As in the last post, I’ve been judging the iSpring Course Contest (over, of course). And, having finished, one other thing I’ve noticed is a clear distinction between ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’. We’re seeing lots of interest in skills, yet the courses are, with one exception, really assuming that if you know about it, you’ll do it right. Which isn’t a safe assumption! Are you trying to develop knowledge or ability? I’ll suggest you want the latter. And, can do it!
So, in 9 of the 10 cases, the questions are essentially about knowing. Some of them better than others, e.g. some seem to follow Patti Shank’s advice about how to write better multiple choice questions. That is, for instance, reasonably balanced prose describing the alternatives, and only 3 options. Not all follow it, of course.
The problem is that knowing about something isn’t the same as knowing how to do it. So, for instance, knowing that you should calibrate after changing the reagent isn’t the same as remembering to do it. We’ve all probably experienced this ourselves. They pretty much all had quizzes, as required, but most were just testing if you recalled the elements of the course. Not good enough!
What the one course did that I laud was that the final quiz was basically you applying the knowledge in a situation. You weren’t asked what this situation was, but instead chose how to respond. They were linked, each continuing the story, so it was really a linear scenario. Which I realize can be just a series of mini-scenarios! Still, you dragged your response from a list of responses. They weren’t all that challenging to choose between, as the alternatives were pretty clearly wrong, but for good reasons, reflecting the common mistakes. This is the way!
I think some designers were aspiring to this, as they did put the learner into a situation. However, they then asked learners to classify the answer, rather than actually make a decision about action to take, e.g. a mini-scenario. There is an art to doing this well (hence my workshop in two days)! Putting people into a context to choose their actions like they’ll have to do in the real world is the important practice. Of course, mentored live performance is better. Or simulations (tuned to games, of course ;). Even branching scenarios. But mini-scenarios are easily doable within your existing practice.
The question of knowledge or ability is easily answered. In how many cases will the ability to recite knowledge versus make decisions be the defining success factor for your organization? I’ll suggest that making better decisions will be the differentiator your organization needs. The ability to write better mini-scenarios seems to me to be the best investment you can make to have your interventions actually achieve an impact. And if you’re not doing that, why bother?
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