Highlights from Moore’s Presentation on “Action Mapping” @ the 2011 Learning Technologies conference:
- The goal of action mapping is to design experiences, not information. We want to help learners practice making the decisions that they need to make on the job.
- Set a measurable business (not learning) goal for your project. Show how you’ll improve business performance to justify the expense of your project.
- Identify what people need to do in the real world to reach the goal and determine why they aren’t doing it. Lack of knowledge might not be the real problem.
- In activities, have learners practice making the decisions that they need to make on the job; don’t make them recite information.
- Show the realistic consequences of learners’ decisions (Bill is accidentally cut by the scalpel) and let learners draw conclusions from them. Don’t say “correct/incorrect.”
- Have learners start with an activity, not information. Embed the necessary info in the activity and make it optional, or have learners refer to the real-world job aid.
- Success in the decision-making activity shows that learners know the information. Avoid fact checks.
- Surprise and failure are memorable. Let learners make mistakes—they’ll remember them.
- Everything in your material should directly support the business goal. Have your client and subject matter expert participate in the entire process to get buy-in and avoid having to fight off the “nice to know” stuff.
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