The expected outcome of any good eLearning course is to ensure that the learner performs his/her tasks in an efficient and organized manner in the given situation. Thus the approach of designing the eLearning course must also start from there and move backward. Traditionally, the courses were created where information was provided to the learner irrespective of the fact if it is required right now or not and with the intent that this will come into use sometime later in life. By then, the learner forgets the course and it goes to waste.
Start with the learner
Your learner seeks information anywhere, anytime, thus the eLearning courses. Also, with the workforce spread over different geographical locations, the ease of access is also an additional benefit of eLearning breaking the boundaries of time zones. It, hence, becomes important to understand the need of the learner and design the course based on the requirements. The robust features of Acendre can help you create a visually pleasing and meaningful course.
The objective must be to prepare them for unforeseen situations and develop and enhance their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Unlike traditional methods where the sole focus was delivering the content, rather focus on the learners need and just-in-time approach.
See also:
Once you have understood the requirement of the learner, preferably design the course in the backward direction.
- Identify the desired outcomes by knowing why should the learner take up this course. Perform a thorough training need analysis to understand the gaps and needs in relation to their job.
- Be crisp and provide concise “need to know” information. This will help easy navigation of the course and the learner will be able to search the required information at their fingertips. Learners will not have to take time off for taking up the course as the same can be made available online and in small digestible chunks of information.
- A thorough training needs analysis will also provide you a sense of difficult topics and areas of work where the employees face maximum challenges. Modules for such topics should be treated with extra attention and if the need be should be further broken down into sub-modules.
- Once you have decided on the modules and curated the content around them, now is the time to assess your learners for knowledge gain, effectiveness, and experience. Create interactive and precise assessments and quizzes. This also allows the learners to introspect their learnings and knowledge. Courses rolled out through eLearning course platforms provides the leverage to the learners to revisit the content as many time they want till they understand it thoroughly. This also acts as a ready reckoner for future references.
- Assessments should be jargon-free, simple, straight, and objective-oriented. Assessments should be included at regular intervals of the course, preferably after every module rather than testing the knowledge of the complete course in the end. Taking assessments after every module helps the learner to retain the knowledge and motivates them by showing positive learning progress.
- The final step can be a breeze if you have diligently followed the previous steps. Basis the desired outcomes and planned assessments, you can include the activities accordingly. Ensure that the activities are engaging, interactive, and around the assessments to be created. Provide them with activities that tickle their critical thinking and problem-solving side. This can effectively be done by understanding the existing knowledge and skill levels of the target audience.
Conclusion: The method of designing your course with the steps mentioned in this article will lead to a course that will be widely accepted for being learner-centric. This will also jolt the innovation skill of the instruction designer to come with a unique approach contributing constructively towards bigger organizational goals.