Top 10 common mistakes to avoid when developing elearning program

Creating elearning program for the business to help the employees stay updated on a new introduction in their work or to train new candidates, is found to be highly beneficial. But creating custom elearning program can come with its own issues, as it is a complex process. There are several aspects to be taken into consideration and it does require lots of expertise and talent to meet the specific objectives and goals set by the business.

Top 10 commonly committed mistakes when creating elearning programs

Although the professional may be using the online e learning development tools, but chances are that he/she may be committing some common mistakes that needs to be understood and avoided. Some of them are given below:

·         Not defining requirements and objectives: The very first involved in designing elearning program will be to define the learners’ and trainers’ precise needs including the project objectives and specific requirements. It is equally necessary to identify quantifiable metrics with regards to ROI and quality. It is based upon this criterion that there should be developed an appropriate elearning plan.

·         Not evaluating properly the hardware environment: The successful elearning program will require learners to sit before their computers and through LMS (Learning Management System) be connected to a qualified trainer. Several factors are taken into account in the LMS design in hardware like cameras, computers, audio sets, etc., besides operating system used, available bandwidth and installed software and apps.

·         Not identifying tasks or allocating responsibilities and roles properly: It is only the creation of a cross functional team comprising of users, trainers and instructional designers that can evaluate properly and make recommendations. The team’s roles and responsibilities are to be defined very clearly. When choosing 3rd party LMS, there will be necessary individualistic quality determination based team.

·         Assuming all learners to be homogeneous: It is not at same pace that all learners tend to learn new things. They may even not possess similar technical proficiency level. Few may prefer going through a session to learn those which is being taught and not ask questions. However, others may do at slower pace, but only getting some help from the trainers. In case, excess information gets crammed in the learning session without providing the learners with the opportunity to apply integrate and reflect, they are likely to fail in deriving useful knowledge and understand what is being taught.

·         Developing difficult to navigate elearning courses: Prior to starting with the developmental process, it is essential to understand that easy and proper course navigability can help the students to achieve success. Without easy and quick navigations, the elearning objectives set by the organization is sure to fall flat, even with high quality contents. Content receptiveness is crucial.

·         Excess technology being loaded in the elearning sessions: Great care needs to be taken to limit usage of different types of applications, software, tools and media as it will only confuse the learners.

These are few of the commonly committed mistakes that should be refrained during elearning content creation.