So you want to develop some online learning?

 

Great! Hire an instructional designer or retain an elearning company, tell them what you need, and let them work their magic.

 

That’ll do it. But it won’t necessarily get you all the advantages e learning has to offer. There are two other factors that, in our experience, can spell the difference between an online training program that is barely sufficient, and one that outperforms your expectations.

 

1. Elearning course design -

Just like building a house, the time and creativity you put into designing before you start to build will pay off in spades when students begin their studies. While it may be tempting and easy to build a PowerPoint-style set of screens that lecture students into learning, that kind of training isn’t effective online. Students need to be challenged to follow along and think. They need to interact. They need to be led into teachable moments and aha! experiences. If creating an online training program feels to you like preparing a slide deck to recap this quarter’s financial performance, than you’re missing the element of elearning course design. That’s when you assess the material, the audience, the delivery and the learning objectives, and draw the blueprint for your training program to ensure that it engages, stimulates and challenges students, while teaching, reinforcing and leading them to apply what they learn.

 

    2. E Learning support services -

So you employed good elearning course design and now you have an effective online training course. But what happens when a student doesn’t understand something, or sees it differently and wants to ask the instructor why their way of looking at it isn’t right?

 

Or what’s a student to do if a video doesn’t play correctly, a crucial illustration doesn’t appear on their screen, or they can’t get the audio to play? Issues like those require an e learning support services plan.

 

Who will handle instructor questions and what’s the tolerance for responding? How will technical support for Tier 1, or simple-fix issues, be handled? And how about Tier 2? Those more complex technical issues that require a programmer to solve?  

 

A Tier 2 support is also a part of a good e learning support services plan and necessary for your online training program to full realize its potential.

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So, next time you set out on an elearning course design mission, or just want to more fully cash in on the advantages e elearning has to offer, don’t skip the design phase and implement a thorough e learning support services plan. 

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