My hunch is the most e-learning courses are explainer-type content, heavy on content, but light on applied learning. This is fine, especially since most of the learning happens outside the course; however, good e-learning courses should be more than content.

Start with Clear Objectives

Most courses are content-heavy because of compliance requirements. And the main objective is certified exposure to content by December 31. If you’re building courses based on performance expectations, you need to start with clear objectives.

• What are they to do?
• How do you know they can do it?

That gives you objectives and metrics.

What’s the Best Type of Course?

The key focus is performance. Sometimes courses consist of mostly content, and then the performance and practice activities happen outside the course. And sometimes, the course is designed to simulate the real-world expectations with plenty of practice activities in the course.

• What do they need to do?
• Where can they practice it?

It’s not always easy to build viable practice activities in an e-learning course. In those cases, find ways to have them practice in the real-world.

Diversity Changes Expectations

Clients request the types of courses with which they have experience. This means typical e-learning courses with the standard object screen, some bullet points, and a final quiz. It can be a challenge to get them to see courses differently. That’s why it’s important to expose them to diverse learning opportunities.

• Collect examples of diverse types of courses and learning activities. I even like to keep samples of mobile apps. This lets you throw out other ideas to push the envelope a bit.
• Create a demo course with different treatments that vary from typical content-heavy to a bit more interactive and focused on decision-making experiences. This lets them see beyond the content.

Focus on the actions required of the learner and then try to present the course treatment around that rather than the content. The more examples of different learning experiences you can show, the better.

As a course designer, it’s you job to help the client to see past the content.

Events

Free E-Learning Resources

Want to learn more? Check out these articles and free resources in the community.	Here’s a great job board for e-learning, instructional design, and training jobs	Participate in the weekly e-learning challenges to sharpen your skills
Get your free PowerPoint templates and free graphics & stock images.	Lots of cool e-learning examples to check out and find inspiration.	Getting Started? This e-learning 101 series and the free e-books will help.

I was reviewing some older presentations I found a slide regarding the topic of getting started with e-learning. On the slide I offered three helpful tips when getting started that still hold true today.

An E-Learning Course is Different from a Classroom Session

A challenge a lot of new e-learning developers have is that they start with existing content from classroom training. This is usually in PowerPoint; and it’s easy enough to import a PowerPoint slide into an e-learning application, add a quiz, and call it good.

This is fine for some compliance training or annual refresher content because they tend to be less about “learning” and more about sharing information. But it’s not ideal.

The better strategy is to craft a learning experience that’s different than the classroom experience. Focus on the objectives and activities required to demonstrate understanding. That will help build courses less about a content dump and more about meeting measurable objectives.

Here’s a good book that does a great job walking through a backwards course design where you focus on the learning experience and not just the content.

E-Learning is Mostly a Visual Medium

Accessibility is a primary consideration when building a course, but outside of that, the e-learning course is mostly visual. Make the investment to learn more about how to structure the onscreen content properly and the how to communicate in a visual medium.

Two good books: The Non-Designer’s Design Book to learn more about basic design and Slideology to learn more about visual communication. And while you’re at it, learn to support what you do visually with alt-text and other accessibility considerations.

You’re Only as Good as What You Know About the Software

If all you know is the basics, all you’ll be able to build is basic courses. The truth is that it takes time to learn to use software. You need to make an investment to learn how to really use the tools. Here’s why:

• It speeds up your production as you become more efficient. This saves time and lets you spend your energy elsewhere.
• You’ll learn advanced skills that let you problem solve. The software gives you specific features, but as you gain more advanced skills, you’ll produce unique ways to use the features. But you need to know how the features work to start.
• You’ll design more engaging and effective e-learning. For example, if you don’t know how to use variables, you severely limit what you can do. But once you understand how that feature works, you’ll build all sorts of different courses and interactive experiences.

One of the best ways to learn is to build something. This can be a challenge at work where you may have some project constraints and build the same courses over and over again.

That’s why I highly recommend the weekly e-learning challenges. They’re designed to get you to think about some new idea and how you’d build it. They’re not intended to be fancy or big courses. You can build something simple or something elaborate, that’s up to you. The main thing is you’re spending time in the tools applying your creative juices. And you get to see some cool examples from others in the community.

If you don’t do the challenges, make it a goal to do one per quarter. And at a minimum, check out what others build every week. You’ll get some neat ideas for your own courses.

There you go, three simple tips to help you get moving in the right direction.

Events

Free E-Learning Resources

Want to learn more? Check out these articles and free resources in the community.	Here’s a great job board for e-learning, instructional design, and training jobs	Participate in the weekly e-learning challenges to sharpen your skills
Get your free PowerPoint templates and free graphics & stock images.	Lots of cool e-learning examples to check out and find inspiration.	Getting Started? This e-learning 101 series and the free e-books will help.

You want to build an e-learning portfolio, but not sure where to start?

At its core, the work portfolio represents your skills and expertise. For some people, the portfolio is their resume, and they build it to share what they know. And for others, the portfolio shows their projects as part of the journey that needs to be documented.

During the initial planning, decide if you want the portfolio to be static where you only do occasional maintenance and updates. Or if you want a site that’s more dynamic and continually updating?

Build a Static E-Learning Portfolio

For a static portfolio, the main goal is to show off the best of what you can do. It’s your business card. You build the portfolio and it’s not constantly being updated. It’s not something you spend a lot of time on. You only update it once or twice a year.

Here are a few considerations when building a static portfolio.

• Represent diverse skills. Identify a few common course types such as interactive scenarios, compliance training, software simulations, etc.
• Present the projects in a consistent framework: What was the goal? What role did you play? What did you build? What was the outcome?
• Keep is simple. No need to show the entire course. Either show screenshots or small chunks of the module (like just the interactive parts). You could do a quick 30-second video trailer of the module. That’s also an effective way to get around uploading a real course when it is proprietary and you can’t share it.

Build a Dynamic E-Learning Portfolio

For a dynamic portfolio, the main goal is to show what you can do as an ongoing pursuit. It highlights your evolving skills. Many people show projects, share files, and discuss things they learned on the projects.

• Determine a manageable schedule. Most people start aggressively and then peter out and the portfolio goes nowhere. You’re not a news site where you need to post every day. Start slow and be consistent.
• Commit to a production process. What tends to be the most difficult is producing new ideas. That’s why I like the weekly challenges as a way to manage the portfolio. Commit to one per month. This gives you something to build and show as a routine.
• Share your learning. Show what you built and then write about things you learned. They don’t need to be big thoughts or exhaustive. For example, you could say, “in this example, I wanted to play around with animation ideas…”
• Be the expert. Share your source files and do quick tutorials. Read an industry book or blog posts and write your thoughts.

Whether you build a portfolio as an active job seeker or to document your learning, it’s a good practice to develop. Do you have a portfolio? If so, feel free to share a link and share your thoughts.

Events

Free E-Learning Resources

Want to learn more? Check out these articles and free resources in the community.	Here’s a great job board for e-learning, instructional design, and training jobs	Participate in the weekly e-learning challenges to sharpen your skills
Get your free PowerPoint templates and free graphics & stock images.	Lots of cool e-learning examples to check out and find inspiration.	Getting Started? This e-learning 101 series and the free e-books will help.