Nine Steps to Every Great Lesson
Gagne’s Nine conditions are the conditions that are necessary for learning to take place. These events can be used to design lesson plans, storyboards, and courses. It functions as a blueprint for creating a learning experience.
Keep in mind that you do not need to follow these events in order and that some of these events can be woven throughout the learning experience that you create.
#1 Gain attention
Start by capturing your learners' attention with a stimulus. The purpose of capturing the learners' attention is to inspire them or get them excited about what they are about to learn. This should be fun or highly relevant to the learners. Here are examples of how this could be done:
Present an interactive eLearning activity
Ask a thought-provoking question
Lead an icebreaker activity
Tell an engaging story
Play a video, animation, or audio clip
Stimulate students with novelty, uncertainty, and surprise
Present a learning game
#2 Inform students of the objectives
Tell learners what they are going to learn. State the expected outcomes and learning objectives in a conversational tone, and let them know what they will be expected to learn and do. This should not be stated in a dry or boring tone, because you want to keep their attention and get them interested.
#3 Stimulate recall of prior learning
Adults learn by connecting new knowledge and skills to what they already know. This could build upon what they have learned before in previous lessons or something that the learners know from their personal experiences. One of the six principles of andragogy states that adult learners have a wealth of knowledge that they bring to the learning experience and that this should be used to teach adult learners.
Ask questions about the learner's previous experience
Ask learners about their understanding of previous concepts
Refer to pre-existing knowledge you are certain the learner already has
Ask questions that draw on pre-existing knowledge
Ask learners to share their pre-existing knowledge
Relate previous course information to the current topic
Refer to pre-existing knowledge throughout the learning experience
Have students apply prior learning in current activities
#4 Present content
Apply strategies to present lesson content in an effective way.
Use a variety of media to engage students in the learning
Organize and group content well
Keep material relevant to the learning objectives
Use active learning strategies to keep learners involved
#5 Provide guidance
Help them learn how to learn by providing a variety of guidance and support
Provide instructional support like scaffolding
Present various learning strategies like mnemonic devices, concept mapping, visualization, and roleplays
Provide learning tips and tricks by teaching learning strategies and offering handbooks or learning guides
Offer mentors or help buttons in eLearning
State the best ways for learners to get the most out of the course
Suggest what materials the learners should use to complete the activities
Provide case studies, infographics, analogies, and examples
#6 Elicit performance
Provide practice activities where learners can put what they learned into practice. This is the stage where learners apply what they learned to reinforce the new skills and knowledge and to confirm that they correctly understood the concepts. The practice should reflect what the learners would be doing in their work and the realistic situations they could experience on the job.
There should be no risk involved in the practice. Adult learners often approach practice feeling insecure or intimidated by the subject especially if they feel that they are being monitored or are afraid of making a mistake. It is up to the instructional designer to design practice activities that are as risk-free as possible so learners feel free to explore as exploration allows for deeper learning.
Mistakes should be welcomed in the practice as this is part of the natural learning process. The next time you design a learning solution, think about how you can make the learner feel comfortable making mistakes and learning from their mistake. A few ways you can do this is by establishing a comfortable learning environment, giving learners opportunities to try again, and allowing learners to work in groups.
There are endless possibilities when it comes to designing practice. Here are a few ideas:
eLearning activities (gamification, drag-and-drop interactions, multiple-choice questions, VR or AR simulations, digital manipulatives, scenario-based questions, and so much more)
In-person formative assessment activities (written assignments, projects, group work, laboratory exercises, field exercises)
#7 Provide feedback
Provide feedback while learners are practicing. Feedback is most effective when provided during practice because the learners can see if they are off track or going in the right direction. This feedback allows them to adjust accordingly so continued practice will be more effective.
Give the learners a chance to learn from their mistakes. The feedback should be given in a way that encourages and builds up the learner’s confidence. Highly negative feedback is not helpful to the learner and can result in them being demotivated and not wanting to continue the training or feeling like this subject is not for them.
In scenario-based eLearning, feedback can be the real-life consequence of making the wrong decision, but these consequences are in a safe environment. For example, construction workers can be placed in a VR experience much like a video game where making the wrong decision can lead to injury or death. However, rather than making this fatal mistake in real life, they just get a Game Over screen and can try again. Check out examples of this in the portfolio section.
#8 Assess performance
Test whether the expected learning outcomes have been achieved by using a variety of assessment methods. The assessment provides useful information for the learner and the instructional designer. It can let the learner know if they need more help, coaching, or practice in a specific area to achieve the goal. For the instructional designer, the data collected from a group of learners can show if the training solution needs to be improved in any way.
Formative assessments can be conducted throughout the learning experience, and a summative assessment can be given at the end. The important thing to keep in mind is that assessments should always be based on the learning outcomes, and learners should never be tested on something that was not taught in the learning experience. Some options for assessments include questions, quizzes, tests, and observations.
#9 Enhance retention
The final event is to help learners transfer the new skills or knowledge to their job. The goal is to build a connection between the training and the real-world environment.
One example of doing this is to provide learners with a handbook or job aid that they can take with them to use on the job. Another way you could do this is to ask the learner questions throughout the learning experience about how they could apply this knowledge to their job. This way they are already connecting what they are learning now to the tasks they will have to perform in their work.
