E-Learning Course Design Guide: 16 Steps To A Successful E-Learning Course Development
E-Learning has grown in popularity over the years to become a reliable and effective way for corporations to train their employees. However, success in eLearning doesn't just happen as it depends on the efforts channelled into eLearning course design and development.
A great eLearning course design should be able to grab the attention of learners, motivate them to stay engaged and assist with retention.
Although this may seem easy on paper, it is a tall task. However, a step-by-step eLearning guide can provide you with everything you need to design digital courses that will be a hit among your learners.
In this article, we will highlight 16 critical steps in eLearning course design so you can start from the right foundation and avoid common mistakes that most designers often make.
1. Conduct a thorough research before creating your elearning course
If your customer has given you the training topic, the next step is to meet the Subject Matter Expert (SME). Ask them to introduce you to the SME so you can draw from their advanced knowledge to analyze training topics and sections.
At this point, you need to ask critical questions such as whether the training should be based on an existing training and how the current training is taking place. Try to keep things similar and uniform while you improve the process itself.
You need to also brainstorm how you can make the topic engaging for learners. Be sure to highlight the content that needs to be reinforced through interactive formats.
The next thing to do is to find out if the customer has technical resources that can come handy during the training. Between a computer based training (CBT) or a web based training (WBT), which is the most suitable option based on their needs?
Finally, confirm if customer has a Learning Management system (LMS) and what type it is. This will help you figure out the course authoring tools that you can integrate easily. This is where you want to do your due diligence in covering all platform compliance, SCORM and Section 508 issues.
E-Learning Course Design Guide
2. Determine instructional requirements for your elearning course
This step involves examining and analyzing your target audience to determine the instructional requirements so you can design a course that actually do have an impact on your learner's skill and productivity. Many designers tend to ignore this step in order to quickly complete the training but this can be detrimental to the success of any eLearningcourse.
Be sure to discuss the needs and expectations of your customer. What is the purpose of this training? What is the parameters and coverage of the content that needs to be distilled into the eLearning course. These questions can go a long way in helping create relevant, more useful content.
3. Create a design for your elearning course
At this stage, you should have done your research and have the information you need about your customer's expectations. Now you need to find out the prerequisites that your audience requires in the context of the course.
In essence, this step is about discovering what your learning audience already knows and what skill gaps the training is expected to fill. You also need to establish the objectives and assessment parameters based on the recommendation of the SME. Create a course outline and break it down into sections, and have both the customer and SME approve it.
E-Learning Course Design Guide
4. Develop a prototype for your elearning course
Most customers want to be involved in the design and development process of their content. Creating a prototype helps to give them the look-and-feel of what you're planning and what the final course will look like. The following are some tasks you will need to include as part of the prototype development;
· Recruit talent to play characters
· Write a partial script
· Shoot photographs and record audio (narration and characters)
· Produce graphics, sound effects and music, and video for the partial scripts
5. Test the prototype with a few sample learners
Generally, it is unlikely that any instructional designer will create content that works perfectly the first time. This is where prototype testing comes in. While it can be tempting to jump straight into creating the course, prototyping allows you to get the best fit so you don't waste a lot of resources on designing the whole course only to discover different issues.
Assemble some sample learners and bring in your customer to test if the prototype meets the expectations and requirements communicated initially. Collect their feedback and integrate it into the prototype.
E-Learning Course Design Guide
6. Write the script/storyboard of your elearning course
Create course content, scripts, and scenarios with the content provided by the Subject Matter Experts using sticky notes or other papers. This is the stage where you reinforce the research you carried out in step one.
7. Produce relevant media
When it comes to designing eLearning courses, it is important to be flexible in your choice of media.
Limiting yourself to some forms of media might seem convenient but it can negatively affect how engaging learners find the course. Produce video, shoot photographs, create graphics, record talent voices and use sound effects as you see fit.
Stretched for time or lacking resources to do any of these? Consider using the services of professional vendors like TheLearning LAB.
“E-Learning Course Design Guide”
8. Assemble all the course elements in the course authoring tool
Next is to develop the course using any authoring tool of your choosing. Create the courseware media in your preferred formats like jpg, wmv, mp3, etc. You want to pay attention when developing your courseware as it plays a key role in how learners use it.
E-Learning Course Design Guide
9. Fine-tune the course to meet the learning objectives
It's importance to ensure that the course design is in line with the objectives set from the beginning.
Also check to ensure that it is of high quality by using standards like the quality of media, grammatical errors, and typos, software glitches, or bugs. Make appropriate corrections to the course where necessary.
10. Write the eLearning course manual
You need to document the training content by putting together a course manual for both the system administrator and for the course administrator so the objectives, expectations, and purpose is clear from both the trainer and IT perspective. It also helps to schedule a meeting with your customer's trainers and IT staff.
11. Undertake tentative review of the elearning course
This is another good time to get your customer involved by asking them to peruse the draft course. Their feedback will give you an indication of how far or near you are to completing the course design process.
E-Learning Course Design Guide
12. Make final corrections to the elearning course
Implement the corrections and suggestions of your customer to the course.
13. Test the pilot elearning course in the customer's system
This is the stage where you test the completed course by presenting it to your customer and have it installed by their IT department.
You want to make sure that the course is properly installed and verify that all functionalities are working as they should for enterprise-wide deployment.
14. Train the elearning course facilitators
Now that you have finalized everything related to the course material, it's time to train the trainer and IT staff of the customer.
The training should also cover the Learning Management System to be used for learner's collaboration.
E-Learning Course Design Guide
15. Roll out and promote the elearning course
You may know how relevant and useful your course content is but your target audience won't know that.
Promoting the eLearning course can help create awareness of the benefits so your target audience can get undertake the learning journey.
16. Measure ROI and carry out the eLearning course evaluation
Track the success of the training program by measuring return on investment using available data and metrics.
Also, carry out course evaluation by collecting feedback via survey forms so you can address all the issues and create the next version of the course.
Conclusion
More than ever today, it is becoming obvious that students are capable of wielding the power of their free will to decide what learning experiences they buy into.
Thus, any learning experience that will drive real, tangible business results must be relevant, real-world, and purposeful. By following the principles above, you will create learning experiences that get the job done. You can also get in touch without a team of experienced designers at TheLearning LAB. We are available to create an amazing eLearning experience that works for you and your team.