Hazel Sutton

I really like Bernice McCarthy's 4MAT model for Instructional Design.

She modelled it on a number of different teaching models including David Kolb's Learning Style theory. I've never really been a fan of Kolb. I don't really identify with his terms for his different learning styles. Why people have to use fancy terms when plain english is available - I don't know! Anyway, McCarthy has taken some of Kolb's ideas and turned them into questions.

You start at the Why and work through the model from there.

Why: I won't be able to learn anything until I know why this is important to me.
We often don't spend enough time motivating people to learn what we are teaching. If you don't engage the Why learner here, the rest of the session is a waste of time for them.

What: I need to know everything there is to know about this so I can go away and do it.
A lot of traditional learning (i.e. school and university) takes place in the What stage. These people like information and often cherish their workbooks, making lots and lots of notes. They would be happier not doing the How, and don't understand the value of actually having the practice before they use it in 'real life'.

How: Forget about information, let's just do it!
Again, we have a lot of How in traditional learning. This is where we can put all of the information from the What stage into practice. A practical experience helps to concretise the information and make easier to repeat later.

What if: But, what if this happens? How do I apply this in the real world?
This area also gets ignored a lot. The learners are seen as disruptive because they are always asking questions that move way ahead of the point of the training you are currently in. When you park their questions until after the How you will find most of their questions have been answered. The What if learners can very quickly see what is being learnt and are already trying to apply it to their life outside of the learning environment.

A well crafted learning experience contains all of those elements in that order. The How and What if learners may get a little frustrated when you're in the Why and What stages but when you hold off on answering their questions until the What if stage, they have usually already had them answered.

Last week we hit a milestone at work.

The very first e-learning course that was entirely created in-house was launched.

After a long drawn out process we finally aquired the rapid e-learning authoring tool Articulate (I've been waiting nearly three years for something like this!). Within days I had created my first course complete with music and voice overs.

I find Articulate incredibly easy to use and master. I also love The Rapid E-learning Blog published by Tom Kuhlmann from Articulate. Even before I knew we were getting Articulate I found his blog very useful and a must read.

This isn't really meant to be an Articulate testimonial but it is really good to be able to finally create good e-learning. Well, e-learning full-stop.