Greetings!
Designing an effective online learning program is critical to the success of an organization, and with an increased shift towards online learning due to COVID-19, it is more important than ever to ensure that remote learning systems are effective. Online training can help reduce costs, increase flexibility, and provide more personalized training. but it also has a few challenges. We will address both the benefits and challenges of shifting courses from instructor-led to online learner-led and provide a few tips on how you can make the online experience more effective.
Challenges
Online learning requires users to be engaged, self-motivated, and have good time-management skills. With courses available to users at any time and any place, it can be difficult for those who struggle to manage their time or are not self-motivated to learn the material. The course format is also a challenge. For example, it is tempting for trainers to simply use a video recording of a traditional instructor-led course, only to discover that users may quickly lose interest in this one-way communication format.
Benefits
Online learning has many benefits if done properly. The most obvious is that users can complete training at their convenience - anywhere and anytime. This allows users who prefer a faster pace to move quickly through a course, while others can choose to move at a slower pace. Supplemental resources can also be used more effectively since course participants can easily pause a module and access related material for deeper learning. When done properly, online learning provides great flexibility, ease of access, and effective learning.
Quick Tips For Creating Effective Online Learning
Tip #1 - Engagement is Key
One of the most difficult aspects of designing an online course is making sure students are genuinely engaged. To maximize student engagement, it is best to sprinkle some activity-based learning tools, and to vary the medium in which information is shared. This means using a blend of text, graphics, video and interactive activities to address different learning styles.
Tip #2 - Know your audience
User demographics and learning styles vary widely, and so course designers need to know their audience (e.g., K-12 users are quite different than adult learners). It's important to respect and recognize the users' professional experience when working through activities. Ensure the scenarios presented are meaningful to everyday situations they encounter, and provide a method for the user to privately reach out to an instructor for assistance. Finally, for high stakes training, consider launching an exploratory online survey before finalizing the course content. The survey can provide valuable insight and help shape the online course before it's delivered to the users.
Tip #3 - Robust Testing
The user experience can make or break any e-learning. Be sure to thoroughly test your elearning across different computing devices, operating systems and browsers. In addition, test your solution to ensure it meets accessibility requirements such as Section 508, AODA, WCAG and related standards.
Tip #4 - Less is More
Human attention span has decreased sharply in the information age, so deliver content in bite-size pieces. Group content by digestible sections that logically make sense, and start each section with the most important concept.
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