How to Design a Learning Rabbithole
Five prompts to turn learner obligation into learner obsession using Behavioural Science + Generative AI
Learning designers and educators might not typically reach for books on Behavioural Science when designing learning experiences.
Yet, as learning designers, Behavioural Science provides us with some invaluable insights to help us to turn extrinsically-motivated learner obligation into intrinsically-motivated learner obsession, in the process driving measurable improvements in learner achievement.
TL;DR By weaving behavioural science principles into our learning designs, we can potentially solve one of the most persistent and wicked problems that we face as learning designers: building learner interest & driving learner motivation, persistence and achievement.
In this week’s post, we will:
take a whistle-stop tour of the science of human behaviour and habit formation;
review the key Behavioural Science principles for you to apply in your learning design process;
share five brand new edu-mega-prompts to get you started your journey into the design of learning rabbitholes & delivery of learner delight.
Let’s go! 🚀
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
by Nir Eyal
This book delves into the mechanics of what makes a product addictive and offers insights into creating user habits that stick. The "Hook Model" presented in the book can be applied to instructional design to create engaging learning experiences:
Trigger Learners’ Attention: At the beginning of courses and modules / lessons, use engaging visuals, intriguing questions, familiar analogies or real-world scenarios to capture your learners’ attention.
Enable Learner Action: Use clear instructions (aka signalling) to make starting and navigating a lesson or activity straightforward.
Give Variable Rewards: Incorporate random “pop up” questioning and other interactions, random bonus questions or surprise “unlock able” materials after certain lessons to keep learners’ interests piqued. Check out Harvard Business School’s approach to see this in action (every three to five minutes, pop-ups require students to apply your knowledge through polls, quizzes, and problem-solving exercises designed to accelerate and reinforce their learning).
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
by Daniel H. Pink
Pink's exploration of human motivation uncovers the powerful impact of feelings of autonomy, mastery and purpose on human motivation.
As learning designers, we can apply Pink’s three core principles as follows:
Give Your Learners Autonomy: By giving learners some control over they what, when and how of the learning experience, we optimise their motivation and likelihood to persist and achieve. Offer elective modules and/or allow learners to choose the sequence of topics that they study.
Enable Mastery: Ensuring they're humans are challenged just enough to feel a sense of stretch and achievement is critical to their motivation. Do your research up front, carefully define your learners’ ZPD and design an experience that sits within it.
Design courses that allow learners to achieve mastery, by providing challenges that are neither too easy nor too hard.
Design for Purpose: By connecting the learning experience to real-world applications and/or broader societal impacts, we give them experience to give context, meaning and significance. Again, do your research up front; take time to understand what matters to your learners and where they will most likely apply their learning in practice. Design projects and select case studies & examples which resonate with your learners’ interests and motivations.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
This book delves into the concept of "flow" – a state of complete immersion in and engagement with an activity.
Understanding the principles which underpin “flow” can help instructional designers solve one of their most wicked and persistent problems: creating engaging learning experiences.
Here’s how to apply Csikszentmihalyi’s research in practice:
Balance Challenge & Skill: Ensure that tasks match the learner's skill level, neither too easy (leading to boredom) nor too hard (leading to anxiety). This reinforces Pink’s work and reinforces the importance of carefully defining your learners’ ZPD and designing experiences which sit within it.
Set Clear Goals: The clear a human’s goal, the more likely they are to pursue it. Set clear objectives at both the course and module / lesson / session level. Where possible, frame goals as a statement of what learners will do and, importantly, why (i.e. the real-world value); this helps to drive a sense of purpose and can help with persistence.
Give Immediate & Actionable Feedback: Research shows that when learners are “in flow”, you can help to keep them there by providing the right sort of feedback in the right moment. When learners take action, give them immediate, actionable and motivating feedback to sustain their action and engagement.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
by Robert B. Cialdini
Cialdini’s book explores the psychology of why people say "yes" and how to apply these principles to persuade others to adopt certain behaviours.
The key design principles I learned from Cialdini were:
Design for Unexpected Reciprocity: When we off learners something valuable (e.g. a free “bonus” resource) we encourage and drive their engagement. Evidence suggests that when rewards are unexpected, they are even more effective at driving learner motivation.
Stage Learner Commitment: If we first ask learners to commit to small tasks, there is a greater likelihood that we can ask them to commit to larger tasks (e.g. culminating projects) later in the experience.
Provide Social Proof: When we showcase testimonials or success stories and publicly celebrate learner success, we motivate all learners to persist and achieve more.
As learning designers, our ultimate goal is to create learning experiences which inspire and impact our learners. Behavioural Science provides us with some invaluable insights to help us to turn extrinsically-motivated learner obligation into a intrinsically-motivated learner obsession..
By integrating principles from Behavioural Science research, we can design learning experiences which not only engage but deeply resonate with our learners and unlock unparalleled motivation and achievement.
Applying Behavioural Science Using Generative AI
Want to have a go at applying Behavioural Science research to your process? Here are five evidence-based prompts to help get you started:
Prompt 1: Generate Scenarios & Analogies
You are an expert instructional designer. I will give you some learning objectives. For each objective you will generate a real-world scenario or analogy that relates to the topic. All scenarios and analogies must be relevant to my learners: [insert information about your learners]".
Prompt 2: Generate Content Ideas
You are an expert instructional designer. I will give you an overview of my course design. You will suggest engaging visuals, intriguing questions, or real-world scenarios related to [topic] that can act as an attention-grabbing introduction to each section. All content must be relevant to my learners: [insert information about your learners]".
Prompt 3: Generate Signalling Text
You are an expert instructional designer. I will give you an outline of my course design. Based on the outline provided, you will generate clear and concise instructions to guide learners through the content. All instructions must follow the signalling (or cueing) principle, which states that learning materials become more effective when cues are added that guide learners’ attention to the relevant elements of the material or highlight the organization of the material.”
Prompt 4: Generate Signalling Text
You are an expert instructional designer. I will give you an outline of my course design. Based on the outline provided, you will suggest three points where pop-up questions, quizzes, or bonus materials can be introduced. You must also provide a random question related to each section of the course.”
Prompt 5: Generate Social Proof
You are an expert instructional designer. Research shows that when we showcase testimonials or success stories and publicly celebrate learner success, we motivate all learners to persist and achieve more. I will give you an outline of my course design. Based on the outline provided, you will suggest opportunities to share testimonials or success stories and publicly celebrate learner success in a way that will drive learner motivation.”
That’s all folks! If you want to learn more about intrinsic learner motivation you can check out my earlier post ChatGPT Prompts for Learner Motivation and give me a follow on LinkedIn, where I share research and ideas on all things learning science and AI.
You can also download the LxD Lab’s pocket guide on Learner Motivation, which is provides a great overview (full disclosure: I’m one of LxD Lab’s new voluntary advisors).
Happy designing!
Phil 👋