Elearning courses have become so pivotal in teaching the modern-day generation of today. But the aesthetics of such courses play an important role in drawing the attention of audiences and even deciding the retention rate.

What should an e-learning course designer keep in mind before finalizing the design and handing it to the multimedia team for execution?

Using the buttons in the course

Buttons are an important element of the course because they aid in navigation. So, their colors need to be attractive so that are noticeable. But don’t forget to label the buttons so that the audience knows their purpose. If a learner has to find out what a button does, he is likely to leave the course due to its ambiguity. So the course does not serve its aim of making the learners learn.

Using visuals like images and videos

Images also pull a learner towards the course. However, infographics are the best way to summarise the material. The visuals should be used judiciously in an E-learning course, because too many images can reduce the attention of the learner. The learners should not be shown any irrelevant images and text because they can feel distracted. So, concise communication is the key to a result-oriented e-learning course design.

Excessive use of images

The bandwidth required by a course also decides the learner’s interest. Bandwidth is how much data can be transferred over the internet in a certain amount of time specified as megabits per second. When the images have huge sizes in MB due to their resolution, high bandwidth is needed to transfer them from the server to the learner’s PC, resulting in slow loading speed.

It is because, when due to low bandwidth, the data transfer takes a lot of time, users get frustrated and log out of the LMS. Similarly, the loading speed of the course in the browser would be low when there are too many videos. The video clips should have clear graphics, but the resolution should not be too high so as the image requires too much storage space. When the LMS pages take excessive loading time, the employees can get bored and cause them to abandon the course. The resolution should be low so that the image loading time is not high. An infographic is a better way to depict information rather than multiple images so it’s better to use it.

Don’t include complicated graphics

The use of graphs is also warranted in the E-learning course to drag learners. It’s because charts can be used to inform concisely. While designing graphs, you should be clear about their purpose and you can’t include too many variables. A graph should be 2D for the learner to understand it well. It’s also better to have a color key in case you have bar graphs so it improves comprehension.

Don’t use upsetting images

There should be a sensibility applied while using images because any profane images can hurt the sentiments of learners with specific cultural backgrounds. As such, they may not feel comfortable while browsing through the E-learning course. The learners may feel that the course is deviating from its learning objectives.

Lack of collaboration between designers and developers

The biggest problem is that the instructional designers and multimedia developers don’t work together. While the instructional designers have come up with an idea, the developers should guide them on whether its application can hamper the usage of the e-learning usage, for example, including a 3D graph isn’t a good idea for learners who lack time and may not have the intellect to understand it. The use of too much animation can also affect the loading speed because it requires too much bandwidth. So all this guidance can only be provided when the multimedia developers correct the ideas of instructional designers.