I’ve come to realize over the years that some of life’s best lessons are learned in some rather strange locations. One of the oddest places at which I’ve "gone to school" has to be the ice show at Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL. The teacher was a performer named Albert Lucas.

It’s probably occurred to you that the comedian’s art and the trainer’s art have a lot in common. Over the years, I’ve worked with Disney Institute and Disney University and their trainers a number of times. And on these trips, I take advantage of the opportunity to learn from them, as well.

The comparison between training games and videos (or lectures, or textbooks, or e-learning, or webinars, or any other training technique) is as meaningless as comparing apples and oranges.

Motivation is the energy that accelerates behavior. Often trainers and instructional designers devote a lot of effort in designing reward strategies, convinced that finding the right reward for the right participant will endow the participant with the motivation to learn. Many of us think of motivation as a "carrot and stick" kind of enterprise, with the mechanism influencing motivation located externally. This chapter will help trainers to choose whether to use reward strategies, and if so, how to use them wisely, with a greater understanding of the consequences of their choices.

The real benefit of e-learning is being able to create a design that improves learners’ skills and behavior while simultaneously achieving the operational advantages that e-learning offers organizations. Yet much e-learning is composed of largely wasted opportunities for useful interactivity. What most people fail to understand about e-learning, is that the mere presence of technology in a learning environment does not change the essential aspects of how people learn. Learning does not occur passively. In live teaching, lecture formats with minimal activity on the part of the learner do not work very well. Yet some e-learning designers tend to create e-learning lessons that are little more than exercises in listening or reading. Learners need to be intellectually engaged for learning to happen. Lasting change requires meaningful and compelling mental engagement and interaction.