Tag: elearning design and development

14 Dec 2020
elearning

How to get a client for an elearning course?

Is it possible to win over a client who needs an eLearning course?

You need to know what are the learning objectives of the buyer of the elearning course. Then, you need to prove that you are an expert on the same.
Apart from selling the course, your objective might also be to get more expenditure from the client for the same course.

Conduct some research 
Before you are going into a meeting with a client, its common to check out their website. But since you are an instructor, you need to give a lot of information at the meeting with the client. So, it’s better to have complete knowledge of their industry and where they are lacking. Then, get an outline prepared for an elearning course that can improve the business model. The client needs to know what kind of training can improve the employee’s performance and how you can deliver that training.
For example, if you are going to sell your elearning model to a non-profit organisation, there are many complexities involved. It might need training for its volunteers. It’s better to get information about what are the regulatory requirements from volunteers.
But the requirements are different for a corporation. In that case, you need to have information about what kind of employees they want to retain through training. You should hence focus on elearning training programs for such employees.

Recognise the need, but offer a solution too 
Although you have identified the need of a client, it’s also important to provide them with a solution. It’s better that your solution solves their many problems, instead of solving just one.
For example, if your client organisation has a high employee attrition rate, then it can be a problem. In that case, such employees need to be trained into leaders to retain them, and hence a leadership elearning program is required. Having better leaders also improves the management of lower-level employees. But the elearning needs of a non-profit organisation are completely different. For example, if a non-profit organisation can’t get enough volunteers, then pitch a training program for the volunteers. This training program would make sure that the volunteers will get better placements in companies after working for the non-profit organisation. Your training program will also improve the return on investment for the organisation’s donors because they can get trained volunteers to work for them.

Market your product to an audience 
Your elearning client must know that they are dealing with the best. Hence, it’s important that they know you have a complete grasp over instructional design. Instructional designing is not about including knowledge in a video, but its format also matters. You can tell the client, about the elearning tools you are going to use such as Articulate or Captivate, but also what your storyboard will look like. They will know about characters, branching scenarios and camera angles. If you plan to use some advanced technologies such as augmented reality, then the client needs to know about them.

Show your success
You must have a case study for all your successfully executed projects. You can discuss these case studies with elearning clients to successfully influence them. But you have to discuss with your previous clients whether you can write about them and show the written material to every prospective client. Although you have marketed your skill well, to make sales, you must prove that you have developed a similar elearning course. If you cant show this course, the next step is to show some materials that are like a work portfolio. This work portfolio must keep the names of the previous clients anonymous.

29 Oct 2020
elearning design

Tips for making an elearning design engaging

Elearning is the heart of training now. But many tricks can be followed to make an elearning module interesting or yawn-proof.
An elearning design can only be considered successful once it is completed within the project deadlines. Apart from that, it should also get positive opinions from everyone who uses it. So, there are 3 factors which are quite important for developing such a course.

    • How to use different learning models

A learning model is the best way by which you can construct an engaging elearning design.

You can choose a learning model depending on the results you seek from your elearning design. For example, if you want to disseminate information, then the best possible design is an e-magazine. The magazine must have easy scrolling so that the user can browse through the information easily.

However, for example, when you aim to share some information with the learners through an elearning design, it’s better to include a quiz in the learning module. That’s how the learner will learn what they don’t know. Their curiosity levels will spike and hence they will find the e-learning design interesting.

70% of the learning can be taught to the user by incorporating quizzes in the module.
The third kind of learning happens when the users have to be taught, how to behave in certain situations. This is known as imparting soft skills to them. For this kind of elearning design and development, the user can be given different scenarios. They have to choose the correct scenario.

    • The tone in an elearning module also matters

This implies that the user should be able to understand the language easily. He should also find the content interesting. In the elearning curriculum design, the focus should be on factors such as a call for action. But preceding it is many factors such as giving the elearning module a spirit, making it conversational, and still having an adult tone in the module.

  • Inclusion of Interactivity

Now, we come to the most important topic of interactivity. It cant be included in the module just for the heck of including it. If interactivity is there in elearning design without any reason, it can act as an obstacle or distraction. The learner may even leave the module without proceeding further due to the interaction.

Instead, you should include interactivities that ask questions from the learners. This way, learners get a better understanding of what they have learned in the module. Elearning is about creating stories and then making learners part of them. When learners do some role-playing they understand real-world situations better.

You can also include other learners in the course. This way, they can tell about their knowledge. When learners hear their peers and colleagues talk their level of understanding of the module improves. The older employees can act as mentors in the modules and share their experiences with a newbie. A module can also be like a forum where the learners interact with professionals. So, you have to decide whether to include interactivity or an experience to make the elearning more engaging.

He was a German psychologist who is known for discovering the forgetting curve. According to this curve, the biggest decline in memory happens within 20 minutes, and then 1 hour.