7 tips for developing a good e-learning
An online learning environment has plenty advantages, that’s a fact by now. As a learner you go through the learning material at your own pace. This creates the possibility for companies to continuously develop and monitor the knowledge and skills of employees. The question remains, how do you make an effective and attractive e-learning? By applying these seven tips it’s less complicated than you think.
1. Set your learning goals beforehand
What do you want to achieve with your online academy? Which knowledge and skills do you want the participant to have gained after following this online training? Describe this as specific as possible in your learning goals. From your learning goals you will make the outline of the lessons, which you’ll fill with content.
A pitfall of an enthusiastiac specialist can be that they want to share all knowledge available. Recognisable? You can prevent this by keeping track of your learning goals while making the content.
2. Direct applicable knowledge
E-learners want to learn and develop, but they certainly don’t only want an outline of theories. If they would, they would’ve bought a book! Make sure that you convey the knowledge in an interactive manner. Focus on the direct applicability in practice.
The participants will stay enthusiastic when you use cases and recognisable examples. Let the learners apply the theory themselves in short assignments and in daily practices.
3. Hold the attention
Holding the attention of your participants with long theoretical presentations won’t work. Build your lessons in a short and clear manner. You rather have 30 short lessons compared to 10 longer versions. In our blog on writing content for an online academy we give you good tips for you texts. Keep your content varied. Use beside text instructions also example videos, possibly with subtitles. Place an appealing and relevant image and be interactive with short assignments.
4. A consistent, professional look
Of course the quality of the content of your learning environment is on the first place, but appearance also counts. It’s important that your learning environment looks professional. An appealing look invites someone to take action, this doesn’t happen as often when the environment is a messy sight. Recognisability and quality are important factors in this. Think of clear titles of your e-learning with clear descriptions, but also consistent and inviting images you will add to every e-learning. Make sure the sound and image quality is excellent. In this way, your participant can focus completely on the content and will not be distracted by other things.
5. Still a sense of belonging to a group
Many people find a reference framework pleasant: where are you compared to your classmates? E-learnings are fundamentally focused on individuals. This doesn’t mean however that you can’t do anything in a groups context. For example, give users the possibility to see how far their fellow students are and what they produce, or stimulate them by letting them share their work and feedback it for each other.
You can also consider blended learning. You then combine e-learning with ‘classical’ sessions. These can also take place digitally by the way. For example, via webinars of with the help of programmes such as Microsoft Teams, Skype or Google Meet.
6. Let participants test their knowledge
Building on tip 5: Your participants are often working solo. That’s why it’s important to give them sufficient control on their progress: ‘Am I on the right track?’. Besides aligning with fellow students, it’s convenient to let the participant take a test or make exercises during the online training. The learner can continue confidently after receiving feedback. Moreover, it’s very motivating to notice you manage the subjects you’ve dealt with.
7. Learn about e-learning tools
Luckily you don’t have to develop the learning environment completely yourself. There are tools and platforms available which can help you very well with it. Inventory your wishes and look which provider from the Learning Management Systems suits those best, now and in the future. We wrote this blog earlier with 5 aspects you should keep in mind while purchasing an LMS.
Start growing today!
We hope these tips help you quite a bit in the preparation to make your own online learning environment. Do you still have some questions? Let us know, we like to help!
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