How do we create DESIRABLE
online learning experiences?

Before we can address the question of "how" to make online content desirable, we need to first address the question of "why bother?" Isn't this just gold plating, or something that is simply unachievable? How can we design something that is desirable for everyone?

Creating desirable user experiences

Let's start by defining what we mean by "desirable," especially in the context of online learning.

According to Peter Morville (author of the UX honeycomb), "desirable" means that design elements evoke emotion and appreciation. We're talking, of course, about the affective dimension of learning, and the affect includes things like "feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations, and attitudes" (Clark, 2013).

Donald Norman, cognitive scientist and UX pioneer, has studied the role of emotion in design extensively, and concludes that good design makes people happy and happy people learn better. That's a loaded statement — let's unpack it a bit.

"Happy people learn better": The back story

In his book Emotional Design (2004), Norman makes the point that the affect is pervasive, and it changes how we think:

How do emotions "change the way we think?"

Norman reports on the work of psychologists such as Isen (2001) and Fredrickson & Joiner (2002), who have found that positive affect broadens brain processing, while negative affect narrows brain processing, enabling it to focus on the problem at hand.

Implications for learning

Affect, then, influences the way we learn: a state of positive affect results in breadth-first problem solving and thinking, while negative affect results in depth-first problem solving and thinking.

In other words, happy people are more open to learning new things, and to making connections between the things they've learned. They learn better. As Norman says, 

Conversely, negative affect results in depth-first thinking, where the mind focuses on the problem at hand. Samuel Johnson, 18th century English writer and lexicographer, seems to have known this instinctively: 

While focusing on the problem at hand may be useful in some circumstances (to help you maneuver your way out of "the prospect of a hanging", for instance, or to help you get that proposal written before the looming deadline), it can also increase learners' attention on "problematic details, and, if this strategy fails to provide a solution, they [can] get even more tense, more anxious, and increase their concentration upon those troublesome details." (p. 20). This type of scenario doesn't lend itself to "outside-the-box" thinking, or to productive learning.

The Role of Positive Affect and Motivation in Learning

Not only does positive affect result in breadth-first thinking, it also increases motivation. When learners’ motivation increases, they are more likely to attend to relevant information (Park, Knörzer, Plass, & Brünken, 2015) and continue engaging with content (Heidig, Müller, & Reichelt, 2014). Since attending to relevant information and engaging actively with the learning environment leads to improved learning outcomes, it is important to implement design features that promote these behaviours in learners.

Positive affect therefore influences learning outcomes in a number of ways:

• it facilitates breadth-first thinking, and

• plays a role in increasing learner motivation.

In recent years, researchers have also examined a particular subset of emotions (which they dubbed “knowledge emotions”) that can directly influence learning outcomes.

Knowledge Emotions and Learning Outcomes

Specifically, researchers discovered that learning outcomes are influenced by four emotions: surprise, interest, confusion, and awe (Silvia, 2016).

How do these four emotions influence learning?

Surprise captures and focuses attention.

Here’s a great example of how a video title uses surprise to capture student attention on a topic:

Example: Surprise

Reprinted from “Module 3, Evolution and Psychology” by P. Wehr, 2017, PSYCH 101. Copyright 2017 by P. Wehr and University of Waterloo.

Interest increases intrinsic motivation and determines where attention is focused.

Confusion promotes active problem solving and encourages learners to interact with material. There is a caveat however:  if you induce too much confusion, learners will become frustrated.

 Awe motivates learners and encourages them to learn new things. Sylvia (2016) points out that, of all the knowledge emotions, awe is both the “deepest” and “least common.”

To summarize, in order to learn, learners need first to be motivated to attend to relevant information. Once engaged in learning, learners learn best when their learning experiences induce one of the four knowledge emotions or put them in a state of positive affect. 

Creating desirable learning experiences

It is clear that positive affect influences learning outcomes positively. If this is true, how do we create positive affect in online courses?

First, it’s important to recognize the critical role that social interaction plays in human learning.

Human learning is a social process

Humans are social creatures and the human brain has evolved to learn in and through social contexts. Through a socially-mediated process of observation and modeling, babies and children begin learning through their connection with their parents and siblings and as they continue to develop, they start to learn more from their connections to  peers, teachers, and mentors (Bandura, 1977). We harness this natural proclivity to learn through social connection when we employ strategies that help to humanize learning – for example, fostering learning connections to instructors, peers, and content.

In order to create desirable learning experiences online, therefore, we need to incorporate human design. To this, Norman suggests three design elements that create positive affect: beauty, function, and reflection.  Human design makes a fourth:

Sweating the details

The visceral level is where first impressions are formed; it's the initial attraction to something, the "love at first sight" phenomenon. Visceral design is about invoking emotion.

"Love at first sight is all well and good," you might say, "but how can you design something to please everyone?" The answer is simple: don't make this your goal; rather, design for specific experiences — as Norman says, "make the design fit the task" (p. 58). In the context of online learning, we might reframe this as "make the design fit the pedagogical purpose/learning outcome."

If this sounds familiar, it should. It has overtones of Mayer's coherence principle. Design, in other words, should focus primarily on essential material, not on seductive details. Increasing the visual appeal of graphics in essential material has been shown to result in better learning outcomes — specifically, retention. (Mayer & Estrella, 2014).

User research on the UXDL framework further confirms the importance of visceral design, as expressed by the following learner: 

 

Can non-essential conducive images promote learning?

Though it is best to focus on essential material, there are cases in which non-essential material can increase learning outcomes. As is mentioned on the Useful page, certain types of decorative images are considered conducive images, which can positively influence learning outcomes (Schneider, Nebel, & Rey, 2016). These types of images motivate learners to engage with the material by increasing positive emotions or generating interest in the content (emotional images), or by acting as cues that prompt learners to retrieve learned information (meta-cognitive images).

The following image from the OnCore/Encours Public Health course, for instance, is a good example of a conducive decorative image: it promotes learning by creating positive affect.

Example: Conducive Image

Reprinted from “Module 1.3, Shifting the Curve” by J. Atkinson, 2016, OnCore/Encours. Copyright 2016 by J. Atkinson, Peel Health, and University of Waterloo.

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The behavioural level is concerned with functionality and ease-of-use. If learning material looks good, but is difficult to find or use, positive affect won't last very long. (See Intuitive. You'll see that there's lots of overlap between the cells of the honeycomb.) 

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Reflective design is design at the meta level: it is the thoughtful work done at the outset of a design process that brings a clear vision and focus to bear on a project. In the context of online learning, it involves capturing the pedagogical design vision of the course author, which is connected to the course's learning outcomes. This is typically part of the instructional design process, and shouldn't be neglected:

Example: Reflection

Reprinted from “Romeo and Juliet module page” by. T. McGee, 2015, ENGL 362/DRAMA 386. Copyright 2015 by T. McGee and University of Waterloo.

 

Humanizing learning, through instructor, TA, and facilitator presence, and designing and delivering courses in a manner that demonstrates an understanding of who the learner is, are powerful strategies for enhancing student interest, engagement, and positive affect (Baker, 2010; Bowers, J., & Kumar, P. 2015). In fact, one of the most impactful and predictive factors of online student outcomes is instructor presence in the course (Jaggars & Xu, 2016), which can be fostered through many strategies and design choices. 

While all of the UXDL principles help to humanize learning as they are based on designing with the human in mind, the principle of human design through connection really focuses on the social and emotional factors that are critical to learning. Below we suggest some ways to incorporate human design into your online course.

Get to know your students and give them opportunities to interact with you and each other through group discussions, short tutorials and Q & A session, or weekly vlog (short videos) posts. Show them your personality and be authentic – this will create space for students to do the same. When students see you as a person and feel that you see them, they are less likely to commit academic integrity violations (Harper et al., 2018).

Foster a sense of community through building in opportunities for students to connect and share with instructors, TAs, and their peers. Contribute to students’ discussions (with a light touch, not taking over) to model academic discourse. Seeking feedback from students not just at the end of the course, but throughout the course and responding to their feedback gives students a sense of belonging, agency, and ownership of their learning.

Help students feel supported and encourage engagement with content, by providing opportunities for students to receive help and feedback in a timely manner. Model interest, engagement, and empathy by checking-in on students who may be falling behind (e.g., missing or handing in assigments late) and/or consider building in grace periods around assessments to providing students with a little more flexibility.

 If you would like to learn more about how to engage students through building presence in online courses see the following resource:

 Fostering Engagement: Facilitation Online Courses in Higher Education