Summary
Designing an E-learning course
Every morning, behind a screen, an
Instructional Designer
works and knows that he or she will have to let his or her imagination gallop a little harder if he or she is to meet the challenge with boredom. Every morning, behind another screen, a user yawns and knows that he will have to fight against himself to stay awake. It doesn’t matter whether you are an E-learning designer or a user, the important thing is that the course in question passes the most difficult test: that ofengagement.
We know: for those who make E-learning courses, people’s attention is the only, true (at times seemingly unattainable) goal. Getting it is invaluable. And to succeed in doing so, it is essential not to forget some very important rules from the very first steps. After all, Plato also said that.
“the beginning is the most important part of the work.”
. And, in our field, the E-learning design and writing phase of a course are the ones that determine the success of the project more than any other.
E-learning design is divided into macro-design(content design) and micro-design(content editing, the writing, precisely). At the end of these activities we will have the key document of the course: our E-learning storyboard. Such a precise and timely document that, if done right, should allow anyone (in perfect autonomy) to implement exactly the course we had in mind. Let’s review together some tips to always keep in mind to succeed in the (difficult but not impossible) task of capturing our user’s attention, thus making the
engaging E-learning courses.
10 Macroplanning tips
1 - Spend the right amount of time on E-learning design.
Did you know that by the rule of thirds, one-third of the total time spent on an E-Learning project should be spent on design (one-third on development and one-third on debugging)? It seems like a lot, doesn’t it? Yet, according to experts, every extra day devoted to planning is a day invested. This care at the initial stage actually shields us from all those inconveniences that might later arise along the way and thus slow down the project terribly.
2 - Analyze the content at the start
Devoting the right amount of time also means analyzing our E-Learning course source materials carefully and expertly. Almost always a course deals with topics that we do not master with confidence: that is why it becomes necessary to delve deeper, to read them, to reread them, to study them, to rehash them until they are our own, to be able to reshape and revolutionize the content.
3 - Stay on the client's side, i.e., don't listen to them
Sometimes it may happen that our client does not understand certain choices on the fly, and therefore resists certain proposals we make. The temptation to give in and “give it to him” is strong, after all, “he’s the one who pays, it’s right for him to decide.” Beware, however, because this reasoning hides a catch. The in-house contact person for an E-Learning project is the figure called upon to approve choices, sure, but his first choice was to rely on us, a professional, because he needed guidance. This is the number one choice to be respected at all times. How to be able to do this? For example, providing intermediate steps for sharing and moving forward. So as to detail the reasons for our proposals and dispel any doubts in advance.
4 - Goals and targets: never without
Defining the target audience and focusing well on the objectives of an E-Learning course is a necessary starting condition. Our educational goal must be clear and measurable, unambiguous, observable. We always try to answer the question: who am I addressing? It is not always easy to narrow down the user population to a clear and identifiable category, but it is our duty to always question this at the beginning of an E-Learning project and go from there.
5 - Remember the value of interaction in an E-learning project
The more I interact, the more I remember. Being an active part of the course, making my contribution, will require me to be more focused. That’s why E-Learning quizzes, attention test questions, games are what could really make a difference in my online training course.
6 - Segment the content
If you pause, even for a few seconds, you will allow what you just said to settle in the brain of the person listening to you. Try to think about it: have you ever struggled to remember something at night before you go to bed and then, when you wake up in the morning, have that information clearly in your head, as if it had awakened with you? This is because night sleep is the most important break in our day.
7 - Imagine a story for your E-learning project.
Try to think about the experiences that you were most involved in…whether they were training or entertainment, most likely those experiences were hiding a story. If instead of the table of contents of your E-Learning course, for example, you structure a game board, with characters that have characteristics, goals, objectives, this might be enough to stimulate our curiosity and thus activate attention.
8 - Mix
Uniforming the content of our E-Learning project to itself is a risk. What does it mean? Let us try, as always, to give examples. If in a course you start with a multimedia element, perhaps a film clip, to subject the user to a situation that perhaps facilitates the acquisition of a concept, it can be stimulating. However, if after this first video, we are offered another one just like it, another clip from another movie, and then yet another one, the user will eventually get bored. The media mix is crucial. So remember to alternate formats: audio, video, text, game, quiz.
9 - Leave autonomy
Where possible, remember to prioritize autonomy of navigation. Indeed, andragogy explains to us that adults are the more involved the more they are able to play an active part in the decision-making process. In other words, limit the propaedeuticities and leave your user free to move as they wish among the E-Learning content.
10 - Be your first supporter of your E-learning project
When you design, you create. And your creatures, at the end of the path, deserve to be defended and protected. That’s why, properly evaluated the choices to be made in the design phase, once you have set up the skeleton of what your E-Learning course will be for good, you must be your own first supporter and enthusiastically defend the path taken.
10 Writing tips for E-learning design
1 - Write as you speak
We have always been taught that writing is different from spoken language. It should be, they say, more formal and composed. It just doesn’t always work that way! There are cases when it is much better to adopt a more informal and direct language even when writing, the same language we use when we speak. In E-Learning courses, for example, this is the case. Think about it: what sticks with you the most? A short sentence, told in a clear and friendly manner as if you were chatting with a friend, or a long, formal, complex and often flat paragraph? We’ll tell you: the first one!
2 - Squeeze
It is better to
dry up the speech
, divide longer periods into short sentences. If we stuff our interlocutor’s head and ears with too much information, we make his life difficult and training incomprehensible. Instead, drying and breaking up concepts will help him to
memorize and understand
what we are talking about. All the more so if there are some
key topics
: make them simple and instead of going into complex explanations…
3 - You ask me a question
Beginning a paragraph in an E-Learning course with a question is likely to generate a trailing effect. A question, if you think about it, is a natural activator of attention. Don’t you agree?
4 - Repeat the concept
Yes, but with adifferent emphasis and changing the wording of the sentence. There is no universal language; each of us learns and memorizes in our own way. If we repeat a concept by changing the wording we are going to meet more than one user, did you ever think of that?
5 - Let us embrace
Inclusiveness pays off. Before diving headlong into your course text and -Learning ask yourself a couple of questions: Who is it that writes? What is his role? Clarify this, adapt your tone of voice, and choose which person to address your audience in. In our opinion, giving “tu” is winning, it allows one to feel close and involved, like “yes, I’m talking right to you! Using “we,” however, also works; it conveys a sense of empathy and sharing.
6 - Don't go the beaten path
So avoid catchphrases as much as possible, delve into concepts, tell about them, make them vivid and memorable. A generic adjective or idiom can make your life easier while writing, it is true, but you cannot be sure that those who will listen or read the text will understand just what you meant. Then better to take a little more time and be more specific, allow the user’s imagination to be activated so as to make the training course unforgettable
7 - Active is better
Let’s talk about verbs: use the active form as much as you can. When you have a strong temptation to use a passive verb think again, reread the sentence, transform it, and use the active verb. Again, this will help you make your E-Learning text more direct and personal. Vagueness should be avoided at all costs, and often, by using verbs in the passive, we end up not understanding who is doing the action.
8 - Everybody come to Hollywood
Do you remember Madonna’s song? (if you don’t remember it, let us refresh your memory)
It serves as a pretext for us to tell you to think big, indeed, wide. You draw from your surroundings, we are working on a video course, so voice and images come together. Think Hollywood! Why does the dialogue in that movie or TV series work? What is it that makes that scene so realistic that it sticks in your memory? Pay attention to it! And what can Instagram stories teach you? That a concept can crystallize in a fifteen-second frame. Not to mention podcasts, where the voice is the absolute and powerful protagonist.
9 - Focus on what is important in E-learning course design
It seems obvious, but it is not: if everything matters, then nothing matters. In e-Learning design, it is crucial to identify hierarchies, to stratify content: to eliminate what is not necessary to know, to make clickable what is good (but not essential) to know, to write down (and thus vocalize) all that is crucial to know.
10 - Read out loud
Once you’ve finished writing, it’s time to figure out if your E-Learning text is working, so reread it out loud. Or read it to someone. Pay attention to what sounds bad, sounds convoluted, or sounds unintelligible, and simplify as much as you can. As we said at the beginning, it must come across as clear and natural as a chat. If laziness afflicts you, we’ll teach you a little trick: from the Word menu, under Review, by clicking on Read Aloud you can listen to the text you have written. Sure, it may not be the voice of Favino or Miriam Leone, but for a test we can make it fit, what do you say?
If you found these insights interesting,
contact us
, to learn more!
