A lot of eLearning professionals, especially those who have just started with their practice, often ask about the need for theory. Why bother with an instructional design theory at all? Isn't practice enough?

eLearning courses are designed to provide students with helpful information and not to bombard them with irrelevant and unnecessary pieces of content. What many eLearning designers don't realize is that if they exceed a human’s brain capacity to understand and retain information, then all the effort spent creating the course goes to waste. Designers are often asking us how they can improve the quality of their eLearning courses and make them more engaging. Our answer: Stick to one of design's timeless rules: “keep it simple.” Applying the principle of simplicity in eLearning means conveying information in the simplest way possible. Less information will always be more. When too much clutter vies for the learner's attention, the learner may not see the forest for the trees. They end up thinking the course isn't worth so much effort, and the content gets lost. However, keeping it simple can be an art. So, let’s discuss some tips to improve your eLearning design and help learners get through the course as fast as possible.

There are A TON of eLearning courses out there, and to say some aren’t great, is a complete understatement. With the technology to design courses easily accessible to everyone, there tends to be more quantity than quality. To avoid having your own courses slip into this undesirable category, make sure you aren’t creating any of these worst types of courses:

We hear a lot about Millennials but who are they statistically? According to Pew Research Center, this generation was born between1980 and the early 2000’s. Millennials are now ranging from ages 22 to 37 and its estimated this population will reach 73 million in the U.S. in 2019. They represent more than half the workforce population. If those numbers made you sit up and take notice then you are well on your way to understanding why it’s important to create training that motivates and engages this generation.

The education and corporate training landscape is evolving faster than ever. Workers are distracted, impatient and overloaded with information. Their expectations, training needs, and learning preferences are diverging from the well-beaten paths we've mapped out in the past. People are busy, they multi-task, and work from anywhere, including their mobile devices. As learning & development professionals, we must always be looking out for ways to help our employees keep learning in this fast-paced work environment. Let's provide them with the bite-sized modules of training they need to achieve their goals. Let's make the shift from long courses to bite-sized resources to better suit the new fast-paced work environment. For many eLearning professionals, bite-sized has always been the right size. Imagine it, more useful content that fits smaller screens or just about any screen. Learners can work on any platform, switch back from their mobile device to the desktop, anytime. Snackable content also makes it easier for them to savor every lesson step after step—something that's not possible with lengthy materials. Offer your audience light, short yet substantial content. They'll surely come back for more.

Undoubtedly, one of the most important steps when adopting an e-learning solution in your organization is implementation. Successful execution of this step is strongly related to proper planning. Proper planning in regards to tasks, project leaders, cost and other implementation elements make up the basis for adequate execution and control. This step is to project implementation what blueprints are to a construction project. Therefore, changing anything after this step may have costly consequences.

Improvement is an ongoing process. There is always a new writing style to adapt to, the latest technology to tap into, the newest authoring software to learn, and a different way of strategizing to master. This month, we will help you advance on this learning journey with our top eLearning tips.

Although instructor-led or classroom training remains as one of the most common ways to train employees, the opportunity to implement eLearning to is a more cost-effective and convenient option. However, don’t fall into the trap of thinking, “I already have a successful classroom training program. I just need to transfer this online, and I’m all set.” Successfully moving existing training content online requires some prep work. If you just start the transformation process by doing a one-for-one conversion (i.e. taking each slide or presentation deck and making an exact digital representation of it); chances are that you’ll end up with an eBook without delivering an enhanced learning experience to your learners. So, if you're new to creating eLearning courses, you will find this post useful in answering common questions and providing you with a guide of things to consider during the process of converting existing content, which goes far beyond merely transferring content to an online format.