Did you know that imagination plays an important role in making elearning courses effective? It really does. But despite that, some developers and even instructors fail to consider this when creating their courses.
The imagination should never be underestimated because it encourages learners to participate in the learning process. Gone are the spoonfeeding days of learning when teachers will tell students what to do and what to believe. Now, instructors are encouraged to be a guide. It is high time that learners are left to explore what needs to be learned. The teacher will only be there to guide them. This is known to be more effective in boosting the retention of the lesson.
When your course is able to stimulate your learners imagination, you are halfway to making your elearning goals successful. But of course, you have to learn how to use it the right way. You need to incorporate elements in your course that will challenge the learners to think for themselves. You will point them in the right direction of course. But they have to explore on their own. To do that exploration, they need to use their imagination. That is how they get the motivation and the courage to pursue their own questions. They need to be prodded to use their creativity and insight to interact with the content that you are presented. This is how they can overcome challenges presented in the course. It is how they are trained to implement what they have learned in the real world.
But how can you stimulate the learner’s imagination? Here are a couple of tips that you can incorporate in your elearning course.
- Encourage personal reflection through activities. This is simply your way to encourage your learners to think about how any subject can be incorporated in their personal life. Reflection is the key to this. Through activities and exercises, allow them to picture how concepts from your content can be applied in situations that they encounter every day. Use simulations and scenarios to do this. Let them make choices that will lead to different consequences.
- Ask questions that will get them to imagine relatable scenarios. Sometimes, proper learning is just about asking the right questions. It is these questions that will lead your learners to exploration. Just make sure that the scenario that they will imagine will be realistic. Regardless if the scenario is something they had gone through before or is something new, make sure these will still be relatable based on who your learners are.
- Pose questions that do not have right or wrong answers. This does not have to be applied for all questions of course. When you want to evaluate your learners, you need to have right or wrong answers. However, you can ask questions in the middle of the elearning course that will always result in the right answer. This should encourage your learners to think not just one but multiple answers. They can stretch their imagination to come up with a lot of scenarios that could be applied to one question.
The great thing about tapping your learner’s imagination during your elearning course is that you are able to train them to be critical thinkers. That eventually leads to confidence and it is one of the best things that you can impart to your students.
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