As you create your custom content, it is important to construct it in such a way that will engage your learners. Unless you can engage them, you cannot maximize the retention rate that will make your elearning course successful.
The key to engage learners is to connect with them. A perfect way to connect with them is to provide analogies that they can relate to.
An analogy is when you use the subject matter and compare it with something that the learners can identify themselves with. At the very least, it has to be familiar to them. The purpose of analogies is to help you explain new ideas in such a way that can be understood by the students of your course. You typically concentrate on the structure of new concept and relate them to relatable ideas.
There are two ways to use the concept of analogies in your custom content: through metaphors and similes.
A metaphor compares two unlike things and replaces one with the other. For instance, your voice is cotton candy. A simile, on the other hand, compares two unlike things and replaces one with the other and uses “like” or “as.” For instance, your voice is as sweet as cotton candy.
Analogies can prove to be very helpful – especially when you are trying to explain a complicated concept. This is why it is something that you can use as you create your custom content. Here are some tips that will help you create analogies in your elearning course.
- Identify the characteristics of your lesson that can be compared with something else. For instance, your lesson is all about tips to get out of debt. Now the characteristics of getting out of debt involves the intention of improving something in your life. It includes getting over the compulsion to spend. It also involves discipline and self control. This financial goal is also something that requires constant effort because debt freedom can easily be ruined if you make one mistake.
- Find a common idea that possesses the same characteristics that you just identified. Since the process of getting out of debt is something that students may not be familiar with, you need to compare it with a more common idea. Now if you analyze the characteristics that you just identified, you will realize that finding debt relief is similar to losing weight. Both of them intends to improve something. Both also intends to get over a compulsion – to spend and to eat. The two goals also involve discipline and self control. Lastly, achieving debt freedom or your ideal weight involves continuous effort because overspending or overeating can get you back to square one.
- Use different analogies for various concepts. Take note that you can use different analogies in every concept. For instance, you can say that overspending is like a slide in a playground – once you are hooked, it is quite difficult to stop from falling. When it comes to the journey towards debt freedom, you can liken it to mountain climbing. Feel free to use analogies that your learners can associate themselves with. A slide is something that children can relate to. Mountain climbing is something that adults can identify with.
- Help students visualize the analogy. Use images, graphics, and even videos to help your students connect the concept to the analogy. Make sure you stick to what is familiar so your students can rely on their memory banks to make the association stronger.
When analogies are used correctly in custom content, you can be assured that your students will be able to understand the lessons effectively and efficiently – no matter how complicated it is.
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