There can be a lot of pressure on L&D teams to deliver eLearning cheaply—and often to challenging timelines, too. Under these constraints, delivering engaging, high-quality eLearning can be a real challenge.
But in the long term, it’s the effectiveness of the course that will define its success. Disengaged, bored learners won’t get what they need from your eLearning. So how can you ensure your course is high-quality, even when you’re working to a tight budget?
It’s all about getting the basics right. With a simple, well-structured and resourceful approach to your eLearning design, you can deliver a high-quality result within budget.
5 Principles for Designing High-Quality eLearning
We think there are five key principles that will help anyone create effective, budget-friendly eLearning.
These principles are all based on the best-practice design methodology we follow here at LEO Learning.
1. Plan for Success
Take the time upfront to effectively plan and scope out your project.
This means:
- Increased speed – effective planning means no nasty surprises down the line that could derail the project timeline.
- Increased quality – when you start by understanding what learners and the wider business need to achieve from the eLearning, the outcome will be far more effective.
2. Design the Journey
While many think that engagement is achieved by using the latest innovations, such as learning games, VR or interactive video, engagement can be achieved a lot more simply—and cheaply.
The key is using a clear structure to design the journey your learners will go through in your course.
At LEO Learning, we use a tried and tested model for designing learning journeys that:
- Excites learners excited for the journey ahead
- Delivers the learning content in an engaging and effective way
- Drives long-term learning and behavior change
All this requires is a bit of smart design thinking and a good understanding of what will motivate and engage your learners (which can be gathered in your planning phase).
3. Be Consistent
Sometimes it’s the little things that can have a surprisingly big impact. Haphazard design, confusing instructions or an inconsistent tone of voice can really disengage learners.
We put processes in place to avoid this fate. Whether that’s defining a set of screen templates, peer reviews or writing a style guide, there are many ‘quick wins’ that will have a big impact on the quality of your eLearning.
4. Be Resourceful
When you’re on a budget, there’s no point in reinventing the wheel. If we find something that’s already been created that fits the bill, we use it.
And we don’t just look at existing training material. There’s a whole world of great content online that can be harnessed to engage learners. It’s just a case of finding it and adding the right context.
5. Show, Don’t Tell
It’s a phrase well-known in the writing world, but ‘show, don’t tell’ is a critical factor to ensure your learners really engage with the information you deliver.
What does this mean for elearning course design? Essentially it’s taking any opportunity to demonstrate or depict a key learning point or behavior (rather than just stating it).
You might think this means creating lots of expensive, rich-media content. But actually, there are a range of simple but effective ways to do this in your eLearning.
