When you think of e-learning, you may not automatically think of a breath-taking, stomach-dropping, toe-curling rollercoaster ride. But I ventured up to Alton Towers last weekend and I couldn’t help but consider just how similar my fun (and sometimes frightening) moments there were to my experiences with e-learning.

At theme parks, it always begins with the anticipation of the ride. Now, if you’re like me, you might spend your time in the seemingly infinite queue thinking of what’s to come – imagining that endless vertical drop on Oblivion or torturing yourself with visions of sharp twists and loops, whilst staring at your dangling feet and legs as you tightly grip the mere pieces of metal and plastic pinning you in place.

But what does this have to do with e-learning? I found myself comparing the journey that my nerves and emotions took whilst at Alton Towers with the lifecycle of an e-learning project. The very start: the project initiation where you usually meet your subject matter experts for the very first time, loaded with the desire to impress – it’s the anticipation of that new challenge which, I think, mirrors the feeling before an unfamiliar and daunting rollercoaster ride. Then you take your seat and prepare yourself for the ride – or, in e-learning terms, you begin to structure and plan the project, its timescales and milestones.

Then, as a project progresses, you become more familiar with the content of the course and when storyboarding starts – in my experience – enjoyment grows with the increasing creativity. Similarly, at Alton Towers, I would almost settle in on a fast, exhilarating ride and really enjoy the rush, the fear, and the adrenaline. It’s the same thrill I feel when my storyboards are developed into Flash: seeing my project come to life before my eyes. Then, of course, there’s always aspects of a project that are hard to control or predict, regardless of the mitigation strategies in place, which force us to adapt – just like the sudden drops and turns that can catch us unawares on a rollercoaster.

But this is all part of the journey that, as an instructional designer and self-confessed thrill-seeker, I love. When everything falls into place for a project, the sense of reward and achievement can be overwhelming – just like the realisation that you’ve survived the rollercoaster ride and want to experience it all over again.