If you get the design right, there are lots of ways to implement it; if you don’t get the design right, it doesn’t matter how you implement it.
Too often, people under design and overproduce, resulting in great looking products that are worthless. This is certainly the case in elearning, but you see it in other fields, too.
Similarly, I’ve found that if you get the design right, you don’t need lots of production. In an example cited in my Engaging Learning book, we designed a game for kids that need to learn how to live on their own. The first version looked like it was done by lame 3rd graders, but the play was right; as a consequence, we got some funding to tart up the graphics. On the other hand, if the play hadn’t been right, it wouldn’t have gotten used.
One of the reasons to tout this is so many people are concerned about what tool to use. I don’t really systematically study tools, because once you’ve got the design, you can probably implement it in a variety of tool solutions. And the tools will change, but the need for quality design won’t.
The focus has to be on the learning experience design first, and then you can worry about how you might build the delivery environment. So, please, get design, and get the design right. Then we can talk about how to develop it.
Leave a Reply