Learning Agents Part 3: Learning Agents, Done Poorly

Recently I received a sample e-learning course on preparing for a pandemic. It was primarily presentation of factual content, and it included an on-screen, animated agent with voice narration. It’s a counter-example to the one we saw yesterday. Here are the issues I had with it:

• The narrator introduces the topic but doesn’t reappear after that first screen (within the first lesson), so she doesn’t provide any sense of continuity.
• She doesn’t have a name or personality, or any emotional impact on the course.
• The animation doesn’t add anything compared to just using images; in fact it adds movement, which distracts from the onscreen text.

At least it was short. That sounds facetious, but it’s a virtue that many courses don’t have… particularly when they’re showing off cool toys like animated characters.

Stay tuned: Another Agent To Learn From