What do I need to consider when developing eLearning?
One of the benefits of using eLearning as art of your learning curriculum is the ability to create a unique digital course that your learners can take. To develop eLearning you use authoring tools, these are tools that developers use to create eLearning courses based off a storyboard. Storyboards contain the learning content and gives the developer instructions on how the course should look and operate. When creating eLearning you do have the flexibility to make it how you want but there are some general principles to remember when developing courses.
Below are somethings to consider when developing eLearning courses.
1. Empty space
Empty space or white space is one of the key things to consider when creating eLearning. When you place elements on screen such as text, images or video you have to balance the white space around the elements to make the page look clean and organised. When placing elements on screen one of the key things to consider is spacing, try to have elements equally space and in line with each other, the consistency will make the page look clean and easy to view. Also make sure you don’t have too much white space in one area, if the white space in one area is too big try to move elements up or down so they fill in parts of it.
2. Button placement
Placing buttons on screen is another key element when designing and developing eLearning and digital training. When placing functionality on screen such as next, previous or other buttons make sure that it is intuitive and obvious enough to the learner what they need to click. E.g if the next button isn’t clearly labeled prompt the learner on the first few screens to click it, if the learner clicks a button then has to do something else then prompt them to do it. The overall goal is to not have the learner guessing what they need to click on next.
3. Content
How you split up content is vitally important to ensuring the learner has a positive experience and enjoys taking your course. When splitting up content try to break it up into sections and chapters as much as possible (providing it still makes sense logically). If the learner is taking very long chapters that takes them a very long time to take it may make them loose interest and concentration in the learning content. By splitting up content into smaller chunks the learner can better digest it and have clear breaks in-between.
