The world of eLearning is always evolving. Technology advances in the blink of an eye. Standards change continuously as learner expectations rise. You are also increasingly asked to perform dual duties as a designer and a developer. There’s always something new to learn that will make your life at work easier, and you, a more effective instructional designer.

eLearning is a popular way to train employees. Understanding how people process information will allow you to create effective learning programs using electronic means.

In today’s fast-changing environment and fast-paced lifestyle, technology has continually enabled us to keep up. It made our daily activities faster and more efficient; trade and commerce more fluid; and communication easier despite distance, among other things. However, technology’s greatest impact is on knowledge and information sharing, that with just a single click, the Internet can provide you with the data you are looking for. You need to share important documents to someone a hundred miles away in an instant? There’s e-mail. Sending over huge files? Not a problem with Airdrop, or WeTransfer, or Shareit.

As eLearning designers, we must all deal with dull, insipid content that brings out the yawns, both in you and the learners. And then there are those complex, technical topics that leave you and the learners overwhelmed. These are the topics you dread to tackle and your learners, loathe to go through. Yet, the onus is on you to create swashbuckling courses out of such dreary content. You must not only make learners sit through a course with such dull or complex content but also ensure they leave the training room wiser, more knowledgeable, and armed with a new skill.

Digital technologies are making a tremendous impact on the global economy, demanding workers with extremely specialized and high-level skill sets. Such technology is growing and changing so rapidly that colleges, universities and other traditional education systems can no longer meet the demand for such highly qualified staff. The difference between the skills employers need and those offered by job seekers only seems to be growing. As this skills gap continues to expand, employers must look outside of academia for the solutions they need. eLearning, or using electronic media such as the Internet to access educational content outside of a traditional classroom setting, has the potential to transform workplace education. By providing more easily accessible and targeted training on a changing array of in-demand skills, e-learning might be just THE thing your company needs.

Author Ken Poirot once wrote: “Wise people understand the need to consult experts; only fools are confident they know everything.” As wise Instructional Designers, it behooves you to accept the fact that you will not always know everything about the topic that you are about to design and develop a course for. As a result, you’ll likely need to consult Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) on specific topics. While these experts may not be aware of the pedagogical pre-requisites of successful learning content, their inputs can be invaluable in providing you with the actual content for your eLearning courses. However, meetings with SMEs need to be planned and conducted with a defined strategy to meet specific objectives.

"The obvious advantage of the blended learning solution is that learning becomes a process rather than an event" Caroline Gray There are a number of definitions of Blended Learning, but all of them have some common elements. They describe Blended Learning as initiatives that: Include a combination of approaches, technology-driven as well as conventional (face-to-face) Contain a mix of medium – video, audio, in-person lectures, etc. Combine multiple pedagogical approaches, such as behavioral, constructivism and cognitive, to produce desired learning outcomes

To many, the entrepreneurial lifestyle is unendingly alluring. Boasting authority, prestige, and nearly limitless potential, successful entrepreneurs seem to have it all. Yet, before you can decide to become an entrepreneur, you should have an idea of the type of business you will build and manage. Fortunately, we have an awesome business idea for you already: eLearning. Thanks to the convenience and effectiveness of online courses, the eLearning industry has exploded in popularity in recent years. More people than ever are looking to better themselves through online training, so entrepreneurs in this field will find an ever-growing audience of excited and engaged consumers. However, before you jump into eLearning with both feet, you should learn a bit more about the past, present, and future of the industry.