eLearning Design: Is It A Science Or An Art?

This question is as old as eLearning. And the answer—as most of us know—is both. The catch is in striking the right balance and ensuring courses are immersive, relevant, contextual, and make learners active participants in their own learning process.

"Las Vegas" style courses might be pleasing to the eye but may derail learning with too many bells and whistles. On the other hand, mundane courses with sound content don’t always guarantee effective knowledge transfer. The key in today’s corporate world is to offer creative, scalable eLearning courses with speed and quality.

Sounds confusing? It doesn’t have to be with these eLearning design and development best practices!

The science includes designing courses rooted in learning theories and adult learning principles, aligning training with business goals, setting performance-based learning objectives, and identifying need-to-know content, among others. The art is all about designing immersive courses with relevant visuals, appropriate interactivities, the right mix of audio, and more. The process gets complex when classroom material is to be converted online, if translations are needed, or other steps are added to complicate matters.

Here are a few best practices you will explore:

• Aligning content and assessments with learning objectives
• Selecting the right level of interactivity
• Deciding usage of audio (duration, tone)
• Framing formative and summative assessments
• Planning for translations along with the master course