Analyzing eLearning is a crucial part of staying on top of your game as an instructional designer. It exposes you to different learning concepts and design principles and is a great way to level up. For this exercise, I chose to analyze a patient management scenario-based eLearning module. You can find it here. And below is a quick visual to reference as you read.
This eLearning was very visually pleasing. The task was for the learner to practice their time/budget management and patient care management skills. The training used three example patients and gave varying scenarios for the learner to be exposed to before providing detailed feedback at the end. As I go through the training, I keep a few questions in mind to analyze as follows:
What are the instructional goals?
The goals of this training are to assess a candidate’s ability to perform time/budget management and patient management. Each skill is tracked and the candidate is given feedback and a score at the end of the training.
What workplace performance does this scenario-based eLearning support?
Accelerate expertise - Yes
Build critical thinking skills - Yes
Build skills impossible to gain on the job - No
Promote learning transfer - Yes
Gain a return on investment - Yes
Motivate learning - Yes
Exploit tech resources effectively - Yes
Engage audience - Yes
Who are the learners?
Novice - No
Some Experience - No
Apprentice - No
Experienced - Yes
Mixed - No
What are the scenario-learning domain(s)?
Interpersonal skills - No
Compliance - Yes
Diagnosis and repair - Yes
Research, analysis, and rationale - Yes
Tradeoffs - Yes
Operations - Yes
Design - No
Team Coordination - No
What are the terminal learning objectives? (Performance) At the end of the training, learners will be able to more effectively provide patient care and manage the time and budget.
What are the enabling learning objectives? (Supporting)
At the end of the training, learners will be able to more effectively evaluate patient history, examine patients, write patient reports, diagnosis problems, and prescribe treatments.
Complexity of responses?
One outcome - No
Multiple outcomes - Yes
High solution precision - Yes
Low solution precision - No
Limited interface response options - No
Multiple interface response options - Yes
High social presence - No
Medium social presence - Yes
Low social presence - No
Interface response options?
Yes/No - No
Multiple choice - Yes
Checklists - No
Links - No
Pull-down menu - Yes
Drag and drop - No
Object select - Yes
Slide bar - No
Type in - No
Virtual World - No
Classroom - No
Scenario settings?
Office, meeting room - No
Computer - No
Technical shop, laboratory - No
Clinic, hospital, surgical suite - Yes
Equipment and instrument panels - No
Factory - No
Field site - No
Trigger event?
Phone call - No
E-mail - No
Interview - No
Failure or crisis - Yes
Murphy's Law scenario - No
Does the scenario outcome require identifying data?
Yes, it provides a graphical representation of the learners performance data.
Is the data saved for later reference?
In this case, no. However, combining it with an LMS will allow the instructor to save and analyze the data.
Types of guidance provided?
Faded support - No
Simple to complex scenarios - No
Open vs closed responses - No
Interface navigation options - No
Training wheels - No
Coaching and advisors - Yes
Worksheets - No
Feedback - Yes
Collaboration - No
Instructional approaches?
Tutorials - No
Expert solution demonstrations - No
Questions promote engagement - Yes
Cognitive modeling examples - No
Example repositories - No
Traditional instructor - No
Socratic instructor - No
Scenario facilitator - No
Feedback features?
Specific - Yes
General - No
Instructional - No
Intrinsic - No
Immediate - No
Delayed - Yes
Solution - No
Process - No
Learning - No
Reflection - Yes
Checklist - No
Rubric - No
References:
Clark, R. (2013). Scenario-Based e-Learning. John Wiley & Sons
Link to Module: https://www.smartbuilder.com/elearning-examples/