"The Single Most Important Word in Your eLearning Arsenal"

In one of the Rapid eLearning Blog articles a few weeks back, there was an article that focused on asking the right questions for the most effective course design. The "golden" word. Nope, not please, in this case. It's. . . . WHY?

What amazed me the most were the 24 comments for that one entry from designers out there in the industry. One of the comments mentioned that asking the right kinds of questions can be the only way to work through a problem with very little information to work with.



Here's a pretty good example of asking the right questions (from the article):

The granite at the Jefferson Memorial was crumbling. However, none of the other memorials had the same problem. So the question was, "Why?"

* Why is the granite crumbling? It is hosed off more than the other memorials.
* Why is it hosed off more than the other memorials? It has more bird dung.
* Why does it have more bird dung? It has more birds.
* Why does it have more birds? There are more spiders to eat.
* Why are there more spiders? It has more flying insects for spiders to eat.
* Why are there more insects? The lights are turned on too soon at the Jefferson Memorial, thus attracting the insects.

Solution: The lights were turned on later and the granite stopped crumbling.

View the Jefferson Memorial Case Study (Designed using Articulate)

This was a really good article, that reminds designers that assessing the problem is perhaps the most important part of any solution. Read the entire blog post