Applying Signal-to-Noise ratio principle in learning

Is the content loud and clear to the audience in the course you have designed? Though your content is terrific, if the presentation is inappropriate then the course may seem to be lot like static and may not impress the audience. The concept of “Signal-to-noise” ratio, which is an engineering concept, is defined as a ratio of relevant to irrelevant information in a display. This concept refers to maximizing signal and minimizing noise in communication technology design. 
In his blog, Garr Reynolds explores the concept and its application to slide design. In terms of learning, “signal” refers to the content that is most critical to the learners whereas “noise” refers to the extraneous bit of information or also sometimes called, superfluous information.  In order to develop an effective learning solution whether it is mobile learning, ILT, or any other type of learning, you need to put more emphasis on the “signal” instead of ”noise”.

Here are some tips based on this concept of “signal-to-noise” ratio that you can use to design effective learning solutions:

1. Minimize the noise, which means to remove the unnecessary elements in any learning design. An important point to note over here is that every unnecessary data, graphic, navigation, and so on will take the attention away from the relevant elements or content. You must avoid using such unnecessary element or eliminate them altogether.
   
   
2. Blend this approach with the KISS: No, I don’t really mean to put a kiss in your learning solution J but what I mean that you must seek to increase the signal-to-noise ratio in design using the simplistic or Keep it Simple, Stupid (KIISS) approach. In other words, you must keep the design as simple as possible. As an Instructional Designer, you need to carefully select the instructional strategies so as to minimize the use of noise in your learning solution. Remember, excess bit of information is “noise”.
3. Be clear and crisp in communicating information with minimal degradation: It is very important to note here that signal degradation occurs due to unclear writing, inappropriate graphics, or ambiguous icons and buttons, and so on. You must ensure to maximize signal through the use of clear and concise presentation of information. In addition, you can also minimize signal degradation through research and careful decision making.
4. Use proper labeling in the learning: in order to maximize signal and minimize noise, you must use clear labeling. For example, you can use proper screen titles and headings, and specific and accurate hyperlink text. In most cases, you may not be remove a lot of your content from the learning solution. So, you need to find ways to organize and present information that would improve your signal-to-noise ratio.

Thus, the bottom line is that when a learner is looking for information in a course, everything that is not what they need at that very minute is noise. And, when there is too much noise then it is find the signal. So, it is utmost essential to maximize the signal and minimize or eliminate the noise in your course. If you put a clear signal in your course, you are most likely to attract the learner’s attention.

Monday Blues #1

Less is more: Challenges for Instructional Designers in mobile learning

 

We are in the second week of February in 2016 and starting this week, I am going to write a blog that I am going to call, “Monday Blues”. I have kept this title as Monday being the start of the week and after having to spend a delightful weekend, it is immense stressful to work on Monday. So, I am here with first blog of the week, Monday Blues #1. And, the topic I am going to discuss this week is also really interesting – “Less is more”. A lot is being spoken about mobile learning these days and it is becoming a popular medium of learning for new-age learners today. In the new future, mobile learning will no longer be a choice rather it will become a compulsory mode of learning. This is simply because of the reason that most of us today carry a smartphone or a tablet. This infographic depicts why mobile learning will be future of workplace learning. The increase in sales of smartphone and tablets have created an opportunity to make the learning available to the learner anytime and anywhere.

So, while it is indeed a great news for the industry, this also brings a lot of challenges especially for the Instructional Designers to make the learning available to the learner via the mobile device. Let us look at some of these challenges.
 

Information density is low
This is the biggest hurdle that comes in a way as you need to fit the entire content and that too in a limited area. Usually, an information density for mobile learning is low than any eLearning course. This means that you must design the course for shorter attention span and memory limitations.  It is generally recommended to design bite-size chunks of information that should take no longer than five minutes to process.

Screen size is small
The biggest challenge for any instructional Designer to design and develop the learning for mobile device is its limited screen size. As IDs, we need to keep in mind that smaller screen size of a mobile device that makes the navigation very cumbersome than on a PC or a laptop. 

Luke Wroblewski rightly said, “Small screen sizes force you to prioritize what really matters to your customers and business. There simply isn’t room for anything else.”

Lack of common development platform
This is another major concern for any Instructional Designer that needs to be considered while designing the content for the mobile devices. There are a plethora of mobile devices available in the market today and each of these devices come with a different operating system, such as Android, iOS, Windows, and so on. As an ID, we need to ensure that the content we design will work for a couple of operating systems if not all of them.

Lack of proper security on mobile devices
A research indicated the technological infrastructure and security as a major challenge to implement mobile learning especially in the workplace. Most organizations are reluctant to implement mobile learning due to cyber security as they are not willing to compromise on the security and risk potential breaches of their networks. 

“One size fits for all” syndrome
This is another possible concern for IDs as mostly we had been used to design and develop the learning for desktop eLearning. So, most of the times, we often are tempted to just hit the Publish HTML5 button to make the learning in sync with the mobile. In reality, this is not true as the eLearning was simply designed to be used by the earner via the mouse whereas mobile learning requires a much bigger touch target for our fingers. This difference changes everything in terms of design and look and feel and this proves the fact that we need to get out of the “One size fits for all” syndrome. RJ Jacquez have listed some more guidelines to explain this fact in his blog.

So, here are my top five challenges that I believe Instructional Designers need to overcome in order to transition from elearning to mobile learning.

Do share your challenges by leaving a comment below.