Skip to content
English
Sign in
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Using Informational Modules

 

In this article you will learn how to use Informational Modules.

For more information on module types, check out:

Sometimes struggle is productive, and sometimes it's just frustrating. Sometimes learners need to see relevance before consuming more traditional learning content.

Understanding Informational Modules

Amplifire's question-driven approach is highly effective at identifying and correcting gaps in knowledge, but there are circumstances when learners must first have enough foundational understanding to meaningfully engage with that process.

Informational Modules can bridge that gap by delivering essential content directly. They can ensure learners arrive at the adaptive learning experience prepared to engage deeply with the material and leave the experience with the follow-up resources they need to confidently move forward. Knowing when to include—and when to avoid—an informational module is key to designing a course that is both efficient and effective.

For more specifics about how to create and use Informational Modules, check out Creating an Informational Module.

When to Use Informational Modules 

Informational modules present content that learners consume in a linear format, including text, images, videos, and interactive media, that delivers information. There are no questions in this type of module. Some uses include:

Complex New Concepts Require Foundation

When content involves unfamiliar terminology, industry-specific reasoning, or abstract systems, learners may benefit from an Informational Module that establishes a conceptual framework before questions are introduced.

In the Amplifire platform, this might look like a structured overview of an algorithm, a breakdown of drug classifications, or an anatomy review presented as clearly organized content pages.

Without this foundation, learners encountering complex decision scenarios for the first time are likely to struggle unproductively, which undermines both confidence and retention.

  • Example: Teaching advanced cardiac life support
    • Informational first: Present algorithm overview, drug classifications, anatomy review
    • Why: Learners need conceptual framework before they can meaningfully engage with complex decision scenarios.

Procedures Need Step-by-Step Demonstration

Procedural knowledge—how to navigate a software interface, complete a multi-step workflow, or execute a physical task—may be best conveyed through direct demonstration rather than discovery.

An Amplifire Informational Module is well suited for this purpose, allowing course designers to embed video walkthroughs, annotated screenshots, and sequenced instructions that guide learners through a process visually and clearly.

Once learners have seen the procedure modeled, they are far better positioned to answer application-level questions that reinforce and deepen their understanding.

  • Example: Software navigation training
    • Informational first: An informational module with a video walkthrough of the interface and screenshots of key screens followed by questions
    • Why: Visual demonstration is more efficient than discovery for procedural knowledge.

Compliance Mandates Specific Information

Some content must be delivered exactly as written—regulatory language, legal definitions, reporting procedures, and organizational policies leave little room for interpretation or omission.

Amplifire Informational Modules support this need by providing a space to present required content in full, ensuring learners have been exposed to the precise information mandated by compliance standards. This also creates a clear record within the course structure that the content was presented, which can be important for audit and accountability purposes.

  • Example: Regulatory safety requirements  
    • Informational first: Required policy content, legal definitions, reporting procedures
    • Why: Specific information must be consumed regardless of prior knowledge.

Resources Provide Additional Context or Depth

Not every learner arrives at a course with the same background, and some topics naturally invite deeper exploration for those who want it. Informational Modules can serve as optional or supplementary resources—offering extended explanations, reference materials, case studies, or supporting data that enrich the learning experience without adding friction for learners who don't need them.

In Amplifire, these modules can be positioned after Dynamic Learning Modules to support learners who encounter difficulty with specific concepts, giving them a targeted place to expand the understanding they gathered in the adaptive content.

  • Example: Financial Crimes Compliance for Banking Staff, Identifying and Reporting Suspicious Activity (SAR Filing)
    • Information last: After learners have completed the Dynamic Learning Module on suspicious activity reporting, the Informational Module covers why SAR Reporting matters.
    • Why: The Dynamic Learning Module ensures learners internalize the rules, obligations, and procedures. The Informational Module builds professional motivation and organizational identity around that knowledge.

What Not to Do

Though having Informational Modules is a great addition to the Amplifire lineup, it isn't without risks. Remember all the cool stuff about the Amplifire algorithm? Priming, spacing, interleaving, and metacognition for a start. That stuff is why Amplifire is so powerful.

Informational Modules can enhance those effects when used wisely. Unfortunately, when used in some ways, Informational Modules can actually hinder those effects, and by extension the algorithm's ability to improve learners' long-term memory. Here are some ways you could inadvertently use Informational Modules in less productive ways:

Duplicating Learning

Providing the same learning content in an Informational Module that is covered in the following Dynamic Learning Module is both counter-productive and frustrating for learners. Especially if the Informational Module comes first, priming is compromised and metacognition does not happen. Learners may answer correctly not because they genuinely know the material, but because it is still active in short-term memory. 

Replacing Dynamic Learning

One of the most significant risks is simply over-using Informational Modules in place of Dynamic Learning—essentially reverting to a traditional passive learning model. If an author defaults to presenting content as Pages of text and media whenever a topic feels complex or sensitive, they are bypassing the adaptive algorithm entirely.

The result is a course that lives in Amplifire but doesn't leverage what makes Amplifire work. The spaced repetition, interleaving, and correction of confidently held misinformation that build durable long-term memory only happen when learners are actively engaging with questions. Informational modules cannot replicate that.

Providing Too Much Informational Content

One of Amplifire's greatest strengths is its ability to respect learners' time by providing learning on only the concepts they didn't already understand. Asking learners to slog through a bunch of content, some of which they already know, diminishes the time-savings Amplifire provides. It also raises the likelihood that learners will fail to read or fail to learn the material provided. Be concise and avoid teaching a ton through Informational Modules.

Using Too Many Pages

Using too many pages can mean you have too much content, but it can also be a perfectly normal amount of content but broken up onto too many pages. Providing a short paragraph of content in a page seems tempting. Getting learners to interact with the platform by clicking next keeps them engaged, right? Not necessarily.

The same way having too much content in an Informational Module can encourage learners to skim and skip, reducing their training experience to a PowerPoint presentation format can have the same effect.

Teaching Learners to Expect Handfeeding

If Informational Modules are used frequently and predictably throughout a course—always appearing before questions on a new topic—learners may begin to expect and rely on being given content before they are asked about it.

This subtly erodes the productive discomfort of not knowing, which is actually a valuable driver of engagement and memory encoding in Amplifire's model. Over time, learners may disengage from the retrieval effort because they have learned to wait for the answer rather than generating it themselves.