More and more businesses are finding eLearning solutions to be a successful and cost-effective way of solving their training needs; unfortunately, just as many companies are running into a host of problems with the development and implementation of their eLearning projects. Once these problems are identified, the solutions can be developed; many of those solutions can be provided by the SHIFT.
What are they wasting time on? What are they needlessly doing? What are they doing wrong? What can they stop doing? What can they improve? This blog post enlists just ten activities companies are doing wrong -- so it's time to eliminate them for good!
Development Problems
In some ways, almost all problems with eLearning projects are development problems, as that is the point at which most issues occur, but many of those problems are not realized until implementation. There are several issues that can arise and be identified during the project development process, and if properly identified, can be averted before they completely derail a project.
1. Unrealistic Goals and Deadlines: As a result of poor communication between the project development team and the stakeholders, expectations for eLearning projects can often become distorted or unrealistic, with managers expecting innovative and high-quality eLearning solutions with a low budget and tight deadlines. Clear and realistic communication can resolve this issue.
2. Shifting Project Goals: The development team starts working on a project, but the stakeholders change its focus or add goals to it midstream, resulting in a cobbled-together, subpar result. By keeping project goals clear at the outset and sticking to them, this issue can be avoided.
3. Trying to Fit In Too Much Content: An eLearning project can only hold so much information, because the learner can only assimilate so much information. Trying to expand the depth and breadth of an eLearning solution can make it too dense and inaccessible to the user. Developers should focus on the most important information and ways of conveying it clearly.
4. Inexperienced Project Manager: A good project manager with plenty of eLearning development experience can anticipate problems and guide the team away from them; an inexperienced manager will be playing catch-up and find himself reacting to problems that have already spiraled out of control.
Implementation Problems
Some issues aren't visible until "the rubber meets the road," and the eLearning project is offered to users. Rather than trying to resolve them after the fact, they should be averted entirely during development.
5. Poor Content: This is an issue that crops up early in project development; the source material or content drafts are simply bad – poorly written, poorly researched, or confusing. This is often the result of too few pairs of eyes reviewing them before they are incorporated into the program software. SHIFT eLearning solutions allow easy collaboration in real time, giving your developers instant feedback on their content drafts. Spending time getting the source content before you build it in the course is crucial—word documents are easier to change than eLearning content!
6. Poor Design: Graphics are distracting rather than illustrative, colors are jarring, content is organized in a counter-intuitive and confusing way. The collaborative power of SHIFT eLearning software, and sufficient project time, will help avoid this issue.
7. Lack of Interactivity: This is one of the biggest problems that arises in eLearning projects. When learners passively watch or simply click through a program, they absorb less information. Moreover, using an authoring tool like SHIFT it becomes easy to incorporate interactive features like games, quizzes, scenarios and video.
8. Project Fails to Meet Design Goals: The program doesn't successfully convey the information intended. This can be averted with sufficient project time and collaborative feedback on project materials.
9. Project Fails to Meet User Needs: The project stakeholders failed to understand the needs of their learners; the best way to avoid this is through careful market research at the outset of the project.
10. Lack of Marketing: The project stakeholders failed to understand the needs of their learners; the best way to avoid this is through careful market research at the outset of the project.
It is important for eLearning developers, instructional designers and trainers per se to analyze these common mistakes and explore solutions to keep a growing base of best practices for effective eLearning courses.
To permanently avoid these and similar frustrations, remember the simple formula:
Solid eLearning Strategy + Learner-Centric Approach + Interactive and Remarkable Content = Successful eLearning.
