Bad Stock Photos Make for Bad eLearning How often have you gone to a website, looked at the photos, and said “Oh yeah, there are the happy clapping people, and there’s the arrow going into the target, and there’s the thermometer showing sales figures, and… yawn.” Probably more times than you could count. Does that really make you want to read the content? Does it do anything to enhance the information that’s there? Of course it doesn’t. And the same things that are beyond boring and beyond overdone on various websites are going to be equally as un-engaging if you use them on your eLearning course. The dilemma with stock photos is that cheesy-to-the-maximum, cliché, exaggerated, awkward and fake photos do not connect with an audience of learners. You have to make images speak to your learners. Images need to say the 1,000 words you actually want them to. The ideal case is that you take your own photos, but we know that not everyone has the budget, time or available resources, so if you must use stock photography, make sure it’s relevant, not hideously overused and think creatively about choosing and editing them in unique ways.

Well-design courses are worthless if they can't communicate content effectively to those learning. Truth is, effective communication is actually more challenging to apply especially in designing eLearning . Optimized eLearning design has the power to motivate students and drive performance. If you are serious about creating effective eLearning courses, it is essential that you follow all four of the following steps to get the right message across to your learners.

When you began to plan your course, you probably never thought of one aspect of eLearning design: the effects of white space. In fact, it’s one of the most overlooked elements in the screen layout of a course. It’s actually a very important component of design. Effective eLearning designs are made by appropiate use of white space, and plenty of it. What Exactly is White Space? It’s sometimes called negative or blank space too. That’s space that appears between elements in any composition. Most of us refer to it as a part of the page or screen that remains blank. It’s space that appears between figures, type or columns. In short, white space is area intentionally left untouched. Its inclusion as part of an effective eLearning design can turn a screen into something very interesting or sophisticated, or both. White space reminds us that simple screen designs can be highly effective and that it’s unnecessary to cram a screen with text and graphics to get a message across.

eLearning professionals are often over-confident about a course’s ability to capture an audience’s attention and engage users with its content. By conducting a simple “reflection” test before publishing, like the famous Blink Test or Eyeball Test, can make a great difference to ensuring an effective eLearning course.

We are now in the age of visual information where visual content plays a role in every part of life. As 65 percent of the population are visual learners, graphics are key to engaging students in eLearning courses.

You have most likely mastered the basics of instructional design already. Now it's time to learn an intimately related discipline called information design.

Anyone looking to learn more about comprehensive design can read the book Universal Principles of Design, which features more than 200 descriptions in alphabetical order along with images to aid the explanations. For those interested just in those concepts that are most relevant to eLearning design, this post sums up some of the most important definitions.

Sure, anyone can design an eLearning course. The question is: how can you become a better designer?