Have you ever wondered why Nokia lost the game to Apple? On the face of it, Nokia seemed to have it all—a slew of phones (from basic phones that just let you make calls to those Lumia models that pack in a mean computing punch), an invincible reputation for churning out quality products (that seemingly indestructible Nokia 3310), and a loyal customer base (if you owned a mobile phone, it had to be a Nokia). And then came Apple, and the rest, as they say, is history. The answer is simple: Nokia lost because it failed to learn. Why do you think search engine companies have come and gone (okay, some like Yahoo and Bing are still hanging around in the shadows) but Google stayed on and is prospering by the day? There is a reason why Google is one of the most valuable companies in the world—it innovates. So what are the lessons for your company? Learn. Grow. Innovate. It is a dog-eat-dog world of business out there. To survive, flourish, and lead the pack, you have to innovate and stay a step ahead of your audience’s desires and preferences. You have to stay on top of change, which, of course, happens at dizzying speed. You need to create and nurture a “culture of learning” in your company.

Like the King of Pop once sang “it doesn’t matter if its black or white…as long as you use good, complementary choices from the color wheel.” Ok, maybe those weren’t the exact lyrics, but the point is that color, regarding its place in eLearning design, is quite significant and knowing how to use it can make or break your eLearning courses. How do you decide what colors go where and how? The answer can be found in the spinning wonder we know as The Color Wheel. That spiffy, rainbow-hued circle you were likely introduced to all the way back in elementary school is actually an extremely useful tool for creating seamless, organized designs.

Elearning has gone from a niche type of teaching for techy subjects to being a preferred, growing and almost necessary way to teach EVERYTHING. Technology is expanding and people’s need and desire to learn on their own time and at their pace is making eLearning the goal for many companies.

Tom sits down to do his sales training online. He has been asked to complete three lessons each week adding up to 30 minutes of online training. Tom is dreading it, but he is delightfully surprised at how quickly he can navigate the page and how well the content has been paired with the graphics and features. He gets through 4.5 of the lessons and leaves the 5th lesson bookmarked for the next chance he gets. Mary has been trying to find the lesson that the Fraud Department has assigned her. She has barely gotten passed lesson one in the time she had expected to complete at least 3. Her screen has frozen a few times on the graphics, she has had to re-read some of the text-heavy slides, and isn’t sure if the lesson she is on is going to help her with the issues she is meant to address. Which of the two people mentioned above had a better UX Design experience with their eLearning course? Who is going to continue with their eLearning course?

That you have built the course is no guarantee that learners will flock to take it. Modern workers have better things to do than take courses that do not appeal to them. So what do you have to do to appeal to your learners? You have to excite them. You have to intrigue them. You have to provide solutions to their problems. And most importantly, you have to convince them that your content will change their life for the better. How? By knowing what your learners expect from you. By knowing your learners, so you can deliver exactly what they need. By having a deeper understanding of them you can approach them like a friend and guide them like a mentor to make them change their behavior and attitudes. Have conversations with them frequently. Hear about their needs, fears, goals, interests, and expectations and figure out the next steps from there. Each conversation will make you more effective at eLearning design. "The better we know our students, and the more they know and trust that we know them, the more invested they become in their learning" - TeachThought If you know your learners, it will be worth your time as you will be more capable of:

Benjamin Franklin once said “an investment in knowledge pays the best interest”, and we think Mr. Franklin got it spot on. Training isn't something that's 'nice' to have in your organization. It's an absolutely vital part of a company's long-term investment and growth strategy. This seems like a simple point, and it's something that nearly all companies, and L&D managers alike, will agree with. But do companies provide enough training? And what does current research say about the state of corporate training and eLearning? In this post, we look at ten key statistics, and what they mean for your company's future.

If your company has been involved in delivering in-house training to staff for a while now, or if you are a freelance trainer or instructional designer who has been developing and offering Instructor Lead Training (ILT) to clients over the years; chances are that you may be sitting on a wealth of existing training materials. With the new workforce circumstances, the evolution of eLearning, and modern learner new expectations, wouldn’t it be great to start moving some (or all) of that content into the online training arena? If you are interested in making that leap, here’s how you should proceed:

Today, the question is no longer if eLearning benefits your business; the real question is whether you can afford not to join the trend. Year after year, eLearning has proved to be more competent and cost-effective as compared to traditional training. Here are some statistics that show the power of online training: According to a Brandon-Hall Study, learning through e-learning typically requires 40% to 60% less employee time than learning the same material in a traditional classroom setting The Research Institute of America found that eLearning increases retention rates 25% to 60% (retention rates of face-to-face training are very low in comparison: 8% to 10%). 42% of companies say that eLearning has led to an increase in revenue. (The Ambient Insight 2012-2017 Worldwide Mobile Learning Market - Executive Report) Read all stats in this article.