13 Sep
Today, everyone is talking about the benefits and opportunities of developing an eLearning course. But what about the challenges?
What challenges does one need to overcome in order to succeed in the L&D industry?
In this article, we will answer these important questions. We will talk about the main issues when developing an eLearning course and discuss possible solutions.
Assessing the validity and relevance of the course
Assessing the validity period of an eLearning course is one of the biggest challenges. It decides which kind, of course, is to be created. If the course’s validity is a few months, then there is not a lot of sense in investing a lot of money in building the course.
Let’s say you have an idea to create an eLearning course for team leaders. The topic of the course is “How to benefit from the COVID pandemic shift to remote work.”
Will this course be relevant in three, six, and twelve months? Let’s analyze the situation. Even though the pandemic hasn’t ended yet, the world is slowly getting back to normal. Many countries reopen their borders, and employees get back to the offices. Taking these facts into account, we can presuppose that the validity of your course is too short.
Does it mean that you should give up your idea about launching an eLearning course? In this very case, you should revisit the concept of your course.
You should try to get a better understanding of the market and current trends. Think of how you can adjust your course content to make it relevant in the long run. For instance, if you shift your focus from “remote work during a pandemic” to “opportunities of remote and work-from-anywhere future”, you will increase the validity of your course.
Understanding the current knowledge level of the learners
What do you need to create a winning eLearning course for beginners? You should create content that explains the fundamentals in simple terms.
What do you need to create an eLearning course for people who already learned the fundamentals? You need to assess the existing knowledge of the learners before you start making content for your course. You should find out what exactly your target audience already knows on the topic, and also what specific knowledge it expects to gain from your course.
Jamie Fry, a writer, and editor from SupremeDissertations, says: “If you don’t assess the knowledge level of the learners, you will fail to create a successful course. People don’t like to take courses that provide the information they have already learned from books or other resources. Also, people don’t like courses that offer too challenging tasks that they cannot solve yet.”
In other words, if you want to make your project a success, you should create content that perfectly matches learners’ current knowledge level. You should offer tasks that are a little bit challenging yet attainable. Otherwise, your course will disappoint your target audience, and you will not achieve the desired goal.
What can you do to address this challenge?
- Analyze the preferences of your target audience in more detail. Ensure that you have a clear understanding of who will use your course and for what concrete purpose.
- Write a killer description for your eLearning course. Make it clear to learners what they should expect from your course.
- If you offer a few different courses for different levels (for instance, three English courses: for beginners, pre-intermediate, and upper-intermediate), create a small test. Offer users to take a test before enrolling, so they can choose the right course option for them.
The use of interactive content
Modern people are picky learners. They want to learn new concepts in a fun way. They opt for courses that offer interactive eLearning scenarios and simulations rather than traditional studying activities.
Everyone who wants to engage modern learners needs to create diverse digital content and leverage gamification. Whether you launch a course for bookkeepers, bakers, musicians, writers, you can’t just make a series of PowerPoint presentations – that will not be enough.
And that’s another challenge we need to discuss. The vast majority of the course creators are experts in their fields (bookkeeping, writing, blogging, etc.). But they know little or nothing about gamification and interactive content. Basically, they have the knowledge to share with students but don’t know how to transform this knowledge into valuable content.
How can you overcome this challenge?
If you are an eLearning course developer, you have two options:
- If you are a tech-savvy person, you can learn how to create interactive content and leverage gamification using online tools. It will take you some time to figure out how these tools work, but the results will be worth it.
- If you don’t have time to master new skills, consider hiring professional content creators and gamification experts. Find freelancers with a background in your field, and they will design winning interactive content for your course.
QA testing of the eLearning course
QA testing of the eLearning course is a sophisticated process. Here is why.
Most courses include diverse content: worksheets, PDFs, images, audio files, and videos. It’s important to test each type of content separately to ensure the high quality of the course.
Naturally, the more content you add to your eLearning course, the more time you will spend testing it. If you want to simplify the testing process, do the following:
- Collaborate with qualified content creators. For instance, if you need help with writing and editing, visit TrustMyPaper and hire qualified writers. Let experts create high-quality and bug-free course materials, and you will eventually decrease the testing time.
Automate the QA testing process to make it more effective. Use zipBoard, a content review, and bug tracking tool, to collect feedback using screenshots and screen recordings to detect issues faster.
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The need for continuous improvements
Newbies in the L&D field wrongly believe that they can develop a course once and then use it for years. But the truth is that the content of the course needs to be updated on a regular basis. Otherwise, the content will lose its relevance, and the course will lose its value.
Let’s consider an example to understand why it’s important. Imagine you created a course for English learners more than one year ago. The course includes the worksheets with the “fill in the blank sentences”. The sentences are taken from newspapers:
- The first day of President Trump’s visit to India saw him welcomed by a huge _____ in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad city.
- Theresa May is expected to continue talks with the EU to _____ her Brexit deal.
The events described in these sentences took place in 2019. When students read these sentences, they understand that the content of the course is out of date.
Even though it seems like a minor issue, it still negatively affects students’ perception of the course. So if you want to achieve outstanding results in L&D, you need to fix such issues and continuously refresh your content.
Wrapping up
The development of an eLearning course is a challenging task. But if you are ready to put your effort into market research and content improvements, you will overcome these challenges and achieve your goal. Just choose the right content creation and QA testing tools like zipBoard, and you will smooth your way to success.
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Erica Sunarjo is a professional writer, translator, and editor with a Master’s degree in Marketing and Social Media. She writes thought-provoking articles for publications in a variety of media. Even though she is an expert in numerous fields of business, Erica is always dedicated to learning new things. She actively visits conferences and takes online classes to keep her mind open to innovative ideas.
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