Are you planning to create an eLearning course? Maybe you’ve already started and realize there’s more to it than your first idea! Here’s what you’ll get from this post:
This part of the article is a recap of a series of live webinars with Michael Sheyahshe, an eLearning expert with over two decades of experience. He provides a professional step-by-step approach on how to build eLearning courses – the entire learning development process, from setting the goals and defining the audience to publishing the content.
Download a PDF guide on how to create great eLearning content
Your eLearning course development process will only be as productive as your pre-planning. By taking the time to do some prep work, you’re troubleshooting problems before they have a chance to happen. Here’s what you need to do first:
This doesn’t necessarily mean making a list of objectives that you can often see at the beginning of any presentation. This is about the learning outcomes you want to realize after your learners complete an online course. So, define the purpose of the course by answering this question: “What should a learner be able to do after finishing the training program?”
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Trying to create one-size-fits-all eLearning content is a wasted effort. You need to make it for a certain reason and a certain audience. Before you get started with training development, take a closer look at your prospective learners.
The next thing you should think about is how you’ll deliver your course to the audience. The way you will distribute the eLearning content will define the choice of the course format (video, SCORM, etc.) and the type of software you’ll need.
If you’re going to train employees, the easiest and most comfortable way to manage the learning process is with the help of a learning management system (LMS). It will let you automate a number of functions like invitations, course assignments, and result tracking.
If you’re going to become a successful eLearning course seller, opt for a platform that will enable you to host, deliver, and sell your learning courses to end users seamlessly and manage everything from building the course to marketing and payment processing. We’ll take a detailed look at all of these elements in this article.
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This is the main tool you’ll use throughout the entire development process. If you’re new to eLearning design, you’ll need to choose a handy tool that will allow you to create eLearning courses as quickly as possible, while also satisfying all of your authoring needs. For instance, if you want to create interactive courses with quizzes, videos, and dialogue simulations, you need an authoring software that is a single set of tools under one roof that can cover a variety of tasks. A great example of such a toolkit is iSpring Suite.
Fully-stocked eLearning authoring toolkit for PowerPoint. No training required to start!
Later in this guide, we’ll tell you how to build an eLearning course with this iSpring tool. But first, see what a course made with this tool looks like:
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When developing an online course, you need to cooperate with both subject matter experts (SMEs) and stakeholders. Here’s what they are and how their roles differ:
| SME | Stakeholder |
| A subject matter expert (SME) is both the main source of information and the main idea generator for the online course developer. Their key roles include:
Without subject matter expertise, the course is likely to be useless. | A stakeholder is any independent party that has an interest in a course’s successful development. There may be multiple players involved like:
The task of both course developers and stakeholders is to ensure that the project stays on track at all times. |
For example, if you develop eLearning training courses for the sales team, you may have to collaborate with the VP of Sales, the CEO, HR managers, and admins. You’ll need to decide on the content together with the SMEs and meet the stakeholders’ requirements. However, no matter what your stakeholders say or what your content is, your true mission is to do what is best for your learner. And here is what that means:
Note: the eLearning development process does not need to involve SMEs if you’re creating a course to sell it online on your own initiative and are an expert on the course’s topic.
To learn more about SMEs, stakeholders, and the roles a course developer should perform, read more here.
After you’ve gathered all the necessary information for your online course, it’s time to plot it, or in other words, create a general plan of the course which structures the information in a didactic order.
Divide your course into its respective topics (they will be training modules). If you’re planning to create a lengthy course, break more general topics into subtopics and arrange them all in a logical order.
Now that you’ve split your course into training modules and subtopics, you need to lay out the framework of the course in a visual way. This is called storyboarding. A course storyboard may be created in a document, slide deck, prototype, or whatever.
In addition to the written content (we’ll discuss that in detail in the next step), it also includes all of the information in terms of photos, icons, charts, infographics, animations, or videos that will be used in the course. By the way, at this stage, it’s important not only to think of what media you’ll use but also to prepare all of the necessary assets.
Example of a storyboard in Word
This is what can be included in an eLearning storyboard:
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but there are some industry-standard methods for storyboarding that you can use as your foundation and adapt as required. To streamline the process, you can download the ready-made PowerPoint or Word storyboard template and customize them as desired.
Note: If you’re going to include a large volume of information in your online course, divide it into short modules. This is what eLearners refer to as “microlearning.” A microlearning course can be a 5- to 8-minute lesson or a series of short standalone lessons that cover one topic or target one specific learning objective. Follow this rule: one lesson – one skill.
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Now that you understand how your online course will be structured, you need to write a script. When prepared correctly, a script serves as the backbone of your eLearning course design and transforms the subject matter into engaging content.
Very often, an eLearning developer has to deal with two types of scripts: an on-screen text and a narration script. Since there are different practices for writing them, let’s have a look at each of these types separately.
Here, we mean all of the text a learner will see on the slides. To make it really helpful, you need to consider the following things:
Creating a narration script is about writing a text for learners to hear, not read. You may skip this step if you’re not going to include a voice-over in your course.
If you’re still planning to add narration, your primary task is to make a script that is listener-friendly. To do this, you need to turn it into a conversation. Your learners should feel like they’re dealing with an actual person. So write a script that has a conversational tone, without complex sentences or a lot of acronyms and jargon. You can use contractions, transitional phrases like “now that we…”, “let’s examine…”, or “let’s shift gears…”, and even slang.
After your script is ready, read it aloud. You may find that you need to replace or remove some phrases to make the speech smooth and clear. If so, make any necessary touch-ups.
You can also check the text for readability in the Hemingway App. It will help you find lengthy complex sentences, passive voice constructions, and phrases that have simpler alternatives.
To learn more about how to make an on-screen text and a narration script, read on.
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After you’ve structured your course, prepared all the necessary media, except probably a voiceover or video (we’ll discuss how to record them in this guide too), and made a script, it’s time to put all the content together in a course. We’ll do this with the iSpring Suite authoring toolkit.
iSpring is a PowerPoint-based tool, so if you already know how to use PowerPoint, it will be very easy for you to start creating learning courses there. Simply populate the slides with the text, images, and videos by following your storyboard.
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As mentioned, audio and video can serve as great assets to support the text on the slides. Plus, they can help you make your online course even more engaging. However, if you’re not going to record a voice-over or a video, feel free to skip this section and move to the next step.
Now that you have a narration script ready, you can record a voice-over. The question is whether you invite a professional voiceover artist or do it yourself. Whatever you choose, here are several tips to get the best out of voice over (VO) recording:
After your prep work is done, it’s time to record your VO and you can do this right in iSpring Suite. It has a built-in audio recorder that allows you to record your audio narration and easily sync it with animations and transitions on the slides. The tool also provides editing options like trimming audio, adjusting volume, removing noise, and even silencing an entire section.
If you are used to recording voice-overs with another tool or just need to add some sound, you can import an existing audio file with iSpring Suite.
But what should you do if you’re not a good narrator and have a restricted budget for hiring a professional VO artist? Luckily, with iSpring Suite, you can make a compelling voice-over in minutes, even without involving narrators. You just need to add your narration script to its text-to-speech editor, select a language, a preferable voice – and voila, your voice-over is ready. It’s that easy.
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With iSpring, you can also import or record a video. It includes a professional video studio that enables you to record your screen with webcam and audio. This tool has all the necessary features to make professional-looking videos. For example, you can delete unwanted fragments, add titles and captions, insert images and infographics, or create transition effects.
iSpring Suite is perfectly suited for both making complete video courses and adding video fragments in specific places throughout your course. For instance, add a video to show your new hires how to use specific software, walk your employees through some work process, or explain an incorrect answer in a quiz.
To get detailed guidance on how to record and edit audio or a video with iSpring, read more here.
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Quizzes and tests are primary tools for checking knowledge in eLearning. They allow you to keep track of employees’ progress and let you see what has been learned and what has not. If you’re going to create a course to sell it online, assessments may not be your primary goal, but interactive quizzes can still drive learners’ engagement and help them retain new information longer, so it is certainly beneficial to include them in your courses. However, not all quizzes are effective. Good assessments are those which are properly integrated into the course or the entire training process, are relevant, and well written.
Many of the best instructional designers develop questions before the rest of the learning content and then build the content to answer those questions.
You can create quizzes easily with iSpring Suite. It has 14 question types, including matching, sequence, hotspot, fill-in-the-blanks, and drag-and-drop.
Here are a few tips on how to make your quizzes even more engaging and work for you even better.
Branching creates a non-linear scenario in your quiz that leads to another slide, depending on the learner’s answer. For example, when a learner answers a question incorrectly, you send them to an info slide for additional information, while those who answer correctly proceed to the next question.
With iSpring, you can enhance a quiz with audio and video. Add video/audio to the questions themselves; to the answers; or incorporate the assets into a branching scenario with info slides like the one shown below.
To make the quiz look appealing and match the overall look of your course, you can customize your slide design. Set the font, change the layout, and choose a color scheme for the question.
When the quiz is ready, you can easily share it with your peers, colleagues, or other stakeholders to get feedback.
Note: If your reviewers don’t have iSpring Suite, you can publish your quiz to Word. This will produce a DOC file with all questions, answers, and their feedback on the quiz. Your stakeholders will be able to review the test right in Microsoft Word and send it back to you.
To learn more about making quizzes, read on.
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If you’re going to build a course for sales professionals and customer service agents so they can improve their communication skills, one of the best ways to do it is to create a dialogue simulation. This is an interactive exercise that imitates an actual conversation with a person and helps people master communication skills in a risk-free environment – without the risk of ruining a deal or damaging client relations.
iSpring Suite includes a tool that allows you to make realistic simulations quickly and easily. This is what a role-play created with iSpring looks like:
The principal feature of a role-play is its branched scenario, where each decision has consequences. It works like an actual communication between two people: say something inappropriate and you’ll anger your opponent; be friendly and polite and he’ll reflect your sentiment.
With iSpring Suite, you can build a dialogue tree – a well-organized structure that you can manipulate with one click.
To make a role-play more realistic, you can add backgrounds, characters for each scene, and add voice-overs. You can upload your own images or use the built-in collection of assets. A great way to save time on course development is to use iSpring Content Library that offers a large set of characters of different ages, ethnic groups, and professions, and a huge collection of locations suitable for different situations.
Read more here.
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Even if the training content is useful and interesting, the online course won’t engage learners if it looks sloppy and bland. To create beautiful eLearning modules, you should be familiar with the notions of UI and UX. Fortunately, if you’re going to create online courses with iSpring Suite, you don’t need to be a professional designer – it’s quite enough to know the main UI/UX practices. But first, let’s dive deeper into what these abbreviations mean and how these concepts compare.
Simply put, UI (user interface design) is what makes an online course visually attractive. It uses the principles of graphic design and typography to bring the UX (user experience design) to life. UX refers to the way an eLearning module feels for a person – focuses on the learner’s experience, satisfaction, and usability. So, using the restaurant analogy, “UI is the table, chair, plate, glass, and utensils. UX is everything from the food to the service, parking, lighting, and music.” (Ken Norton, Partner at Google Ventures).
As mentioned, with iSpring, you don’t need to be a UX/UI guru. You can use the ready-made eLearning templates from iSpring Content Library, arrange various blocks like a title slide, chapters, and info slides in the order you want, and simply populate them with your text and images. It also includes ready-made icons and objects.
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If you’re a government agency interested in training employees online, or any other business that aims to make its eLearning fully accessible for people with impairments, you need to create courses that comply with Section 508. This is part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which requires that all electronic information be available for people with disabilities.
It’s convenient to prepare slides for your courses in PowerPoint since Microsoft itself offers ways to make your presentation accessible for learners. For example, you can use a screen reader, alt text, and built-in layouts for images.
Microsoft also provides a built-in accessibility checker. When the checker is used, it shows a list of potential accessibility issues with suggestions on how to address them. The course creator can fix these issues to make the slides more accessible to people with disabilities.
Though the Microsoft Accessibility checker is a great option, with iSpring Suite, you can make courses accessible to individuals with a visual impairment even faster and easier. To create accessible training content, you don’t have to develop a separate version of your course, master a new tool, or even invest your time in checks – you just build a course in the respective editor, as you always do, and tick a single checkbox.
Here’s how a course slide looks in different modes:
Courses created with iSpring Suite play well on any device, including PCs, Macs, tablets, and smartphones. However, before publishing the content, ensure that it displays perfectly on each device type. You can do this in a few clicks by using a Preview mode.
When finishing a course, you may also need to think about how extensive the content you’re providing is and if it is compressed to the level that the learners’ device can readily process. You can choose presets that adjust files for various levels of image, audio, and video compression. This will help you find a balance between file size and quality.
For additional guidance on how to boost e-course accessibility, read more here.
Now that you’ve planned, designed, and developed your eLearning content, it’s time to pull it all together by publishing your course.
iSpring allows you to publish content in several ways: to My Computer, to iSpring Space, to iSpring Learn LMS, to other LMSs, and to YouTube.
The format you’ll publish your course to will depend on your goals and the platform from which you’re going to distribute it. For example, if you’re going to share your course on the Internet and showcase it in your blog, choose HTML5. If you’re planning to upload it to your LMS and track employee performance, find out which eLearning formats it supports (SCORM, xAPI, etc.).
To get detailed instructions on how to publish an online course, read more here.
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Following Michael Sheyahshe’s recommendations, you’ll be able to create an outstanding online course or assessment. To get a recap of the entire series, read more here.
Now that you know how to create effective and great looking courses, we’re ready to move to the next stage – and this is how to deliver courses to your end users.
As we’ve already mentioned, if you need to distribute the content to your employees, you can easily do this with an LMS. To delve deeper into corporate training and how to implement eLearning in your organization, refer to the following articles:
Continue reading this post if you’re planning to run an eLearning business. In the next part of the guide, we’ll share insights on how to sell and promote online courses successfully.
Here are a few more questions on creating custom eLearning courses that you might want to have answers to. Feel free to take a look.
There may be different classifications of courses, but we’ll divide them into two principal domains, according to the purposes of content creation. And these are the courses for corporate training and those for individuals that you can sell online.
Speaking of corporate training, this may depend on various factors, including the industry in which a company works, its size, and the inner workings of the organization. But, in general, we can identify five types of eLearning courses that employees need to take: onboarding courses, compliance courses, job-specific skills training courses, soft skills training courses, and product knowledge courses.
Courses that are built by individuals with an intent to sell to the audience can be divided into courses for leisure, hard skills training courses, personal development courses, and coaching courses.
In case you already have a website, a blog, or even a social network account, you can start selling online courses using your existing tools. However, you might face a number of challenges along the way. Dealing with payments, marketing, and keeping track of sales are just a few. That’s why using a platform that is specifically designed for selling courses and can handle all these tasks may be a more workable solution. The most popular platforms include iSpring Market, Udemy, Teachable, Thinkific, and Kajabi.
That’s it! We hope these basics of the eLearning development process will help you create better, more engaging, and more effective eLearning courses. If you still haven’t checked how easy and fast it is to build learning content with iSpring Suite, get a 14-day free trial.
Michael Sheyahshe, Technologist at alterNative Media
Michael Sheyahshe is an artist, author, developer, and technologist at aNm. He has over 2 decades of experience in the design and development of interactive media, tools, simulations, and games for the global market, utilizing various e-Learning methodologies.
Specialties: serious games, 3-D modeling, 2-D design, layout, illustration, simulation, instructional design, and augmented, virtual, and mixed reality.