New to E-Learning? Here are Some Simple Steps to Help You Get Started

To a novice even simple things seem complex.  And when things appear complex, we can become frustrated or feel like we don’t have the skills to accomplish what it is we want to do.

I recall years ago when I was learning video production.  I felt like my skills were inadequate (which they were).  So my instructor told me to record some television commercials and then break them down into pieces to see how they were built.  He said that this would help me focus less on the glossiness of the commercials and more on their construction.  So I recorded commercials and then built a storyboard around the different scenes in them.  I made notes of the scenes, where the edits were, and what might have motivated the edits.

This exercise was one of the best learning experiences for me.  It slowed things down and helped me shift my focus away from the slickness of the commercials (which made my lack of skill more apparent) and move it towards the production process.

For new elearning developers, I recommend a similar process.  Find elearning courses you like and then break them down into chunks so it’s easier to understand how the courses were created.  This will help you understand some of the techniques used to transition the content and move a learner through the course.  But more importantly, it will give you a sense of what’s common about elearning courses and help you think through and plan for those things in your own course development.

Take a book, for example.  While every book is different, the structure of every book is similar.  There’s a cover, table of contents, chapters, an index, and perhaps an author bio.  The same can be said for elearning.  Different content, similar structure.

The Basics

In a very simple sense an elearning course is about creating an environment where a person goes from a point of not knowing to knowing.  They’re at point A today and tomorrow they need to be at point B.  The course is about helping them get from A to B.

Common Course Chunks

While each course has different content, they all generally have a similar structure.  Once you begin to recognize that, the development process won’t seem as complex.

Here are what I see as common “chunks” that make up an elearning course.

• Welcome: some sort of title screen that welcomes the learner
• Instructions: review of the interface and how to navigate the course
• Introduction: information about the course and its purpose
• Objectives: learning objectives and reason for taking the course
• Section screens: this is the area that holds the core content.  Each section can have its own welcome, instructions, content, assessment, and summary
• Assessment: process to review overall understanding
• Summary: summary of course objectives
• Resources: additional content and resources that augment the course and support ongoing learning
• Exit: next steps and see you later alligator

Obviously theses chunks are generic with the option to reorder or not use all (or any) of them.  But in a simple sense they make up the basic structure of an elearning course.

If you want, you can flesh out the chunks a bit more.  Perhaps there’s room to add an interactive or performance-based chunk so that each content area is linked to a tangible performance measure.

Course Chunk Templates

Identifying these core chunks helps you develop a production plan that can keep you on track, especially when you’re new to all of this.  One thing you can do is build some “starter kits” so that when you start a project you have a way to focus on each major area.

If you’re just getting started, create a PowerPoint template with a slide for each area.  You can add some production notes on each slide to help guide the process.  This is especially helpful if you’re trying to get your subject matter experts to help organize the course content.

If you want to be more structured, build some core content slides as well.  It’s not too complicated.  There are really only so many things you can do with a screen.  Why not pre-build as much of that as possible?  You may not need everything for every project, but the more you can pre-determine, the more time you’ll save.

Another way to use these chunks is when you’re developing your project plan.  This helps you create a line item for each core area.  Then you know you won’t overlook some of this in your planning and course development.

In summary, the key to getting started and not feeling overwhelmed in the process is to break things down to smaller pieces so that you have to digest less and can get a better sense of how it all works together.

Are there other chunks you’d add to the list?  Are there things you’d take out?  Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments link.

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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.