GMEL 3: Provide Opportunities for Success

One hot summer's day a Fox was strolling through an orchard till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine which had been trained over a lofty branch. "Just the thing to quench my thirst," quoth he. Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and a jump, and just missed the bunch. Turning round again with a One, Two, Three, he jumped up, but with no greater success. Again and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up, and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: "I am sure they are sour."

Like the fox in the fable, early failure or lack of confidence that success is possible in a training program might cause a student to drop out and label the training program “sour.” One of the great challenges of eLearning is to overcome the dropout factor.

Albert Bandura, Stanford University, wrote that behavior corresponds closely to level of self-efficacy change, regardless of the method by which self-efficacy is enhanced. Therefore people that have a bit of success will continue down the path while others that experience failure can give up trying because they seriously doubt that they can do what is required (American Psychologist 1982, 37(2)).

According to Rossert and Chan, an effective eLearning program must provide opportunities for success, not failure or uncertainty (Engaging in the New eLearning). Taking an online course that is difficult and time-consuming and downs’t reinforce that learning is occurring can be discouraging and cause the learner to drop out. If your confidence takes a hit then motivation decreases and involvement will stop. As you design a program, design in ways to nurture self-efficacy in participants. Rather than testing participants to reveal how much they do not know, remind them of related prior knowledge and past successes.

LearningZen provides multiple ways in which this issue can be addressed. Here are some examples:

• LearningZen was designed for the seminar-type course not the 40+ hour university course. By creating smaller courses, students will not get bogged down in a long and consuming course, but have the opportunity for quick success and validation.


• LearningZen provides the educator the opportunity to create post-course exams that are valid with less than a perfect passing score. This allows the student to achieve some success without perfection.


• The educator can allow tests to be taken multiple times in order to allow the student to continue to learn even though the first time through may not have provided the desired results.


• LearningZen will provide pre-tests in order for the student and teacher to see progress from before the course is taken. The pre-test also provides the student with an idea or roadmap to what content is important.


• Tests can be taken open book to allow the student further learning opportunities by reviewing material that may not be remembered.


• LearningZen is ideal for reinforcing concepts taught in the classroom with additional practice and reinforcement of important concepts.

We have watched as educators have used the flexibility of LearningZen to design courses that are very creative in how material is presented. Practice exercises, homework reviews, self-test and review, downloading of sample work, and many other ideas have come out that enhance self-efficacy. These creative solutions will help reduce the dropout rate and improve the learning opportunity for all.