On a recent Sunday evening, as I packed lunches and prepped for the week, my husband completed an elearning course for work. He opted to bring his laptop home and take the course in his own kitchen rather than doing it in the office where it’s harder to focus – his phone rings constantly and he’s helping employees for the majority of his day. Because I live and breathe learning experiences, I closely monitored the course’s functionality and judged his responses to it. Until he kindly asked me to leave him alone.
I knew there was a problem before he said anything. The wording and imagery did not align to his actual work environment. The course used a combination of stiff language “Look over your cubicle wall and note the closest secure receptacle.” and stock photos of middle-aged employees in a professional office setting. The average age of his team is 28. They often work from home and rarely wear anything other than jeans and casual tops in the office. This course didn’t connect with him.
We need to know our audience to design learning experiences that truly engage them. When we don’t know the learners, courses feel generic, impersonal, and can even alienate the people we’re trying to reach. I’ve heard learners say, “Do they even know what I do all day?”
At Principled Technologies, we kick off every learning design project by getting to know the people who will be using the courses. We look at demographics, preferences, work environments, performance strengths and challenges, organizational norms, and more. They all play a role in how well each learner connects to what should be a tailored and personal interaction.
We also ask to speak to actual end users. This helps us discover what they think the objectives of the course are, what they feel it should contain, and how this initiative will benefit them. Sometimes, the most important best practices and tips come straight from the people who will ultimately take the course. We’ve had them share tips from sticky notes attached to their desktops, relay inside jokes, and reveal the reasons that some employees stick around while others leave. Learners have incredible insight to offer early in the design process, and we should leverage them as key resources.
Think about how well you know your learners. Have you done their job? What do they think about the topic at hand? What’s the best way to engage them? Is there a mechanism for collecting their creative and insightful ideas about training and development? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you build content that addresses their unique training needs.
We should all consider this a call to action. What can we start doing early in the design process to be sure we know our audience before kicking off a new learning initiative?
