Behaviorism might sound like a simple technique that you use for your pet puppy to train them, but in the world of eLearning, it is a powerful tool. So when you are on the journey of eLearning, you can use the techniques and rules of behaviorism, and your road to success will be easier. But to understand and apply the rules better, let's discuss what it is and how you can adopt a behaviorist approach in your learning journey, helping you to achieve great things.
What is Behaviorism?
According to psychology, it is a psychological school of thought that aims to identify measurable and observable laws explaining both human and animal behavior. To understand it better, behaviorism is the study that teaches us how controlled behavior in a situation can truly impact one’s behavior that can be observed.
But why is it important in eLearning? Well, it proves to be an important theory that helps people understand things better whenever they are planning to create a change in their behavior. This might turn out to be the approach that you were looking for, helping you to achieve the success you were craving for.
What is the Cause and Impact of Behaviorism?
Behaviorism is entirely about the cause-and-effect relationship. When you do something, something in rune happens to you. It is like pressing a particular button and getting a particular type of soda, a pretty simple concept. For eLearning, understanding how this relationship works will help you understand and create "laser-focused interventions'', helping you achieve some specific learning goals. You can easily bring this cause-and-effect rule to your learning plan. Such as, you can include immediate feedback and incorporate repetition in your learning design.
Is Immediate Feedback the Magical Behavioral Source?
Remember when you were little and you accidentally touched a hot stove? It quickly taught you to never touch one again. That is called immediate feedback and that is exactly the magical potion in behaviorism.
In eLearning, using the tools of behaviorism is all about telling the learners right away how they did. This helps the learners connect the dots between what they did and their consequences. If you are wondering, yes it is like a game where you make a move and see the results immediately, then you learn from your mistakes and level up your game.
Is Repetition the Key?
You must have heard, "Practice makes it perfect". This is the primary object of behaviorism. Learners need to keep their practice of new skills to get more confident and better. When you incorporate repatriation into your routine, you will give them multiple times to practice their skills and then reinforce the result, which is exactly like the cause-and-effect relationship. To understand this better, let's elaborate an example.
Let's start with a band that has sustainability as its mission. To make this mission a reality, they want to do everything in their power. This includes redefining how they do business. Now this is like a real-life scenario that learners get mirroring the complex and real business world. As learners continue to make choices, they will see the results and their impacts. To keep a tab on that you can create a tally on the board. The scoreboard will show them how each decision impacted positively or negatively on the situation. In this case, your three buckets would be people, the economy, and the environment. Playing this would either help them win or lose points in these three buckets.
This shows learners the consequences of their choices, encouraging them to make decisions that align with the bank's sustainability goals. In the end, this is all about the consequences or rewards, just like a game.
