Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Few eLearning Models

Learning is a skill one can improve. But, how to learn is a key to its mastery.

Learning is the crucial determinant of personal and professional success in our ever-changing knowledge age. People and organizations that endeavor to succeed had better get good at it. Few learning models for example :


Game based learning :

Are your learners learning without getting bored? Are all the learners motivated enough to learn more and more? Do you have hard-to-engage learner group and do you need to motivate them?

In many situation, we see that learners loose connections with the course material during the training, be it instructor-led or electronic. They start engaging themselves in drawing something in their note pad, send sms to dear ones or else try to complete their pending tasks. Here, the challenge is to create such training module that engage the learners fully, as we realize that the more interactive the training be (without losing the main objective), the better understanding every learner will have of what we are trying to convey.

In this day and age, applications are the most prevalent medium, when it comes to entertainment. There are social apps, travel apps, photo apps, food apps etc. But the remarkable part of it all is that, gaming apps are still the ones preferred by the majority of the audience. We believe they are the ones that entertain the most. So, why shouldn’t we use their base to help people learn?


Game-based training can help learners acquire new knowledge or abilities in a fun, fast way, while being highly motivating and can generate real competition of people in a risk-free environment. Saying it sounds really simple, but the big challenge comes when trying to think about making it real.

So, first of all, we need to analyze putting ourselves into the end-users’ shoes and try to come up with what we would be interested in experiencing, seeing, listening and ultimately learning.

The objective of Game-based training should not be to entertain but to use entertainment to reinforce learning. The main focus when developing learning games should remain on :

 Change the dull content into interesting ones
 Create a virtual environment, but realistic and safe environments for the user
 Demand challenges but also make users satisfied
 Learners can learn with relaxed minds
 Learners get motivated as they get points or up-gradation marks
 Help develop side knowledge: build an assumption, solve problems, and develop strategies
 Have defined objectives for each problem
 Totally interactive.
 Covert knowledge heavy content into lighter and more effective
 Invite to think, develop, analyze, summarize, and conclude
 Have fun: keep continuous connection and interest of the learner with the course
 Meet industry standards



Simulation-based training :


There can be many situations like, sometimes, complex and heavy-weight equipments are hard to set-up in an educational institution or an organization for demonstration; it is not feasible for many educational institutes to set-up full-fledged laboratory facility for the students ; in some medical institutes, real dissections or operations are not possible for the practice sessions; in manufacturing companies, it is not possible that laborers learn or demonstrate the functionality and parts of a heavy machinery. Or, in many situations, some organization feel the need of testing some ideas or information analysis in virtual environments before actually implementing them.

In such kind of scenarios, Simulation-based training offers a user-friendly interface and a highly effective way of demonstration. A user can play in an interactive environment and discover the functions and constraints of a model. A real experiment scenario can be simulated on the user’s screen.



Simulation-based training gives the learners opportunity to make error. It allows the learners to practice in a risk- free –learning environment. The learner can also get real time grading, feedback, report etc.

Besides, ‘Break’ is very important in a training. Continuous textual, animation, graphics –based knowledge can drag distraction to the learners. So, to keep up the learner’s continuous interest and connection, hands on experience can be provided to the learner through simulation based training.

To take some example, in case of marketing management, marketing, operations, and strategy making are the closest to give a real-life experience. Here, simulations can be worked on in teams or individual. At the back-end of such training modules lies the master-mind of training creator, who provides numerous scenarios to test the capability of the participants.

In a corporate, simulation-based trainings can help enhance skill sets of new and existing employees in shortest amount of time, by customizing the training to the technology, processes, and functioning of the organization. Such trainings are highly effective to actively manage and analyse data in an organization. In fact, Simulation platforms offer an edge when it comes to testing ideas. Users can identify the possible outcomes, prepare an action plan, test the plan or idea in a simulated environment, and hence make an informed decision to introduce a positive change in the business.

Simulation-based trainings are ideal for Medical, Manufacturing, Marketing Management, Technical courses etc.


Collaborative Learning :

Traditionally, learning in organizations has consisted of structured courses, classroom training, elearning, seminars and on the job training etc. Information gets outdated today almost as fast as one blinks. Capturing the tacit knowledge of individuals is perhaps one of the biggest challenges in knowledge management. In their quest for growth and market dominance, even the best of organizations are facing unique challenges and struggling for solutions. These experiences, if shared with the entire team in real-time, on a platform that can organize such diverse information into structured content - can provide the advantage needed to excel in today’s global economy.



While mentoring is known to be one of the most successful ways to train people, mentoring large numbers of people is difficult, though not impossible. What if, the mentoring your team needs has to come from a diverse set of mentors? Across geographical boundaries? From experts in the field who are not part of your team? Can best practices be gleaned from contemporaries, colleagues, management, experts and mentors alike – simultaneously – in real time – without turning your best people into full time trainers or taking them away from their core competency, ever?

Gnosis provides such a platform. Gnosis provides a mechanism to not only structure such collaborative content from the experts, but also provides analytical tools to measure and reward such contributions.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Excellent Write up!

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