It is frustrating to hear “there is too much text” from clients when the design budget is small or non-existent and you’re unable to afford the time or effort to use audio and video. How do you appease someone who wants to be wowed by audio or video-style content, when there isn’t time or money for it? What can we design and build to meet these conflicting expectations? Or it might be the other way around: You may be working with someone who is really trying to push an audio/video style learning solution but you know that going down that path would be infeasible. It costs resources that you don’t have, and/or the added complications and logistics of recording will simply be a nightmare. How can we convince picky partners that a text-based solution is the best for the situation?

In this session, you’ll learn about the research: how and when text-based is a good, if not the best, option for learning. You’ll learn how to leverage text-based content in a user-driven way to capture learners’ attention and interest in the same way a flashy video can. You will learn strategies you can use to “sell” text-based learning to your clients. You will hear about different ways you can communicate the benefits of text-based learning solutions and how to get client buy-in for novel implementation of text-based activities. You will also see lots of examples of text-based modules and activities, built using common tools that have the “wow” factor without audio/video or fancy graphics. You probably won’t leave this session with any fancy new tools in your toolkit. Instead, you will gain a new perspective on those tools that you already have, as well as a new ideas about how you can use those tools to make engaging text-based learning solutions.

In this session you will learn:

• About the effectiveness of text as the primary mode of communication in a learning solution, and the situations in which it works best
• About the research on learner-driven modules and how they can affect motivation, affect, and learning outcomes
• Design tips for creating text-based learning modules, such as “choose your own adventure” type modules or personalized interactive examples
• Techniques and strategies for talking to clients/partners about the benefits of text-based learning and how it can be used