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2. Gather your existing resources

If you have been conducting your course as an ILT (Instructor Led Training) model in the traditional Classroom, then you may already have pre-existing presentations (PPTs) for most of the topics in your course. Occasionally this material may also be in alternate formats such as Word Documents, PDFs and Images. Let us now put together the list of your resources in a table/XL spreadsheet to have a consolidated view of your content readiness. Remember, at times the content may not be comprehensive and may need touch-ups and addition when moving to the eLearning model. In extreme cases where the entire session was traditionally conducted impromptu and in-person you may not have any material at all. Record all of this too. Once done your learning resources table may look something like this:

Note that each time your existing content is in a format other than PPT, Video, SCORM or TinCan package, you must identify that as a gap. It is critical to ensure that all base learning content is in either of the above stated formats for you to build a high-quality eLearning.

3. Filling in the gaps in learning resources

Now that you have the laundry list of resources in the structure suggested above, it is easy to sift out the content gaps. Make a shorter table with only the content gaps. Identify the resource in your team or your extended organization who can help fill in the gaps. For the pre-existing content in PPT format that needs touch-up and updates the gaps can be filled in very rapidly. Allocate suitable tasks to the respective team members with a suggested timeline to get those changes done.
The tricky part will be the topics where no content exists or content exists in long formats like Word docs, PDF documents or Images. The approach to building eLearning Courses from scratch and from non PPT format are slightly different. Let us see how you can address both of these.

A. Pre-existing Learning Content

A good place to start organizing your content is by logically structuring content into Course, Modules and Topics. This will help you deploy the content as microlearning modules and make it easy on the learner by reducing the cognitive load. When you do that, your table will look like this:

Organizing the content into a multilevel structure is useful for reusing and repurposing topics for courses that you will build in the future. In addition, making updates to the content will be a less expensive process as you can retain the modules/topics that do not need to be updated as they are, and focus on updating only the necessary topics.

A good tool you could use while building the course is the much acclaimed learning theory - Bloom’s taxonomy – which categorizes learning levels based on the learning process. It can be used for constructing learning objectives based on what is expected of the learner at the end of the course. It also helps keep the content and assessment consistent with the learning objectives of the course.

As you organize the content in hand, a few points to keep in mind are:

• Plan the sessions/modules with a mix of activities. Pure instruction can get monotonous, result in a bored learner and render the training ineffective. Mixing instruction with activities helps the learner stay interested and engaged.


• Balance text with meaningful graphics. Unrelated graphics negatively impact the quality of your content and meaningful graphics enhance the learning experience.


• Update the images, data and content wherever necessary. If you are using images of your employees, make sure you have updated pictures of them. Any data displayed should be current and the content should capture recent changes and developments.


• Keep the on-screen text short and precise. Where explanations are important, keep the text displayed in bullets and move the sentences and details to the voice over. Ensure the bulleted text play out as short phrases that cover the main and important ideas.

B. No existing Content

When there is no pre-existing content you will have to plan the design first and then the development. Delivery is the final step however you will have to take a decision on the delivery format prior to the design phase. This is because deciding whether you want the delivery to be instructor led or not, in a live classroom or self-paced will be crucial for your content strategy. All these decisions will have to be taken prior to the design phase and strengthened during the design phase.

Designing the course:

To start with understand your audience profile and their learning environment. In the example we discussed, the course was planned for new employees who would be learning remotely. Having this knowledge leads us to understand that employees could be accessing content using different devices, using a blended learning model may be more effective and the sessions should have more activities than a live classroom would typically have.

As you start designing the course, you will have to:

• Decide the Learning objectives for the course. As discussed earlier, you could use Bloom’s taxonomy to define the learning objectives. The learning objectives of the course will determine what you should cover in the topics.


• Logically structure into Course, Modules and Topics. List down the names of the modules and topics; Plan the duration of the session as well as the time it should take to cover the topics in a module.


• Break down the plan such that you clearly state how much time be will spent in ice-breakers, in the main instruction, activities and assessments.


• Decide if you would like to introduce interactivities or gamifications and check if you have or can get the tools for building them.


• Collect information & curate it to build the source content; Ensure that it aligns with the course structure and organize the information as per the plan. Evaluate course structure and when necessary reorganize it to avoid repetition of information as well as to give continuity to topics.


• Start writing the storyboard and decide on the media elements and instructional materials to be used. You will have to keep in mind the device the learners are likely to use so that the media elements and instructional materials are appropriate for the devices and do not compromise on the learning experience.

Development of the course:

Once you have the design ready you will need to start developing the learning content.

• Start building the eLearning content. Once the design is complete and the storyboards are built a series of activities will have to start – you will have to make sure the PPTs with the content (text & graphics) are developed. On a platform like the PlayAblo LMS you will be able to upload content as PPTs. If you’d like to bring in interactivity you could also use a rapid authoring tool to develop the learning content.


• While developing, some Do’s and Don’ts to remember are:
  
  • Keep each topic to the point; address one or two Learning objectives in a topic.
  
  
  • Don’t fill up too much text in a single slide. Do use short precise text for on screen text and use detailed explanations for the voice overensure the sequence of the bulleted text are in the same order as in the voice over
  
  
  • Don’t use Italics or fonts that resemble handwriting as they have a negative impact on readability. Do use fonts such as Arial, Calibri, Sans Serif, Open Sans etc that stand straight as they are easier to read.
  
  
  • Don’t ignore the text and background colours. Do pay attention to the text and background colours. White text on black background and black text on white background and black text on warm colours such as peach, have been highly rated as they make reading easy.
  
  


• Develop the supporting instructional materials. Download or create the necessary audio or videos, PDFs for additional reading, supporting documents, worksheets and job aids.


• Ensuring that every stage of design and development is meticulously planned and executed makes the delivery of the content smooth and the learning effective.

When you complete development of the learning content, you will be ready to give it the final shape as a micro-learning course and deploy it to the LMS.

Need Help?

Since the process of designing, developing, and delivering large amounts of training content requires professionals, some companies do invest in L&D teams. However, if your company does not have an L&D team or e-learning professionals, you can use the content development services offered by PlayAblo. Just drop us a note and we will reach out to you shortly.