Designing e-learning that engages the learner and creates a positive learning experience requires expert knowledge and skill. We share six ideas instructional designers need to consider.
1. Create a course tied to real-time performance goals
Understand what knowledge gaps your learners are missing. If you are designing training for professional development within an organisation, consult stakeholders and staff on where the knowledge gap is. Linking the course objectives to real-time performance goals gets stakeholder and staff buy-in.
2. Make the course relevant to the learner
Design training that is relevant to what the learner needs to learn; consider chunking the learning content and delivering it through a blended learning solution: a learner may only need to learn a portion of an entire module allowing them to take the training in a self-paced mode of study gives them ownership of their learning.
3. Identify your learning objectives
Bloom’s (revised) Taxonomy can help you write clear, concise, and relevant learning objectives. Identifying the objectives of the training you are creating will help focus you on designing the right material.
4. Unlock the navigation
Keep navigation free; allowing the learner to navigate back and forth won’t mean they are simply going through the motions but it gives them opportunity to explore.
5. Make it active
Focus on the learner and the way they will engage with the content. Give them choices to make within the learning scenarios; this gives them the opportunity to explore the content and make decisions. Making decisions helps them learn.
6. Include problem-based learning
Create problem-based learning that learners would experience in their working environment. Problem-based learning is an effective learning strategy which helps learners engage with each other to work together to find solutions. Combining problem-based learning with a blended learning solution is a great way to promote collaborative working practices within an organisation.