Leveraging Action Mapping for Course Creation

Designing an online course can feel like packing for a long, far-off trip. You want to include everything because it all looks so important!

But that's the challenge; if you include every bit of detail you find, you’ll likely overburden your learners. 

This is where action mapping comes in. Action mapping is a strategic approach to instructional design that focuses on what to do rather than what to know.

Action mapping blends well with your e-learning (LMS) platforms. Remember, the aim of any course or training program is to equip your learners with a set of essential skills, not just theoretical knowledge that will not benefit them in the future. 

With action mapping, you can enhance the learning experience for each learner. This way, they are more likely to stay engaged, retain, and apply the material they learn in classrooms to the practical world.

So, let's learn more about action mapping and how you can integrate it into your LMS platform.

What is Action Mapping?

The term action mapping was first introduced by Cathy Moore. The framework is designed with a key focus on what the learners need to do rather than what they need to know.

So, your entire study plan or course will be directed toward an achievable and measurable outcome. In this way, the learners know what is expected of them; you, as an educator, know the objectives and goals in black and white, and even an LMS platform like Coursebox can join the dots for you to see how well those objectives are being met.

On Coursebox, you have several interactive features that enhance user engagement, such as quizzes and discussion boards. Performance trackers or analytics can also help you with action mapping. 

The analytics and tools on the platform go in line with action mapping, which will help:

• Improve the measurable performance of the business or organization
• Find the best solutions to issues hindering performance 
• Design realistic and engaging activities for the training program

The Four Steps of Action Mapping

There are four steps to action mapping. Let's take a look at each in detail here: 

Source: Gerard Friel

1. Define the Goal

You will start by identifying the goal of your study or training program. All goals should be clear, measurable, and in line with the purpose of your course. 

What do you intend to achieve from it? 

Do you want to enhance your learners' skills, workplace performance, or customer satisfaction? You need to know your objectives before you begin designing or adding elements to your course program. 

Coursebox simplifies the process. Here, you can set your objectives, and it will align your course material with them. You can then track the learners’ performance and see whether it is helping you achieve your goals. 

This way you can also amend the course material or resources during the course to help each learner achieve their milestones.

2. Identify the Actions Learners Need to Take

Next, you need to see which specific actions you want the learners to take to help you achieve your goal. 

For instance, if you are looking to boost organizational performance, you have to look for actions like how motivated the employees are and how well they work in teams or can apply their skills practically.

You can use different interactive tools, such as simulations, task-based activities, case studies, etc., to give them hands-on training in actual scenarios.

The analytics on the LMS platform will let you see whether the learners took the action path you wanted them to.

3. Design Practice Activities

Engaging your learners in fun activities is best, rather than making them watch videos or go through boring piles of content.

So, you need to work on (or let Coursebox design) practice assessments and a set of activities that will add a fun and learning element to your course.

You can give them real-life case studies that will give them insights into the industry. You can also assign role-playing activities or scenario-based tasks that encourage learners to act, collaborate, and tackle problems as a team.

4. Select the Necessary Information

Next, you need to find the relevant content. Now, that's the tricky part: Which parts of the material are most relevant now? 

Action mapping makes that clear for us!

You don't have to provide everything. Just focus on the information that motivates the learners to take those specific actions you want them to. This way, your course plan will be better structured and focused on the action plan rather than overwhelming the learners with unnecessary details.

If you still want them to look into some resources they may otherwise find helpful, upload them separately as additional resources.

Advantages of Action Mapping

Action mapping can apply to businesses, educational institutes, and organizations. Some of the key advantages of using the approach are 

• It's easy to implement and delivers results in a short time 
• The outcomes or results are great as learners get just the information they need for higher performance 
• The learning is goal-oriented, where everything goes back to a certain agreed-upon measurable goal 
• Learners get to work on real-world skills instead of just learning theoretical content 
• There is no information overload; instead, targeted learning is more accessible, especially for those with diverse learning needs.
• Since the learners get an active learning experience, they are better able to perform in their practical lives. The learning is more engaging overall, which increases the engagement rate. 
• Its focus is on micro-learning, where you organize essential content into digestible chunks, which further keeps the learner's interest and does not overwhelm them.
• ROI improves when you have already decided on the goals you want to achieve through the training program. You get actual analytics and measurable outcomes.
• You also collect feedback and adjust the course based on the learner's performance and feedback during the course, which further boosts the outcomes. 
• Action mapping also helps design activities and tailor them to each learner's specific needs and challenges. It's like an adaptive learning path for each learner, where you can deliver personalized content and activities. 
• Using an LMS platform for action mapping can further improve stakeholder collaboration and centralize it via shared dashboards, analytic reports, and other tools on Coursebox. 

Challenges in Action Mapping

Action mapping is an effective model; there is no doubt about it. However, it comes with its challenges, especially when implemented on an LMS platform. 

Let's discuss a few of the key challenges and how you can tackle them.

Defining Goals

At times, defining and setting clear goals can be a challenge, as managers may not know how to articulate them or make them specific to the details.

To make it work, you need to collaborate with them or the organization's key decision-makers to identify and agree on certain key performance metrics. 

Then, you will use the LMS analytics to check the past training outcomes and identify areas for improvement on the Coursebox. You can find built-in templates and analytics dashboards, which can help you in this collaboration.

Time Intensive

Action mapping requires significant effort to identify the goals and actions and design the practice activities for the learners. 

Compared to the traditional learning methodology, it is pretty time and effort-intensive, but you can adopt a series of steps to simplify the process.

Then, you can delegate the team to the task that will take on the workload. Or you can use LMS tools to automate certain activities, like quizzes or their built-in templates for scenario-based learning. 

Then, you should start the course with a rough pilot test and see how it goes before proceeding to the full scale.

Resistance to Change

It's natural for people to resist change, and so many find it hard to adjust to the action-mapping system from the previous model or plan being followed in the workplace or study program.

You can buffer the impact by educating them about the benefits of action mapping. 

You can also tell them how action mapping will help them learn about modern trends in learning, including microlearning and gamification techniques, which are part of their course.

Creating a Content and Activity Balance

Many educators fear that if they leave out certain information, the learners will not understand the material, or it will leave out important information.

To prevent this, you can use LMS to your advantage and provide additional resources on the platform that they can access later.

You can upload PDFs, video files, or other multimedia documents that will not only cover all the details but also provide your learners with information about the subject matter. 

Remember to focus on the learners' needs rather than bombarding them with all the information you find. 

Wrap Up

Action mapping isn’t just another course design model. It’s a transformative approach to e-learning on an LMS platform. 

When you involve your learners with more activities, which may be scenario-based or other practical experiences, they will likely be more engaged. Knowledge retention will also improve, and they’ll know what to do and how to act in different situations rather than just knowing or learning about it.

Action mapping can also help you achieve realistic and measurable results for your business.

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