Designing for Skills
Designing for skills is no easy task, but fortunately, there are design strategies that help make it effective and easier for learners to acquire skills. Two of the essential ingredients necessary for skill acquisition is practice and feedback.
Practice
When learning new skills, learners cognitive load is heavy. There is a lot of new information to process and information to retain in working memory as learner’s are engaging in a new skill. Dirksen likens this process to biking uphill. It takes effort and if an entire learning experience is like this, learners can loose motivation or become mentally exhausted (image above). Dirksen proposes an alternate model (below) of structuring skills acquisition. Providing and introducing practice but allowing learners to use information they already know in the process.
Spaced vs Massed Practice
There are different ways to practice and the timing matters. Depending on your learning goals, you want to structure practice over a certain amount of time, this reinforces and solidifies learning. For example, if you want to remember things over a longer period, you want to space out the practice rather than practice all at once.
Feedback
Learners may practice, but they might not always practice correctly, that is where feedback comes in. Good feedback is important for directing learner’s attention to things they are doing well and things they aren’t doing so well. The type of feedback you give your learners should be specific and targeted. Learning designers should prioritize feedback, because too much feedback can overwhelm the learner. Focusing on the most important things first will help the learners see the bigger picture.
Frequency of Feedback
Incorporating feedback at every step of skill development is not always possible, but technology makes it possible to automate feedback. Even when technology cannot be implemented within a learning context, thinking about feedback throughout the design process be vital to establishing meaningful feedback loops.
Variety of Feedback
Providing different types of feedback is important for engaging the learner. Using visual cues and switching up the feedback can be a great way to sustain engagement.
Using Goals for Mastery
One way to set up practice is to breakdown the components of skills into immediate, short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. This will allow the learner to not get overwhelmed with all aspects of having to acquire a skill, and give them a sense of accomplishment in the interim. This is also a great way to focus on the most important aspects of a skill then build on them until mastery. Goals provide a great way to practice skills and give a great framework for building on the short-term and long-term goals. It gives the learner a sense of where they are in the process.
