| CAI (Content Area Interaction) Ratio…How does your course score? |  |  |  |
From a learning objectives standpoint, what comes before the assessment is the actual training and knowledge transfer. The biggest hurdle to effective and engaging eLearning is the screen content and how the user interacts with it. The team at Centrax has coined the term “CAI Ratio” to apply some context to the area of effective eLearning programs, especially when it comes to Rapid eLearning Development. CAI stands for “Content Area Interaction” Ratio. This represents the number of screens in a program that have interactive media elements within the content area versus the number of static screens in a program that consists of only text and still images. What is it that keeps a person in front of a game console at Best Buy for hours until their family or friends come yank them away? In contrast, why do online training users get bored and abandon eLearning programs within minutes? It’s all about what occurs within the content area of a screen. The content area pertains to everything on the screen except the navigation buttons of an eLearning program or the space bar/arrow buttons used to advance a PowerPoint program to the next screen. From a CAI Ratio standpoint, a video game would have a 100% CAI Ratio since you are always interacting within the content area. Users’ constant interaction with the content area (playing the game) keeps them engaged. On the other hand, a 40 screen (PowerPoint based) eLearning program with all bullet pointed text and still image based screens would have a 0% CAI ratio since you only click the “Next” button to move to each of the 40 screens. With the recent Rapid Development trend, a 0% CAI Ratio is very common for courses. This is due to most of the Rapid Development tools such as Articulate, Captivate, and Lectora Publisher having the capability to import PowerPoint programs and then export them to eLearning programs. The problem, of course, is if you start with a 0% CAI Ratio PowerPoint, then you will end up with a 0% CAI Ratio eLearning program. Most of the rapid development programs have “off the shelf” interactive media elements that you can import into your course. But even these fall short if your content is custom in nature (i.e. operation of a specific medical or mechanical device).
A screen would receive a CAI point if the user interacts with the content area. Of course sound instructional design principles need to be applied to the screen; the interaction cannot be meaningless. In addition, a visually engaging screen (that a user does not necessarily interact with) would qualify for a CAI point if it is a graphically rich screen that conveys the message very well. For example, unlike a PowerPoint screen with text bullet points and static clip art, a fully animated complex flow chart “interacts” with the viewer visually to provide the desired knowledge transfer. Examples: A. 40 screen Articulate program with text and clip art on each screen: 0/40 = 0% CAI Ratio B. 40 screen Articulate program with 10 screens of interactive elements: 10/40 = 25% CAI Ratio An ideal CAI Ratio for a course is 40 – 60%. Lower CAI Ratio numbers can be effective as well.
User Acceptance: One very important point is that even though a CAI Ratio may be 25%, the user acceptance of the program may go up much more than that ( i.e. 60 -80%) since the user will have some interactive screens to work with. Their perception of the course will be much better if it contains 10 out of 40 highly customized and interactive screens. Also the user would tend to “forgive” the other 30 screens that are static in nature.
Summary: There are vast numbers of courses on corporate intranets that were quickly generated with PowerPoint files in conjunction with Rapid Development tools. To truly facilitate user transfer of skills, there needs to be an analysis and determination of the course CAI ratio. That will enable organizations to increase their ROI while enhancing the overall achievement of learning objectives.
Centrax Corporation: Centrax develops TrainingBYTES® that can be used with all of the Rapid Development tools on the market to raise CAI Ratio levels. Our Rapid Development Program Enhancement service compliments the TrainingBYTE® offering. Centrax TrainingBYTES Rapid Development Program Enhancement services |
