It's no secret that the best and the most productive artists engage in rituals before they work. It doesn't matter how simple or strange these rituals are. What matters is that these pre-work rituals are significant part of the process.

Engaging the unengaged has always been an elusive goal among learning professionals. While there are challenges related to student engagement in other learning environments, online curriculum may include added obstacles. Problems revolve around the lack of personal interaction between the instructor and student, as well as the student-to-student contact. The eLearning environment can be isolating and prone to distraction. Long story short, engagement has always been a crucial component of learning—if not the first step to learning.

In our work with clients, we hear many of the same questions over and over again. Well, here are your answers. It may even be you didn't know you had these questions yet, but rest assured, you will at some point.

Great design is about making smart decisions. And skillfull eLearning designers know this. They know the “look and feel” of a course is a very important decision in the whole development process. With this in mind, they try to create screens that draw learners' attention, that motivate learners toward interaction, and help learners accomplish learning goals without confusion and fatigue.

Business owners, managers and executives new to the eLearning field sometimes find it hard to grasp industry concepts and terms. Though most of the times they’re not going to be developing the courses themselves, they need to fully understand industry terminology. But beyond just a definition, professionals should also not miss out on the business benefits new words bring. It's their deep knowledge of the industry that will get them the results they wanted. And it all starts with technical concepts and terms.

Any professional eLearning designer would agree that users are always at the heart of what they do. The bulk of our articles last year focused on users. But what about designers themselves? Who are they? What impressive feats do they perform? What skills do they possess? How crucial is their role in developing educational materials for a new generation of learners? Let’s not forget about these oft-overlooked professionals who help make eLearning possible, personal, effective and immediately applicable.

The Year of Responsive Design Responsive design is more than just a passing trend. The concept was introduced a few years ago but prevailed as one of this year’s top design issues. Everyone, from web designers to marketers, began to see the value of adopting the design principle.

Whether you are just getting started with eLearning and looking to get a better understanding of eLearning best practices, or you've been creating courses for a while and are trying to find ways of making your material more effective, considering the basics of eLearning is key.