Proficient project managers in eLearning or any other industry naturally want to be productive. In a sense, they want to accomplish more in terms of the work they do for others. They want better learning materials, more efficient ways of handling client projects—all without wasting unnecessary energy and resources.

Although often neglected when hiring an eLearning developer, the ability to write well is an important skill. Writing is a key part of the design procedure and equal in importance to interface design, visual design, and prototyping; however, unlike the other design aspects, which fall neatly into a timeline, writing is a continuous process.

It's easy to predict the success rate of a course just be looking at its introduction. If it's boring, learners would either skip it refuse to read it. Nonetheless, they're already convinced that the course is less than impressive.

Content experts, instructional designers and other eLearning professionals often have to communicate complex information which learners may find difficult to understand and apply in their jobs. Although they routinely have to do this, there is a common misconception that technical content is too boring and pedantic. However, it does not need to be so. In fact, when dull, technical content that is presented poorly, it can overwhelm, turn off, and intimidate learners, leaving them feeling frustrated.

Most existing guidelines for eLearning planning and implementation are designed with larger organizations in mind and assume a level of staffing, IT support, and budget because traditionally large corporations are the ones with sufficient resources to create eLearning solutions. However, eLearning is rapidly growing in small companies and nonprofit organizations, where typically a single person is responsible for all eLearning activities — in other words, an eLearning department of one.

Are you looking for ways to simplify your eLearning design process? Today we're thrilled to announce a new, amazingly simple way to add visuals to your courses: SHIFT's New Image Gallery. In SHIFT, you can go beyond just loading your own images in our interfaces, now you have the possibility to choose an image from an extense and very complete gallery.

A good eLearning course requires the right combination of learning events. But what are these exactly? A learning event is a simplified description of the student's learning activity. There's an infinite number of learning strategies, but only eight learning events. It isn’t necessary to use all the events in the creation of your course. Just get acquainted with each of them to make sure you use the right combination to make your course effective.

While eLearning has many advantages, learners sometimes can feel like they are drifting on a life raft in the middle of an ocean. Truth is many online training sessions still utilize a traditional content-centered approach. eLearning developers are so inspired by their own content that they forget about their students. This creates an environment where learners are more likely to give up.