The Importance Of High Quality Content In eLearning
When undertaking a course, it can seem that it’s better to have too much information than too little. Some may say that it’s best to give the learner more information than they really need.
However, when it comes to eLearning, it’s far better to be concise and keep content relevant to measurable learning objectives that ultimately benefit the learner. Here are 4 tips to help you create high quality content in eLearning:
- Keep content relevant to the learning objectives.
To achieve this, we must first identify what the learning objectives of a course will be. When working with a client, we will ask what knowledge their learners need to be able to demonstrate at the end of their course. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy as a guide, we can then work out the best strategy to reach their educational goals. Once identified, any content must be relevant to these learning objectives otherwise the learner could simply end up learning the wrong thing. - Keep content succinct and concise.
The learner only needs to be taught what they need to pass the course. Identify the key topics or subject areas, and concentrate on what the learner needs to know in order to apply knowledge at the course’s end. As Shakespeare once said, “Brevity is the soul of wit”. Conciseness provides the biggest impact when saying something funny or humorous, but another translation of it is simply “don’t waste my time”! When writing content, try to keep blocks of text to a minimum. Present information in short groups of four, and if possible simplified into bullet points for easy reading. Jargon and overly technical language should also be avoided. - Engage the audience.
In order to keep learners interested in your content, try to make it sound “human”. If your content comes across as too technical, or as if it was being recited by a machine, then you risk immediately disengaging the audience. eLearning is meant to be an electronically enhanced version of what the teacher would deliver in person. Aim to be creative. Possibly tell a story, use game-based learning, or inject some humor into the course. However, don’t become sidetracked by trying to force too many gags into your content and forgetting the learning objectives! Also, use examples that are relevant to the industry or environment the learner is involved with so that learners can identify with the course. On a course about safety in the workplace, the case studies should naturally differ greatly between a construction company and a bank. - Proofread.
Poorly written or fact checked content can create several problems on an eLearning course. Content riddled with spelling mistakes, grammatical errors or incorrect facts can reflect badly on an organization, and lead to learners not being able to take the course seriously. Even worse, the learners could assume the incorrect content is true, and learn it anyway. The whole course would be rendered pointless and leave the learners in a poorer position than when they started.
