What is eLearning Experience Design and How Can You Improve LED in Elearning Course Creation
E-Learning experience plays a vital role in e-learning course design, which eventually affect learners’ successful experiences and complete elearning effects.
This is why having the right e-learning course design and content to engage learners in an online environment is essential to elearning effectiveness, even if you do have the most sophisticated eLearning software available.
The learner experience design process will help you gain insight into how to optimize your course design by planning out what learners will encounter throughout the learning experience.
It’s important to understand that there isn’t one way to improve learner experience in eLearning; there are many different methods based on the learner type and context of the content being delivered.
Let’s explore what the learning experience is and some ways that you can improve learners experience in eLearning course design.
What is learning experience design?
Understanding learners experience design is basically learning how a learner will learn from and feel about an e-learning course. The two things that are considered for learner experience are: visual appeal and usability.
By considering those two factors, a learner can have an interactive and exciting experience with an e-learning course when it is designed well. Those things can help learners retain more information, understand concepts better, and enjoy themselves while they learn.
A great way to make sure you are designing an online learning course that is appealing to your audience is by looking at what other people have done before you! There are many great eLearning designers out there who do outstanding work, so seeing how others present their content will give you insight on how to do it yourself! Not only can looking at others work provide you with inspiration but it will also give you new ideas of what types of graphics or media could be used in your own eLearning courses.
Another way to design a successful e-learning course would be creating activities for learners. One type of activity that works very well is games. This type of learning activity has been found effective because studies show that games increase motivation, excitement, and enjoyment among students making them more memorable.
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You may be thinking games are fun but I don't want my course to sound childish but don't worry no game comes off as childish if its done right! To avoid that you could simply think of different ways to incorporate a game into an activity or lesson plan. Aside from gamification being enjoyable it's also quite effective. Studies shown that through practice questions participants retained significantly more information than traditional methods.
Finally, as you continue developing your elearning course remember what makes a good instructor: honesty. No matter how boring, difficult, uninteresting etc... something is always better than faking interest in something and lying about it later on when your learners ask why everything was set up like that during class.
If an elearning topic isn't interesting change it to something that is interesting rather than waste time pretending. It's much easier for everyone involved if you're straightforward about your interests or lack thereof.
Another thing to keep in mind when designing an e-learning course is knowing where you stand professionally and socially within any given field of study. Ultimately, incorporating personal values into professional endeavors helps create credibility within subjects taught which immediately shows personal relevance, regardless of how trivial personal connections seem initially.
What are the challenges of learners experience design in online course creation?
Understanding learners experience with online courses is a hard task for designers, although eLearning designers are now more aware of their responsibility for creating satisfying experiences.
But it’s hard because online courses tend to be relatively complex and thus can offer a wide range of experiences. A typical design scenario is that both learner and designer have different roles and motivations. For example: users are always ready for new challenges while designers expect that users should stay on course; users want good interactions while designers aim at efficient interactions.
The needs of these two parties conflict during the design process, which makes it difficult for them to achieve their goals collaboratively. Therefore, elearning designers are faced with making sure they give enough attention to satisfy the user while maximizing efficiency. To do so, they need strategies and methods specific to users' learning preferences, cultural values or technological capabilities.
In addition, there is one thing we must keep in mind when dealing with e-learning courses: content itself won't lead students to superior performance unless they master its contents effectively since the content has no meaning without interaction among multiple factors.
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Tips for Improving Learner's Experience
Build Positive eLearning Expectations
When we set our expectations too high, we are bound to be disappointed. Likewise, if our expectations are too low, we might miss out on great opportunities. So how do you go about setting positive expectations for learners? Start by asking yourself these questions:
What is your learning objective and how will you measure success?
How long do you expect learners to invest in your course?
What should they expect based on your goals and measurements of success?
And what can they do—during their journey through your elearning course—to make sure they’re meeting those goals (and giving themselves a pat on the back at regular intervals)?
Formulating answers to these questions will help you identify key checkpoints along their learning journey that keep them engaged, excited and motivated. These are especially important checkpoints when designing courses that introduce new technologies or processes so learners feel empowered enough to take action—and then celebrate.
Just don't forget to reward them with some well-deserved social praise! The more invested your learners become in finishing an eLearning course successfully, the better equipped they’ll be for their real-world tasks once completed!
Create an Inclusive Environment
The way that you design your course has a direct impact on your learners’ experience, so it’s important to create an inclusive environment. In order to do that, you need to ask some key questions when deciding how you want your course design and materials set up. For example, if you’re designing a course for language learners, should it be completely bilingual? If so, which languages will your learners be using? Consider everything from gender-neutral pronouns and fonts that are easy for color-blind users to read (and avoid!) when designing your online courses. The more inclusive you are with your design decisions, the more comfortable each of your learners will feel during their time with you—and that means they’ll have better results!
Include Learning Checks
It’s not enough to develop an engaging eLearning course. It also needs to be meaningful, effective and have a positive impact on learners. To achieve these results, designers should build interactive elements into their courses called learning checks. Learning checks are simple questions inserted during different points of an eLearning course that require feedback from learners. For example, you could ask users to choose answers or take a test within a section before moving on. These questions aren’t just for creating engagement though; they can help you make data-driven decisions about how effective your course is overall. While there is no set standard for what makes a good or bad learner experience, it goes without saying that whatever your company does must enhance performance and increase ROI.
Offer Multiple Pathways
There’s nothing more frustrating than feeling like you’re learning information for a test instead of for its own sake. To improve learners experience, offer your course participants multiple pathways to content. Use videos and written materials, make assessments challenging but not impossible and allow students time within the class to work with one another or with their instructor if they need help.
When people are actively engaged with material, they understand it better. So give them ways to engage—and take your course experience from bad to great!
Guide But Don't Force Them
The ultimate goal of your elearning course is that learners will be able to walk away with new knowledge or skills. It's important, then, that they're able to work independently and feel confident making their own decisions while they learn. Encourage them through positive reinforcement (like letting them know when they've made a good choice), but don't force them into doing things your way. Focus on giving them exactly what they need for an engaging, effective learning experience. That means not overwhelming them with irrelevant information and not bombarding them with text—which can both easily happen if you aren't careful.
Incorporate Customization Options
When creating online courses, it’s easy to offer learners customization options. For example, maybe you offer different levels of instruction based on their prior knowledge—or allow learners to choose their own topics. The possibilities are endless! And it will take every last one of them to keep learners engaged throughout an entire course. You might even see enrollment rates increase since customizing content provides another opportunity for customization.
Make It Fun!
Fun is an incredibly important part of e-learning design. The best way to make sure you’re having fun designing is to approach your project with a positive, lighthearted outlook. If you have a good time developing content and building materials, learners will be able to sense that attitude and respond positively.
People learn better when they feel engaged, happy, and confident about their abilities—so help your learners put all three of those things into practice! A large part of achieving these positive emotions has to do with how learners perceive themselves within a course; if they think you designed something specifically for them and it just so happens to be fun, then chances are good they’ll relate positively to it.
However, avoid trying too hard to induce fun in learners; if something feels forced or awkward, most students will recognize it as such right away. Be careful not overcomplicate your course either; while incorporating some strategy games or interactive features can definitely improve retention rates.
Use Videos, Images, And Graphics Wisely!
Video and images aren’t just for making your content more visually appealing. They also help with learners experience design. Creating a learning experience that really engages learners can be tricky, but using videos and graphics can make it easier for them to understand concepts or follow along with tasks.
Plus, visuals keep learners from getting bored during lesson breaks, which can help them retain information better. Finally, adding images and video adds variety to your course materials—it’s important that you keep learners engaged throughout an entire learning experience so they don’t get overwhelmed or bored!
There are several ways you can incorporate visual elements into eLearning courses to improve learners experience; one of those ways is by pairing photos with text. If you want something that works well on mobile devices as well as desktops, consider using interactive tooltips with text-overlay graphics on top of high-quality photos (and at least one icon).
For example, use a photo of people working together on a project in pair-mode class sessions or take pictures of tools for hands-on online classes where students will need those items.
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How can TheLearning LAB help?
Here at TheLearning LAB, we focus on learner experience and design. For example, we’re constantly working on improving our online instructor portal, where course creators can get training and support on how to best create an engaging learner experience.
We don’t just do traditional e-learning courses either – we work with clients across industries to create a variety of training formats that help employees increase skills and improve company knowledge.
If you’re interested in learning more about how TheLearning LAB can help you or your organisation learn more, contact us today! You can also check out our website for information on what we do, who we work with, case studies from some of our recent projects and other helpful links related to e-learning.