{"id":293,"date":"2017-07-10T00:20:15","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T00:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smartbuilder.com\/blog\/?p=293"},"modified":"2018-10-08T23:19:02","modified_gmt":"2018-10-08T23:19:02","slug":"a-useful-checklist-for-realistic-interactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartbuilder.com\/blog\/a-useful-checklist-for-realistic-interactions\/","title":{"rendered":"A useful checklist for realistic interactions"},"content":{"rendered":"

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We pride ourselves at SmartBuilder Consulting on designing elearning that focuses on performance: helping learners do the right thing at the right time. Performance is what counts – not just reading a few pages\u00a0then passing a \u201cquiz\u201d, which is really a test of short-term memory, or worse, an exercise in making good guesses (tip \u2013 the longest answer is usually the correct one!).<\/p>\n

When we focus on performance, our elearning has the added benefit of being more engaging than the \u201cread, click Next, answer some questions\u201d type of elearning that we have all experienced, and most of us have designed at one time or another. Engaging elearning is good for your learners, your training team and your management, who can help you get more budget for\u2026 more engaging elearning.<\/p>\n

So far so good \u2026 create engaging elearning that focuses on performance! Yay! But, how do we do that?<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019re already a convert to performance focused design. You work with clients to discover what learners actually need to DO, not just KNOW. You ask many questions; brainstorm (with clients, SMEs, learners, and internally); draw\u00a0rough sketches of activities that help learners practice what they need to do; and then turn the sketches into functional prototypes. But how do you ensure these activity sketches and prototypes actually engage the learner? At SmartBuilder Consulting, we use a formula we call S T A C K<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s apply S T A C K to some activities in a compliance course on information security that we recently designed for a client on the West Coast.<\/p>\n

\u201cS\u201d means Situation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

What is a typical situation where learner performance is required? Situation lends context, which is crucial for creating relevant, believable activities.<\/p>\n

We learned from our client that most of their employees work in cubicles. They often join impromptu meetings near their cubicle during the day, or walk to different buildings for face to face meetings, and so on.<\/p>\n

So we decided to create scenes that looked like a typical work area, and write several scenarios that were realistic, such as:<\/p>\n