Overview

In Design for How People Learn, 2nd ed., Dirksen explains that learning designers must find ways to reign in the “elephant” half of our brain, which she describes using Haidt’s Happiness Hypothesis:

“The rider is…conscious and controlled. The elephant, in contrast, is everything else. THe elephant includes the gut feelings, visceral reactions, emotions, and intuitions that comprise much of the automatic system”. -Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis

Part of the Happiness Hypothesis states that in order to achieve self-improvement, we need to learn to control “the elephant”.

Learning designers must engage the “elephant” half of our brain, because self-control is a muscle with limited use. Dirksen suggests “attracting the elephant” so that the burden of attention on the “rider” half of our brain is lessened. (Dirksen, 131).

This learning module “attracts the elephant” by turning an otherwise dry excel formula into a fun and exciting scenario that makes the excel INDEX/MATCH formula a crucial part of solving the problem facing S.H.I.E.L.D Headquarters in the Marvel Universe.

The crux of this theory states that a learner’s motivation is often a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The implication for learning design is that one must identify where learners fall on the intrinsic to extrinsic continuum in order to create effective learning experiences.

The Target Audience for this lesson is largely intrinsically motivated because the presumption is they would like to improve their own abilities to manage large amounts of data, and this training video introduces them to a solution to solve their problems.

In Design For How People Learn, 2nd ed., Dirksen notes that when designing for intrinsically motivated learners, it is important to make sure the learners have autonomy and time to work on their own problems. Thus, the format of this training video is appropriate because learners are free to use the video whenever they wish, and are also able to work alongside the video if they wish to use the data sheet provided.

As learners mature, they move from focusing on subject-centeredness to problem-centeredness. While we cannot control the learner’s motivations, the applicability of a training should be eminently clear. Thus, adult learning is not just about knowledge building but should also contribute to problem-solving.

The INDEX/MATCH for Superheroes training video camp provides the learner with a clear problem: How do I cross-reference excessive data without needing to use slow, manual methods or imperfect methods like VLOOKUP? This question is couched in a fun scenario: How can we use the INDEX/MATCH formula to improve building security at S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters? Ultimately, scenario-based learning, rather than a knowledge dump, is an excellent way to teach problem-solving in a safe environment.