What is the most important factor to consider when selecting educational technology?

How can I make educational material attractive? How can I make sure that the content meets the learning objectives? What should I avoid, and what should I keep in mind?

These questions trouble anyone who starts their journey in the world of instructional design and the e-learning industry. This article discusses the key factors that everyone who creates their own content, whether an instructional designer or just an educator, should consider.

Thus, after you are done reading this article, you should be able to identify the most critical factors that you need to give thought to when structuring your educational material. As a result, you should be able to create solutions that, on the one hand, will meet the learning objectives and, on the other hand, attract the learners’ interest. 

Factor #1 - Learners' characteristics

For the proper development of educational activities and content, it is imperative to take into account the unique characteristics of the learning audience that shall use your educational product. 

Educational product – any activity, curriculum, educational application, e-learning program, in digital format.

This is super important when delivering e-learning solutions, as this task requires research and thorough planning. Let’s take a look at the specific parameters that you need to pay more attention to.

First, you need to consider the learning audience’s pre-existing knowledge as well as its needs. Think of this. How beneficial is an e-learning product that doesn’t address the needs of the specific learning audience that will use it? There’s no one-solution-fits-all. So, besides the pre-existing knowledge, you should bear in mind the learners’ generation, their cultural background and possible learning difficulties they might face.

All of the above considerations are part of the needs analysis you should conduct before designing an educational product. Due to its importance, the needs analysis process will be explained in detail in a future article.

Think of this. Suppose that you have developed a distance learning program for high school students that teaches the French Language. Would it be possible to offer the same program to primary education students?

Factor #2 - Learners' inclusiveness

As mentioned previously, your educational product needs to be structured based on the learning audience’s profile. The audience’s profile stems from the audience analysis, which is a part of the needs analysis. But, no matter the audience analysis’ results, you should never forget to produce content that respects all individuals. 

For example, suppose you’ve been asked to develop an e-learning course about nutritious habits, and your learning audience is Saudi Arabians. Mentioning pork or wine is irrelevant to this audience, as Saudi Arabians who, as respectful Muslims, abstain from both of them.

You need to make sure that the content is presented in a way that respects the particular characteristics of certain groups, such as gender, religion or race. 

Choosing the right visuals is also essential as some depictions may offend some social groups. So it is good to select visual representations that are generally acceptable and do not affect groups of people. Simple things matter. 

Factor #3 - Learning communities

The success of a training program largely depends on its ability to promote the establishment of learning communities among its students.

Therefore, you must do everything possible to build such a community, especially in distance learning environments. Research has shown that the distance between participants is a factor that affects the success of the training programme.

In accord with the theory of social constructivism, the cultivation and support of such learning conditions, which favour the interaction between participants, is necessary.

To enhance the creation of learning communities, you can add forums or wikis (asynchronous learning) as well as regularly scheduled teleconferences (synchronous learning). This way, the learners will get to talk to one another, and as a result, they won’t feel isolated from the rest of the class. Besides, they will offer support to their peers, which is highly beneficial and invaluable for acquiring knowledge, as multiple theories have highlighted the importance of learners’ cooperation. 

Factor #4 - Presenting the knowledge

According to Kopper (2006) properly designed educational products, should use different pedagogical approaches to achieve the establishment of knowledge and should not focus only on one method of presenting the content.

People differ in the way they perceive knowledge. Therefore it is vital that the content should be presented in a multidimensional way and not be limited to just text.

The text should be accompanied by multimedia such as graphic illustrations, sounds or videos. As a result, the learner will be able to perceive the new knowledge more efficiently.

This is supported by various theories regarding the learning generations and the learning styles (V.A.K model, Multiple Intelligence Theory, etc.). After all, according to the principles of Multimedia Learning, the presentation of information plays a vital role in building knowledge. Therefore, the way you will be presenting the content is a crucial factor to consider when planning and implementing educational material.

Factor #5 - Interactivity

Another element that you must consider when designing educational material for digital devices is to offer opportunities to the students to interact not only with the other participants, as we mentioned previously, but also with the content itself. 

People learn best when they are asked to do something, that is, to interact, as opposed to passively attending a lecture.

Especially in distance learning programs, interactivity is crucial.

One-dimensional and extensive presentations of content are unappealing to the learners. So, choosing to create a course or activity that offers the learners a chance to do stuff. Having them click, drag, and select the digital objects can help them assimilate knowledge more effectively. Another good technique for enhancing interaction is to enrich your activities with stories and scenarios that offer the students choices and paths. Particularly, branching scenarios enhance interactivity and make sense for the learners, helping them create an emotional connection with the content.

Factor #6 - Feedback

Digital activities and online courses are necessary to provide adequate feedback on the learners’ choices. Without receiving immediate and sufficient feedback, a learner who is asked to complete an exercise outside of a traditional classroom has no way to acknowledge if their responses and choices were correct. Besides, without feedback, the learner won’t be able to realise their mistakes and improve. 

Therefore, the feedback should help learners perceive how well they did. As there’s no teacher present to assist them, feedback should be as extensive as possible. So, for example, when creating a quiz, be careful not just to declare “Right” or “Wrong” as feedback. You also have to explain thoroughly why the learners’ choices are Right or Wrong. This way, the learners will be able to understand the content better and acquire new knowledge. 

This article discussed six fundamental and critical factors that people who have just started their journey to the world of Instructional Design, or Learning Design as it’s nowadays called, should consider. Obviously, more experienced professionals should do a regular Needs Analysis to identify the necessary details required for designing and developing their products.

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