9 Best practices to create engaging e-learning modules

These are some tips I have gathered for you:

Define a learning Goal & learning objectives

• Learning goal: e.g., “Learner’s will gain a greater appreciation for BrainLAB equipment”
  
• Learning objectives (understandable, challenging, achievable, measureable): e.g., “Given a list of 20 equipment components, the learner must be able to recall and correctly list the names of at least 15”

Understand your audience

• Do some research on your audience: age, job-role, experience, nationality
  
• How diverse is the group? Does the group have specific learning preferences?
  
• What is the learners’ motivation and attitude towards this training/ the presenter/ the division?
  
• Focus on your topic: don’t waste your learners’ time
  

Create a good script

• Always write a script or storyboard - even if you have a lot of experience
  
• Write a transcript. Use the PowerPoint ‘Notes’ functionality

Make your slides interesting

• Engage the recipient’s eyes and ears: with images, animations, sounds, music, interactive flashmovies to bring your content to life
  
• Use plenty of examples and analogies - from your own experience
  
• Don’t just read the text - explain it 
  
• Read the presentation to yourself and someone else and know the material you are presenting 
  
• Make sure your layout is clear, simple and comprehendible 
  
• Use rhetorical questions that you answer on the next slide
  
• Online Course: no longer than 15 minutes (additional information via: ‘For more info, see…’)
  

Finish strong

• Try to answer the questions the audience might have 
  
• Suggest ways to practice the material
  
• Summarize what has been learned 

Understand your authoring tool

• Use a good microphone in a quiet environment to add audio 
  
• Speak calm and articulated
• For best results, use the following files:  .png, .swf
• Test your content in different envorionments (e.g., platforms)

Text guidelines

• Avoid long sentences 
  
• Reduce the written content to a minimum: No more than 4 bulletpoints, 6 words in a row, 6 lines of text
  
• Be sure the text contrasts with the background 
  
• Fancy fonts, abbrev. and words in CAPITALS are hard to read
  
• Check spelling and grammar
  
• Avoid the words ‘You’ and ‘I’
  
• Use gender neutral terms
  
• Follow guidelines established in your company's BrandBook
  
• Explain technical jargon
  

Image guidelines

• Use full-screen images to make your point 
  
• Explain your image
  
• Use recent, high quality pictures (.emf, .png)
  

General

• Incorporate your company's values (e.g., fun, integrity, innovation)
  
• Be honest, be positive 
  
• Focus on content and time-to-market, not on details
  
• Evaluate your training: has it resulted in any measurable benefits?
  
• Developing test questions will take longer than you might expect (plan 2-3 weeks)