CDLA · Module 5 — Interaction design for transfer
Interaction design starts from the decision you want people to make at work. LTEM tiers 5 to 7 describe the evidence each pattern can produce.
About 18 min
Practice in the lesson player
Sorting, matching, quizzes, and the module gate stay behind a free account so scored answers are not public. The teaching notes below are the same cited curriculum.
01
A course on data protection has 40 interactions: click-to-reveal tabs, drag-and-drop definitions, a hotspot image of an office, a crossword. None of them asks the learner to decide what to do with a real file. It is highly interactive and it rehearses nothing that happens at work. Interaction is not the goal. Rehearsing the decision is.
02
Tier claim | Interaction pattern | Weak substitute
Decision-making (5) | Branching dialogue or scenario with distinct consequences | Multiple-choice recall of policy text
Task competence (6) | Simulated workflow with scored steps | Click-through demo with no learner action
Transfer (7) | Work task and manager sign-off in the pathway | Certificate after completion
03
Transfer research distinguishes near transfer (applying a skill to situations very like the practice) from far transfer (applying it to new situations). Barnett and Ceci's 2002 taxonomy lists the dimensions on which situations can differ: context, time, setting, social context, modality. Two design consequences. For procedural, rule-based actions, aim for near transfer: make practice look like the job. For judgment, vary the practice cases along the dimensions that vary at work (different customers, channels, pressures), or learners will only recognise the cases they practised.
04
Modules 1 to 4 mapped actions, applied learning science, designed evidence and sequenced the pathway. This module chooses the interaction for each action and plans what happens after the course. Merrill's integration principle asks learners to plan how they will use the skill at work; this module makes that plan part of the design rather than an afterthought.
05
In a course your organisation uses, count the interactions and count how many ask the learner to make a job decision. Write the ratio. Pick the action from your map with the highest risk; it is the subject of your branch map.