Dump the Drone
Easy Steps to Livelier Elearning
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Who are your learners?
How do they feel about elearning?
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Fantasy
I love to sit at my
computer and
read read read!
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Reality
They want me to
take another
online course?
It had better be
worth it.
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The problem
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What makes a course boring?
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A major cause
Corporate Drone
It’s a language!
It’s a mindset!
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It’s a language
• Buzzwords This course enhances the
expertise of R&D staff so
that they may leverage
collaborative concepts to
provide a competitive
advantage.
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It’s a language
• Buzzwords
• Blather This activity will help develop
an understanding of the basics
of brand management and how
it can be effectively used to
inform a marketing strategy
that ensures that the company's
unique position in the
marketplace is maintained.
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It’s a language
• Buzzwords
• Blather
• Bogus “Because I am new to
marketing, I would like to ask
you some questions. First,
how can I better communicate
with the sales force to ensure a
productive relationship?”
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It’s a language
• Buzzwords
• Blather
• Bogus
• Boring
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It’s a mindset
• Big words are This course enhances the
impressive! expertise of R&D staff so
that they may leverage
collaborative concepts to
provide a competitive
advantage.
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It’s a mindset
• Big words are
impressive!
• Lots of words This activity will help develop
are impressive! an understanding of the basics
of brand management and how
it can be effectively used to blah
blah blah.
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It’s a mindset
• We’re so busy trying to impress, we’ve
forgotten how to sound like human
beings.
“How can I better communicate
with the sales force to ensure a
productive relationship?”
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Drone infects design
Droning design:
• Tells, tells, tells, then tests
• Cares more about content than
learners
• Makes learners work harder than
necessary
• Fears humor, conflict, and creativity
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Why do we drone?
We’re brainwashed in school.
• Droners get better grades.
• The higher the degree, the
greater the pressure to drone.
Assignments force us to be wordy.
• “Write 12 pages on...”
We bring this training to the business
world.
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Nasty effects
Corporate drone:
• Makes it harder to learn
• Kills motivation
• Costs more to produce
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“But if we make our courses
easy to read, our learners
won’t respect them!”
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Language = interface
Would you intentionally make your
interface hard to use?
Language is part of your interface.
It’s a way to deliver content.
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Want respect?
Make your
content challenging,
not your language.
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Techniques
For Eradication of Demotivating Communication
to Dump the Drone
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Clear, creative design inspires
clear, creative language.
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Design
1 2
Make them laugh
Vary your rhythm
Content
3 You Who Do
5
4 Chop Run the numbers
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1. Vary your rhythm
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rhythm
Design
• Give the learner control
• They’ll set the pace and rhythm
• Vary the format (media, text...)
• Present content from two perspectives
• “Opposing viewpoints”
• Break up text with headings and bulleted
lists
• Interrupt yourself (callouts, boxed
quotes)
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rhythm
Language, too
Vary sentence...
• Length
• Short is good, but variety is more
interesting.
• Type
• Have you asked a question lately?
• Structure
• Spice it up--change direction with
dashes; tack on a thought with a
semicolon. ElearningBlueprint.com

2. Make them laugh
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How can you add “safe” humor?
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laugh
“Safe” humor
Some ideas:
• Use embarrassing situations that apply
worldwide
• Give a character a blind spot
• Exaggerate
• Use non-human characters that aren’t
likely to be offensive
• Use unrealistic examples
• Give up on reality altogether
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laugh
Spoof
Who are your learners?
• Do they make fun of themselves?
• Can you make fun of them, too?
• Are they experienced elearners?
• Spoof elearning!
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3. Say...
“You” “Who” “Do”
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Say “you”
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you
Example 1
This activity will help develop
an understanding of...
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you
Rewrite 1
This activity will help develop
an understanding of...
This activity will help you understand...
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you
Benefits
• Puts you in conversation mode
• Makes you care more about your
learner
• Makes your language more
concrete
• Identifies who does what
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you
Example 2
The fire extinguisher should
be recharged every six
months.
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you
Rewrite 2
The fire extinguisher should
Who does it?
be recharged every six
months.
Recharge the fire extinguisher You do it!
every six months.
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Say “who”
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who
Example 1
Each quarter, a new sales
report is created.
Who does it?
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who
Example 1
Each quarter, a new sales
report is created.
“divine passive”
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who
Rewrite 1
Each quarter, a new sales report
is created by the product manager.
Now we know who does it,
but it’s still passive.
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who
Rewrite 1
Each quarter, a new sales
report is created.
Each quarter, the product
manager creates a new sales
report.
stronger verb than “is”
We’ve added a human being!
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who
Who does what?
Make clear who is doing what to
whom.
• You’ll be easier to understand.
• You’ll use stronger verbs.
• Your course will have more people
in it.
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who
Example 2
The field of child advocacy
helps children who...
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who
Rewrite 2
The field of child advocacy
Abstract noun
helps children who...
turns into
human beings!
Child advocates
help children who...
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who
Add even more people
• Create composite characters
• Add audio or video of real people
• Learners
• Leaders
• Customers
• Risky: Introduce a guide who
appears throughout the course
• Make people up
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who
Make people up...
...but make sure
they’re interesting!
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What makes a character interesting?
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Which man is more interesting?
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who
Suffering is interesting!
Make your characters suffer.
• A flaw, such as
• Arrogance
• Over-enthusiasm
• Jumping to conclusions
• An embarrassing situation
• Email gone horribly wrong
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who
Cluelessness is boring
No one cares
about the clueless
newbie!
She’s just a blank
slate.
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who
Happiness is boring
...unless the
character has
suffered first
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Say “do”
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do
Nouns are boring
• They’re not people (usually).
• They don’t DO anything. They just pile
up:
the product management process workshop
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do
Nouns are sneaky
• Often, you can’t even picture them:
functionality leadership
• They try to trick you into thinking
they’re verbs:
Buying is an important consumer behavior.
Boring noun masquerading as verb!
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do
Change nouns to verbs
The only verb in the entire sentence
The vetting group services are centered on
researching, reviewing, and approving
wording in customer documentation.
The vetting group researches, reviews,
and approves wording in customer
documentation.
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do
Pick a lively verb
lift
is grab
push
touch
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do
Tell a story
Even the most dry material has a story.
• Make chronology clear.
• Make actors clear.
Then, before final scripts are written, the
content is vetted by Legal.
First Legal vets the content, and then the
writer creates the final scripts.
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What are some ways to
use fiction in a course?
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do
Tell a story: fiction
Some possibilities:
• Immediately plunge learners into a
story. Give them info and tools as they
need them.
• Write a story that appears as scenes
throughout the course.
• Introduce each course section with a
scenario. Revisit the scenario at the
end of the section.
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What makes a story interesting?
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Is this interesting?
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Is this any better?
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do
Conflict is interesting
Conflict is any challenge. Your characters
could:
• Disagree
• Want something but face a barrier
• Make a mistake
• Need to rescue others
• Get an unpleasant surprise
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do
Keep moving!
• Your story probably needs less setup
than you think.
• Every scene & every bit of dialog should
move the story.
• Add urgency--put characters under
pressure with a deadline.
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do
Show, don’t tell
When you tell, you explain everything:
At the conference, Jacob told
someone about the planned widget
enhancement. This was a mistake,
because a competitor overheard and
enhanced their widget first. Jacob’s
boss was upset and wondered who
had leaked the secret.
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do
Show, don’t tell
Show instead.
We’re going to
enhance our
widget next
quarter.
At the conference...
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do
Show, don’t tell
One month later...
Our competitor
just enhanced their
widget! How did
they know?
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do
Show, don’t tell
Let your learners draw conclusions.
And the moral is...
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Design
1 2
Make them laugh
Vary your rhythm
Content
3 You Who Do
•Identify actors •Add verbs
•Add people •Tell a story
We’re here
5
4 Chop Run the numbers
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4. Chop it!
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chop
Why cut text?
• We read 25% more slowly online
• We’re used to scanning, not reading,
online text
• Younger learners are used to games
• A quick pace is more interesting
• Nielsen and others: “Cut text by
50%”
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chop
Chop these
• Sections that don’t directly support
an objective
• “Duh” sentences
Buying is an important consumer behavior.
• Blather
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chop
Chop blather
We’re not writing literature!
One fine day near the end of spring, when the
wild roses in the hedges had reached their peak of
heady perfume, Little Red Riding Hood walked
into the woods.
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chop
Chop blather
One fine day near the end of spring, when the
wild roses in the hedges had reached their peak of
heady perfume, Little Red Riding Hood walked
into the woods.
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chop
Chop blather
Most adjectives and adverbs are
blather.
To successfully avoid unforeseen problems that
could negatively impact costs, we must
proactively search for errors throughout all
phases of product development.
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chop
Chop blather
Most adjectives and adverbs are
blather. expensive
To successfully avoid unforeseen problems that
could negatively impact costs, we must
proactively search for errors throughout all
phases of product development.
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5. Run the numbers
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numbers
A tool, not a solution
Best uses for readability analysis:
• Check progress during rewriting
• Set standards for writers
• Reassure clients
Your course could get a good score
but still be boring or confusing!
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numbers
Word: Step 1
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numbers
Word: Step 2
Click this
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numbers
Word: Step 3
Make sure
this is
checked
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numbers
Word: Step 4
Complete the spell
check. You’ll see
this.
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numbers
Ignore grade level
Use this!
Ignore this!
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numbers
Ignore grade level
Grade levels don’t apply to adult
materials.
• Use Flesch Reading Ease
• Higher score = easier to read
• Compare your score to the scores of
familiar materials, like magazines
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numbers
Find your score
Reading
ease =
40.4
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numbers
Compare
Reading
Material
Easy
Ease
Reader’s Digest 65
Time 52
Business Week 51
Wall Street Journal 43
Harvard Law Review 32
Auto policy 10
Hard
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numbers
Compare
Reading
Material
Easy
Ease
Reader’s Digest 65
Time 52
Business Week 51
Wall Street Journal 43
Our course: 40
Harvard Law Review 32
Auto policy 10
Hard
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numbers
Compare
Our two-hour course is slightly harder
to read than the Wall Street Journal.
Would our learners enjoy reading the
Wall Street Journal for two hours
straight...
...online?
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numbers
Rewrite to raise your score
Reading
Material
Easy
Ease
Recommended
Reader’s Digest 65
for online
Time 52
Business Week 51
Wall Street Journal 43
Harvard Law Review 32
Auto policy 10
Hard
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Design
1 2
Make them laugh
Vary your rhythm
Content
3 You Who Do
•Identify actors •Add verbs
•Add people •Tell a story
5
4 Chop Run the numbers
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Want more?
MakingChangeBlog.com
More ideas like the ones
in this slideshow
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Interactive job aid that
helps anyone create
lively elearning
Cathy Moore
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