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Designers of e-learning programs face a number of challenges in designing the closings
of courses and units. Like the guidelines for designing openings, some are practical,
others are motivational. The following guidelines help instructional designers
address these challenges:
• Appropriately summarize the content.
• Appropriately assess the content.
• Build enthusiasm among participants for continued learning.
The following sections describe these guidelines in detail.
Appropriately Summarize the Content
One of the key purposes of the closing of a unit or course is summarizing the content.
This summary is the last opportunity that designers have to reinforce key points
with learners.
Several different approaches exist to summarizing content, from passive to active.
Apassively presented summary is one in which the instructor provides learners
with a list of the key points in the lesson and states exactly how learners should remember
them. An actively presented summary is one in which learners supply the
key points they believe that they should remember.
Some common types of summaries include
• A descriptive summary, which states the topics covered in the learning program
or unit as well as points that participants should remember about
them. An example is, “This unit described hot and cold fields of opportunities.
A hot field of opportunity is in which the industry is growing faster
than the economy. A cold field of opportunity is one in which the industry is
growing more slowly than the economy.” Notice that, in addition to naming
the topics, a descriptive summary also states what learners should remember
about the topic.
• A topic summary, which names the topics covered in the course or unit, but
gives no details about them. An example is, “This unit described hot and
cold fields of opportunity.” Notice that the topic summary does not define
hot and cold, as the descriptive summary does.
• A learner-supplied summary, in which learners name the key points that they
intend to take away from the unit. In some cases, learners may be prompted
to state what they would remember with leading questions, in other cases,
learners are asked to supply their own.
The type of summary that you would use depends on the nature of the content
and on the learning strategy chosen. For example, for units with highly technical
content that learners must apply exactly as presented in the course, designers might
choose a passive strategy to reinforce the key points that learners must remember.
In contrast, for units teaching principles that have situational application, learners
might benefit from supplying their own summaries as a means of helping to verify
their own understanding.
Appropriately Assess the Content
One of the purposes of the closing sections of a course or unit is assessing learners’
ability to master the objectives. Units of most e-learning programs include such an
assessment. Merely including an assessment, however, does not ensure that it is an
appropriate one.
Two issues arise in appropriately assessing content. One is the approach to assessment.
Most instructional design is based on the principle of closing courses with criterion-
referenced assessments. Criterion-referenced assessments are tests, quizzes,
observations, and similar types of activities that emerge directly from the objectives
for the course or unit. These objectives are the criterion.
Because the objectives state what learners should learn, a test assesses whether
or not the learners can successfully achieve the objectives. Assessment questions
should emerge directly from the objectives; in fact, objectives often suggest how the
question should be stated. For example, if the objective says, “Describe at least four
ways to structure content,” the assessment question should ask learners to “Describe
at least four ways to structure content.”
Criterion-referenced testing emerges from the assumption that all learners should
be able to master the material and that successful learning only occurs when learners
master the objectives. Criterion-referenced testing is favored by corporate training
departments.
Norm-referenced testing, favored by the academic system, assesses learners’ abilities
in a subject area along a continuum of strongest to weakest. In norm-referenced
tests, the test questions should still emerge from the objectives but might include
some questions that ask about situations that are dissimilar to the ones presented in
the e-learning program. Although the questions still assess students’ abilities to master
the objectives, learners must also recognize that the concepts taught in class apply
to dissimilar situations. Testing learners about their ability to handle dissimilar situations
assesses their ability to transfer concepts broadly and separates those who
have merely memorized the content from those who have fully integrated it.
The second challenge of preparing assessments at the ends of units is the type of
assessment used. In some instances, formal, scored tests are appropriate. These are
useful in instances in which learners receive a grade for the course or are formally
passed and failed. For similar reasons, scored tests are also useful in training that
leads to certification.
But in many instances, instructional designers do not want to include a test at the
end of a course or unit. In some instances, that’s because the course is not graded.
In other instances, formal testing creates legal problems. In some countries, employers
must be able to demonstrate that tests used to make personnel decisions
(such as promotions and new job assignments) are unbiased or face the possibility
of a legal challenge. To avoid such legal challenges, many companies simply choose
not to use formal tests in training programs.
But even when not formally testing, many instructional designers would like to
provide learners with a way of assessing for themselves whether or not they can
master the objectives. Rather than provide formal tests, designers create a variety of
other types of assessments. These include:
• Quizzes and self-tests, which are like tests. Quiz questions emerge directly
from objectives, just as test questions do. The difference is that, although
scored, quiz scores either play a minor role in a final grade (as they do in
most academic courses) or scores are only reported to learners; they are not
recorded or reported to instructors (as is typical of corporate training and
continuing education courses).
• Self-assessments, which are “fun” quizzes (like those in Cosmopolitan magazine).
Although based on the objectives, the questions and possible responses
have a high level of humor. Also, rather than merely provide a score, the system
provides learners with an interpretation of the score. In other words, if
learners score 80 percent or higher, that means they’re knowledgeable of the
subject, but if they score 50 percent or lower, they still have some skill development
to do. See “How Close Are You to the Performance Zone?”
Build Enthusiasm Among Participants for Continued Learning
The last key purpose of the closing is encouraging learners to continue studying the
topic, if they choose. Learners might continue studying a topic for several reasons:
• They don’t feel they have mastered the topic and want to continue practicing
it. This is called remediation. In some instances, the learner initiates remediation
but, more commonly, the instructor (or system) recommends it.
• They would like to better understand how the content of the unit or course
applies to their unique situation. For example, the basic skills of presentation
graphics programs like PowerPoint® apply in a wide variety of situations. People who prepare business presentations and training programs
might like to learn about specific features of PowerPoint that can enhance
their work, but the features that they would use differ.
• They would like to learn about the topic more in-depth. In some instances,
learners are fascinated by a topic and one experience with it motivates interest
in more experiences. This is called enrichment. For enrichment, learners
might not only be interested in additional formal courses, but in other
sources of information about the topic such as other websites, seminal
works of literature, and associations that support it. | 
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