Tailoring your elearning with branching

One of the benefits of elearning is that it can be flexible in accommodating different levels of learners, and these paths can be built into just one elearning course. A fast and easy way of branching content for different learners can be done by building in a quick assessment at the beginning of your elearning. This will establish what your learner may already know by having them demonstrate their current level of knowledge on your content, and gauge the level of knowledge they will need to complete the learning objectives.

Depending on how your learner scores in the assessment, they may need to experience only some or all of the content in your elearning.

Also, even if your learner is already familiar with the material, it’s important for the assessment to get them to think about their personal knowledge base, by giving them new decisions to make related to the content. Getting a different perspective on the content may expose gaps or errors in their understanding, before giving them the opportunity to review what they think they know.

Creating assessment questions in the form of simple scenarios your learner needs to navigate correctly before allowing access to the full elearning content is a great way to expose these gaps in your learner’s understanding. Once you’ve made your learner aware of this, you can then send them straight to the content most relevant to what they need to learn.

Don’t forget that you can also give your learner some instruction just from the feedback in the assessment. Once they’ve gone through a decision or scenario, that is a great time to point out how they applied their knowledge correctly, or what they might have missed before routing them to another part of the course.

Of course, you should still give your learner the opportunity to review any of the material they choose, but the important point is to tailor the content to make the most efficient use of your learner’s time. Branching your learning to filter your audience towards the content they need will allow your learner to get to the parts essential to their own learning needs first.