About

• Audience
• Course Structure
• Page Design
• Content Engagement
• Usability

The next few slides will break each of these steps down. This way, you’re aware and know just how to tailor the course strictly to the audiences needs which better helps up in meeting YOUR needs of creating the course and everything that goes with it!

Audience

Always have your audience in mind; ask yourself, “..what’s required of the learner after completing the course, or training?” Make sure they have the proper learning abilities. If they are interested in graphic artwork, perhaps Graphic Design would be the skillset for them?  Be aware of their available hardware/software. Any eLearning environment will be demanding. Find out where they’re doing their homework. Are they doing it at work? At home? Social environments? Remember, required skills of the learner minus current skills of the learner equals course objectives. Knowing what the learner is responsible for on the job will assist you in meeting the expectations and objectives of your customers. The audience will always have a preference of how they learn, how they’re stimulated; if it’s hands-on learning or strictly visual. Knowing the learning styles will help you to design a course that is interactive and achieve results.

Understanding these methods will better help you in designing the courses.

Course Structure

Course structure is how it’s designed for eLearning purposes. It’s a very critical role that shouldn’t be overlooked; it plays parts in all of the other five learning components. It mainly plays a part in how your audience learns the material. Structuring the content into smaller segments is best, but also group the content into a module platform so that it’s easy for them to follow and still keeps them on track. Avoid creating too many pages in the module, as this creates a sense of drudgery and causes the audience to lose interest. Use interactive materials; videos, audiobooks, etc. Use pictures/graphics to help explain concepts and ideas. In short, keep it interesting, keep it concise and keep it informative!

 Page Design

Like other elements online, things can be TOO much or TOO less. We want the audiences learning experience to be a good one, right? Well, let’s not clutter the course, or use ridiculous pink and lime green colors. Navigation is intuitive – make it easy to follow and find. Appearance should always be kept simple – don’t hinder the learning experience. Too many graphics and too little text isn’t very informal at all; balance between the two should be sought when making an eLearning environment. White or negative space is a great addition – the more room to breath will create a great sense of unity and will let the audiences eyes focus, rather than bounce through the content. Make sure to be consistent with fonts. Organize your information through bullets or numbering. Keeping it simple yet informational is key!

 Content Engagement

When creating a course, you have to understand that it’s a self-study medium. Content engagement is referring to the interactions done by the learner of the course itself. Studies show that the learning experience is greatly enhanced when exercises or activities are incorporated into the learning process. A few examples of content engagement would be using hyperlinks to explain additional concepts, explanations, or definitions. Animations or incorporating interactive graphics would be another content engagement. People love having options, so provide your audience with various options; provide them with tests, skills assessments, and quizzes. Make them fun and engaging – something the audience will ‘want’ to do instead of ‘have’ to do. However, make sure it’s still relevant; fun doesn’t mean going off track. The course objective needs to be present. Balance fun and educational presence.

 Usability

Likewise to the other four components, usability is a huge factor. What’s the point in creating something if it’s unusable? Once we build the online course for you, be critical – test it in the same environment as your students.

Consider the following:

•   Verify links work properly.
•   Ensure that activities function as designed.
•   Inspect content to ensure no grammar errors or spelling errors are present.
•   Ensure graphics are visible.
•   Verify that the course works properly in all environments, across all servers, and across all platforms.
•   Verify screen resolution works for intended audience.
•   Verify that course objectives and expectations are met.