eLearning Modernization Makeover 2017: 5 Best Practices
Is your eLearning out of fashion or failing to keep up with industry best practice? Ensuring your eLearning is current is important for engaging learners and futureproofing your training. To be successful, eLearning needs to respond to technology and gaming trends as well as keep up with play in the visual design field. In this article, PulseLearning discusses 5 tips that will offer an eLearning modernization makeover in 2017.
1. Make It Learner-Centered
Today’s modern learner wants training to be short, visual, mobile, enabled, and social. Employees are often overwhelmed, distracted, and impatient, so flexibility in where and how they learn is increasingly important. Learners now want information to be “just enough, just in time, just for me”. Learner-centered eLearning allows employees to pull information as required to solve a problem rather than having it pushed at them. Traditional eLearning is usually an information-heavy, linear experience; however, learner-centered eLearning is more fluid and intuitive. A learner-centered solution might involve giving employees access to a hub of task-specific learning assets so that they can go directly to information as needed in the moment.
2. Freshen Up The Look And Feel
It’s amazing what a fresh, contemporary interface can do to spruce up eLearning. “Keep it simple” still stands as the visual designer’s motto for ensuring eLearning is pleasing to the eye without detracting or distracting from learning messages. Always come back to your branding colors and elements and align eLearning with your organization’s website for consistency. Remember, navigation should be user friendly and accessible.
3. Consider HTML5 Development
Mobile learning is one of the most requested current, best-practice trends. Employees are spending more time on the move than deskbound, making multi-device eLearning an important consideration. To be accessed on mobile devices, learning materials must be developed using HTML5 technology. The design, duration, and delivery medium needs to consider a reduced screen format and the fact that learners are likely to be on the move while undertaking training. Many organizations are also now supporting employees to Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) to work for use.
4. Turn Away From Too Much Text
Traditional eLearning was often a text-heavy, page-turning, monotonous experience that contributed to employee disengagement and resistance toward online learning. Thankfully, this is not the case any more. Modern eLearning uses a “more visuals, less words” approach, making use of video, dynamic audio narration with timed visuals, and gamified interactions. Consider how a page of text could be reengineered into a snappy, engaging delivery.
5. Don’t Forget Functionality
Modernizing eLearning is not just about aesthetics. The way learners use your eLearning is just as important. Think about the types of devices that learners use the most and the way they interact with these, considering how content is accessed and browsed, the duration of a usual user session, and what holds attention. You can then reflect these aspects in your eLearning to make it feel like a functionally familiar experience.
Although a modern eLearning design will maximize your training ROI, keep in mind that the lifecycle of web technology trends is around three or four years. A savvy development team will design your eLearning with ease of maintenance in mind so it won’t require a full overhaul. A modernization makeover could be exactly what your eLearning needs to become memorable and relatable while allowing learning to easily be put into practice on the job.
Does your eLearning need modernizing? PulseLearning can help you develop contemporary, educationally sound eLearning that will engage and delight your learners. PulseLearning is an award-winning global learning provider experienced in learning consultancy and developing engaging and innovative eLearning and blended learning solutions.
