Click Next to Continue March 1, 2008
Posted by B.J. Schone in eLearning.Tags: Design, Development, eLearning
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Cathy Moore has a great blog post about the (in)famous Next button that is ever-present in eLearning courses. She suggests and demonstrates several ways to build tension and interest so that the learner wants to continue by clicking the Next button. This makes the experience much more interesting, and learner will want to continue to the next screen (rather than us forcing them to the next screen). I think the main idea is to use an element of storytelling (suspense) to drive the learning. It’s much better than the "read something, click Next, read something, click Next" rut that can occur. Of course, in an ideal world, we should all be much more inventive and creative to break out of this linear model of learning. Yes, ideally. 🙂
B.J. Schone
Eric Matas
kevinthorn
eLearning Weekly 
BJ, I’m glad you liked the post. I agree that storytelling techniques will help us make linear learning less painful. A novel is the ultimate linear experience, so it can be useful to look at techniques used in fiction and see how they could be used in elearning.
Yes, I have issues with the Next button…but like a bad habit, find it hard to rid my elearning of it at times. I soooo agree that storytelling approaches (another one of my better habits) is a great way to drive more creative approaches…emotional connections.
I have a question, how come novels, books, etc. don’t have a next arrow at the end of every page?…How did we figure that form of media out without a TURN TO SEE NEXT PAGE directions at the bottom of every book page? hmmm…..
[…] skip a few words, then some sentences, then paragraphs and finally, they’ll skip whole pages. “Click Next to continue” becomes a handy escape or fast-forward […]