Hybrid work and elearning time

Now that many businesses have evolved into a hybrid work model that allows their employees to work partially from home and to be able schedule their work time with more freedom, keeping your elearning seat time short and manageable is more important than ever. At home, your learners are more aware of all the other things they could be doing in addition to work responsibilities, and they have more opportunity to get up and do something else when they get tired of a long module.

So how long should your elearning be? The general rule of thumb is one minute per slide, but that doesn’t always apply.

One of the main issues is if a slide contains interactive content. Our solution is that in the storyboarding phase, each layer of interactive content on the same slide is separated out into separate slides in the storyboard. This way, while there may be fewer total slides in the programmed elearning, the storyboard will give a better picture of how much content is really there.

Narration and other audio content also have a huge effect on seat time. One sentence doesn’t look like a lot until you say it, and lists of items can take up a lot of time. There are online tools available where you can paste in your elearning scripts which will estimate the runtime for you.

Another way to affect seat time is if there is branched content, or other types of content not every learner will be required to complete. Then you may have to calculate seat time for the different branches of your elearning.

Finally, consider the purpose of the elearning. Is your course meant to replace an all-day training session, or is it a quick material refresh? Set out your learner expectations early for what the training is for so they can prioritize their time, while also juggling work and home projects.