Plan a Lesson Around One Task
A Lesson that tries to teach several tasks at once is hard for a Learner to finish and hard for you to fix. This article is for Skyllful Studio Users who build Lessons and shows how to pick one task, write down its result and its why, and count its steps before you capture a single screen, so you know whether it fits in one Lesson or needs a set.
Why plan around one task?
A Lesson built around one task is one a Learner can finish between jobs, remember on the next shift, and find again when they need it. A Lesson that covers several tasks does none of those well.
The cost shows up in three places.
- The Learner. Adults at work learn to do something, not to know something. A Lesson that stops halfway through one task to start another leaves the Learner with two half-finished skills.
- The return visit. A Learner who comes back to check one step has to hunt for it inside a Lesson about something else.
- Your results. Skyllful IQ reports results by Lesson. When one Lesson holds three tasks and the Knowledge Check fail rate is high, you cannot tell which task is the problem.
Planning takes a few minutes and happens before you open Skyllful Studio. It is the cheapest point to get the scope right, because every screen you capture after this is built around the decision.
What counts as one task?
One task is something a Learner does on the job from start to finish, with a result they could point to. Receive a delivery. Issue a customer credit. Close out a work order.
If the task you have in mind... |
Then... |
|---|---|
| Ends with a result the Learner could point to | It is one task. Plan it as one Lesson. |
| Is named with the word "and" (receive and put away a delivery) | It is probably two tasks. Plan each on its own, or as a set. |
| Is a whole system or screen (the inventory app) | It is a subject, not a task. List the tasks Learners do in it, then plan each one. |
| Happens only as part of a bigger task (enter a lot number) | It is a step, not a task. Plan the bigger task and include it. |
| Has two or more paths depending on a choice (credit to card or to account) | Plan the most common path first. Add each other path as its own Lesson if Learners use it often. |
How do you plan a Lesson around one task?
Step |
Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Name the task the way a Learner would say it out loud on the job. "Issue a customer credit", not "Credit Management Module". The name becomes your Lesson title. |
| 2 | Write the result in one sentence: what is true when the task is done right. |
| 3 | Write the why in one or two sentences: what the task is for and what goes wrong when it is done badly. |
| 4 | Note what the Learner already knows. A new hire and a ten-year employee learning a new system need different amounts of explanation in the step text. |
| 5 | Walk the task in the real application and count the controls the Learner taps or clicks. Skyllful allows one control per step, so each control is one step. Text entries on the same screen, even several of them, belong to that same step |
| 6 | Compare the count to 10 to 15 steps. If it fits, you have one Lesson. If it runs past 15, mark the natural stopping points where one phase ends and another begins, and plan a set of Lessons instead. Do not count the opening step that states the why. |
Note: Keep the result and the why you wrote in steps 2 and 3. They become the opening of the Lesson, so you have them ready when you start building.
Where does the why go once you start building?
The why opens the Lesson, before the first action. Make the first step of the Lesson one that asks nothing of the Learner, and use it to say what the task is for and what goes wrong when it is done badly. In Walkthrough, set the step to No Action Required Of User and put the why in its description. In Talkthrough, put the why in the step's narration.
A Lesson that opens straight into "Tap Returns" skips the reason the Learner should care. A Lesson that opens with "A credit entered against the wrong invoice holds up the customer's next order" gives every step after it a purpose.
What does planning not cover?
Planning decides the scope. It does not replace checking the task with the Learners who do it. If you do not do the task yourself, walk step 5 with a Learner or a supervisor who does, and ask where Learners usually make mistakes. Those are the steps that need the clearest step text.
Common questions
What if the task really does take 25 steps? Break it into a set of Lessons at its natural stopping points. Break a Long Workflow into a Set of Lessons shows how.
What if my task has only three steps? A short Lesson is fine if the task is complete. If several three-step tasks are always done together on the job, consider one Lesson that covers the whole sequence as a single task.
Should I include steps the Learner already does every day? Include every action in the task, because the Learner performs the task start to finish. Use what the Learner already knows to keep the step text short on the familiar steps.
Can I change the scope after I start building? Yes, but every screen captured for the old scope has to be sorted into the new one. Scope changes cost the least before you capture.
Where does this idea come from? Adult learning research, starting with Malcolm Knowles, found that adults learn best when training is organized around a real task and tied to a reason they care about. Research on microlearning adds that short, focused units are easier to absorb and to return to than long ones.
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