SHIFT's eLearning Blog

Our blog provides the best practices, tips, and inspiration for corporate training, instructional design, eLearning and mLearning.

To visit the Spanish blog, click here

    Adult Learning Theories Every Instructional Designer Must Know

    As an instructional designer, you want to create courses that make a difference in your audience’s lives. You want to create experiences that inspire them, change mindsets and drive performance. In short, you want to create courses that resonate with them and hit the mark, every time.

    The 4 Adult Learning Elements You Should Include in Your eLearning Courses

    Adult Learning highlights that adult learners are fundamentally different in their methods of learning in comparison with children. As an L&D professional, you need to understand these differences and figure out the best ways to apply them to meet your learner's needs. With adult learners, you will encounter unique expectations, demands, and challenges. The key is to accommodate these and design training and eLearning courses in a manner that is most effective and engaging for them. While there are multiple methodologies to make this happen, there is a model proposed by Lila Davachi, Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University that is known to be effective. Known as AGES (Attention-Generation-Emotion-Spacing), this model highlights four key elements that are essential for effective adult learning to happen.

    • 9 min read
    • Fri, May 20, 2022 @ 01:51 PM

    Breaking the Code: What Motivates Adult Learners?

    As eLearning designers, we have to understand adult learning psychology to create courses that appeal to them and make them want to learn what you want to teach. But... there is a challenge. Most adult learners are anxious about being able to adapt to, and perform in a virtual learning environment. They also harbor negative attitudes about eLearning (due to bad courses they’ve taken in the past). We have to overcome these obstacles by giving the learner compelling reasons to take our courses. We have to get inside their minds and break the code: What motivates them to learn and what holds them back?

    • 11 min read
    • Thu, May 10, 2018 @ 12:10 PM

    If You're Designing eLearning for Adults Take Advantage of These 4 Tactics

    Most of adult learning strategies are based on the idea that adults learn differently from non-adults. The term that often comes up is “androgogy,” which Malcolm Knowles coined to describe how adults learn in contrast to “pedagogy” or on how children learn.

      Related Posts

      4 Actionable Strategies to Bridge the Digital Skills Gap in Your Company

      Are you feeling the pressure of rapid technological advancements altering the job market? Wondering if your team has what it takes to navigate the challenges of this evolving digital landscape? You're certainly not in this boat alone. The relentless pace of technological innovation has thrust the importance of digital skills to the forefront for businesses around the globe.

      Essential Tips for Upskilling and Reskilling in the Age of AI

      Ever wondered how your company can keep up with the rapid pace of technological advancements?

      Beyond Compliance: 8 Ways to Inspire Continuous Learning Among Employees

      In a world that never pauses, where every moment is a battle against time and every corner is filled with distractions, the quest for continuous learning within our teams is more crucial than ever. As the digital age accelerates, driven by the relentless pace of artificial intelligence, the stakes for keeping our skills sharp and our knowledge fresh have never been higher. The challenge for those of us leading the charge in training is not just to keep pace but to inspire our teams to embrace the journey of lifelong learning.