In the last blog posting on Getting Back to Basics, we discussed Gagne’s ISD model and focused on the third event, Stimulating Recall of Prior Learning. This blog will focus on the fourth event, Presenting the Stimulus.
Gagne’s 9 events are:
Presenting the stimulus involves how you wish to present your content to learners.
- Is video appropriate?
- What about a simulation?
- Do you need audio to accompany the course?
- What amount of text is needed?
These are ways to appeal to all of the different types of learning styles (audio, visionary, kinesthetic) in your courses. No matter how you choose to present your content, there is a defining concept we all must incorporate-“chunking” information. This facilitates learning and retention while avoiding information overload. Let’s look at an example to explain this concept.
The first example shows the main menu for a course on collecting unpaid debt. The topics for each module are not consistent. Two of them have to do with the steps involved in a call. The other two ask a question about the unpaid debt and the others involve the working environment. As a result of this structure, the content becomes confusing and the overall goal of the course (how to follow the process of a collection call) becomes completely lost.
The second example illustrates how the information is grouped together consistently dealing with the collection call process and steps of a call. This structure allows for each section to deal with only that part of a call while avoiding unnecessary information.
The following is a strategy to ensure you include Presenting the Stimulus event of Gagne’s model within your courses
Quick Action:
After considering how you will involve the different types of learners (auditory, visionary, kinesthetic), determine how you will group or “chunk” the content together. To do this, it is helpful to:
- Determine the overall goal for the course (use strategies and techniques to successfully collect unpaid debt).
- Identify the main criteria that will help you reach the overall goal (the steps in a collection call).
- Move the content within the criteria (the strategies and techniques involved within each step of a call).
- Remove any content that does not fit into the criteria (anything that does not have to do with strategies or techniques within the steps of a call).
These are some tips to help you group your information into relevant “chunks,” which will help your learners retain the information you are presenting in your e-learning courses.
What can you add regarding Gagne’s event about Presenting the Stimulus? Please feel free to share with TLS Learning your thoughts.
