The Power of Practice in Custom e-Learning

by Scott Colehour, solutions architecht 

You remember Captain Sully, the heroic pilot who landed his plane and all passengers safely on the icy Hudson commented “I was only doing my job…doing what we practice all the time”…

Granted our work may not be delivering 160 passengers safely to their destination, but it is crucial to have highly skilled employees that can perform at peak levels for organizations to thrive.

And the same rules apply – practice…practice…practice.

“What makes e-learning great?” This was a discussion point at a recent ASTD e-Learning Instructional Design Certification workshop I taught. The class bantered about for awhile and then all eyes went to me; my answer – “practice!” I believe the biggest differentiator between effective e-learning and bad – allowing the learner the opportunity to practice.

Organizations that understand the critical skills employees need and allowing these learners to practice and improve the skills will most definitely see ROI increases in employee proficiency.

e-Learning that is designed to engage the learner and provide them with work related practice situations – where they make decisions and see positive and negative results as a result of those decisions – can be just the practice environment they need to learn and apply these skills on the job. Next time you are reviewing or designing an e-learning course, think about the number of job related practice points that are contained in the course. Zero – start over! You will be amazed at how often the practice element is left out of our learning designs.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Power of Practice or what you feel makes great asynchronous e-learning!