Previously, I criticized the use of the word “course” when an organization is thinking of going online (or delivering on its mission online, or whatnot). In this post I explain the meaning of “digital experience” and why it is more useful than “course.”
I have found that “digital experience” means almost nothing to listeners other than “that lived event or process which is experienced online”. To me, this is a huge positive when I get a team together to talk about how to create a digital asset/event/resource/etc. that enables people to accomplish something.
See what I did there? I gave the term a bit of structure and pointed the discussion in a productive direction. Now we can ask some important questions:
- What do we want the participants to accomplish?
- What limitations exist on what the experience can be? Time? Money? Geography? Etc.
- Who is responsible for defining the structure of the experience?
- How does a participant/learner know what to do next?
- How does the experience fit into a participant’s daily life?
- Who is the subject matter expert? Or are there many who will be involved?
- How does the experience begin? What causes it to begin?
- How does the experience end? How does the participant know?
- How do participants know if they have succeeded?
- How is success measured for each participant? Is this a relative or absolute measure?
And so on. You can see that some answers to these questions can result in a digital experience that looks something like the typical it-makes-my-eyes-bleed online course. But you can also see that this might end up with something very different—e.g., AltMBA or HBS Online or a mentoring platform or a tool that supports remote consulting engagements. No matter where you end up, you will at least have made explicit decisions about how you want to proceed.
While the meaning of “digital experience” is somewhat vague, you can use that vagueness to your advantage. Use the term in discussions if your goal is to put something online that engages and improves learners in some positive way. It gives you a better chance at creating something remarkable.
