits a goal or to a rock artist's emotions when he scales some unthinkable pitch with his vocal chords?
That makes the subject of human psychology much more complex. And, interesting. And, that's where experimental psychology makes an entry. There are so many permutations and combinations in which one could study the human mind, and come up with an infinity of concepts that would harness its potential.
E-Learning is a field that derives a lot of inspiration and help from this scientific-art. How could we present our subject in a way that our student - seated so far away from us, probably all by himself - loves to go deep into it? This question, by default, makes us willing psychologists. It makes us think his mind. It makes us experiment with as many interesting routes as possible, before we strike the right one through which we could reach him. That includes the tone we set for our language, fonts we use, colors we bring in, voice we infuse and visuals we employ in our presentation.
Match each of these creative elements with each other independently, we have a vast horizon of possibilities expanding on a subject which, as we noted, doesn't have defined parameters.
That makes the whole experience of creating e-learning exciting, to say the least.
(Nirmal Ranganathan, Instructional Designer, C2 Workshop)
