Three Best Practices to Improve Your eLearning Content

Many organizations are already using eLearning content and digital learning. The practice saves money over instructor-led training, supports a fully remote or hybrid work environment, decreases overall training time for learners, and improves the flow of work when incorporated into in-person onboarding training, career development, and leadership training. But there is often room for improvement to develop your digital learning processes, and especially so when the content or implementation was developed hastily – as so many organizations did (understandably) in response to the shift to remote work last year.

Now is the time to redesign your eLearning courses and digital learning content with intention. The best practices we recommend as a starting point don’t have to be done all at once but may be implemented as budget and schedule allow. Moreover, these steps will provide the flexibility you need to continually update and improve your processes to meet changing needs in the modern workplace.

Three Steps to Improve Any Digital Learning Program

1. Make it Mobile. You would think that eLearning is always a mobile medium, because it’s often created in digital formats. But that’s simply not the case. Digital learning content is only truly mobile if it is designed to be compatible across devices, with downloadable resources that allow for work offline. Your content should be designed to be easily viewable on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or even a cellphone. A majority of the content should be easy to download and save to work on without an internet connection.
2. Get Organized. The learners of today are used to Googling information and looking things up online. But that doesn’t provide any excuses for not having your content collected and curated on a single platform and organized in a way that is intuitive for the user. You don’t want your learners spending too much time looking for the resources and information they need. That is a waste of valuable learning time that leads to frustration, decreased buy-in to the training, and on-the-job mistakes made due to lack of information. When possible, build a single learning platform for the sake of simplicity. Try to organize your content by subject, and make your links, downloads, and resources easy to find and access.
3. Go Social. Just because your eLearning content is intended for digital learning in a remote environment doesn’t mean you can’t add a personalized social element. In fact, your content and digital learning program will only improve by including peer to peer support and interaction, as well as learning from leadership. You can add a social element by including chat boards, saved videos, podcasts, real-time polling, and virtual. Instructor lead training sessions. Be sure to build time for these activities into your digital learning schedule to encourage participation and demonstrate your commitment to its success.

Additional Resources to Update Your eLearning Content

Not sure where to start? It’s always useful to begin by checking in with your employees. Your team will know what their pain points are and will appreciate your asking for feedback that may be used to improve their workplace and processes.

You may begin your information gathering process with leadership and management but be sure to include your staff in the initial stages. This involvement may be accomplished through informal conversation or more formalized surveys. You may also gather data on site usage from your IT team to gain insights on which digital learning resources are getting used, and those that are going unseen.

Finally, if needed, don’t hesitate to consult with a learning expert for a performance consultation or other resources from experienced instructional designers. The investment you make will pay big returns as you design more effective, impactful resources that improve the performance of your team and support the success of your organization.

The process to build, maintain, and improve your digital learning and eLearning resources will be continual – just as technology is constantly evolving. It’s always the right time to reassess and improve the assets you use to support your team.