Successful E-Learning Project Dos and Don’ts
Successful e-learning projects don’t happen by accident. Instead, they happen because of careful planning and by following a tried and tested design and development process. Here are our dos and don’ts for successful e-learning projects.
Successful E-Learning Project Dos
Conduct a Needs Assessment
A needs assessment will tell you what learners know, what they need to know, and why they need to know it. Conducting a needs assessment early in an e-learning design project will set you on the right path.
Define the Learning Objectives
Understanding what you want to achieve with the e-learning course is essential. Therefore, it’s important to clearly define what you want learners to know, what skills they should have, what behaviours should be changed, or what they should be able to do once they complete the course.
Hire an Experienced E-Learning Developer
Working with an experienced e-learning developer will save you time and money. It will also ensure you get an e-learning course that has a high-quality design, is technically robust, and delivers on your training objectives.
Use a Mix of Media
Use various types of media in your e-learning course to keep learners engaged and ensure the best possible learning experience. The media you select will depend on the information you are presenting, but it can include text, images, videos, animations, and interactive elements such as scenarios.
Incorporate Interactive Elements
Following on from the last point, the best e-learning courses ensure learners are active participants rather than passive recipients of information. Interactive elements are, therefore, beneficial. We’ve mentioned one type of interactive element – videos. You can also include quizzes and interactive videos.
Ensure Mobile Compatibility
While it’s important not to become too fixated on technology, you should ensure the e-learning course is mobile-compatible. This often means having a responsive design that works on all sizes of screen, with specific design features that make the course both accessible and usable on phones.
Provide Feedback
You will improve the learner experience and training outcomes by providing accurate, constructive, and timely feedback to learners. For example, don’t just tell learners they have answered a question incorrectly. Instead, explain where they went wrong and how they can get it right in the future.
Facilitate Peer and Instructor Interaction
E-learning offers a range of benefits but one of the downsides is a lack of interaction between learners themselves and with instructors. You can easily overcome this downside by facilitating these interactions by, for example, explaining how instructors can be contacted or including group projects or collaborative tasks.
Revise, Improve, and Update
E-learning courses can be easily updated and redistributed, so it’s important to regularly revise and update the content to ensure accuracy, respond to learner feedback, and ensure the course continues to deliver on your training objectives.
Consider Accessibility
Adding accessibility features will ensure the course can be completed by everyone.
Ask for Feedback
We’ve already mentioned the importance of providing feedback. It is equally important to ask for feedback so you can better understand the perspective of learners. Did they encounter any issues with the course, for example, or are there areas they think can be improved?
Successful E-Learning Project Don’ts
Avoid Information Overload
Don’t cram too much information into the sections or modules of your e-learning course, and don’t try to do too much with the course itself. The best approach is to focus each course on a specific topic or learning objective, while also presenting the information to learners in bite-sized chunks.
Don’t Neglect the Learner Experience
There is sometimes a tendency in e-learning design projects to focus too much on the content and not enough on the learner. While the content is important, the importance of learner experience should not be underestimated.
Don’t Skip Testing
Always test your course with a small group of learners before you deploy it throughout the wider organisation. Testing with a small group of learners lets you identify glitches, navigational issues, content gaps, and other issues.
Avoid Purely Text-Based Learning
Text is an important part of e-learning courses, but it shouldn’t be the only way to present information. E-learning technologies allow you to include a wide range of media to keep learners interested and engaged with the content.
Don’t Neglect Cultural Sensitivities
Cultural or local references might not translate well in other locations, so it’s important to keep them to a minimum or avoid them altogether. This is particularly important if the learners completing the course are in different parts of the world. What works well in the UAE or Saudi Arabia, for example, might not make sense in another country.
Avoid Setting Unrealistic Expectations
Learners pick up new skills and knowledge at different rates. E-learning courses are a fantastic way to let learners progress through a course at a pace that best suits them. Therefore, be as flexible as possible with timelines for completing the courses you create.
Don’t Skip Support
As technical, learning, or content-related issues can always happen, even with the best planning and testing, it is beneficial to ensure learners know where they can access support.
Don’t Assume One Size Fits All
The learners completing your course will all start with different levels of knowledge. They will also have different ways of learning and will learn at different speeds. Providing personalised learning experiences whenever possible is the best approach.
Making Sure Your E-Learning Project is a Success
There are many pitfalls that can make e-learning projects stall, stumble, or fail. By following the dos and avoiding the don’ts in this blog, you will ensure your e-learning projects get off to a good start and continue to a successful conclusion.