Page turners? Yes please.

I must confess to being more than a little baffled by the aversion of the e-learning community to the concept of a page turner. What is regarded as a derogatory term in this context is a form of flattery in the field of popular fiction. So what is it about page turning that's so nasty? After all, the page is a useful metaphor for the screens that comprise so many online learning materials, and the idea of progressing through these in sequence makes a lot of sense when there's a logical flow to the learning strategy and when exploration isn't a critical element, as it would be with a branching scenario, simulation, game or hypertext environment.

So if it isn't the page turning that's a problem, maybe it's the danger that designers will take the book metaphor too far and fill these pages with nothing but reading material. Fair enough, but I'd argue that even this is a reasonable strategy, as long as the material on the pages is really interesting. Take Designing Presentations by Mike de Palma, just one of a host of online publications at issuu.com. No way is this boring, no way is this a limited learning offering.

What about the lack of interactivity? Now I'd be the first to admit that an interactive program will work best when you have novice learners, when the subject matter necessitates careful exposition and exploration, and when you need to be able to assess that learning is taking place. That leaves a lot of space. More independent learners may be quite capable of managing on their own, using their own resources to reflect, rehearse and practice with the material. They may even find your attempts at structured interaction patronising.

In other cases, the interactivity comes from the elements of the experience that accompany the learning materials, as part of a formal or informal blend. For example, non-interactive materials such as videos may be used as part of a workshop and backed up with discussion and other activities. The online use of non-interactive materials may be accompanied by reflective work in forums, wikis or blogs.

One of the most exciting aspects of the whole move to rapid content development is the realisation that online materials can take many forms, interactive and not. The interactive tutorial is a useful format, but so is the use of video, animation, podcasts, narrated slide shows and, yes, page turners. Why not?