Learner Personas and Empathy Maps
One of the initial steps to creating meaningful and customized eLearning experiences involves evaluating the learners who will use the activity. It is important to understand why you do this as a part of your work creating eLearning - it is also important to explain why to those outside of the education field to ensure you get the best information. This post explains why we make empathy maps and learner personas - the next post will give you examples of both.
Why do Instructional Designers (or anyone who creates learning experiences) make Empathy maps?
Instructional designers create empathy maps to better understand and design for the needs, goals, and perspectives of their learners. An empathy map is a visual tool that allows designers to empathize with their learners by gaining insight into their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and motivations.
By using empathy maps, instructional designers can:
Identify “learner personas”: Empathy maps help designers create learner personas that accurately represent their audience's needs, goals, and challenges.
Understand learner needs: Designers can use empathy maps to gain a deeper understanding of what their learners need in terms of content, format, and delivery.
Design engaging learning experiences: Empathy maps can help designers create engaging learning experiences that resonate with their learners and encourage participation.
Improve learning outcomes: By understanding their learners' perspectives, instructional designers can design learning experiences that are more effective and help learners achieve their learning objectives.
Empathy maps are a valuable tool for instructional designers to gain insights into their learners' needs, goals, and perspectives, which can help them create more effective and engaging learning experiences.
Why do Instructional Designers (or anyone who creates learning experiences) make Learner Personas?
Instructional designers create learner personas to better understand the needs, preferences, and learning styles of their target audience. Learner personas are fictional characters that represent the different types of learners who may use the learning materials, such as online courses or training programs.
By creating learner personas, instructional designers can:
Identify the specific needs of their target audience: Learner personas help instructional designers to understand the specific needs and requirements of their target audience. They can use this information to design learning materials that are more relevant and engaging.
Tailor the learning experience: By understanding the different learning styles and preferences of their target audience, instructional designers can tailor the learning experience to better suit their needs. This can include choosing the right instructional strategies, selecting appropriate multimedia elements, and structuring the content in a way that is more appealing to the learners.
Increase learner engagement: By creating learner personas, instructional designers can develop learning materials that are more engaging and interactive. This can help to increase learner motivation and participation, leading to better learning outcomes.
Improve learning outcomes: By designing learning materials that are more relevant and engaging, instructional designers can improve learning outcomes. Learner personas help instructional designers to create learning materials that are more effective in achieving their learning objectives.
In summary, learner personas are an important tool for instructional designers to better understand their target audience and create learning materials that are more effective and engaging.
