Don’t make the mistake of thinking that producing an effective e-learning module is a matter of juicing up a snappy PowerPoint presentation – you and your learners are likely to be disappointed with the results!

This article is designed to help e-learning designers and developers create, develop, and deploy effective on-line learning content and outlines some best practices to help get you the results you are looking for.

1. Make It Engaging

   It is critical that learning content (whether e-learning, classroom, or blended) be designed to engage the learners and facilitate their interaction with the material. If the learners’ interest is not maintained, they will tune out—wasting precious time off the job and leading to poor memory retention. The learner needs to be involved through hands-on, participatory and experiential activities such as simulations and case studies. Engaging the learner also means that the e-learning should be fun or entertaining so that learners want to pay attention.

2. Use Relevant Examples

   Adult learners are more motivated by practical, readily-applicable content than abstract theory and concepts. For content to be most valuable, it needs to relate to the learners’ world, including their industry, company and, most importantly, their job. Content should be relevant to the circumstances and aspirations of the students themselves. A way to make e-Learning more job-relevant is to design manager involvement and coaching into or after the course to provide on-the-job reinforcement. This improves e-learning effectiveness and retention.

3. Involve Experts

   Content is more credible and accurate if it involves thought leaders or subject matter experts (SMEs) in the design of the e-learning content. SMEs have deep knowledge, skills or experience related to a topic. SME’s involvement can include writing content themselves or sharing their information with designers. Such experts are expected to not only know the subject but be able to implement it and relate their experience or “first-or second-hand anecdotes” to show how the skills and knowledge being covered can be effectively utilized to achieve desired outcomes.

4. Use Reliable Information

   Use well-researched materials with reliable conclusions. Research based content is captivating, meaningful and accurate. To create it, eLearning developers should prioritize their efforts to ensure that learners can interact with research based materials and are able to relate it to their work.

5. Use blended methods if possible to accommodate different learning styles

   E-learning can be combined with classroom based or on-the-job training to reinforce the learning. Each of us has a preferred learning style–the style in which we can learn most efficiently. That style is often defined using these three dimensions:

   • Active or Reflective? Active learners attain understanding by doing or applying information. Reflective learners like to think things through before doing.
   • Sensing or Intuitive? Sensing learners like facts, are rule-oriented, and feel comfortable with repetition and routine. Intuitive learners are more interested in the relationships between facts, resent repetition, and like to innovate.
   • Visual or Verbal? Visual learners are more likely to retain what they see. Verbal learners remember words–spoken or written.

   Most adult learners fall somewhere in the middle on all three dimensions. The challenge is to create learning experiences that will work for a wide range of adult learners. A way to do this is to incorporate a variety of instructional strategies into the course design. For example, you may wish to present “how-to” information in written form for the verbal learners, as well as streaming video demonstrations for the visual learners.

6. Use creativity or innovation in design

   When evaluating the effectiveness of creativity and innovation in design of e-learning, a yes answer to all of the following questions is evidence of a high quality well designed instructional design e-learning program:

   • Does the program immediately capture attention when it is run?
   • Does the training program explain its relevance to learners? Does it answer the student’s question, “What’s in it for me?”
   • Are learning objectives presented near the beginning of each lesson?
   • Are learning objectives specific and observable?
   • Is the presentation of content made interesting with a variety of media or through an engaging treatment?
   • Does the program provide a variety of interactive exercises beyond simple multiple-choice questions?
   • Are learners given the opportunity for frequent practice?
   • Does the program include a post-test or other assessments?

7. Create easy-to-use support materials

   Consider the support materials that should be provided for reference and as a reminder to the learners once they have completed the on-line module. This may be provided as downloadable material from the on-line learning module itself or a reference to a web site to access downloadable material may be provided.