When starting any new process, there are important questions to ask in order to be prepared to complete the task. When it comes to eLearning, there are lots of choices that need to be made before firing up the eLearning authoring tool. This checklist serves as a framework for essential questions to ask before starting out. Consider them as an essential design decision-making tool.

If your company has been involved in delivering in-house training to staff for a while now, or if you are a freelance trainer or instructional designer who has been developing and offering Instructor Lead Training (ILT) to clients over the years; chances are that you may be sitting on a wealth of existing training materials. With the new workforce circumstances, the evolution of eLearning, and modern learner new expectations, wouldn’t it be great to start moving some (or all) of that content into the online training arena? If you are interested in making that leap, here’s how you should proceed:

Successful eLearning courses hook readers on the very first page. That’s because eLearning, in essence, is all about engaged learning. It’s multi-sensory in that it engages all senses through interactive texts, stunning graphics and compelling videos.

We like to be productive. So we create keyboard shortcuts. We make lists. We stick Post-it notes and set up reminders. We don’t want to overlook details or stray away from standards. So we stick to rules, create guidelines, and follow templates. Worksheets, templates, cheat sheets, checklists, and the like are nifty productivity tools. These help us keep our wits about us and our energies from being scattered in the midst of a flurry of activity and create flawless products without working long hours, plodding through multiple rounds of rework, and overshooting deadlines.

If you’re new to eLearning, then understanding and following instructional design best practices from the beginning is crucial to your success. The eLearning niche is vast, and you will find numerous theories, models, and resources that have worked for different experts. Leave them for later. Begin with the basic, most widely used models that eLearning designers acknowledge and use to structure and plan their training: ADDIE Model Merrill’s Principles of Instruction Gagne’s Nine Events of Instructions Bloom’s Taxonomy Note: This overview doesn't intend to evaluate the models. Each framework has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the choice of which to use will depend on which model works best for you, your company, and your learners. Also before start learning about these models, here are some very practical and clear points to show your boss and help your team understand the 'why' of good instructional design and give it the respect it deserves. How Do I Get My Company to Take Instructional Design Seriously?

“Plenty” is a problem. According to findings from the High-Impact Learning Organization study by Bersin by Deloitte, employees find it most difficult to learn, NOT because there isn’t enough content, but because there is TOO MUCH of it, and they cannot find what is valuable. Enter content curation. Many future-focused organizations have adopted content curation as one of their L&D strategies. It is time you did too! Content curation delivers your learners from the hassle, pain, and frustration of trying to wade through a sea of content to find what they need and what is relevant to their wants. The learning journey becomes smooth, and learners are more motivated to learn.

So, you have completed your eLearning course or module, and you are ready for learners to begin learning from it. Does this mean that you can move onto the next project and forget about the existing one? Absolutely not! If you think of eLearning Designers as project managers, you begin to see that there are specific ways in which to interact with already created courses. There are essential questions to ask, features to check, and maintenance windows to update in any existing course.

Every job position should be viewed in its entirety, from the hiring process to retirement (or resignation/firing). Organizations must provide the circumstances and resources necessary to develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities of their employees every step of the way. This point of view helps organizations set their employees up for success, and has the added benefit of improving employee retention and engagement.