LIFTS Principle

It was only when I thought of writing about a simple set of principles called LIFTS, which I learned during the early days of my instructional design career, that I realized its nonexistence on the Internet. Just to confirm one of the aspects related to LIFTS, I thought of cross checking about it on the Web, and I was in for a surprise—there was not a single write-up about LIFTS on the Web. LIFTS is a simple set of rules that can be used for writing effectively for a given audience. It is an acronym that stands for Learner centric, Integrity, Flow, Transition, and Simplicity. This is what my grey cells recall. I would like to share whatever I can remember and I hope someone could correct me if I go wrong somewhere.

Let’s look at each of the elements of this principle or rule (I am not sure which categorization it fits into better) that can guide anyone to develop effective educational instructions for a specific audience or, in other words, learner.

L: Learner Centric

For any instruction to be effective (no matter at which level you are developing it: big, as in design phase of a learning project; or small, as in development phase of a learning project), it has to be learner centric. This principle affects multiple aspects of writing an instruction: what strategy you choose for designing the learning material (you would want to use different learning strategies for a drawing student vis-à-vis a busy, on-the-move technocrat); which examples or scenarios you select to teach the learner (they should be learner centric: the learner should be able to relate to them, they should be able to put themselves in the shoes of a person in the scenarios or examples that you develop for the learning); what kind of language you use to address the learner (I feel that addressing the learner as second person is effective while developing an educative instruction). Always consider the ultimate client for whom you develop the learning, the learner—everything else should revolve around this consideration.

I: Integrity

You cannot look London and talk Tokyo to the learner. All instructions that you include in learning should be integral to the overall goals of the learning. The objectives or goals should guide the assessments for the learning, and the assessments should guide the learning material. At all times, be relevant. You can teach a fashion student the impact of ineffective time management by taking an example based on an automobile company scenario; however, just think how relevant or related such content would it be vis-à-vis using a fashion company scenario to teach the same skill. Ensure that all learning instructions that you develop are directed to the learning goals and assisted by relevant examples.

F: Flow

The content of a learning should build logically as it progresses—from simple to complex, or from generic to specific, and not vice versa. This ensures that the learner is exposed to fundamentals before getting into the nuances of a subject—this is in sync with the natural and logical way of learning and developing schemas. While designing a learning, make sure that its topical outline reflects a seamless, progressive flow of subject knowhow. While developing a topic of a learning, make certain that all its subtopics follow a logical flow. Always arrange or organize your content to guarantee flow—it facilitates a smooth reading.

T: Transition

If Flow is macromanagement, Transition is micromanagement. Transition is how you move the learner from one topic or subtopic to the next one; how you relate the succeeding content to the preceding one; how you choose to tell the learner why a given content piece is important to be learned after a particular topic or subtopic. As a good practice, always include transitions for content chunks of all magnitudes such as paragraphs, subtopics, topics. Include a line or two sharing how a piece of content leads itself to the next piece of content, what is the importance of studying the forthcoming content, and so on. The idea is to interest the learner about what’s next, keep him or her aware of what to expect next, and let him or her know the reasons for the same.

S: Simplicity

Develop your instructions using simple language so that the learners can derive only one meaning out of it. The language should not be open to interpretations. Flowery language works well for fiction, not necessarily for imparting education and training. Use short, straightforward sentences; avoid convoluted structures in language.