Designing an eLearning course is an art. This can be developed using a simple practice. It is with the practice that we gain knowledge and competence. Instructional designers should develop empathy for its audience and ask more questions to SMEs or themselves, based on the learning outcome they’re trying to achieve. To develop right assessment questions, Instructional designers need to start asking the questions that matter.
Consider these four types of questions — Clarifying, Adjoining, Funneling, and Elevating — each aimed at achieving a different goal:
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Clarifying questions: helps instructional designers better understand what has been provided as source content (raw material for course development).
During content analysis and interview with SME, clarifying questions can help uncover the real intent behind the content. Also, follow-up questions like “Can you explain?” and “Can you give us an example?” help ID to get complete knowledge of the content.
Adjoining questions are used to discover related aspects of the challenges. Questions such as, “How the learner apply this concept in a different context?” or “Where else this concept can be useful?” are examples of Adjoining questions. For example, asking “How would these insights apply in Brazil?” Our emphasis on the immediate job often constrains our questioning more of these exploratory questions but taking time to ask these questions can gain a wider understanding of the subject.
Funneling questions are used to get in-depth. We ask these to comprehend how an answer was derived, to assumptions, and to understand the root causes of problems.
Funneling questions start with closed questions, as you progress through the tunnel, start using more open questions.
Examples include: “How did you do the analysis?” and “Why did you not include this step?”
Elevating questions raise larger issues and show the bigger picture. They help you zoom out. Being too engrossed in an immediate task makes it harder to see the overall context behind it. So you can ask, “Taking a step back, what are the larger issues?” or “Are we even addressing the right question?”
Asking questions is probably one of the most important and powerful means to improve the quality of the course and intended learning outcome. Instructional designers need to ask the question because questions create the challenges that make us learn and understand the content better. It gives us the ability to build knowledge components correctly and logically.
A learner is by nature a questioner - doubt, curiosity and myth about the subject are natural. If the course is developed considering these aspects, the chances of having a course that increases knowledge, skills and understanding is guaranteed. Also, assessment should have relevant questions because it enables the learner to think and apply the gained knowledge effectively.
