Designing an e-learning course is not that easy, particularly if you have not made one before. You would invariably be incorporating loads of tools and parameters to get your elearning course design right. Though there are templates to use, your course would come out a lot better and non-generic if you take a custom approach. The following are some steps you must take to ensure a solid elearning course design.

Conduct Proper Research

Analyze course topics and sections. Ascertain how you could possibly keep the course engaging and interactive throughout. Also, find out the technical resources, such as software, your customer has access to. Research is critical or the necessary foundation for designing any e-learning course. Without proper research, your course could derail or deviate from its topic.

Ascertain Instructional Requirements

Find out and assess your audience’s learning requirements. This initial step helps determine instructional requirements of the course. Discuss the needs and expectations of the organization or audience from the course. To create an impact on the learner with your course, it’s imperative you pay attention to the learning requirements of your audience.

Course Design

After having done the initial research, it’s time to focus on the course’s core aspects. In other words, the course should be designed trying to fill in the skill gaps of the course’s recipients. Create the outline of the course, break it down into different sections, and present the different elements to the SME and customer for approval. The design document should demonstrate learning interactions, activities, themes, and navigation logic.

Make a Prototype

Creating a prototype is an important step that most instructional designers tend to overlook. Use graphic tools to create the prototype. The prototype shouldn’t be a rough work but must be truly representative of how the final course would look. Draft a partial script, record audio, shoot photographs, and create the actual course’s look and feel.

Scriptwriting

Scriptwriting or storyboarding entails using pieces of paper, such as sticky notes, to create branching scenarios and interactive scripts using existing content. At this stage, you would be enhancing or reinforcing the content you created initially during the process.

Produce Media

If you’d like to engage your learners, it’s recommended that you produce video, shoot photographs, create graphics, score and record sound effects and music, and record talent voices. Assemble the media as jpg, mp3, wmv, etc. Once done, you would be ready to test and produce courseware. Proper elearning course design is important since it has a significant impact on how your training program grabs attention and subsequent traction.