We, instructional designers, know the feeling. We take copious notes when we interview the SME, and when we return to our desks, we are at a loss wondering what information to include in the course and what to toss out. Most of us end up squeezing into the course almost everything the SME had said. At other times, we read through the raw content, fall in love with a piece of data that is new to us and seems exciting, and cram it in the course. The result is an information-heavy eLearning course that overwhelms the learner but does not benefit him or elicit the response from him that you had desired. Information overload is a common pitfall that eLearning designers should be wary of. Your goal should be to create a course that packs in only that much information that fulfills the learning outcomes. Relevance increases learner engagement. Besides, your adult learners are busy people; you cannot expect them to sit through a course as you ramble on.

Keeping learners motivated throughout an eLearning course is a challenge for even the most seasoned designers. Not only is it difficult to hook and keep learners engaged offline, but asynchronous training invites an even larger set of challenges. There is no way to read visual cues if students are bored or for an instructor to redirect training if there are questions. Online courses also provide an anonymity that prevents some learners from even participating at all.

Although it might seem absurd to design training without the end user in mind, an audience analysis is an extremely important yet often overlooked element of instructional design. Before creating an eLearning course, you should find out as much as possible about your learners. This information should directly impact your design and content choices. For example, the experience levels of the audience will affect the types of activities incorporated in the course. During the eLearning audience analysis stage of design, it is important to think of your learners as a group of individuals with specific goals. Remember, demographic profiles of your target audience do not always paint the complete picture. You have to look beyond statistics like age, educational qualification, and occupation to understand the learner. Your learner is a sum of his or her past experiences, desires, aspirations, and expectations. Their learning styles and media preferences are shaped by their familiarity with and access to technology. Their cultural upbringing influences their perception of symbols, images, words, or analogies. Learners are a complex and multi-dimensional human beings; just a few numbers do not define them. Here are five ways you can get to know your eLearning course target audience:

With the impressive array of content available from online sources and beyond, it’s no longer necessary to create everything from scratch. It’s also not feasible to do everything yourself when technology and everything else moves so quickly. Content curation allows Instructional Designers to use existing material while putting their spin on it to give learners added value.

Don't begin an eLearning course without a clear path in mind; like any other effort, planning is key. For that purpose, a storyboard can come in very handy. What's a storyboard? The term "storyboard" comes from movie production, where creators sketch out a film in a series of still images. An eLearning storyboard is the blueprint of the course, like a lesson plan - except a storyboard doesn't describe just general content, but everything else as well, from graphics to video. Why do I need one? Storyboards provide many benefits, of which these are just a few: Sequence instruction and show how different elements relate and fit together; Generate a clear plan for project management; Make sure you, clients, and team members are all on the same page; Document changes and previous ideas.

When it comes to corporate training, one of the biggest mistakes that companies often make is that they start putting together training plans based on perceived training needs. The result: Training programs are not based on a proper needs assessment, and therefore these are highly ineffective. In this article, we’ll take a look at the importance of evaluating corporate training needs; and then we’ll offer some best practices on how to conduct such an assessment.

Learning leaders, you have lessons to learn from the marketing pros. More specifically, you need to learn a tip or two on “branding.” If you thought branding is something that only FMCG manufacturers, car dealers, and luxury watch sellers need to practice, think again. With a pressing need to keep employees on top of industry knowledge and skills, you MUST ensure that your eLearning courses do not get lost in the crowd. You MUST make your courses visible. Else, your efforts go to waste. Or worse, your learners waste energy hunting around for content or learn inadequately.

A lot of eLearning professionals, especially those who have just started with their practice, often ask about the need for theory. Why bother with an instructional design theory at all? Isn't practice enough?