Post on 08-Jan-2022
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Rapid eLearning Design for Quick Rollout
5 BEST PRACTICES FOR INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNERS
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ContentsUnderstanding the IDs’ World
Best Practice 1: Seeing the Big Picture – The Business Context
Best Practice 2: Working Efficiently with SMEs
Best Practice 3: Engaging Learners through Design Strategies
Best Practice 4: Working with the Right Authoring Tools
Best Practice 5: Standardizing and Scaling Up
Key Takeaways
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Instructional designers are an understated lot. Most of us who’ve been around eLearning for 10
years or more have no formal degree in eLearning and yet have jobs that require us to churn out
world-class, highly effective eLearning courses for which the target audience is people from every
background on the planet.
So how did we land up here anyway, given that we come from diverse functional backgrounds?
● Most likely, we were good at our jobs (the ones we got academic degrees for) and because we
were so good at it, we were asked to train others.
● And before we knew it, we were full time training professionals.
● With technology becoming a game changer and the advent of eLearning, this training function
has now extended to creating training material for online training or eLearning.
● We learned the ropes in record time, and transferred those skills into instructional design for
eLearning.
Now we’ve grown roots but face new challenges. The main one being – How do we move toward
rapidly churning out eLearning courses, without sacrificing quality or creativity?
Well, welcome to our world – a world we’ve been in for the past 19 years. In this book, we’ve
shared a few ideas on what worked for us and our customers. So what you will read about is not
theory, but theory tested on the road and distilled into best practices for application.
Understanding the IDs’ World
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Seeing the Big Picture: Training HELPS Achieve Business GoalsAs instructional designers, and maybe even as training managers, we sometimes tend to be a
bit removed from the larger business context. However, it is this big picture that should actually
determine our direction and drive our training effort. To begin with, we need to have a sound
understanding of where training fits in the overall scheme of things in the business context.
What does it do? And how?
To put it very simply, for any business to meet its typical business goals, it has to:
1. Sell more
2. Improve efficiencies
3. Stay compliant
Best Practice
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At the risk of stating the obvious, without training, it is impossible for any organization to achieve
its goals. And yet, if we are to take a hard and honest look at our own training effort, we can see
where and why we were involved in rolling out training that actually didn’t help achieve any of
these goals.
The many programs/courses that sometimes are rolled out without any tangible goals are the
main reason many stakeholders and learners sometimes view the training function with a degree
of suspicion. We can change all of that by being fully aware of the big picture and ensuring what
we do fits right into it.
But Where Do We Begin?
1. Aligning Learning Objectives to Business Goals
Desired Organizational Results
● Decreased turnover
● Increased employee
retention
● Enhanced employee
satisfaction
● Specific to individual job
functions
● Accelerate time to
proficiency
● Build core competencies
● Expedite productivity
● Focus on a single
enabling objective
● Recognize available
support
Desired Performance
Performance-based Objective
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2. Have a Blended Solution
If our mission is to accelerate proficiency, we should create a blend that will enable learners to
achieve the required level of performance (proficiency) as efficiently as possible.
In particular, we want to make sure our blends:
● Leverage the best of both approaches to maximize the benefits for each situation
● Streamline the time and cost required to reach proficiency
● Facilitate access to learning when it is needed, where it is needed, and just in time
● Appeal to and address different learning modalities
● Make learning a guided process, not a one-time event
3. Develop eLearning Curriculums
Planning for curriculum rather than standalone courses has the following advantages:
For the Learner For the SME For Your Organization
● Shows the big picture
— makes learning
meaningful
● Flow is based on learning
sequence rather than
ease of development
● Makes best use of SME
time
● Streamlined effort
● Easier to maintain
momentum and faster
rollout
● Better costing
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Working Efficiently with SMEsBecause most of our training content comes from SMEs, one of the most important things we
need to ensure is that we work efficiently with them as this reduces our time for developing
eLearning. However, before we start working with SMEs, we need to answer these questions:
Who Are They?
They are high-value professionals, with access to proprietary information, and their primary job
is NOT training. A few sample designations:
● Senior Director, Quality Assurance
● Clinical Operations Manager
● Marketing and Sales Manager
● Operations Specialist
● Senior Engineer
If you are to take a quick poll on the functional background of SMEs, you will find that very few
of them are actually from training and development. Does that sound surprising? Go on, check
out who are the SMEs for training in your organization. In all probability, almost none of them are
from L&D. Quite similar to the background of IDs in fact.
Best Practice
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Where Do They Find Time?
The biggest challenge is that eLearning experts MUST RELY on the SME for expert content
knowledge. And there are always 3 good reasons for SMEs not being available when you need
them most:
1. No time 2. No time 3. No time
Anyone who has worked with SMEs or is an SME knows this is the reality we must reckon with.
So when do SMEs do their reviews?
Saving SME Time
More involvement from the SME upfront leads to:
● Less required later
● More buy-in later
● Fewer problems in the course
Here is a simple process we came up with for maximizing the SME’s time and making their role
less demanding as far as their involvement in eLearning initiatives is concerned.
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Saving Time throughout the Process!
SMEs are typically involved throughout the eLearning process. However, we have found through
experience that when we cut down the time the SME needs to invest in the eLearning project and
minimize the touchpoints, the project is more likely to be rolled out on time, and even before. And
the SME is more likely to be an involved stakeholder for further projects.
Here’s a simplified process we at CommLab Inida have been using for some time now to ensure
the SME’s time is minimized for inputs, reviews, and signoffs.
Online Review
The quickest way to cut down the time for reviews is by sending the SME an online Review link.
This also ensures that if there are multiple SMEs for a project, all the feedback is captured in one
place, making it easier to implement it and resolve contradictions or inconsistencies in feedback
if any. Try it. Your SMEs will thank you for it.
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Engaging Learners through Design StrategiesAccording to the Workplace Learning Report for 2019 by LinkedIn, an astounding 94% of
employees said they would stay longer with a company that invested in their learning and
development.
Realizing the importance of emotions and the arts, learning is beginning to undergo a paradigm
shift from a traditional, linear, quantitative approach, toward synthesis, quality, and empathy.
Recall your most memorable learning experience?
I’ve sure most of the reasons for it making an impact can be summarized in the following:
● You were involved emotionally — either because you had fun, could relate to what was
happening, or were challenged to face your fears.
● The facilitator had shared anecdotes that made you laugh, used different media elements
(a chart, a video, a role-play exercise), or allowed opportunities for practice.
● The subject was your pet topic and you were intrinsically interested in learning more about it.
Here are three strategies to make your eLearning click.
Personalization The Power of Stories Empathy in Engagement
● Address learners by
name
● Provide avatars
● Design content-relevant
GUIs
● Scenarios
● Comic strips
● Metaphors and analogies
● Open navigation
● Clear instructions
● Diagnostic feedback
Best Practice
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1. Personalization — Make Them Feel Special
Call the Learner by Name.
Welcome the learner through a personalized learning experience by making him type in his or
her name. We can then pull this name up when giving feedback for assessments. A personalized
experience with little effort!
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Let your learners pick the avatar of their choice at the start of the course. Isn’t it reassuring
and refreshing to learn from and come across a familiar face? Use avatars of learners’ peers,
managers, experts, or people they can relate to.
Looks do matter, and the graphical user interface (GUI) is the first thing leaners will come across
in your course. Borrow elements from your course or elements and colors that’ll appeal to learner
demographics to make it an instant hit.
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2. The Power of Stories – Hook Them to the Learning
The best and most effective learning is achieved through stories. Luckily, we are all wired to
tell and listen to stories. A compelling narrative is all it takes to transform passive learning into
active participation. So, how do we do it?
Make learning experiential. Place learners in scenarios they are likely to face at work and let them
draw on the learning to take decisions and solve problems. Scenarios can be real or fictitious
and used to assess or teach learners.
A comic strip is a good way to engage learners. A bit of fun to reinforce the key points or to
highlights solutions will be welcomed by your learners. Use comic strips to highlight subtilities,
changes in moods and emotions.
Metaphors and analogies are tiny titbits of stories used to drive home learning by offering a
comparison with something known and relatable. Help learners internalize learning by spotting
the similarities or dissimilarities between the concepts shared.
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3. Empathy in Engagement – Step into Their Shoes
Next up is Empathy – an awareness of how the learner probably feels. Put yourselves in the
learners’ shoes and empathize.
Adults are self-directed and dislike being restricted. An effective eLearning course has open,
unrestricted navigation and gives them the option to access sections of the course they are
interested in.
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Ensure the course is intuitive and learner friendly. Have clear instructions for engagement and
interactives. You don’t want your learners struggling to figure out how to:
● Navigate through the course
● Use interactives
● Answer assessments
Finally, remember, we are not out to get our learners or rap them on their knuckles when they fail.
Encouraging, diagnostic feedback goes a long way as opposed to judgmental feedback. Don’t
just say whether they are right or wrong – give reasons to explain and reinforce learning.
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Working with the Right Authoring ToolRapid authoring tools, with their in-built templates, themes, and animations allow you to create
rich and interactive eLearning courses, with minimum technical expertise and effort. Further
good news is they no longer stretch budgets or require you to hire people with a programming
background.
As you are aware, there are many authoring tools available in the market. Here is a quick review
of the top 4.
Best Practice
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Authoring Tools Good For…
Articulate Storyline 360 and Rise Articulate 360 has everything you need to develop
an eLearning course, right from kick starting course
development to collaborating with stakeholders to
review the course.
Storyline 360 is part of Articulate 360 and lets you
create compelling interactions. You can build and
publish your eLearning course to the responsive player
with a single click.
Rise is a fully responsive web-based authoring tool and
is a part of Articulate 360.
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Authoring Tools Good For…
Adobe Captivate Adobe Captivate 2019, the latest version of the tool,
has made designing immersive learning experiences
a reality. It is possible to import a 360° image or 360°
video into a virtual reality (VR) project in Captivate.
Add text labels and interactive hotspots to the screen.
Lectora Online Lectora Online is a cloud-based authoring tool that
harnesses the power of the desktop-based authoring
tool and also collaborative features that enable the
creation and review of eLearning content anytime,
anywhere.
iSpring iSpring Suite is one of the most popular authoring tools
to convert PowerPoint decks to eLearning. The biggest
advantage offered by this tool is that it is integrated
within PowerPoint and that makes it simple and
user-friendly.
Parameters to Map in Your Authoring Tools for Easy Instructional Design
Before selecting a tool, check for these 6 parameters
Ready to
Use Templates
Easy
Translations
Responsive
Output
Accessibility
Quick
Authoring
Online
Review
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● Does the tool offer responsive templates for different screen layouts, interactivities,
and assessments?
● Layouts – Welcome screen, learning objectives screen, summary screen
● Interactivities – Click on images/tabs/numbers, slideshow, sliders
● Assessments – Drag and drop, multiple select, sorting/matching
● How easy is it to develop responsive courses using the tool? Does it just offer a responsive
player or a fully responsive output?
● Does it enable quick authoring through its in-built asset library? What are the graphical assets
available? How frequently is the library updated?
● Does the tool offer translation-friendly features? How does it ease the translation process?
● What features does the tool offer to develop accessible courses? How easy are the features
to work with?
● Does the tool offer scope for online reviews? How easy is it to be used by facilitators and
SMEs?
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Standardizing and Scaling Up It’s better to plan long-term for eLearning design and development. This will help you stockpile
the resources you can reuse – building a library of assets. There are 3 main components that’ll
help you do this.
1. Style Guide
Have a style guide capturing your organizational standards in terms of both text and visuals.
This will ensure your courses are standardized, with a uniform look and feel.
Best Practice
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Specif ications of Textual Elements
Specif ications of Visual Elements
Size of headers, body text, instructions,
bullet style, and fontBranding colors
Formatting, alignment specifications Logo color and placement guidelines
Grammar and preferred English usage
(American vs. British)Preferred fonts
Usage of abbreviations, acronyms, dates,
units of measurement and currency
Colors to be used for backgrounds,
instructions, hyperlinks, accent colors
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2. Templates
Even if you use templates offered by authoring tools, customize them over time. Personalzie
them and build a library of reusable assets for different screen layouts, interactivities, and
assessments.
Just plug and populate these templates with the content, replace images and you will be good to
go – for all projects.
3. Check the Outsourcing Option
If you lack resources for in-house development and/or are unable to meet your requirements for
a quick turnaround of eLearning courses with existing resources, outsource the development
effort.
A vendor proficient in leveraging authoring tools will ensure your timelines are met. However,
check for a good vendor with a strong background in training and instructional design.
Note: These are some aspects – that save you time – you can outsource, such as:
● Development of courses from production-ready storyboards
● Legacy course conversions, including Flash to HTML conversion
● Development of media assets such as animations and videos
● LMS administration and support
● eLearning translations
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Key Takeaways
Always have the business goals aligned to your training
Standardize and scale up
Connect with learners emotionally
Come up with ways to save SMEs’ time
Choose an authoring tool that helps you design well and fast
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ABOUT US
www.commlabindia.com
Get in Touch
CommLab India is the most sought-after global leader for its rapid eLearning solutions. It has been ranked
first among top providers of Rapid eLearning and Blended Learning Solutions for 2020 by eLearning
Industry.
With our formidable authoring tools expertise and decades of experience in corporate training and
instructional design, we offer rapid eLearning solutions for speed, scale, and value…with any authoring tool!
What we do:
� Convert ILT material into instructionally sound, visually appealing, engaging eLearning curriculums, virtual sessions, and other digital learning formats.
� Convert legacy courses developed in Flash or any other authoring tool to HTML5, even without the source files.
� Translate English eLearning courses into 35 international languages – both text and audio.
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