Engaging Instructional Designs

[Todd Tritsch]

In your experience, what has been the most engaging, interactive learning course or program you have ever seen, taken or designed? What made it so engaging? What were the WOW factors?

[David Archer]

I have taken a large number of interactive courses over my career, almost all of it was not particularly engaging or memorable. In 20+ years there have only been three interactive courses I have taken that I remember much about the course itself.

1. A course on motorcycle safety that showed the aftermath of a particularly gruesome crash where the head was in one location, the entrails splayed out over the pavement, the legs in another area,... you get the idea. That image will be hard to forget.

2. A chemical safety video where they were trying to make the point where one shouldn't be modest in an emergency. It showed a young lady who was placed in a shower as the men around her helped rip her clothes off, as she was theoretically exposed to a toxic chemical. That course was eventually removed because of complaints.

3. A hilarious first responder safety training that featured Bill Nye the Science Guy. Out of reach for most course designers I would think.

Now that is not to say I didn't learn anything in any other interactive courses, just that I don't remember the courses that vividly. There were a few others I can remember details, but not quite the impact of these three.

[Chris Roderick]

Hi Todd. I still recall, after many many years, the "best" course I ever complete. It was a course on using influence without authority. The basic design was: short presentation on a skill associated with the topic and a series of escalating scenarios or cases where we learned to apply the skill with various subtleties. We literally rotated from room to room and each situation had its own feedback person there to provide guidance before we moved on to another situation. This course moved 40 people around as if there were only 5. Very smooth. Very effective. Very challenging. Why did it work? I was fully engaged. I never sat and listened longer than 10 minutes. I tried things, got feedback and tried it again in another context. I loved it and I was exhausted by the end. But it stuck. Chris

[Marc Glucksman]

Although it doesn't fit in the interactive category, the most engaging program I've participated in involved a traffic school video designed to show the effects of following too closely behind the kind of dumpster pick-up trucks with the two beams that extend beyond the rear of the truck. This was years ago, but I still switch lanes to avoid driving behind one. There's nothing like changing behavior by hitting the learner over the head with consequences. . . . Marc

[James E. Hanlon]

I am presently working with creating a mouse driven 3D simulation on how to connect the appropriate cables to a cable converter box. I am working with Maya 3D animation package and Anark Studio to create the simulation. The WOW factor is that the user picks up the cable using the mouse and connects it to the box. You are achieving higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy on the computer.

[Peter Kussell]

My most "engaging" one was a course designed by Roger Schank for beginning programmers. I think it was offered at Columbia. The most distinctive aspect of it was its narrative frame: you were plunked down into a team and were given emails which told you what to do, and how to do it...it was very immersive, and fun as well.

Another amazing environment, for exploration, was from the now-defunct company Corbis.com, which produced a number of titles such as one on Leonardo da Vinci's natural history manuscript, on Volcanoes and one on F.D.R...there were others, which leveraged the digitial photo catalog of Corbis.

[Poonam Bhogal]

Todd,

I have been fortunate to have been exposed to a number of training programs all over the world & the only one's I remember are not necessarily the ones with any big names attached or ground breaking paradigms either. However, the ones that have remained with me are those that afforded an experiential learning.

Something like the taste of a sour lime- every time one visualizes one, the taste becomes fresh in our memory & the salivary glands get activated at the mere thought. Training that evoked a sensory response.

Regards,
Poonam Bhogal

[Sage Adams]

I don't like 'wow' courses, I like courses that engage me to learn in innovative and interesting ways. The fundamentals of a good course are still important in e-delivery (content, textbook, instructor insights, and most importantly instructor communication with student).