Successful Elearning Course design
To ensure that your eLearning course is engaging, motivating, and has maximum impact, it’s important to identify pitfalls and fix them before they cause you problems.
With that in mind, here are 10 reasons your eLearning course may not be working and how to remedy the situation. Also always select a modern e-learning platform with a powerfull Authoring Tool Like TheLearning LAB
1) Wrong audience for your elearning course
You need to make sure you are building your eLearning course for your audience. If it’s not a good fit, chances are they won’t use it. Don’t try to stuff content in where there isn’t room.
Test and tweak as you go along until you get feedback that tells you it is helpful, relevant, and motivating. For example, if you are developing a elearning course for managers, make sure all examples used will be familiar to them or keep them out completely!
The same goes for employees – don’t put IT jargon into their training just because it might be useful for them at some point in time.
Remember that what might be useful for one department can actually bore another one!
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2) Poor design of your elearning course
The quality of your eLearning courses can make or break your company. If users don’t find it engaging, they won’t come back for more training. To ensure you keep users coming back for more, look into using a robust course development platform like TheLeraning LAB.
This elearning platform take many steps out of course design – from content creation to data tracking and reporting – so you have time to focus on what really matters: actually developing engaging courses that your learners will use.
3) Elearning Courses: Too long, too boring
If your eLearning course lasts more than 60 minutes, you are too long. If your eLearning course makes people want to sleep, it’s probably too boring.
Most of us can't sit through a two-hour presentation, so why would we want to sit through an eLearning course? To keep things on track and make sure your content will be delivered effectively and efficiently, there are some things you need to consider early on.
First, decide what you want to achieve with your eLearning course. Then think about how best to present that information.
The point of learning something isn't just to learn it—it's also about being able to apply that knowledge in real life. So when creating your eLearning content development, ask yourself: How does my learner benefit from using my material? or What value does my learner get out of completing my material?
Remember that if they don't learn anything from watching or reading your material, then they won't care about what you have created for them. And if they don't care, then they're not going to use it!
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4) Lack of learning objectives for your elearning course
One of the most basic rules of eLearning is to start with a elearning objective. A learning objective can be described as: What do you want your learners to know or be able to do after completing your course?
Without clearly defining what you want them to learn and why it's hard for learners to understand why they should even bother with your course. Your eLearning content development needs good content strategies.
When it comes to developing effective elearning content strategies, there are two key components that need a lot of consideration and planning – relevance and audience.
What matters at most, when it comes to online courses or videos, are learners’ perceptions and expectations.
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5) No interactivity in your elearning course
There are many eLearning platforms out there, each with its own features and functions.
The one you choose will depend on how much interactivity you need, your budget, and what type, of elearning course, you’re creating.
For example, a simple presentation may not require any advanced interactive tools like branching scenarios or quiz generation. On the other hand, if you want to be able to track your learner’s behavior within a course in order to provide personalized feedback and suggestions for improvement, that may be something you need to look into.
6) Inappropriate use of technology in your elearning course
If you’re using eLearning content development platforms, like Articulate Storyline or Lectora Inspire, be sure to set up your course with appropriate technology.
Some eLearning platforms can streamline certain tasks while making others difficult. For example, some non-interactive software may allow you to change scenes quickly, but they may also make it challenging for learners to understand which screen they’re on.
When choosing your eLearning platform, consider how easy it will be for you and your learners to interact with content and whether that choice could impact your course's success.
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7) No feedback available on your elearning courses
If your elearning course doesn’t give your users an easy way to provide you with feedback on how well they understand what you are teaching them, there’s no real way for you to know if it’s working.
Without feedback from your users, it might be a lot harder to tell whether or not things need tweaking and what specifically should be fixed. If you use eLearning platforms with built-in analytics (i.e., Google Analytics) or other ways of tracking analytics for your online courses, that can help point out potential issues as well.
The more user feedback you have, the better equipped you will be to improve things down the road!
8) Your Elearning Course has no visual appeal
A good eLearning course can hold a learner’s attention for up to 30 minutes, which is why it’s important to have dynamic visual aids that offer something appealing and interesting.
The content should be presented in an easy-to-digest format with a logical flow so that learners won’t feel overwhelmed or confused.
If your elearning course doesn’t have adequate visual appeal, there’s a high chance that it will be skipped over or left incomplete by your learners. After all, you only get one chance to make a first impression.
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9) Confusing navigation in your Elearning course
Navigation within eLearning courses can cause all sorts of issues, especially if you use non-linear or branching paths.
This type of navigation makes it harder for users to see where they are at any point in time and where they need to go next.
This problem is compounded by poor text cues that tell learners what section they’re in, as well as improper labeling on buttons and links (many ELearning platforms have autogenerated labelers, so designers cannot control these labels).
All of these issues combine to create a confusing elearning experience that distracts learners from actually taking in new information.
10) Not enough effort made on design/content development
Bad design could make your elearning course irrelevant, meaning it won’t contribute to learners’ learning outcomes. Focus on a simple interface that is easy to use and clearly communicates your objectives.
Failing to tailor eLearning content development to address learner needs will also put you in trouble: don’t expect an online course to magically address all learning needs of your learners.
If you want your e-course to perform well, get ready for a deep dive into knowledge about content and design.
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How can TheLearning LAB elearning platform help
At TheLearning LAB, we have plenty of experience with eLearning Design that can assist you from start of your project till end.
From integration with social learning networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn groups, polls to gauge your audience's reaction to contents and encourage them to engage with each other and data analytics tools that let you see how users engage with video, we have all it takes to take your elearning experience to a new level.