Check out the typical instructional design mistakes that can make your eLearning courses ineffective.
Proper designing of an eLearning course ensures its success. So, it is very important to design an error-free eLearning course. Sometimes, Instructional Designers tend to do some designing mistakes either due to lack of knowledge/experience or in haste. Here are five such mistakes that can be avoided to develop an effective eLearning course.
1. Improper Analysis of Content
The first thing that we do after receiving the course inputs is to analyze it thoroughly. If we don’t understand the content correctly, then we cannot decide on the right strategy to present the content. Using an inappropriate strategy can make the course ineffective. Therefore, we need to spend adequate time to analyze and understand the content and not shy away from asking questions to clarify doubts.
2. Disorganized Layout
One of the common rookie mistakes is dumping large content on screen. Organizing the content in a well-structured manner would help attract learners to the course. Having clear and appropriate slide titles would give learners a basic idea of what is being taught in that particular slide. Representing information in smaller chunks is also helpful. Using proper diagrams that support quick comprehension would help in organizing the content effectively.
3. Improper Color Combinations
Using soothing colors is an essential factor in designing effective elearning as it gives learners a pleasant feeling and helps them focus on the course with interest. Loud and improper color combinations may distract learners’ attention.
4. Splitting Text and Images
It is always a good practice to represent content with appropriate visuals, as it helps learners retain information for a long time. In such cases, it is important to place the visuals next to the content as splitting text and images would not create an effective impact on the learner.
5. Giving Poor Examples
Having clear and good examples helps learners understand the context of the content in a better way. Poor examples can ruin the situation and increase ambiguity in the minds of learners. So make sure that your examples support the content.
By taking care of these five things, we can develop some effective eLearning courses. Please do share if you have more points.
