Since we started SolidProfessor in 2003, we’ve made evolutionary changes in many areas with respect to our content and production techniques, but there are also a few hallmarks that have remained consistent fingerprints of the SolidProfessor methodology.
Micro-Experiences:
We started as an eLearning company. We were lucky in some respects that we weren’t starting as a brick and mortar institution that was trying to create eLearning based on an existing framework. We were able to start with a blank slate, with a methodology to specifically address online learners. One key difference with learning over the web compared with a traditional instructor led classroom is that people rarely spend more than a few minutes at a time focusing on a single thing – 15-20 minutes, if you are lucky. Enter the micro-experience.
Addressing Linear and Non-Linear Learners:
For linear learners taking a course from beginning to end, micro-experiences offer a way for learners to come in and out of a greater learning experience as their schedules and attention spans permit. For non-linear learners who are searching for a particular topic to learn about instead of taking a course from beginning to end, the micro-experience helps us achieve one of our brand promises at SolidProfessor, which is to get you to an answer to your question within 5 minutes or less. Whether it is a linear or non-linear learner, for the micro-experience to be valuable it must be self-contained so there are takeaways from each learning session, no matter how long or short.
Edutainment:
There is a lot of talk in the EdTech community about “Edutainment”. I think it’s great. There will be a lot of approaches to edutainment, but the overall premise of having a focus on production techniques to improve learning experiences over the web has always made a lot of sense to me. I may have learned more watching the documentary “COSMOS with Neil deGrasse Tyson” than I did in any of my astronomy classes in high school, or the HBO series “John Adams”, than I did in my American history classes. Those TV series had enormous budgets and may be pretty far to one end of the current edutainment spectrum, but at the other extreme, if production quality is low and learners are distracted by background noise or can’t see what’s happening on the screen because of a fuzzy video, then learners cannot fully immerse into the experience and at least some of what could have been learned is lost.
Consistency:
One of our mantras within the SolidProfessor content development team is “consistently great, consistently relevant.” We strive to be comprehensive, but aren’t trying to be Google. There is a rule of thumb that it’s good to clean out your closet at least once a year and donate anything that you have not worn since the previous year. There is something nice about being able to reach into your closet afterwards and grab any shirt off the rack without having to sort through the ones you don’t fit or are worn through. Filtered is better. Consistently great, consistently relevant. The same holds true when searching for answers. When doing a Google search, you always get a lot of results, but you never really know what you’re going to get with respect to quality or relevance to your specific search. A goal with our content at SolidProfessor is that when you do a search on our platform, it will always yield consistently relevant, high-quality results.
Hands-On:
While we certainly put a lot of energy and focus into the quality of our video content and the experience with them, the hands-on components of our courses are equally valuable in the overall instructional design and learning experiences. There’s a popular Confucius proverb that goes “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” Research shows that about 70% of learning is through practice and on the job experiences. Having well-designed hands-on applications of new skills within a learning experience is key to not only reinforcing the instructional intent from the videos, but to actually internalize and retain the skills.
 Jason heads up the SolidProfessor Content Development team, which creates the videos and learning experiences that have helped hundreds of thousands of engineers, students, and teams improve their skills. With a background in mechanical design, Jason uses his passion for instructional design to develop the methodology behind the SolidProfessor learning experience.Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. |
