What to Know Before Building an E-Learning Course

Before committing resources to your course, it’s important to understand what type of e-learning course you need to build.

E-learning courses tend to be one of two types: information or performance

• Information-based courses are more like explainer courses where the main objective is to share information or offer a linear explanation of the content. This is common for new initiatives where awareness is a key objective to the course. It’s also typical of a lot of compliance training that are less focused on changing behavior and more on awareness of key policies. I tend to think of these less as courses, and more like awareness marketing content.
• Performance-based courses focus on changing performance or some sort of behavior. They’re tied to performance metrics where you can measure before and after changes.

Types of E-learning Courses

Within that context, there are generally three types of courses:

• Information. These courses share information with no performance expectations or changes in behavior. They’re more about awareness such as a company’s policy around certain issues.

Performance-based courses tend to be of two types:

• Procedural. These courses are performance-based as they have a required sequence of events or procedures that need to be followed. This is typical of a lot of machine or software training. There’s not a lot of nuance to the training. There are ten steps and everyone follows them exactly the same.
• Principle. These courses are built around decisions that are more soft-skilled in nature. A procedural course has a clear critical path of steps. However, principle-based training is focused on general guidance or principles that are not always black and white. They’re nuanced where the application to each situation may be a bit unique.

Once you understand what type of course you need to build, you’ll be able to commit the appropriate resources. Information/awareness courses require fewer resources. Often, you’re just re-purposing existing content. Which begs the question why you’re building a course (but that’s a different blog post). Performance courses require more focus on measurable objectives, metrics to determine success, and a nuanced understanding of the content and real-world decisions the learner needs to make.

When I meet with clients, I always try to determine what type of “course” they want to build. I focus on the objectives and try to make sure they’re actionable. Information-based courses don’t always need to be built and performance-based courses usually take longer to build and require more resources. By determining which type of course to build you are better able to allocate and manage your resources.

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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
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