There are lots of different approaches to effective eLearning design. Whilst it’s rare that any single approach can be used successfully across all projects – with their various goals, objectives, outcomes, contexts, and audiences – the activity-first approach is one that can be universally applied. 

In this blog, we’ll introduce the activity-first approach to eLearning design, guiding you through what it is, how it’s done, and the benefits of designing in this way so you can successfully apply this approach to delight your learners. 

 

What is the activity-first approach? 

The activity-first approach to eLearning design is pretty much what it says on the tin — it’s about putting practice and activity at the front of your mind when designing your online learning provision. 

According to Ikbal, ‘[t]he core idea is to shift the focus from traditional teacher-centered instruction to student-centered learning experiences’ (Ikbal, 2023). 

“It’s a philosophy, really, that you carry around with you,” explains WELLKNOWN Learning Designer, Emily. “It doesn’t necessarily happen at one specific point in the process, like discovery or kick-off; it’s more a way of thinking that’s applied throughout the process to make sure we continue to answer the needs of our learners. 

“It’s all about focusing on the ideal end point and putting the stepping stones into place so your learners can get there.” 

With an activity-first approach, the idea is to develop a learning solution that guides students towards their goals by offering opportunities to put what they’re learning into practice. 

“It’s a very active mode of learning, and it’s been shown to embed understanding and knowledge to a far greater extent than traditional teaching methods, like getting people to read through a slide or a textbook. 

“One common analogy we use a lot when thinking about this way of designing online courses is: how did you learn not to put your hand on a hot kettle? Did you read about how much it might hurt, or did you actually give into curiosity, touch a hot kettle once, carry the memory of the burn, and think, ‘Better not do that again!’?

“Activity-first eLearning works in much the same way, equipping learners with an experience that they feel emotionally connected to, which makes the lesson stick. It’s a more effective way of learning, but it’s also more pleasant and enjoyable, as this way, learners can see the direct relevance of what we’re teaching. They’re given the opportunity to learn by doing.” 

‘By promoting active learning experiences, activity-based teaching helps students become independent and self-directed learners, better equipped to tackle real-world challenges.’ (Ikbal, 2023) 

What are the benefits of designing with an activity-first mindset? 

The benefits of activity-first learning design are broad and far-reaching, but here are just a few of the reasons we’ve chosen to adopt it as our core design approach.

 

It gives students the flexibility to learn their way. 

The activity-first approach opens multiple avenues for learning, allowing students the opportunity to process lesson material through critical thinking and reflective activities, writing, interactive scenarios, and problem-solving.

Each activity is developed with an immediate feedback function in place, to support learners in correcting their misconceptions and developing a deeper understanding of the topic. 

Our clients tell us that learners love to hear verbal feedback that appears to be personalised to them within the courses we create. 

 

It’s motivational.

When designed with care and with purpose, eLearning activities can help learners to develop a personal and emotional connection with the course material. 

This not only helps learners to understand the relevance of the content they’re engaging with, but it also increases motivation and promotes a positive relationship with learning. 

Learners have a safe space to apply their knowledge and learn from mistakes.  

By incorporating interactive scenarios, based in real-world settings, learners can demonstrate their existing level of understanding and test out what they’ve learned, receiving immediate and relevant feedback on their decisions. 

Scenario-based activities also provide learners with a safe space to experiment and explore the topics they struggle with, without fear of ridicule, failure, or causing offence. 

“A great example of this can be found in the scenarios we’ve developed for clients looking to provide education on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI),” says Emily. “In this context, one of the main blockers for a lot of people is a fear of getting things wrong in a real-life setting and causing upset or offence without meaning to. Often, this actually prevents them from talking about EDI or even voicing their questions; which is the opposite of what EDI education is all about. 

“Providing learners with a series of online interactive scenarios, featuring characters that represent the various identities we encounter in everyday life, gives learners a sort of sandbox where they can experiment with getting things right and wrong. 

“They’re then given feedback and can see how the scenarios pan out based on their decisions, so they can understand the consequences without harming anyone in the process. 

“It’s a safe space for the learner to experiment with their own thoughts, understanding, ideas, emotions, and queries, but it also lessens the emotional burden on marginalised people who may usually bear the brunt of people’s misunderstanding, as they’re not having to experience the scenarios themselves in real life, nor are they having to provide that education.” 

Learners aren’t overwhelmed with loads of unnecessary and irrelevant content. 

Adopting an activity-first approach offers a streamlined method of eLearning design, as every decision is guided by the question: ‘What do we want our learners to know, or be able to do, by the end of this course?’ 

“What we tend to see with traditional teaching methods is that the content will start from the very beginning and basically spoonfeed lots of information to the learners, whether they need it or not,” says Emily. “It doesn’t really account for existing knowledge and understanding, nor does it centre around what the learners actually need to know in order to be successful.

“A lot of traditional approaches to online learning also seem to be focused around course duration, or a specific quantity of content. This comes from what we’re familiar with in a classroom setting, where teachers are expected to teach for an hour on a topic, and learners are expected to listen and take notes for an hour. 

“With online learning, we have the freedom to change this, and it absolutely should be changed! Currently, people still seem to think that more content equals better learning, and it’s not always the way. If you’re approaching online learning design with the view to create a 20-minute course or X-number of pages of content, you’re not coming at it in a way that will benefit your learners. And a big fear of mine is that, with rapid authoring tools now available and the ability of AI chatbots to rapidly churn out lots of content, we’re going to start seeing an acceleration in the amount of poor quality, very boring eLearning! 

“An activity-first design approach is the antidote. It allows you to put your learners at the centre of all design decisions, design with purpose, and deliver content that has true value.”

 

It’s an accurate way of measuring understanding 

Building your online learning experiences around key learning activities not only enables your learners to see the relevance of your content; it allows you to measure its relevance and effectiveness, too. 

With insight into how your learners perform in each activity, you’ll be able to see which aspects of the eLearning are being grasped successfully, and which aspects learners are still struggling with, allowing you to optimise your content and target weak topic areas in future iterations. 

Top tips for leading with activities in your eLearning design 

To implement an activity-first approach in your online learning design, you just need to remember two things: 

• Start at the end. 

Good learning design practice starts with the activity, which should always be based around your learning objectives. 

You’ll need to begin by asking yourself that key question: ‘What do we want our learners to know, or be able to do, by the end of this course?’

For example, imagine you work in compliance. You regularly work with a certain complex document, and find that 80% of the time, people have completed it incorrectly. 

You’ve identified a training need. Now, you’re going to put together a piece of online education to support your team in filing accurate and correct documentation. 

With an activity-first mindset, the document itself becomes your activity and frames the content of your course. You begin by allowing staff to demonstrate their current level of understanding by completing the document according to how they usually do. 

From here, your learners can receive immediate and relevant feedback, highlighting the areas they completed correctly, and pointing out the areas they got wrong. 

This gives your learners a clear picture of where they are in terms of their current understanding, and what they need to learn in order to get it right next time. 

• Then work backwards. 

“With strong and weak areas outlined, you can then give your learners complete autonomy over their learning journey, and a personalised learning experience,” says Emily. 

“Rather than forcing them to sit and read lots of information that they already know, you could allow them the option to develop their knowledge in just their weak areas. This way, they’ll have a much more positive experience with your eLearning content.

“Starting with the end goal and then working backwards to consider the building blocks you’ll need to provide allows you to focus on only including content that’s relevant and of value. It’s all about laying the groundwork so that your learners can achieve subject mastery, and recognise their own progress by the end of the course.”

 

Has our activity-first ethos piqued your interest? 

As you can probably tell, this is a topic we feel really passionately about. If you’d like to learn more about activity-first learning design principles and how we apply them in developing each of our courses, don’t be afraid to drop us a line. (We love to talk eLearning design!).