Ever wonder how to present e-learning course ideas to your customers?

I had a conversation the other day with someone who was presented with a somewhat boring course project. We chatted about ways to make it less boring. During the conversation, the person was concerned that the customer would never go for a different idea and only wanted the tried and true, click-and-read course.

This is a common challenge because the easiest course to build is the linear, explainer type course with information and next buttons. It’s also what many customers are used to, so trying to get them to see a different way to approach the course design can be a challenge, especially with a tight timeline and limited budget.

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking.

What type of course are you building?

Determine if the course is an explainer or performance course? An explainer course is one where you present information, but there is no performance requirement. This can be tricky because many courses are related to performance but the course itself may not have a performance improvement angle. A lot of compliance training falls into this bucket.

For example, ethics training is important and we want people to be ethical. But the training tends to focus on policies and principles. And the end measure is a final quiz to certify completion. If it was performance-based, then it might look like this:

The organization has an increase of supply costs and realizes that employees are taking things home. The organization has a laid back culture where taking things home was tolerated because it wasn’t a big deal. In that sense, the performance goal is to decrease the supply costs by focusing on the ethics of taking things home for personal use.

Explainer courses generally require less effort and end up becoming the default way courses are constructed.

Help the customer see the difference in e-learning course design ideas.

I like to give the customer a few demo courses that represent different ways to approach course content. Limit it to three types of courses. One type is too limiting which tends to cause a lot of scope creep as people come up with different ideas. And more than three can be debilitating because it takes time to review and explain all of the options.

The three options I recommend are:

• simple linear course
• linear plus some simple learning-based interactivity
• decision-based interactivity.

Here’s an example of how this plays out from a previous blog post on creating objectives for compliance training.

A simple linear course is mostly content. The content is relevant, but it’s still just content. And the performance measure is a completed quiz to certify a base level of knowledge, exposure to the content, and attendance.

The next stage is a blend of content, practice activity (focused on some relevant performance expectation) and then a means to certify understanding. With compliance training, a lot of the content is already known, so it’s mostly a way to refresh understanding and then an activity to practice using the content.

When there are real performance goals it starts with a current gap in ability. Assuming that training is the correct solution, the course focuses on the type of content and activities that the learner needs to demonstrate their ability to make the right decisions. I try to focus on relevant decision-making activities.

I recommend that you convert some compliance training that is common in the organization to three versions that you can present when meeting with clients. It’s content the client probably recognizes. And seeing the same content three ways lets you show and explain the differences and why you’d recommend one over the other.

What e-learning course design idea does the customer really need?

If the course is an explainer course, then I try to keep it linear and as simple as possible. If it’s a performance course, I lean towards decision-making activities. But I like to have the customer see the difference.

The customers generally choose the second option because it’s a type of course they understand, includes some focus on performance and interactivity, and is a lot quicker to build. This is where your performance consulting hat comes in. The client’s choice may be the easiest for them, but it may not be the right one. You can guide them to the right decision when you know what the performance expectations are (assuming they have some) and how the course’s success will be measured.

Obviously, there’s a lot more that goes into helping a client build the right type of training. Hopefully, these ideas help. If you have others you’d like to share. Jump into the comments and let us know.

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We’ve all been there, building courses where we don’t have much say in the content. You know the ones I’m talking about – those compliance courses or those annual refreshers that are driven by content more so than performance. Truth be told, the organization isn’t really expecting miraculous performance improvements from these courses. They simply want to ensure that everyone reviews the content, passes an assessment, and tracks completion for their records. Permanent records. You know, all that stuff that gets brought up at the pearly gates on judgment day.

But fear not! Here are seven quick thoughts that might just help you create courses that are a little less snooze-inducing:

• Content is just content. Context is king. Content alone may not be the most exciting thing in the world. But when you add the right context, it can really be a game-changer. Imagine taking those boring courses and making them interesting just by giving them the right context. So, let’s think about it: when and why do people actually use the content? By framing it in a way that’s relevant to the learners, we can make it way more engaging and meaningful. Sure, it may still require some clicking and reading, but hey, at least it’ll be worth it!
• Create a case study around the content. Case studies can be memorable and powerful – they’re like captivating stories that stay with you long after you’ve read them. Unlike your typical bullet-point overload, they are way more engaging. And guess what? You have the power to make your case study even more interesting by giving it a cool structure. How, you ask? Follow some classic hero archetypes to create a memorable case study.
• Switch the perspective. We have this shoplifting prevention document that we often use during our workshops on creating interactive e-learning. Most participants design their training for individuals on spotting shoplifters and reducing risks. But you know what’s really cool? Some people like to mix things up and approach it from a different angle by training potential shoplifters themselves! It’s the same content but with a twist, and trust me, it adds a whole new level of fascination to the content.
• Build a bunch of mini scenarios around the content. Don’t overbuild them. I recommend the 3C model: create a situation that challenges their understanding, give them some choices, and then feedback as the consequence. Instead of next buttons to advance, they problem-solve via scenarios.
• Have you ever wondered what would happen if the essential knowledge you’re about to learn was unknown? Let’s imagine a scenario together. Picture this: there’s a crucial safety process that everyone needs to be aware of to ensure their well-being. Now, let’s suppose this life-saving process isn’t followed. Unfortunately, accidents would occur, and people might end up injured. Start the training with someone hurt. Do a CSI type investigation and lead them to the types of prevention that makes up the safety process.
• Don’t give them information. Ready for an interactive learning experience? Let them dive into this content by getting them involved. Ask some thought-provoking questions. They need to make decisions. If they don’t know the answers, they can guess or do some research (which you can provide as helpful tips, call-a-friend, etc.). Use that for them to move forward step by step.
• Let them test out. Not everyone needs to go through the entire course. If they’re already familiar with the content, provide a means for them to prove it. And for those who might be new or need a refresher, they get to go through the course at their own pace. This post shows a few ideas on testing out.

Obviously, the ideal is that we don’t build boring courses. But that’s not always the case. Hopefully, these tips give you some ideas. What would you add to the list?

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Many e-learning developers create multiple courses, but these courses are often very similar in content. Instead of building different courses, they are essentially building the same course repeatedly.

A job seeker expressed their desire to move away from creating basic click-and-read e-learning content and work on courses that have a more significant impact. However, they were unsure of which organizations are producing these types of courses and where to look.

The main question then becomes: where can you find the best e-learning courses? I have some brief thoughts on this matter, and I am interested in hearing your opinions.

The Best E-Learning Isn’t Compliance Training

The driving force behind our industry is compliance training, which typically lacks performance goals. Consequently, the primary aim of such courses, regardless of the subject, is to ensure compliance by the end of the year and to track which employees have or haven’t completed the training.

These courses are typically subpar. Organizations tend to allocate minimal resources to these courses, which are often the tedious click-and-read type that people dislike and few developers are proud to create.

The Best E-Learning is Locked Behind a Firewall

Although many high-quality courses are being developed, the issue is that the majority of them are proprietary and inaccessible due to a firewall. Occasionally, you may get a glimpse of these courses during webinars, conferences, or on social media platforms such as LinkedIn. Nevertheless, they are typically not available to the general public.

The Best E-Learning Projects Are Outsourced

In my experience, organizations may possess numerous Articulate licenses, but they often outsource the development of impactful training to external vendors. This indicates that the organization is dedicating significant resources to these projects, something that in-house course authors typically don’t receive, which can be frustrating.

At the corporate level, many teams possess authoring tools and instructional design expertise. However, they may lack the experience or resources required for media, learning experience, and visual design. Vendors are generally better equipped to support the entire development process from design to implementation.

Where Can I See Examples of the Best E-Learning?

• E-Learning Challenges: we organize weekly e-learning challenges with the intention of encouraging course authors to experiment with the software, learn about its features, and try out new techniques. While the modules shared by participants may not always be actual courses, they present innovative ideas and interesting solutions that could be easily adapted to most courses. Even if you decide not to participate, we recommend checking out the recap posted every Thursday. You will find excellent examples that may inspire your own creativity. Here’s a favorite from a recent challenge on interactive video.

Click to view the demo.

• DemoFest Examples: at their conferences, The E-Learning Guild hosts a DemoFest, which is like a science fair for e-learning projects. This is one of my favorite parts of the conference as it gives us an opportunity to view real projects created by individuals from a variety of organizations. If you can’t attend, no worries. Following the events, the Guild hosts a “Best of…” webinar, which is also worth watching and allows you to see some of the courses shared.

Those are a few suggestions on where to find good examples. Do you have any ideas to share?

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I saw this video clip the other day on Instagram about how comedian and teacher, Leslie Robinson, views mandatory training videos.

It’s funny and it’s true!

What’s even better are the comments like this one:

“I had 7 of those to watch one day, tried watching them on different browser windows simultaneously, but no luck, those developers outsmarted me.”

“Yeah, they’re messing up our learning process” 🤣

Click here to view on Instagram.

The comments are loaded with good feedback that is so true to many e-learning courses and online training.

• Complaints about locked navigation
• Tips to not click complete until you meet a minimum time requirement
• Irrelevant information
• Stupid questions in the middle to get past the locked navigation

Here’s the deal. We all recognize that there’s something broken with e-learning. We’ve probably had to make these courses and also take them.

So what’s the solution?

Create Better E-Learning

Here are four tips to prime the pump:

• Show your clients this video and tell them they don’t want that or they’re wasting the organization’s time and money.
• Face the facts. Sometimes you can’t get past this type of training. It’s what the client wants. In that case, build the best and quickest course possible.
• Focus on the learner. Make the content more relevant to their needs. What will they learn? Why is it important?
• Get rid of locked navigation and find better ways to make the course more engaging.

What would you add this list?

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There are three primary forms of onscreen interaction used in e-learning courses: clicking, mouseovering and dragging. If desired, user input interactions such as data entry or text input with variables can also be added. However, the majority of interactivity is based on the three aforementioned types.

Recently, I was experimenting with a mouseover interaction concept which was mainly a gimmick, and wouldn’t be feasible as a real e-learning course. This nonetheless made me ponder the various uses of mouseover interactions and the current state of e-learning.

How Are Mouseover Interactions Used

There are all sorts of reasons and ways people build mouseover interactions. Here are three of the most common:

• Indicate a selected or current location: you see this often on a button. As you mouseover, the button changes to indicate where you’re at, or that it’s an active button. In the example below, there’s a hover state to indicate the mouse is over the button.

• Expose additional information: many people use the mouseover to expand the screen real estate. Slide over an object to get access to quick information. Slide away from the object to hide the information. In the example below, the mouseover interaction allows the learner to explore human anatomy.

• Provide quick tool tips: the mouseover interaction may provide information or hints. Sometimes it’s used to describe or explain the button or clickable object. In the example below, the tool tips provide quick access to hints on where to learn more.

What is the Current State of Mouseover Interactions

Mouseover interactions are fine and are also often used for creative ideas or to provide a certain type of aesthetic. However, a lot has changed over the past few years.

• Mobile Devices. Many courses are consumed on mobile devices which require touch-based interactivity. The concept of a mouseover doesn’t really exist when using a finger to navigate the content. Technically, you can press and hold to expose a hover state, but that’s not really practical for mobile training.
• Accessibility. Ideally, all courses are built with accessibility in mind, but that hasn’t always been the case. Accessible compliance is more of a concern for course builders today than it was a few years ago. The market has changed and with that comes more awareness and desire to build accessible e-learning. Mouseover interactions are a bit problematic especially for those using keyboard navigation.

It appears that it may be time to say goodbye to mouseover interactions in e-learning. Creating a click alternative to the mouseover is an extra effort that may not be necessary. Therefore, I propose that we accept the reality of changing technology and choose to forgo this type of interaction in most cases.

What is your opinion? What are the use cases that support the mouseover? How would you tackle the problem if you decide to keep it?

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Like many of you, I’m not a big fan of meetings because most of them tend to be presentations. The entire time I’m thinking, “Why didn’t they just record a presentation and send that out rather than have a bunch of people sit in a meeting with no expectations or action items? Seems like a big waste of time.”

We’ve all been in those meetings. And we don’t like them. Why?

Because while on the surface the purpose of the meeting seems meaningful, for most attendees the meetings are largely irrelevant with lots of “need to know” but not enough “need to do.”

Take that same emotion and apply it to typical e-learning courses, especially annual compliance and certification training. Most of those courses have what appears to be valuable content, but for the learner, the course is a lot of “need to know” but very little “need to do.”

And that’s why people click through the course at rapid speed and try to get to the quiz as fast as possible.

This is why we see so many questions on how to lock the navigation, because course owners know people aren’t going to sit through that boring, irrelevant content.

In an ideal world, the course is structured so it’s meaningful and relevant and the best learning experience possible. But that’s probably not going to happen, especially not with most compliance training.

That’s OK. The reality is that most of those courses are mandatory and there’s not much we can do. However, instead of fighting this, let’s look at a few simple ways to make these courses better.

Quiz Tip #1: Provide a Pre-Test

Don’t fight skipping to the quiz. Instead, put it up front. Give the learners who know the content the opportunity to prove it upfront.

If they can pass the quiz, then they demonstrate they know the content (or at least to the level that you’re quizzing). Pass the quiz, get credit for completion. Don’t pass the quiz, go to page 1 of the course.

Click here to view the example quiz.

• Bonus: download the free quiz template here.

Quiz Tip #2: Create Pressure to Review the Content

Ask questions in the quiz where you suspect they’re probably skipping. Don’t ask  trick questions, but essential questions that cover the core content. When they’re not sure how to answer, they’ll go look it up.

In the screenshot below, odds are that the person isn’t familiar with RCW and all of the answers are viable, so they’re probably forced to go look up the answer to the question rather than risk missing it.

I can guarantee you, as they’re asked something very specific that they don’t know, they’ll jump right into the content to look for it. And then you’ll have them in the course, learning what they need to know to pass the quiz.

Quiz Tip #3: Make the Quiz the Course

Don’t start with slide after slide of content. Instead start with the first quiz question. And then regardless of how they answer, provide the core content.

You can’t insert fifty slides of content. So, as the course author, it forces you to determine the core content that you want them to know and then create the appropriate question to assess that knowledge.

Bonus tip: you can also make it more engaging by setting up the questions like a scenario rather than basic quiz questions.

Click here to view sample quiz.

There’s a reason people jump the content and go to the quiz. In an ideal world, the course is meaningful and relevant to what they need to learn. That’s probably enough to keep them in the course. However, if you do find they’re skipping the content, above are three good alternatives to try.

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Much of online training is content that’s created with an e-learning authoring tool and positioned as e-learning courses. However, these courses aren’t necessarily the best at getting people to learn. I know there are some in our industry who’ll stand on their soap boxes and tell everyone how that’s not real e-learning in the first place. They’re free to do that, but they’re wrong.

It’s real e-learning, it just may not be complete e-learning. It all depends on the course objectives.

Content is Part of the Learning Experience

When it comes to content, I don’t see the difference between a PDF, PowerPoint slide deck, web page, or “e-learning course.” It’s just content packaged in different mediums. And the content is part of the learning experience. If anything, the “e-learning course” can add a level of interactivity and novelty that the other mediums can’t.

They key point here is that content is part of the learning experience, but it’s not THE learning experience. And that’s where the criticism is valid. Content needs context which highlights its relevance to the learner.

If you just build a content-focused course and the course has performance expectations, then you need to consider two things for the learner:

• How do they practice using the content?
• How can they demonstrate their understanding?

Creating superficial interactivity and simple multiple choice quiz questions isn’t enough.

Build a Practice & Prove-It Learning Experience Outside the E-Learning Course

When you boil it down, you can build practice and prove-it activities in the e-learning course or you can build them outside the course. Keep in mind, a multiple choice quiz is not a prove-it activity.

The e-learning course is part of the overall training goal. If the course is mostly content, you’ll need to build the practice and prove-it activities outside the course.

Here’s an example of how I did this on a previous project.

We trained machine operators. Initially they were trained on the production floor. But the training they received wasn’t consistent which proved a bit challenging for the new hires. So we built e-learning courses that covered the machines, how they worked, how they were maintained, and the production workflow. This gave the learners a solid understanding of the process and what was happening on the floor. Because of this, they entered the production environment with confidence and some context.

In the production environment, we created a working lab. The machines were slowed down and they focused on single tasks rather than the entire process. That let them practice applying what they learned in the e-learning courses. And we assigned a peer coach who monitored their work. At some point in the process, we put them on a live machine and they were able to demonstrate their new skills.

In this example, the e-learning courses were used to present content consistently and at a pace that worked for the learners. And the interactive learning experience happened outside the course on the shop floor.

Build a Practice & Prove-It Learning Experience as Part of the E-Learning Course

Building practice activities inside the course requires stepping back from the content a bit. Instead of focusing on the content that’s in the course, you need to focus on the decisions a person needs to make and then what content supports those decisions.

Generally speaking, content heavy courses follow a linear process from start to finish. However, a performance-based course focuses on how to use the content to make the appropriate decisions. To build a performance-based course, you need clear, measurable objectives. And then you build an environment that is relevant and meaningful to the learning experience.

When it comes to getting them to practice, I always say, “Let’s throw them in the pool!” Put them in situations where they have to make decisions or do something as if they were doing it in the real world.

For example, a typical content-based course explains the company’s sexual harassment policy and then finishes with a simple quiz. But a performance-based course puts the learner in a situation where they have to deal with sexual harassment issues. And then they make decisions (practice) that hopefully comply with the company’s policies. Based on their decision-making, they get fed the relevant content and feedback. And at some point in the process, they can prove the appropriate level of understanding.

They key point in all of this is that if you have performance requirements, but your courses are mostly explainer content (which is typical), then you need to consider how the learner can practice doing the things they should be able to do outside the course.  And that requires a blended solution where they go through prove-it activities to demonstrate their competence around the objectives and expectations.

The other option is to build meaningful decision-making activities inside the course, where they can practice making decisions and ultimately demonstrate their competencies.

So those click-and-read content-based courses are fine. However, if you have performance expectations and the practice-and-prove-it activities are not part of the online course, they’ll need to be built outside of it.

When you look at the courses you have to build, what percentage would you say are explainer content versus performance-based content?

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I’m putting together notes for an upcoming webinar on How to Develop a Successful Online Learning Strategy. I’m not one for industry hype and like to take a more pragmatic approach when offering tips because they tend to align with the reality of where organizations are compared to what they think they should be.

I’ve been thinking about the promise of e-learning and everything you read in books and online and hear at conferences from thought leaders about what effective e-learning should be.

E-Learning Thought Leader

There’s a disconnect between thought leaders and the reality of the e-learning industry. I think that disconnect happens because many of the thought leaders are also consultants and course vendors who get hired to build training.

Their perspective is different.

They are brought in by senior level management with business objectives that require some sort of training intervention. That manager typically has a healthy budget which can influence the development of the right type of training. Because they’re spending real money, they are also accountable to real results.

Because of this, the hired vendor has a commitment from the organization and the opportunity to do the level of analysis required to build and implement an effective training program. Plus, the majority of the courses they build tend to be performance-based courses tied to performance metrics.

E-Learning Course Builder

On the flip side, many of the people who build e-learning courses day-to-day aren’t afforded the same luxury.

From my experience, the internal e-learning teams often don’t have a seat at the table so they become order takers without access to the business intelligence (if that’s not an oxymoron) that determined the need for the course in the first place.

Which means they create a lot of content that’s not connected to measurable performance objectives. Thus many of the courses they create are informational or compliance courses not tied to applicable skills.

Also, there are a lot of single person-teams who have to do everything from content development to instructional design to graphic design to course authoring to publishing to LMS administration. And they do this with no significant budget. That’s a lot different than the vendor who gets the right types of resources to build effective e-learning.

In that world you can see how a vendor who has access to different resources and types of opportunities has a different perspective about e-learning effectiveness.

Build Better E-Learning

But how does any organization who doesn’t hire vendors build an effective e-learning program?

Here are some of the things I’ll cover in the webinar:

• Focus on both production efficiency and effectiveness as measures of success
• Understand the tools you use and develop a strategy around which ones to use and when
• Create a strategic content model to identify the type of course being built, the right objectives, and implementing the right performance support
• Upskill your e-learning developers so they are equipped to build the courses you need
• More 🙂

If you’re just getting started with e-learning or want to build a more effective online training program, watch the webinar.

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As a steward of an organization’s e-learning resources, it’s essential to make decisions that improve the bottom line. Aligning e-learning courses to the organization’s performance goals is key to ensuring positive results.

However, there are a number of other factors to consider when building out courses, such as cost and time savings. E-learning courses can reduce the cost incurred for facilitated classroom training, as well as increase accessibility for those who can’t attend scheduled training. Additionally, a great e-learning program can provide a return-on-investment to justify its presence within the organization.

By taking into account all of these factors, e-learning can add immense value to an organization. Here are three ways that you can state the value to your organization:

1. Cost: Focus on not just the cost of projects and development time, but also the value you bring in comparison to outsourcing. What would training programs cost if you weren’t doing them? Consider the long-term savings that often accompany in-house training.
2. Time: How quickly can you deliver the training? Time is money and delivering the training in a timely manner is critical. Consider how much time people spend in your course in comparison to the time commitment to learn a different way. Can you provide the same or better results in a shorter amount of time?
3. Performance: Increased performance has a direct impact on the bottom line. Link your course objectives to performance objectives to demonstrate the impact of the training. If assessment and performance metrics are difficult to quantify, look for alternative ways to demonstrate the effectiveness of the training, such as customer satisfaction or employee retention.

Courses should focus on specific performance improvements for best results; when this isn’t possible, cost and time improvements can be shown to demonstrate value.

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I get a lot of questions from organizations that are at the beginning of their e-learning journey and not quite sure how to get started. The following tips are three key considerations to get your program moving in the right direction.

What Type of Course Are You Building?

I like to keep things simple. Generally, there are two types of courses that get built: explainer and performance.

• Explainer courses present key content critical to the learning experience. This can be content like user manuals, video tutorials, company policies, etc. These courses generally combines content with context. For example, an explainer course not only shares information but adds context to how the information is relevant. But they generally stop at sharing the content and don’t include relevant practice opportunities.
• Performance courses focus on the performance expectations. What is the learner supposed to do? How can they learn it in the course? What activities get built in the course for the learner to practice and prove their skills and understanding?

Both types of courses have value. However, if you have clear performance expectations and you build an explainer type course, then you need to determine what activities outside the course are required for the learner to practice and prove.

Craft Clear Course Expectations

The end-goal isn’t to build a course. Instead, the course is a solution to meet the end-goal. Thus, the end-goal needs to be determined and clearly stated. After the person takes the course, what are they supposed to do?

Odds are that many of the explainer courses that are created have no “supposed to do” attached to them. And that’s why a lot of online courses aren’t effective.

• Create a clear objective.
• Determine how to measure it in the course and outside of the course.
• Build practice activities and an assessment that provides proof of understanding.
• Get connected to the team that can provide the metrics outside the course so you can verify success.

Build to the Expectations of the Learner

This part is a bit challenging because often courses are designed around the content presentation and not the learner expectations. We’ve all taken annual compliance training. The content is valuable, but it’s usually not framed in a way that’s relevant to the learner. It’s content that’s mostly relevant to the organization and it’s framed that way.

However, the organization is paying you to build a course which costs money. And then your course pulls people from productive work which also costs money. If you have a 60-minute course and 100 people have to take it (assuming an average cost per employee is $100); that’s about $600,000 per 100 people. That is a lot of money. Is your course getting at least $600,000 of value?

You may not be able to control whether or not the course gets built, but you can definitely advocate to build the best type of course. And the best type of course considers the learner and how the content is relevant and meaningful.

Obviously, there’s a lot more to consider when jumpstarting your e-learning program. The key consideration is whether or not the course is built around performance expectations and then designing a product that meets those goals.

What would you add to this list if someone asked about getting their e-learning program started?

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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.

It is important to manage the customer relationship while building courses, as customers may not always know what they want. Customers often default to building more training as a solution to issues, but course designers need to step in and provide the best solution.

Here are a few tips on managing the relationship with your customer.

• Is training the right solution for them? They want the person to go from point A to point B, but what are they doing now and why aren’t they getting there? How is training going to impact those reasons?
• It is important to establish clear expectations for the course you will be delivering. This can be done by analyzing the needs and writing up a service level agreement that details what they will receive and when.
• In order to ensure that your course is successful, it is important to set clear objectives and determine how you will measure them. This helps gauge whether or not objectives met.
• The customer’s expectations should be established at the beginning of the work. Then every effort should be made to exceed them.
• Make your customers look good by promoting their assistance and success. Write nice things about them to their managers. This helps get more of their time, especially if they’re also the subject matter expert.
• Courses should be effective, as noted above, but they should also be efficient. Manage your costs and calendar well. And make the learning experience and efficient use of the learner’s time.
• Do everything you can do to finish ahead of schedule. Many projects don’t because there’s a lot of scope creep where more gets added to the request. A good service level agreement helps resolve some of those issues.
• Pay attention to the project and anticipate issues. Then take care of them before they do become issues.
• After the project is delivered, I quickly review the service level agreement with the client and get them to sign it. I’ve worked on projects that failed (because the customer wanted a course that wasn’t needed) and somehow the blame got shifted down to the training team. By getting the client to review and accept the agreement, I can prevent that from happening.

This isn’t an exhaustive list. What are some things you’d recommend to someone just getting started?

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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.

The organization’s ultimate goal is not to build a course. Instead, the goal is to meet some sort of performance need. And in that sense, the e-learning course is a solution to meet an objective.

And this is where e-learning often falls down.

Effective training programs successfully meet learning objectives that aren’t fuzzy and non-measurable. On top of that, e-learning is usually just part of the overall training program. So it’s not the end-goal.

I’m often asked about how to build better e-learning. From my perspective, many of the courses I see aren’t very good. There are all sorts of reasons for this, but the main reason is that the courses share so much content that they present the illusion that they’re complete. But usually, they’re just content-heavy andnot tied to any meaningful objectives. Thus, they usually produce little to no tangible benefit for the organization.

If you didn’t see it, here’s an interesting article where training gets a large part of the blame for an organization’s $8 billion attrition rate. Is it fair that training gets the blame? I don’t know. But the key consideration for those of us in training is that we need to be aware of the perception and make sure that our programs are designed to actually meet objectives.

When we design e-learning courses, we need to think about the overall objective of the training program and design our courses to meet that objective. All too often, I see courses that are nothing more than glorified and interactive PowerPoint slides. These courses might be fine if the only objective is to provide information, but if the objective is to actually change behavior or improve performance, then these types of courses are doomed to fail.

The bottom line is that a course is only as good as the objectives it’s designed to meet. If you’re not sure what the objectives of your training program are, then you need to go back to the drawing board. But if you have a clear understanding of the objectives, then you can design a course that will actually help your organization meet those objectives.

And that’s the challenge for many of us who build courses. We build a lot of content that we call e-learning. But does what we build contribute to success? How do you know?

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.