With the pace at which the eLearning industry is growing, it is important to follow a structured approach to design, develop and create an effective program that works.
It all starts with building a base for which it is crucial to list down the basics. This will help in keeping the development process crisp, organized, and on track.
Preparing yourself with the following steps before stepping into actual development will be helpful:
- Define The Scope: Keeping your target audience in mind, clearly define the objectives and limitations of the course. Understand the end-users needs in detail. Understand the psyche of the target audience. Define the goals which include the basics and background of the project. It is suggested to take a survey before starting the project. This helps in understanding the requirements and the gaps which you can cover in your program.
- Define The Budget: Having a predefined budget helps in bringing in a realistic approach. The budget decides on how elaborate and interactive your course can be. Whether and to what extent can you include videos, quizzes, text, narrations, etc.
- Define The Timelines: A very important step to keep in mind while developing a course. The project cannot have an undefined timeline. Break the whole development project into smaller pieces and assign the time to each one of them. Set automated reminders on calendars. Include the duration for review of the project. Keep offs and holidays in consideration while setting the deadlines. Also, be realistic while setting the timelines. Set the final timelines, keeping some time in the buffer for last-minute updates, changes, and bug resolutions.
- Define The Content-Format: With the help of a survey, you would have got the details of the knowledge gap the audience might have. Design the program by including the right kind of communication tool to deliver the course. It can be in the form of a video, a quiz, a game, or a combination of all. If the scope was designed aptly, deciding on the format will be easier. This is the biggest benefit of any eLearning program. Analyze all the instructional designs thoroughly and zero down on the most appropriate one keeping your target audience in mind.
- Define The Script: Having a defined and crisp script helps in achieving high-level quality output as a course guide. Keeping the script concise and simple should be the primary consideration while formulating one. Include only the terms and jargon related to the topic and the learner. If you are including a video or an animation in your module, create a storyboard and a narrative around the objective of the specific module. For including the video, both the script and the storyboard are important.
- Define The Assessment Structure: What kind of assessments are required and how many assessments are required should be decided and defined in the beginning. Keeping the assessments simple and objective is the best way to check the learning graph. This will also help you in understanding whether the gaps are being filled in an effective manner and the ratio of the final impact of the complete course.
- Define The Feedback Structure: To avoid any last-minute changes and mistakes, self-review your modules at each stage. Getting feedback from your colleagues and experts at regular intervals will save a lot of rework by finding the areas of improvement. Create a feedback form with simple questions keeping the learning objectives in mind. This will help in getting relevant and useful feedback to improve your course effectiveness.
- Track Performance: For continuous improvement, it is important to track the performance of your course. This will help in the formulation of more effective modules in the future.
Conclusion: An effective eLearning module can be created easily through various e-learning software available in the market for example Easygenerator. Keeping the above-mentioned points may help you in creating an effective module in a short time.
