With busy work schedules and advanced technology such as internet, people want everything at a click of the mouse—whether it’s paying bills, communicating with people, shopping and now, even learning. When I think of learning, the first thing that comes to my mind is e-learning.

E-learning is witnessing a boom in every industry and field. With Web-based training, individuals and professional needn’t have to follow the hectic schedules of day-to-day classroom learning, but can work and learn at their own pace. People are beginning to appreciate this flexible, convenient and affordable mode of learning. In fact, there are innumerable reasons why Web-based training is more effective and efficient than the traditional instructor-led training.

E-Learning definitely yields additional benefits including flexible learning i.e., learning is self-paced, accessible anytime, anywhere, around the globe, apart from being highly interactive, available at an optimum cost, and most important, it provides quality learning. But what goes into designing a good e-learning course?

Let’s talk about the basics of designing a course.

Understand the target audience: Firstly, you need to understand the training needs and the nature of the target audience.

Informative content with interactive features: The key parameters for making a good e-learning course include informative content and interactive features such as Rich Streaming Media, simulations and online assessments.

Learner-centric: The design philosophy should always focus on the learner, i.e., it ought to be learner-centric. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and Instructional Designers (IDs) play a vital role in designing effective and engaging e-learning courses. SMEs provide the actual content required for a course that makes it informative and instructional designers make the course interesting and engaging.

Reduced process time: Instructional designers should be capable of reducing the process time and optimize utilization of various resources. They play a pivotal role in the smooth transition of the entire design and development process. A rich learning content and a visually engaging course make for the best pedagogy for increasing learners’ attention and motivating them to learn more.

Whether you’re a novice or an expert, off-the-shelf courses are a great way of enriching knowledge and addressing the training requirements of both individuals and employees. Today, thousands of companies across the globe are offering comprehensive range catalog courses.

CommLab India is a custom courseware solutions and learning technology services company. I am delighted to report that now it’s offering catalog courses on career-enhancing subjects like Lean Manufacturing, Legal & Work Compliance, Authoring Tools, Business Writing and many more.

From first hand experience, I can confidently state that this library of e-learning courses will definitely meet the online training requirements of individuals and organizations. They bring you the complete collection of engaging and interactive courses with features like assessments, case studies and media-rich simulations.

I will elaborate my views in the subsequent post.

Happy learning!

Asma Zaineb

Sr. Executive – Business Development

As teachers and instructional designers, we always endeavor to make things easy and engaging for the learner. We take pride in making our programs learner-centric but what about the standards we so religiously adhere to?

Have we ever considered if these standards are really jeopardizing our efforts? How far are these standards – AICC, IMS and SCORM – learner-centric? Do these standards have anything to do with learning? Are these standards really impeding learning? Are we too enamored with these standards that we lost sight of the most important entity – the learner?

Are we slowly getting afflicted with “Learning Myopia”? Instead of looking out of the window, are we looking at the mirror, so to speak? What about the lesser talked about standards like ASTD’s E-Learning Courseware Certification Standards and the standards used by Michigan Virtual University in producing specifications for, and evaluating, e-learning?

I found ASTD’s E-Learning Courseware Certification Standards not only learner-centric but also very comprehensive.

The standards are grouped into four principal categories to reflect the various elements of courseware design.

1. Interface Standards address the relationship between the learner and the courseware itself. There are five interface standards.
2. Compatibility Standards address the relationship between the courseware, the Operating system and related applications. There are four compatibility standards.
3. Production Quality Standards examine the quality of the courseware’s text, graphics, grammar, and visual presentation. There are two production quality standards.
4. Instructional Design Standards examine the relationship between the course purpose, objectives, instructional content, instructional methods, and the learner.

CommLab has been one of the earliest companies in the e-learning space to adopt these standards. There were times when these standards were the deciding factor in wining a project.

I would strongly recommend those of you who are not aware of these standards to visit www.astd.org and get more information. The detailed standards are offered for a nominal payment, which I assure you, is well worth it.

We at CommLab India would also be happy to provide more information about them.