AMERiCA LEARNiNG MEDiA

2014, the year of Mindfulness, right? Our attention spans are shrinking, in fact, the adult average is now lower than that of a goldfish. Couple that with our average daily information intake of over 170 newspapers, it's no wonder we struggle to pay attention to eLearning!

by Hayley Steer - Learning Solutions Consultant at IMC

Have you ever snapped out of an 'internet-autopilot-trance' to find yourself on a stranger's Facebook page? Or been midway through responding to an email only to realise that this should be at the bottom of your very long To Do list? Me neither...

The more I learn about the principles of Mindfulness, the more I realise eLearning needs it! These 3 steps will set you on your way to using Mindfulness to design optimal learning experiences and outcomes:

1. Design for real life distractions

Map out your audience journey on a granular level. Know where they'll be and what real life distractions they will face. Build your eLearning to suit this, whether cutting it's the overall length, simplifying navigation and access, or fast accessibility to relevant 'snippets' of learning.

2. Design for awareness and presence

With so many competing priorities, by the time a learner is finally logged in and ready to start learning, they may be, well...a little strung out. Give them an opportunity to reflect on how they're feeling and acknowledge their current physical and emotional state, or their intention and motivation for completing this course. It doesn't need to be a lengthy exercise, just a minute or two to check in and ground yourself before concentrating on the content. This could be a sliding scale self-assessment or a short audio exercise. The Smiling Mind App does this very well, with visual reflective scales used both before and after.

3. Design to guide and support

Before launching into the content itself, acknowledge the distractions your learner might come across. Offer ideas on how they might be able to manage these during the experience, such as closing Outlook, putting phones on silent, or using headphones to block out external noise. You could even have little friendly hints and tips as you go, re-engaging learners who might otherwise be 'multi-tasking' to draft that next email!

Inevitably eLearning will always compete with distractions and other audience priorities. Factoring Mindfulness principles into your design helps to acknowledge these and keep your learners on track, while optimising concentration and engagement throughout, particularly for your Gen Y and Millennial learners.

Do you use Mindfulness principles to design your eLearning experiences? I'd love to hear about what else is working or being trialled!

Source: Hayley Steer - Linkedin

Hayley Steer is a Learning Solutions Consultant with IMC. She has over eight years of experience in helping corporate organisations in Australia and the UK design solutions and leverage software to create their ultimate learning ecosystems. Contact her via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it