Did you know that Instructional Design (ID) began in the Second World War to improve military training? This goes to show that ID isn't some new, smoke and mirrors concept; it's an evidence-based, rigorous discipline. And if your company isn't using instructional design effectively, they're losing out. This article should help set them straight.

eLearning is a disruptive technology, changing the way people acquire education. From online schools to on-the-job training, learning via electronic means is becoming the norm. With this in mind, realize that even though you may have highly valuable information to share with learners, your competition is growing each day. Use this guide to help you ensure that your eLearning courses stand out from the crowd of ever-evolving electronic learning opportunities.

There’s a reason everyone is using infographics. A casual stroll through the social media playground will show you that many people are using infographics for mundane things, such as entertainment facts. This content is shared so often because it’s interesting, and the format makes it easy to digest. When given the opportunity, people would much rather look at an image or watch a video than read, and taking advantage of that for your online course design can help improve learner engagement by appealing to the common preference of visual learning. The “why” is simple – understanding the “how” and “when” is what will allow you to use them effectively in your online courses.

With the world going digital, you can no longer stick to traditional training programs that have to be delivered in classrooms and whose efficacy is dependent on the skills and personalities of the trainers. Your learners who may be scattered physically want more freedom to choose the training they want to take and the time and place where they want to take it. Going digital is the only way you can meet the demands of the modern learner, who wants fast, personalised, bite-sized information, wherever they are. According to IOMA (2002) companies save between 50% and 70% when they replace instructor-based training with e-learning. Click to tweet.

For anyone who is new to the eLearning industry, getting familiarized with the jargon and industry phrases can be a cumbersome task. It can be overwhelming as well as demand a huge commitment. While there are a huge number of eLearning terms and phrases every newbie needs to stock up in their arsenal to get it right, here are a few which stand out, whether by the commonality of usage or the importance of what they stand for.

Yes, our jobs as designers are not easy. Don’t get us wrong; we love the challenges that each new project brings. We love to exercise our gray cells to think up novel solutions, and we pride ourselves on surpassing our clients’ expectations every time. But we still get a sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach when we have to face our worst fears and nightmares, which are the following:

Although classrooms offline have been delivering competency-based training for decades, the eLearning industry has only just woken up to the merits of this form of learning. However, competency-based training is yet to become a trend in online education simply because most designers and training managers are not sure what it means and how they can implement the concept in practice. So in this post we’ll be decoding the jargon. For starters, here’s an infographic that outlines the whys and the wherefores of competency-based learning. Read on, if you want to learn more.

E-learning is gaining momentum. Over 40% of Fortune 500 companies use eLearning as a form of employee training. Nearly 50% of college students are enrolled in online courses. And eLearning is growing at an incredible rate. As of 2014, it was a $56.2 billion dollar industry with expectations of that amount to double by the end of this year. With so many courses out there and so much demand, what makes one eLearning course stand out from the rest? Writing an awesome course can bring in stellar reviews and earn you more students on your next round. But writing incredible eLearning content isn't just about having good writing skills. Creating realistic expectations for your students, setting goals, engaging participants with awesome multimedia content slides, giving them activities to practice their mastery, checking their retention often with knowledge checks and tying the content into real-life scenarios - all contribute to building a solid course. Here are seven things to get you started on your way to create an eLearning course: