All instructional designers are well aware of the benefits of learning objectives. However, even those who mastered the art of writing objectives often wonder of their effectiveness. First, let’s look at some of the reasons why we need to include learning objectives in our lessons. Most importantly, objectives tell learners what they should expect from the course. They also help learners understand what is important in the course and what they will most likely be assessed on at the end. While the advantages of learning objectives are evident, many learners find them useless and often skip over them. So, what can an instructional designer do to help learners pay attention to the objectives? There are several ways to handle this problem. First, instead of offering a bulleted list of learning objectives at the beginning of the course, instructional designers should try to find some creative ways to engage learners. One way to do that is to come up with a realistic attention … [Read more...] about How to Write Effective Learning Objectives
The ELearning Course Designer’s Blog
ELearning Development Checklist
Instructional designers often look for a handy eLearning development checklist that they could use as a reference when they develop their courses or when they do that final check before hitting the publish button. I created a checklist below for my personal use. Not everything in it will apply to all projects, and there are additional questions that may have to be added depending on your project’s needs and your roles and responsibilities on that project. Therefore, feel free to modify this checklist for your personal use. Content/Slides • Are the objectives SMART? • Is the content broken into manageable pieces? • Do the slides include a maximum of 5 bullets? • Is the language on all slides clear? • Have you checked spelling and grammar? • Are there any typos? • Is the tone consistent throughout the course? • Have the SMEs approved the content? • Are the punctuation and capitalization accurate and consistent? • Are the … [Read more...] about ELearning Development Checklist
6 Motivational Techniques for Adult Learners
We all know that courses must be meaningful and motivational to learners, but, unfortunately, not all Instructional designers know how to engage adult learners. When adults are required to take courses that they have no interest in, or find irrelevant to their needs, their level of motivation and consequently their retention level will be low. Instructional designers need to work hard to come up with motivational strategies for adult learners. In this blog post, we will go over some of the motivational techniques that work. Create real life experiences. Make the course meaningful to your learners by creating scenarios, role-plays, games, and demonstrations that resemble learners’ everyday work environments. This can be easily achieved by asking SMEs to provide realistic examples and anecdotes from their experiences. Then, use your creativity to turn their stories into meaningful interactions. Provide downloadable resources and job aids. It is unrealistic to … [Read more...] about 6 Motivational Techniques for Adult Learners
5 Things Every ELearning Designer Should Pay Attention To When Proofreading And Editing ELearning Courses
Proofreading and editing your eLearning courses can sometimes feel a little awkward, to say the least. However, both proofreading and editing are the essential components of the eLearning development process. One of the best ways to catch mistakes is to create and follow a style guide. While things that will be included in that style guide will vary from project to project, there are certain things that should be applied to every project. Always check punctuation as misplaced comas may confuse learners. Incorrect punctuation may also cause learners to misinterpret content. Check subject-verb agreement to ensure consistency. Oftentimes, in addition to subject-verb disagreement, writers make errors with pronoun-antecedent agreements. If not corrected, these errors can cause a lot of confusion. Do not trust your spell checker. Even though spell checker can be a great tool, it does not catch all the errors. Therefore, if there are words that sound the same, but have different … [Read more...] about 5 Things Every ELearning Designer Should Pay Attention To When Proofreading And Editing ELearning Courses
Is It Possible to Accommodate All Types of Learners?
All eLearning professionals are well aware of the three main learning styles: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Some of the effective strategies to engage auditory learners include recording lectures and making them available for future use. To accommodate these learners, instructional designers may also consider podcasts and mnemonic devices. As opposed to auditory learners, visual learners must be able to draw a mental picture before they can process the information. To accommodate visual learners, instructional designers can use diagrams, drawings, videos, PowerPoint presentations and other visual aids such as infographics. Kinesthetic learners are those that struggle the most in a distance-learning format. Although it is much harder to accommodate kinesthetic than auditory or visual learners, it is not impossible to do so. Some of the ways to make eLearning materials more hands on include giving learners the opportunity to participate in discussions via chats or discussion … [Read more...] about Is It Possible to Accommodate All Types of Learners?
Five ELearning Graphic Design Tips That Every Instructional Designer Must Know
The responsibilities of instructional designers vary from organization to organization. While some companies do have graphic designers on the team, others require instructional designer to wear a hat of an artist. Regardless of your responsibilities, it is suggested that you become comfortable with basic graphic design theory so that, if needed, you can apply it to practice. Here are a few basic recommendations that many instructional designers should find useful. •If you know how to do something that does not mean you should do it. In eLearning, less is more, so if the tool or an option is available to you that does not mean that you should actually use it in your project. This particularly applies to animations. Try to avoid animation whenever possible. Instead, consider separating information into several slides. •The same principle applies to images. When you add images to slides, always be sure that they are meaningful and are not just there for decoration. Images … [Read more...] about Five ELearning Graphic Design Tips That Every Instructional Designer Must Know