Best Practices For Creating Online Training (eLearning)

There are many things to think about when- Font (Headers, body)
creating eLearning. There's no way that I can- Colors (text, images)
mention all of them in this article but I'd like to- Grammar (tense, spelling, etc.)
mention a few that come to the top of my mind.- Bullets
Course Outline / Storyboarding- Image placement
- Know the audience- Introduction pages, end of lesson, test launch,
- Find good SMEsevaluation, etc.
- Always create an outline of the course- Interface and navigation
- Storyboarding allows you to structure content- Job Aids and reference material
flow- Formatting of list of steps
- Decide what knowledge/skills need to be taught- Hyphenated words consistent (i.e. on-line vs.
firstonline)
- SMEs can take a glance at the flow and contentImages
- Content creating will go more quickly. (it's faster- Learners scan text and often look at images
than creating content and then starting over)first
Text- Can learners understand your page by only
- Learners scan, they don't readlooking at the image?
- Keep it simple- Make them meaningful. (not gratuitous images)
- Don't introduce too much information at once- Explain the process visually
(chunks)- Import the.png, jpg, gif into PowerPoint for best
- Use bullets/listsquality
- Avoid font color- Can part of the text on the page be in the
- Use bold and italics sparinglyimage?
- Talk to learners or not (choose a style)Tests/Assessments
- Formal or informal verbiage- Ensure that the questions are answered
Example: Bad- Decide an appropriate number of questions
These are challenging times for the financialbased on the needed score to pass
services industry.- Will you have a pool of questions?
Increased competition, recent uncertainty in the- Should the questions be randomized?
markets, and increasing expectations are just a- Submit after each question vs. submit all at once
few of the challenges we face as we seek to- Quizzes vs. tests
strengthen relationships with our clients.Quality Review
Example: Good- Always click through the finished course before
These are challenging times for the financialand after the final upload to the LMS
services industry.- Have someone outside of your area click
As we seek to strengthen relationships with ourthrough the course
clients, we face:- Don't test the course on the same computer
- Increased competitionthat it was created on
- Market uncertaintyI hope that the previous list helps get you thinking
- Increased expectationswhile designing online training.
Consistency