E Learning
E Learning
E-learning derives its value also from the fact that certain
skills, such as IT skills, product knowledge, knowledge of
company processes, etc., can be taught in an automated way.
Thus knowledge can be disseminated and all employees can
benefit from it at the same time.
Informal Learning:
In this type, a learner accesses a website or focused online
community and finds pertinent information. This type of e-
learning is not training because it does not include a formal
instructional strategy consisting a presentation of material,
application exercises, and feedback.
1. Analysis
2. Design
3. Development
4. Evaluation and Implementation
5. Translation
6. LMS (Learning Management System) hosting
What is eLearning?
Now, let’s see the different stages in eLearning design and development . The
following diagram gives a bird’s eye view of the entire process.
Analysis:
This is the first step of the eLearning development process. At this stage, you
need to analyze the learning content, learning objectives and the profile of the
target audience. You also need to take a look at the type of job or tasks that the
participants are expected to accomplish after taking the course. Based on this, a
broad instructional strategy is formulated to decide on the best way to present the
content.
Design:
Next, learning experts need to create a design document that incorporates the
recommendations of the learning management team. Requirements of the
stakeholders, training objectives, assessments required and design challenges are
taken into account at this stage. This document also specifies the instructional,
visual and audio elements to be included in the course curriculum.
Develop:
Next, is the evaluation stage where the quality of the developed course is tested to
ensure accuracy of functionality as well as content. Editors, instructional
designers, subject matter experts and quality control managers check various
components of the course to ensure perfection. Feedback is incorporated into the
course and uploaded.
LMS Hosting:
Finally, the course is hosted on the LMS or any other learning portal. The target
audience is given the link, user information and passwords to access the course.
Using an LMS allows managers to monitor and evaluate the training program at
every stage – how many users have registered, how many have completed, how
many have abandoned mid-way, etc. This helps in taking corrective action and
ensuring maximum success of the training initiative. Communication is the key
and one has to ensure that the courses are not just merely uploaded on to the
LMS, but information about them is correctly and persuasively reached to the
target audience.
To summarize, a good eLearning course can be developed once you analyze your
requirements and devise an effective learning strategy to share the knowledge
required. You need to understand the components such as adult learning
principles, learning styles and instructional design principles to create a course
that meets your objectives. Finally, to develop the course you need to adopt a
streamlined process and use the right tools to execute course development. The
responsibility does not end here. Once the course is deployed, it needs to reach
the target audience. For this purpose, you need to have a good communication
strategy that ensures your intentions are understood, appreciated and accepted by
everyone.
So how is the bulk subject matter converted into a polished e-learning course?
Every e-learning development company follows an approach most appropriate to
its capabilities and deliverables. Having said this, every e-learning development
company ought to follow a logical sequence of thought and action that is crucial
to shape an effective e-learning course. Discussed in this post is a top-level
overview of the thought process and some steps that need to be followed for
smooth e-learning design and development:
Set Goals
This is the first and the most important hurdle that developers and learning
managers need to clear. What will the e-learning course achieve and what are the
performance gaps it must address? This means, deciding the behavioral and
knowledge changes that will apply to learners, as well as the organizational
ramifications that these changes will bring about.
It’s important to have a clear idea of each set of goals, as they are going to serve
as a guide throughout the e-learning course design and development process. At
the same time, project managers and training managers also need to lay down
project milestones or checkpoints that will help you keep the course development
on-time and on-task.
It also specifies the instructional design strategy (for example, scenarios, game-
based content, guided learning), that are to be used throughout the course. Subject
matter experts and stakeholders review this document and give their approval.
This ensures that the entire team is on the same page when it comes to the
instructional approach of the content.
A storyboard is the blueprint for course development and lays out the basic flow
of images with its corresponding text. Then you can proceed to write appropriate
audio script and animations each individual screen; do this while keeping in mind
the various constraints of your design parameters.
Develop a Prototype
Once the storyboard and content is in place, authoring tool experts proceed to
develop a sample course, also called a prototype. Designers usually select a few
screens, preferably one of each type (for example static, interactive, assessment,
etc.). This sample gives stakeholders a very good idea about the functionality,
GUI, and general treatment of the course content. Looking at this, stakeholders
provide feedback that the Learning and Development team can rework into the
storyboard or the script, accordingly.
It is always better to break down the entire development process into specific
milestones. This helps developers keep the development process in check and
allows multiple stakeholders to keep track of the entire process.
But, what does a storyboard look like? What are its different parts? Well, here is
an info-graphic that lists the different facets of an eLearning storyboard.
Advantages of E-Learning
1. 1. Online learning is self-paced
2. 2. E-Learning is student-centered
3. 3. E-Learning is cost-effective
4. 4. Individual learning styles
5. 5. Customizable learning environments
6. 6. E-Learning fully utilizes analytics
7. 7. Online learning could solve teacher scarcity
8. 8. E-Learning is environmentally friendly
9. 9. No need for textbooks
10. 10. Online learning is time-efficient
1. Online learning is self-paced
Students who study online can plan their own time schedule, without having to make
personal sacrifices in order to meet the class attendance requirements of teachers
and traditional universities. The research has demonstrated that self-paced learning
leads to increased student satisfaction and reduced stress, resulting in improved
learning outcomes for everyone involved. Some of the advantages of self-paced
learning include efficiency, effectiveness, convenience, scalability, and reusability.
2. E-Learning is student-centered
Student-centered learning (SCL), also referred to as learner-centered education, is a
modern learning method which aims to put the students in the center of focus, rather
than the teachers. The reason why I listed it as an advantage of E-Learning is that
student-centered learning goes hand in hand with E-Learning. Online learning is
fundamentally student-centered, due to the easy implementation of
student discussion boards and peer grading systems.
In fact, many of the 10 types of E-Learning largely revolve around the idea of
student-centeredness. Both collaborative E-Learning and synchronous online
learning promote student-to-student interaction. Being able to plan and design fully
student-centered online learning environments is one of the greatest advantages that
E-Learning has. The value of student-centeredness must not be understated.
3. E-Learning is cost-effective
Due to simplified logistics and lowered travel costs, among other factors, learning
institutions who utilize E-Learning can expect to save 50% to 70% on overall training
costs. How, exactly?
Let’s bring some real-life examples of e-learning to the table.
The University of North Carolina in Charlotte (UNC) is an excellent example of cost-
efficiency. UNC claims that they managed to save US$5,000,000 in 2010 by
focusing on e-learning rather than traditional classroom-based learning. Additionally,
they saw an increased number of total students in their faculties. These savings
came from the simple fact that they did not have to make investments into business
premises to facilitate learning. Virtual classrooms have no need for physical lecture
halls, which tend to get very costly.
Another example of advantageous cost-efficiency in e-learning would have to be the
Wisconsin-Madison University, which saved US$172,000 solely due to savings in
professors’ time. E-Learning reduced the amount of overall time professors had to
spend on learning sessions, and these time savingsled to reduced monetary
spending for the university.
On the other hand, in the case of E-Learning, the students have total control of their
learning environment. Those students who feel the benefits of a plant-filled
environment can customize their E-Learning environment accordingly. And, those
students who feel better in a minimalistic learning environment without any
distractions can reap the benefits of such an E-Learning environment.
Visualize training
design. A key benefit of
storyboarding is working
through how your training
will look and function in its
final form. You can specify
what kind of images will be
used, the type of user
interface that will be
presented to the learner,
and the animations and
interactions that will engage
your audience.
Aiding team
collaboration. By using a
storyboard, your eLearning
project can be validated by a
subject matter expert, a
project manager, a graphic
designer, and other team
members.
Identify weaknesses in
training design. One of
the best things about
storyboarding is being able
to visualize what will
happen on screen, how your
audience will interact with
the training and identify any
weaknesses in the eLearning
design. You’re likely to find
many things that can be
improved or tweaked by
picking through your
storyboard with a ‘user hat’
on.
Save time. It might seem
like storyboarding is a lot of
work when you could just
start building eLearning
content immediately and
make changes on the fly.
Storyboarding does take
time, but it’s time well
spent. Getting your entire
design signed off will save a
lot of costly mistakes later if
major changes happen after
development starts. In the
long run, storyboarding will
save everybody time on
larger projects and facilitate
project management.
Examples of Instructional Design
Storyboards
There’s no one-size-fits-all storyboard, but there are some industry-
standard types and methods of storyboarding that you can use as
your base and adapt as required. Many course developers prefer
Word and PowerPoint for building instructional design
storyboards, because these programs are accessible and simple to
use.
Word / Pages
You might consider using a Word storyboard (also known as a text-
based storyboard) when you, as the training designer, have a design
resource handling most of the graphics.
PowerPoint / Keynote
Also known as visual storyboards, these are usually built in
PowerPoint. By nature, these focus more on what the learner’s
going to see on-screen, and can help to visualize and build out
graphics and scenarios.
You might consider using it when you want to give reviewers a clear
picture of what you’re planning to show on the screen. If your
reviewers are new to storyboarding, or if your layouts and graphics
are different than the standard used in previous online courses,
creating a visual storyboard may save you a lot of time and rework.
You might also consider using a visual storyboard when you, as the
eLearning developer, are mostly responsible for the layouts and
graphics of the course.
Screen title
Mockup graphic (timeline)
Developer instructions
Voice over/narration script
Note that the background graphic has already been added to the
slide.
Prototype
Rapid prototyping is building a rough version of a slide or
interaction complete with narration and animations. Instead of
storyboarding what you’re planning to do, you build a quick version
of the slide and present it to the reviewers for their feedback. This
can either be done with an eLearning authoring tool, with any UX
prototyping software, or even in Photoshop.
The example below shows a prototype built with an authoring tool.
Prototype example
When might you choose to prototype? When it’s crucial that your
reviewers’ experience, the proposed look, and feel of the course. For
instance, if you’re building a large course for a new customer, it’s a
good idea early in the process to actually build a few slides and
interactions, so the customer can experience your vision of what
the course will look and feel like.
Screen/Slide number
A slide/screen number naming convention will keep you consistent
throughout your projects and avoid confusion for others. An
example could be something like ‘OB_M1_S2_T1_1’. Looks
confusing right? Let’s break it down in full sentences and see if it
makes more sense.
Now imagine how much easier it will be in the review process if you
need to direct your developer to make an edit on a specific slide, or
a reviewer to re-check an edit.
Navigation
You may need to describe the path the user will take after clicking a
certain element on the screen, for example to the next slide, the
previous slide, jump to a specific slide, to a popup form, start a
quiz, etc.
Branching
More complex eLearning courses often involve branching. This is
when a choice the user makes determines the screen that comes up
next. This could be a decision to access further information on a
topic, or the answer they give for a question or interaction.
Whatever the trigger is, be sure to clearly explain to the developer
where the user should end up next.
Developer notes
Include anything here that will help the developer translate what’s
on the storyboard into the eLearning content.
You should also decide what components you need to include to tell
the story of your course. You can refer to the previous section for a
recommended list.
You might want to create your own storyboard template if you have
some very specific project requirements, but for most scenarios,
ready-made templates from iSpring will be a perfect fit. Feel free to
choose and download any of these for your personal use:
FAQ
Take a look at a few more questions and answers regarding
storyboards.