I just had a participant in one of the Remote-Learner.net Moodle trainings ask me for a detailed explanation of eLearning interactions. I’m finding myself at a loss, not because I don’t know how to respond, but because responding would take hours, and comprise the last 5 years of my working experience, as well as innumerable creative possibilities which I haven’t yet had the privilege of bringing to fruition.

The only true limit to eLearning interactions is the capability of the delivery medium. In our case, that’s usually Adobe Flash, or Flash exported from an eLearning authoring tool, or Flash exported from OpenLaszlo. It can also be DHTML, I guess, or plain old Moodle PHP-generated HTML.

I did do a quick Google, and turned up this: http://engaginginteractions.wordpress.com/

You can also look at the demo page for any eLearning interaction design firm and see plenty: http://www.alleninteractions.com/demos-page

The critical elements:

1. The learner is doing more than a routine click-through of the content
2. The learner is required to apply acquired knowledge
3. The learner uses higher-level thinking skills, instead of rote memorization, to complete the interaction correctly

Beyond that, the sky’s the limit. And thank goodness!

I often get inquiries for employment. It’s hard to know who’s going to be a smart hire, who’s going to make a creative, efficient instructional designer. People looking to do instructional design work sometimes come from other areas of employment. Or they are freelancers looking to find out what sort of work they would be doing.

In my department, there are 2 tiers of ID work. There is the upper tier, conceptual/creative/writing work, where a designer looks at the content from a customer and turns that content into elearning. That task set involves some sophisticated tasks, tasks that require intelligence and self-directedness:

• Script/lay out/plan interactive activities or assessments based on the customer content
• Write additional instructions and content where necessary
• Proofread and modify grammatical errors where necessary
• Modify typesetting/style to optimize for online legibility, in accordance with department style guide
• Converse with the customer about what they want/need from the end-product, what the learners are capable of, what technological limitations there will be, etc
• Give artistic direction to Flash programmers and graphic designers
• Design social constructivist activities to accompany customer content and create the appropriate Moodle activity modules for these activities
• Based on content and customer needs, determine what Moodle activity types are appropriate for a given course
• Write bids, RFIs, etc with proposals for design and interactivity

The lower tier work is what, in internal parlance, we call “clickmonkey” work. It also requires a great deal of intelligence and self-directedness, but the work is more repetitive. Because we always work in raw HTML in my department (in order to ensure quality and avoid issues related to WYSIWYG editors), even lower tier work involves HTML markup:

• Take existing customer content from other electronic formats (PPT, DOC, etc) and place in Moodle lesson or book module in clean HTML
• Create Moodle quiz, questionnaire, and choice modules using customer content
• Do the same sort of content repurposing using Adobe Captivate or Articulate
• Locate appropriate stock photos, download stock photos, edit stock photos using GIMP, place stock photos on content pages
• Place SCORM packages in courses on customer sites, proof SCORM courses
• Edit audio files, place audio files in Moodle modules or Captivate
• Create simple eLearning interactions using OpenLaszlo or Captivate
• Place Flash activities in Moodle activity modules

Hiring a good ID is hard because all of us do some degree of lower tier work in a given day. There’s just no way around it, even in a supervisory role. I’ve tried hiring folks that had PhDs in Instructional Technology or Instructional Design. That is, people that should have already demonstrated, in their studies, that they have the upper-tier capabilities you need as an ID. Many of these highly educated folks didn’t know how to write HTML markup. They lack the lower-tier capabilities, and don’t like doing the lower-tier work. For that reason, it’s sometimes easier for me to train up. I prefer to hire people with a teaching and language arts background, and some Web experience. In many cases, individuals with working classroom experience have much more intuition about what motivates learners than individuals with PhDs in instructional design.

So what do I want to see on your resume?

• Your capability and working experience with HTML, JavaScript, image editing software, illustration software, Flash, OpenLaszlo (if any), any eLearning content authoring suites, and, of course, Moodle
• Any writing experience or editing experience—if you can proof copy, you’re a valuable candidate
• Any instructional experience, especially any instruction you’ve given to others about or with computers
• Anything else that shows me that you’re capable of working from home, meeting regular deadlines, and generally coming through for the team