If you think that e-learning course development is a time consuming as well as a gruesome task, then it’s time to change it. We have brought you some simple tricks and tips that will help you to create practical e-learning course design for fantastic audience experience without any stress. Let’s take you through these tips.
Choose your authoring tool wisely
The e-learning authoring tool has the power to either make or break your e-learning course. For that matter, it is essential that you make the right choice depending upon the features and functions that you want in the tool along with the usability so that you can get the most out of it. It is also imperative to assess the abilities and skills of your team and find a tool accordingly. The ideal tool must provide you flexibility while being user-friendly if your team has limited experience go for a device with essential features such as a graphics library and pre-made templates. While if your team is pro at e-learning and has the know-how of programming and graphic design, then you can go for an authoring tool with advanced features and functions that may help you to create immersive and dynamic e-learning scenarios.
Research your Subject and Audience well
The next important factor in designing a useful e-learning course is that you conduct proper research on your audience as well as the subject to come up with the best suitable course. It is essential to assess the target audience and the issue beforehand so that you may get the help of a subject specialist to finalize on the content that must be made the part of the course. As for the audience, it will help you to understand what they wish to achieve and learn through your course and so you will be able to design one according to their expectations.
Create your e-learning template or use an existing one
You can use a current model to design your e-learning course as you have a plethora of options available on the internet. This option is excellent for the beginners as they will not have to go through the process of designing it themselves and help them reduce the course development time. On the other hand, the professionals can go ahead and create their template to add a personalized touch to their course according to their desire.
Go for a cloud-based learning management system
Cloud-based learning management systems are the best choice when it comes to designing an e-learning course. You can create an entire curriculum from scratch using such a system. Even if you lack any prior knowledge, you can sign-up to one of the many platforms like Litmos, Docebo, etc. that can help you step-by-step while integrating your custom content as well as dragging and dropping the graphics and multimedia elements that you wish to add. You can even add the quizzes that you are going to take in it while creating an educational calendar and highlighting the crucial deadlines on it. Research the options available in the market thoroughly and then choose a system that is best suitable for you.
Add multimedia and resource links
If you lack the skills as well as the tools to make new multimedia elements that you want to add to the course then go ahead and embed links to the multimedia as well as the resources into your e-learning course. This will enable your learners to have direct access to the information that you wish to provide them without having to scour the internet to look for the relevant content. This effort will make your course look more professional and polished while helping your learners out.
Keep visual and audio aid straightforward
Try to keep the videos, audio, and the graphic elements to the minimum in your course and if you do decide to add them make them simple and straightforward. Make sure that the parts you add are coherent with the content of your class and help the learner in a better understanding of your content.
Using these tricks, you can design an e-learning course which would be more useful for your target audience. Now, let’s move on how to evaluate the efficacy of your class.
Evaluation of the efficacy of an e-learning course
You would need to keep a check on the following seven elements to evaluate the effectiveness of your e-learning Course.
Objectives of e-learning
It is essential that you are well aware of the intentions of your e-learning course. You will have to be very specific about what you want the learners to learn from your class and set specific goals. Once you identify the objective, assess your course and its content as to whether it is coherent with your intentions or not.
Interactivity level
Interactivity is imperative in e-learning as it will help to boost the engagement of the audience as well as the knowledge retention. You might need to add enough interactive elements in your course to reach the desired interactivity level and make your path more useful for the audience.
Appealing visual aid
It is essential to add the visual assistance in your course which is appealing and engaging for the learners, or you might end up making them disinterested and disengaged in the content of your class. Carefully choose graphics, images, and videos that are aesthetically appealing for the learners and would help you to engage them in a better way.
Language
Language is another essential element that can enhance the efficacy of your course. You need to evaluate your course and determine whether the learners can comprehend your message or are they having any difficulty in reading or listening. Make sure that your content is well written and incorporates stories and examples that are entirely relevant. Also, make sure that if you have included any humorous material, then it must be comprehended well, or you might end up hurting someone by being offensive. Consider all these points to make your course respectful and comprehensible to your audience.
Technical functions
The technical functions of your course must be well evaluated to make the learners feel comfortable with it. Make sure that your interface and navigation are useful. The display of your content and the sound must work correctly. All the buttons, image, and text should look the way you want them to. Your learners must be able to access your course online if they’re going to. Your links should work. Make sure all these technical functions and any other are working correctly.
Time
Time is another critical element that determines the efficacy of your e-learning course. Make sure that each of your topics takes 15-30 minutes which is considered to be the best range.
Cost
Finally comes the cost evaluation of the course. It is imperative to set a price that isn’t too pricey. However, you will have to consider the cost of designing and developing the class as well as the cost of running it (licenses, etc.) and then calculate the cost per learner. Also, include reusability in cost estimation as it helps to increase ROI.
After evaluating the efficacy of a course, let’s move on to discuss how to mitigate the forgetting curve in e-learning.