When was the last time you experienced a really great e-learning module? What was it about e-learning that made you think it was fantastic? The chances are that it enabled you to do something you weren’t able to do before – and you felt good about that. In this article I’ll outline a method for creating memorable, effective e-learning scenarios. First, let me ask you to imagine you were about to learn how to drive. How would you respond to this newspaper ad?
FastTrak Learn2Drive School
Learn to drive in six comprehensive modules. Each week we will send you a booklet with detailed theoretical descriptions, including step-by-step instructions on all aspects of manoeuvring a vehicle. In addition, each booklet is richly illustrated with complex diagrams in full colour, and there’s a multiple choice test at the end of each section allowing you to check if you remembered what you learnt. Also available online.
Hopefully your answer is “No”. This course violates all the principles of what we know about good instruction. It’s nothing more than page after page of overly detailed information, plus a valueless ‘check what you remember’ test at the end.
We all know it doesn’t work, yet occasionally we see e-learning content that falls into the same tell and test trap – we tell (often in too much detail, hoping that pretty but overly complex visuals will engage the learner), and then test that the learner has remembered what we told them. However, there is an easy yet effective alternative approach you can take.
TEFCAS – it’s how the brain learns through experience
Of course no one, as far as I know, has ever learned to drive only from taking an e-learning module; at some point you actually have to get into the car. But what if we could simulate some of those real-life learning experiences that work so well? What if we really considered what happens when people learn a skill? Consider, if you will, a model developed by educational consultant Tony Buzan: ‘TEFCAS’. The acronym spells out the basic steps the human brain takes when learning through experience: Trial, Event, Feedback, Check, Adjust, Success.
What’s the relevance to learning to drive a car? Here’s how the story goes. On the road to success you watch your instructor, for example, performing a ‘hill start’, and then you have a go yourself. Each time you TRY it there’s an EVENT or outcome, and with every event there is FEEDBACK. For example the first time you TRY a hill start the EVENT might be that you stall, and the FEEDBACK might be the realisation that you need a bit more gas when starting on a hill, or that you need to release the handbrake if you want to move off. This FEEDBACK causes you to CHECK your approach and alter what you do the next time, in other words you TRY again with ADJUSTMENTS. Eventually there is repeatable SUCCESS and you move on to the next piece of learning, and TEFCAS happens again with the new item.
How can we apply TEFCAS to e-learning?
Here’s an easy to use formula for applying what we know about TEFCAS to e-learning.
TRY
We describe or show a work-based scenario with a challenge attached and ask the learner a question, e.g. ‘What is the best thing to do in this situation?’ For example, imagine this scenario. A manager is new to the process of brainstorming. When he asks the group for ideas, someone responds with an outrageous idea. How should the manager react? He could TRY encouraging the idea and ask for more wild ideas, OR he could discourage such wild ideas and ask the group to become more focused.
The learner can select (i.e. ‘TRY’) these different options.
EVENT
For each option we describe or show an ‘event’ or outcome – a consequence of that action. For example…
The learner observes that choosing to encourage wild suggestions leads to the group becoming more energised and creative, and that discouraging wild suggestions leads to individuals closing down and feeling stumped for ideas.
FEEDBACK
We provide ‘feedback’ to the learner on their selection…
The learner is able to reflect on the impact of an action.
CHECK
The learner ‘checks’ what went wrong (or right)…
By considering what they have learned so far.
ADJUST
The learner can then ‘adjust’ their approach…
By trying again, either in the same scenario, or a in a new one.
SUCCESS
Success is achieved; the learner has achieved the learning objective…
They feel good about what they have learned and can apply it in new situations.
You can apply the TEFCAS approach to a wide range of learning situations, particularly to soft skills learning.