What does good elearning actually look like?

Need to find the right elearning content for your business but not sure where to start? Whether you’re looking for off-the-shelf or customised content, in this blog we take you through our top five hallmarks of good quality elearning content and how you can shortcut the content review process. 

With much of today’s workforce operating at least partially remotely - the ability to increase your team’s learning and development, ensuring they are well equipped with the skills they need to operate efficiently is paramount to business success.  Offering online learning and training solutions is one way to make sure you’re setting your team, and business, for success.

Whether you’re reviewing off-the-shelf content or creating your own custom elearning content, the options are almost endless - the market has never been noisier than it is now. It can be hard going knowing where to look for quality content. In this post, we’ll provide you with our top five hallmarks of good quality elearning. We hope this will help you identify great elearning products and partners, and help you identify what to acid - ultimately getting you closer to great elearning content, sooner. 

Once you have your shortlist of partners you can take a deep dive into their product to make sure it meets all your requirements (more on this later).

In the meantime, here’s a whip around of the five hallmarks of good elearning to help you cut through the noise. 

1. Make sure it’s hyper relevant

Look for training content that immediately gets to the point.  The more content that can be delivered before the learner’s attention is distracted, the better.

Direct content like this really helps with on-the-job skills and knowledge gaps within your workforce, as learnings can be applied almost instantly. It’s great to help reskill and upskill your workforce. 

If the topic is compliance-related, make sure the key message is clear and concise. Avoid courses that are text-heavy or bring too much irrelevant content into the picture.

2. Accessible on any device

With around 1% of the working week available for learning, making sure your content is practical and easy to access is key. Support your learners to grab learning moments where they can - at their desktop or on their mobile device. 

Elearning content for mobile devices should be responsive to screen size and orientation. Remember, learners are used to consuming entertainment content on their devices, so you need to make sure their learning experience is as seamless as possible.

3. Plain language 

Build a culture of inclusion and increase the effectiveness of your message by using simple language and clear visuals that help everyone understand your message. 

Language and literacy levels across Australian workplaces vary enormously and you may never really know the language and literacy levels of your workforce. 

If it’s video content you’re reviewing, apply the same principle - simple language and clear visuals.

4. Design for your audience

Choose content that cuts through to your learners by catering to their learning preferences. Do they respond better to video content, visual quick reference guides or list-based instructions?

More Gen Z join the workforce every day and data around content consumption habits can guide us on how to engage our learner audience.

Enrich your learning with video, action-inducing interactivities and graphics that genuinely reflect demographic, work environment, your brands, company and culture.

5. Be succinct  

Don’t waste a second of your learner’s time with content that doesn't count. Less is always more when it comes to enabling learning during a busy workday.

Once you understand a bit about what makes a good elearning course it’s much easier to carry out a market scan and identify good partners and good content. 

You don’t need to be an expert in learning and development to come up with a good shortlist of companies and products to take a closer look at. With your audience and learning goals in mind, explore what’s on offer with the elearning experts you meet. You should be one step closer to finding the right elearning solution you’re looking for. 

Do you have an elearning project you want help with? 

We specialise in developing custom elearning courses. Our mission is to build better elearning that drives better business so you can develop skills and knowledge where you need it most.

Sounds good? Get in touch via 1300 086 692 or send us an email today.