In this day and age, there’s little doubt that people all across the globe have innumerable options for online learning. For that reason, right now is the perfect time for you to create an e-learning course to help your company reach a wider audience of learners.
Follow these eight basic steps to develop a successful e-learning course and make your high-quality digital resources more accessible.
1. Understand your audience
Before you can begin the e-learning course development process, you’ll need to understand your target audience. Think about the people you want to access your course and the knowledge you want them to acquire. E-learning can be an ideal way to address common gaps in skills or knowledge. Consider investing in a subject-matter expert to help you get a better understanding of who your ideal audience might be and what their needs are. Surveys, interviews, and focus groups can effectively gather feedback and determine what respondents want from the course.
2. Set learning objectives
Once you know your audience, you can begin setting a few learning objectives. Think about what it is you want your learners to get out of your course and the skills you want them to have after completing it. This process might require that you research similar e-learning courses to help you determine how to structure your company’s content. Each learning objective should apply to the individual modules or lessons within your course. They should also fit under the SMART criteria, meaning that they’re specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
3. Consult with a translation service
Before you create an e-learning course, it’s important to consider the languages you might need to translate it into. Maybe your course involves internal employee training and you have offices in other countries. Or maybe you want to market your course to speakers of other languages. Whatever the case, if you don’t pinpoint all your audiences and connect with a translation and localization service before you develop your course, you could make more work for yourself.
A good translation partner will work with you throughout your course development to help you consider several important factors. These can include how you should reference examples and select pictures that will apply to all your audiences. They can also assist you with the selection of colors and designs that send an appropriate message. Additionally, they can show you how to avoid culturally tone-deaf content.
For example, many courses use video examples where actors demonstrate behaviors or how to do something. Certain styles of dress or greeting gestures that are common in the U.S. may not be acceptable in another country. So, if you create one video that’s appropriate for multiple markets, you won’t have to shoot a different video for each audience.
4. Create a template for the course
A template for an e-learning course is a thorough overview of what you want to include in your lessons. When you use a template, you significantly reduce the time you need to create an e-learning course. Also, you customize your content to feature your unique brand more easily.
When you create your template, you should first choose an authoring tool to develop your digital course and publish it in different formats. You can then focus on the more creative elements in your course. These can include logo integration, font styles, and text sizes. Consider customizing your template for international audiences. For example, certain colors may have more appeal to audiences in specific cultures. That’s why you should leave room for as much localization as possible.
Regardless of how you format your template, try to include a welcome message for your learners within it. Additionally, you’ll want to include instructions, learning objectives, and assessments. Finally, add placeholders to remind yourself of the content you wish to put in later.
5. Develop an instructional design plan
An instructional design model or plan can help you create a comprehensive structure for your e-learning course. Similarly, it can allow you to better communicate the purpose of your project. What’s more, it can also provide you with a structured overview of the course content, from the introductory modules to the call-to-action at the end. With so many models to choose from, it’s important to consider the specific type or style of content you’ll want. One audience might be more receptive to interactive online content. Another might be more receptive to videos.
It’s not enough that you simply consider the style of content. You’ll also want to think about how you should make the course as meaningful as possible. Consider the extras you might include in the course. Such add-ons can help learners to continue building their knowledge even after they finish all your modules.
6. Outline your course content
One of the best ways to outline an e-learning course is to develop a storyboard. Storyboards will help you determine how your course might look to your learners once you’ve created it. They’ll also assist you on deciding which elements to include and which to leave out. As you outline your course content, consider the technologies or learning management systems you might use to deliver the course to your audience. Spend some time researching different options to find the system that best suits your company’s needs. You should consider your audiences in other cultures during this step. Bear in mind that some cultures might have limited access to certain technologies.
7. Design the course
Create a working prototype of your e-learning course to ensure that it functions properly. Prototypes replicate the basic design of your course so you can test its functionality. As you create an e-learning course, consider the various multimedia elements you might add to your content to enrich the learning experience. If you’re using a voice track, consider hiring a professional. Keep in mind that accents, speech patterns, and vocal tics may affect your learners’ experiences.
There are a myriad of useful e-learning tools you can also incorporate into your course as you begin constructing it. These tools can help you develop virtual reality experiences, unique simulations, and interactive videos. They can also help you brand your content and embed online resources into your course modules. Keep in mind that the learning experience is different for everyone, so try to keep your content as simple and straightforward as possible. Put yourself in the shoes of your learners as you create advanced e-learning simulations and experiences.
8. Edit and publish the course
Once you’ve put in the work to create an e-learning course, seek feedback from your team and your clients and make any necessary revisions. First, focus on developing a few marketing channels to promote your course to your target market. Then, as you gather feedback from learners, evaluate your learning objectives once again. Be sure to address the issues with your course and the ways you might improve it. Also, leverage the external resources available to you as you improve your course. Finally, when you develop a content repository through access to key resources, you’ll avoid potential technical issues.
Contact us if you’re ready to take your e-learning course to the next level by making it more accessible for learners across the world. Our team at TrueLanguage can translate your course into over 120 different languages. We work with native speakers and language experts to provide the most accurate, high-quality translations possible.
