Newcomers to any field often have the world in front of them, and newbies to the Learning & Development (L&D) and Instructional Design (ID) profession are no different. The tendency is to put everything they’ve learned to practice, in the hope that they’ll produce more effective eLearning solutions. In the process, they often make some rookie mistakes. How To Avoid Common Errors That Rookie L&D Professionals Make Here are 10 common rookie errors to avoid. 1. Assuming That When The Client Asks For A Learning Solution, It's The Right Solution For Whatever Problem The Client Is Trying To Solve Or Objective They're Trying To Achieve Training won’t always solve an issue. And one of the most important questions novice L&D professionals must learn to ask is: Is training the solution to a problem? An established factory (in business for 30 years) owner might be concerned about falling quality and productivity and increasing safety incidents. Their answer: Train the … [Read more...] about 10 Most Common Mistakes Rookie L&D Professionals Make…And How To Avoid Them
The ELearning Course Designer’s Blog
Using Video Animations in eLearning
As I worked on a recent eLearning project, using animated video (I use Vyond as my primary video creation tool), I realized how invaluable the use of this medium (video animations) is to instructional designers. With that realization, and seeing how the use of specialized animated video creation software made all the difference to the outcome, I thought I’d share some of my experiences on using animated video with readers of this post. So, here goes! Why animated video is important in eLearning? Because of the time constraints, they are under, eLearners today want things compressed, simplified, and presented to them in an easy-to-digest format. Animated videos do just that. They empower learning content developers with the ability to push the limits of expression in ways that traditional video production won’t allow. Instructional designers can take complex concepts, wrap them into an array of animated environments, build a host of primary and supporting characters (serious, … [Read more...] about Using Video Animations in eLearning
How to Structure Your Online Course in 3 Easy Steps
If you’re to the putting-it-all-together stage of the online course creation process, I’m going to assume you have the following: Learning Objectives – clearly stated and measurable. Assessments - based on the learning objectives you’ve defined above. Content – this is the big one that will provide the backbone to your learners successfully reaching those learning outcomes. While you don’t need every last detail of content created before proceeding with structuring your course, you will need to define and categorize where that content would fall in the big picture. IF you have these things nailed down, let's get started with structuring your online course! Step #1 Categorize - Think in broad terms of how your course topics could be grouped. These groups should be one or two-word phrases that each of your content pieces could logically be placed under. For example, let's imagine you're creating a short course on How to Run Your First Marathon. Here are a few of the … [Read more...] about How to Structure Your Online Course in 3 Easy Steps
7 Ways To Maximize Efficiency And Productivity Of Remote Work
Working online is a far cry from working in an office setting, with colleagues and co-workers always available nearby to support you, if needed. The good news, however, is that these challenges aren’t insurmountable. Training Your Employees To Work Remotely It may come as a surprise to many virtual team leaders, but it’s possible for your star employees in the “real world” to suffer huge efficiency and productivity losses in the online work world! That’s because they’re not used to working remotely and also because working online has a unique set of distractions, which they don’t readily know how to recognize and workaround. In this article, we’ll explore the top 7 ways to maximize the efficiency and productivity of the remote workforce. 1. Step-By-Step remote training walkthrough To make this training successful, it’s important to provide employees a comprehensive walkthrough of what they should expect from the training. Launching training initiatives “cold” could … [Read more...] about 7 Ways To Maximize Efficiency And Productivity Of Remote Work
5 Tips for Determining Your Online Course Length
How long should my online course be? I get asked this A LOT! For now, here are 5 Tips to help you determine how long your online course should be. Use these to dial in the perfect length, while realizing one key aspect: Your course should be long enough to deliver the learning outcomes your promise, and nothing more! #1 Work backward by considering your learners first. This requires some research into their actual lifestyles. The big question is how much time and willingness do they have to devote to your course? Mandatory training that employees must complete during a paid workday is an entirely different course than say a masterclass on photography. Motivation, perceived benefit, investment of time, and a host of other elements will differ greatly depending on your audience. Dig deep to understand who your learner is and what constraints they have. If your typical learner reports only 45 minutes of available time to devote to online training, you've already lost your audience … [Read more...] about 5 Tips for Determining Your Online Course Length
iSpring Suite Max Review
At Your ELearning World, we are always looking for great solutions and easy to use eLearning authoring tools. When I learned about iSpring Suite Max, I knew I had to give it a try. Here’s an account of what I learned. Hopefully, some of you who are looking for an eLearning course authoring and publishing solution will find this information insightful. What’s It About? iSpring Suite Max is a collection of eLearning course authoring tools that allows you to design content through collaborative teamwork. With the Suite of tools available to them, design teams create e-courses that include videos, dialogue simulations, interactive quizzes and assessments, and a whole lot more. One distinctive feature of the product suite is a remarkably short learning curve. Thanks to the intuitive navigation and well-laid-out design, I was able to get productive, using my demo/trial subscription, within a short period of time. What’s Included? iSpring Suite Max is a 3-in-one solution … [Read more...] about iSpring Suite Max Review