Employee engagement is serious business. In 2015, a Gallup study poll found that incredibly, only 30% of employees say that they’re engaged in their job. More than 50% of employees said they weren’t engaged, and almost 20% of employees stated that they were “actively disengaged.” That’s a severe problem in the workplace. This isn’t just a single piece of research, either; other surveys have found that just 25 to 35% of the workforce across the U.S. are engaged in their work. This really is a silent epidemic. However, all is not lost. There may be a way out. Companies are finding smarter ways to boost employee engagement through the use of technology.

You might be thinking deeply about cognition and the acquisition of knowledge when you’re creating an eLearning course, but are you considering the emotions of your learners? The human brain needs to feel emotions or it can’t learn. Check out this research. The learning experience has to engage feelings of inspiration before it can be life-changing, and isn’t that what we’re striving for? Here are some tips for creating emotionally charged courses:

Cognitive load. What's that? You may not be aware of the jargon, but you are up to your neck in it! Try searching for information on the Internet. Kudos to you, if you can manage to find what you need right away in the midst of spammy websites and pop-up ads. We have to be on top of the cognitive load aimed at us in our daily lives, else we would be lost in the maze of useless information. Spare a thought for your learners when you create courses for them! Learn about the cognitive load that could creep up in your course (unknowingly, of course) and how to manage it.

There are four key elements or aspects of LXD (Learning Experience Design) that are critical for the success of your eLearning course. But before we get to those four things, let’s clarify some terminology: User Experience Design (UXD) is employed in the product development field. It is the process of improving the experience of the user by enhancing usability, accessibility, and pleasure during use of a product. Learning Experience Design (LXD) uses the principles of UXD to improve and support eLearning outcomes while enhancing the learner’s retention and application of the content. It’s about making technology work for the learner. Read more: Learning Experience Design: An Overview and 11 of the Best Resources Both UXD and LXD emphasize reducing friction, increasing enjoyment, and engaging the user in the experience. In the case of eLearning, the experience is the learner interacting with the course. This experience includes every aspect of the training program, from searchability to mobile-friendly formatting and beyond. LXD is at the intersection of instructional design and user experience design. The aim is to promote GREAT and EFFECTIVE learner experiences, in addition to delivering customized content based on learner’s needs and background. That’s where the four elements of LXD come into play.

The blogosphere has been abuzz with talk of the Millennial generation for a while now - and we’ve talked about designing eLearning for them ourselves. But the times are changing, and now it’s time to start thinking about the next gen. Born after the mid-90s and raised in the 2000s, this new ‘Generation Z’ workforce is set to account for 20 percent of working adults by the year 2020. With this in mind, we would be looking at a unique situation of four distinct generations working alongside one another, including Baby Boomers, and the infamous generations X and Y.

Have you ever taken an eLearning course and found it to be less than what you expected when you had it completed? You were hoping to learn more, or even felt your precious time consumed without benefit to your mind? At one point in time or another, we all have! However, your learners can be the exceptions to this rule! By maintaining the 6-Ps of eLearning, your audience will never waste their precious time! And they will continue to enjoy and come back to your courses – from the first course to the hundredth! Let’s start by mentioning what these 6 - Ps are:

Improvement is an ongoing process. There is always a new writing style to adapt to, the latest technology to tap into, the newest authoring software to learn, and a different way of strategizing to master. This month, we will help you advance on this learning journey with our top eLearning tips.

Most of us agree that video is a wonderful tool for aiding the learning process. Right? It's fun, visual, and appeals to more learning styles than a 'rote-learning-read-this-100-times' approach. It can be used to include more sensorial and realistic experiences into your courses - from selfie videos, expert tips, testimonials, examples and non-example demos. So video is useful, widespread, and fun - no downside, right? Not quite. Video comes at a cost, and not a metaphorical one. Staying in budget is a big concern for most eLearning professionals, and video is renowned for eating up that budget quicker than you can say “it's not that expensive!”. A viable alternative is to produce your own video, cut costs, and personalize your eLearning program. But, before you put on your director’s cap and grab your iPhone, there are a few things you need to know first. So grab your notepads and buckle your seatbelts, let's get going. The Small Print: While DIY video is an option, it has to be taken seriously to have the desired effect. This means that if you shoot an eLearning video on your 2008 camera phone, you may have some very awkward meetings with your boss in the immediate future. Video has to be allocated the resources, manpower, thought, and rigor that it deserves. So while doing it yourself can cut costs drastically, make sure you know what you're getting into. So, without further ado, here are the five main steps you should follow for producing your own video for your eLearning courses: