Information v. Instruction
The Case For Successful E-Learning Design

Introduction
During a design meeting one of our client's marketing employees became impatient with our instructional recommendations. She said, "Why must we redo any of this content? Here's the information -- can't you just hang it on the Web?"

The attitude expressed by this frustrated marketer reflects a common misconception about e-learning. Many companies think that information is equivalent to instruction and that an organization only needs to display information on the Web to create effective e-learning. Unfortunately, this common misunderstanding results in ineffective training and costs organizations thousands of dollars each year in wasted resources and lost opportunities. Understanding the crucial difference between information and instruction will help you avoid this costly mistake in your training efforts.

Information
By its basic definition, information is the collection of knowledge such as facts, data, processes, figures, case studies, and best practices. These facts and figures contain the building blocks of learning, and have tremendous potential to increase understanding of a concept.

However, information by itself often lacks the impact to remain in long-term memory or create lasting changes in behavior. Hence, after a company "hangs" its classroom training, marketing collateral, or technical information on the Web, it is left to wonder why its employees ignore the training, fail to complete the training, or fall asleep before the training is over.

Information is like building materials on a construction site -- unless a knowledgeable architect organizes it and a builder applies it in a structured manner, it fails to produce the expected results. In other words, information contains all the essential elements for learning, but without careful planning the end result of your training project could be a shack instead of a chalet.

Instruction
In contrast, instruction is a process that uses information to expand the learner's ability to perform. Like an architect on a construction site, an educator creates an effective learning plan that uses the building blocks of information to construct a knowledgeable and skillful training course.

While there are many theories that describe how and why this process takes place, one shared characteristic of the learning process is certain: learning creates change. If learning has truly occurred during a training session, the student leaves the program a different person than he or she was upon entering. The learning experience has changed the way the student thinks, feels, or behaves.

This is perhaps the most important difference between information and instruction: although information informs your learners, instruction changes them -- and that simple distinction can make all the difference to your organization.

Making Information Instructional
Ensuring that your training truly instructs can be a daunting task. Typical training projects can range from a few short lessons to dozens of courses with schedules and budgets to match. How can a wise training manager make sure that the organization's courseware truly educates? The key is to use the right team, processes, and technologies to make your instruction work.

The first step is to build a team that includes qualified e-learning professionals. Make sure that your e-learning team members have a specific understanding of the design, engineering, and implementation of e-learning projects. Such professionals generally have a background in instructional design and know how to use instructional theories and strategies to create effective on-line training. In addition, these professionals should have relevant experience in delivering successful e-learning projects under their belt.

Next, make sure that you implement and adhere to a well-defined process for designing and developing e-learning courseware. Although each project is different, there are common practices and procedures that can decrease development time, eliminate rework, and speed delivery. Without these processes, your project is likely to run over time and over budget.

Finally, make sure that you understand the latest tools and technologies. There are a variety of authoring tools and development environments on the market. Despite their marketing claims, no single tool works for every e-learning project. If you don't have this expertise, include an e-learning professional on your team who has experience with diverse development environments, authoring tools and learning-management systems. Only professionals with a deep understanding of each tool and its strengths and weaknesses can give you an honest and accurate recommendation for your specific project.

Conclusion
In your efforts to create meaningful performance improvement in your organization, remember: Information and instruction are not synonymous. Information informs - instruction changes. So the next time your marketing personnel want you to "hang" information on the Web, give them what they really want - professional and effective training. In other words, give them instruction.

Submitted by Mike Bean, Instructional Designer for MediaPro