Duration of learning experience (scope)
From The Learning Engineer's Knowledgebase
The duration of a learning experience considers for how long overall a person will participate in the experience. Duration is one of the primary components of the scope of a design project and is often determined, at least in part, by the available amount of time with the participant.
Definition
The duration of a learning experience how much time will be spent on the learning experience in total by a person. Not every person's duration may be the same, as some people may participate for shorter or longer durations.
Duration involves both learners and the teacher/facilitator.
Additional Information
The duration of an experience is most frequently decided by how much time is reasonably available for the learner or the teacher/facilitator to participate in the first place. If a teacher only has one day for an exercise, then the duration is necessarily constrained to one day.
The typical duration of a product's use is an important part of defining the scope of the product. By identifying the available duration early on in the analysis and scope definition process, a designer is able to properly constrain their work to the amount of time that can be reasonably expected for people to use the product.
When possible, educational products benefit from flexibly allowing for shorter or longer durations based on the implementation needs of a teacher or the interests of a participant. Anticipating a person's longer or shorter duration needs could be a useful exercise for designers to think about how the product may be adapted and used in real-world settings. Although the product may be initially designed for a certain duration, there may be opportunities for the implementer to extend the activities for a longer time, or conversely need to adapt it to a shorter time and still benefit from the product.
Common durations for educational products
- Practice sessions (1-30 minutes)
- A single homework assignment (1-3 hours)
- Day lessons, demonstrations, or tutorials (1-2 hours)
- Day-long sessions (4-8 hours)
- Multi-day lessons (1-2 hours for 2-3 days)
- Instructional units (30-60 minutes a day, 2-5 days a week, over a month)
- Online course module (3-6 hours spread out over a week, self-paced)
- One classroom week (3-5 hours total, spread out over ~5 days)
- Intensive week-long sessions (4-5 days, 4-8 hours each)
- Long-term project or game play (~1-2 months or more, variable hours per day, sustained use)
- Semester-long projects and studies (~30-60 minutes a day, 2-5 days a week, over 10-16 weeks)
- Academic courses - trimester or semester (3-4 hours of "seat time" a week, 6-8 hours of additional work a week, over 10-16 weeks)
- Year-long studies or projects (over approximately 30-40 weeks a year for 1-5 days a week, variable hours)
- Academic programs or degrees (2-4 years, variable number of hours spent)
Tips and Tricks
- The timeframe and duration for how long a person should be expected to use your product is an essential part of design. It sets the mark for what you are expecting to see as a designer and will determine in part the types of activities that you have time for in your design.
- Define what the most common duration will be with which someone will interact with your product. This will help you constrain the design and focus your work. From there, you can think about how to allow people to flexibly adapt the duration for shorter or longer experiences if they desire.
- Through the analysis phase, consider what the common duration lengths for similar products are and what amount of time your audience has for using your product or experience. Most often, the amount of reasonable time that can be spent defines the duration itself, such as kids can only realistically use your product for no more than 30 minutes per class period, for 2-3 classes per week.
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