Scenario - How to build eLearning content

Contents

1 Overview

Building content is the biggest challenge for eLearning managers. As soon as content is written the clock is ticking before it goes out of date. Coming up with strategies and approaches to building content that are sustainable is a life long goal for educators.

This article is designed to augment the skills and capabilities of learning managers with tools, thoughts and approaches to instructional design.

2 Background reading

The area of Instructional Design is well documented and there are some great materials available for this.

• As an overview to the area. PL File:LD-1-2 - Introduction to Learning and Development v1-1.pdf
• Learning and Development. Rosemary Harrison Google Books
• E-LEARNING STRATEGIES, How to Get Implementation and Delivery Right First Time [1]
• Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. Richard Mayer [2]

3 Building your eLearning

The three elements required to build eLearning

• Expert content / knowledge: The person with the material / knowledge to be delivered.
• Encoder: The person who understands how people learn and chooses the most effective way of teaching the material.
• Design: The person who has the ability to present the material.

Not all projects can realistically afford experts in all 3 areas. Instead compromises are made to get the material built. So as part of any build there is an exercise in cost. How long and how much is it going to cost to build this material.

The offset with eLearning is how much will building the solution as eLearning save.

Saving are realised in a number of ways

• Lack of people having to travel to training
• Time saving of people not having to factor in transport
• Ability to do training at times convenient to the person rather than forced times
• Reduce physical space rental for larger training groups

The list goes on

Once the build / project has been cost approved in principle the next step is to figure out the most cost effective option to use.

• Outsource. There are many good companies who can do the work for you, but the cost will be proportionate. Knowing your ROI can really manage budgets.
• In House. If you decide to inhouse the project then the rest of this article is perfect for you to see what you have available.

4 The Project

So what are the options to get the project started in house.

4.1 Material

The first thing required is the expert knowledge. What are you training? If you the material written down, great. If not you need to get the material turned into trainable instructions. Some processes and procedures are exceptionally easy to make into an instruction set. Other tasks such as "tying a shoe lace" are very difficult to describe in words. We start by ensuring we have the expert knowledge immediately available in paper or the form of a person.

4.2 Encoder (Methodology / Instructional Design)

This is a training skill. There are many approaches and possibilities. The most common is Cognitivism as a general approach. The concept of a teacher at the top of a room laying out how the material is to be learnt. There are pros and cons to this approach and whilst there are many advantages to other approaches such as Constructivism, they do require more technical skill in Design to accomplish. Use the links in the background reading section above to learn more.

4.3 Design

Design takes two forms. The encoding of information and also the more traditional sense, of the prettiness of the pictures. There are many tools to help accelerate design all the pros and cons.

See the tools section below for examples of what can be accomplished.

5 Project Approach

The strongest way of getting eLearning built is to adopt a project based approach. There are many different methodologies available for managing a project but eLearning has it's own model called ADDIE. More details on ADDIE can be found here. All_n_One_Project_Development_Approach

6 Tools

So if you do have the capacity in house to develop the material the following resources may be exceptionally useful to you Scenario_-_Developing_Training_Materials

7 Outsourcing

If you have the budget you can retain the services of a professional eLearning development house. Different suppliers have different cost models so it's important to understand your Return on Investment (ROI) and your budgets before approaching them.

For a list of companies who develop eLearning for you ECourse_-_Styling_Content#eLearning_Development_Companies

8 Prebuilt content

There is also the option of buying content straight off the shelf.

• Penninsula HR
• VigiTrust Cyber Security

And many others