Does Your E-Learning have an Interest Curve
I was first introduced to the idea of an interest curve in the fascinating and informative book The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses
The book describes an interest curve from a gamer perspective but I think we should also consider it from a learner’s perspective. Much of this post is based on the words of Schell re-phrased from a perspective of learning rather than gaming or entertainment.
The interest curve is the flow and sequence of events that occur over time. The idea is to purposely sequence learning events within the flow of a course to grab and hold the learner’s attention. So it is Gagne’s “Gain Attention” concept extended through an entire course.
The idea is that the quality of a learning experience can be measured by the extent to which its unfolding sequence of events is able to hold a learner’s attention. And, as a designer, you can plot the level of interest over time in something called an “Interest Curve” as shown below.
Plotting a learner’s interest in a course over time.
The first part is an entry point–the learner begins instruction. The learner should enter with some level of interest or they wouldn’t be participating in the learning event in the first place. This probably comes from an externally or internally driven motivation factor. Like “hey, I really think this is a great subject for me to know something about” or “hey, if I don’t take this learning, I could get fired.” But the designer’s job is to take that initial interest and raise it to a new level, Schell in his book calls it “the hook”.
This is something that really grabs the learner and gets them excited about he learning experience. It is an interesting case study or a description of the danger of not getting the task right or it is a mystery or even a series of questions the learner can’t answer.
Once the initial hook is “set” the next step is to settle down to business. If the learning experience is well-crafted, the learner’s interest will continually rise, temporarily peeking at different points.
Finally, at the end, there is the “climax” and the learning is then over. And, hopefully, the leaner leaves the instruction with some interest left over and with knowledge gained by the carefully sequenced instruction.
If you are having learners drop out of your instruction or tune out, go back and check out your Interest Curve to see if a re-sequencing might not solve your problem. Interest curves can be very useful when creating a learning experience. By charting out the level of expected interest over the course of a learning experience, trouble spots often become clear and can be corrected. Also when observing learners having the experience, it is useful to compare their level of observed interest to the level of interest that you, as the designer, anticipated. Then you can see what “works” for your learners and what doesn’t.
You may even want to consider different learning groups and plot their interest curve to see if front line managers respond differently than line employees or executives. Understanding different interest levels and how to sustain them is an important element in creating engaging, educational and useful instruction.
