To create amazing e-learning courses, it’s not enough to simply ‘know the lesson by heart.’ Online training requires you to be able to captivate the student with interesting content, yes, but it is also fundamental how it is presented before their eyes. Especially, when all of a sudden, trainings have completely turned around.
The fact that we no longer can attend to a regular classroom course has made the biggest difference. Now, professionals from the e-learning world must (re)adjust and manage teams in the long distance. This new paradigm requires new essential skills and tools for trainers to create successful trainings.
Essential skills to create effective e-learning courses
Advanced research skills: find the best information, faster
The digital era in general (and Google in particular) have led to a revolution when it comes to how we access to knowledge. Nowadays, we can easily access to any kind of information in seconds. Thanks to this, trainers can find all the data and references they need to give life to their e-learning contents.
However, it’s not all about researching. You should be very clear about the concepts and keywords you want to focus on so you don’t waste time on content that doesn’t lead you —or your audience— anywhere; use sources like Google Academic to get more professional search results and be sure your references are reliable.
Also, social media (such as Twitter or LinkedIn), where a lot of experts from the industry debate about different useful topics, is the perfect place to look for trends, innovation and shared knowledge. Leverage its potential!
Communication skills: what does your audience need?
Another key skill is to always keep in mind the type of audience you are targeting and what their needs are. For your e-learning courses to be a success, you should know who is consuming your trainings, what moves them, what their motivations are and what’s the best way to communicate your content so that it fits. Keep in mind that the learning process is not unilateral. You have the knowledge, but your audience is the one applying it afterwards. So, make communication seamless on both ends.
In 2020, the way we communicate has taken a huge step forward. The fact that we can’t interact with each other facto-to-face, has made Teams or Zoom the perfect apps for connecting with your audience in the long distance. Now, it’s your turn to make the most out of all these resources to increase the results of your trainings.
Skills to arouse emotions: create your own stories
When you see something that excites you and makes (a good) impression, your pupils dilate, the world outside disappears, and you focus all your attention on it. At that moment, you are truly feeling something, and there is no better start for any kind of training than to awaken this interest in your audience.
One of the simplest ways to do this is storytelling: creating stories that attract, connect and allow information to be more easily assimilated. What are the keys? Create contexts, characters, and problems that your audience can identify with, including in your storytelling analogies and more relaxed stories that add meaning and value to your storytelling.
In this article, we detail how to carry out effective storytelling and transform your courses into memorable stories.
Organizational skills: structure your content correctly
Having a good organization is important in all aspects of life. But it’s mostly a need when creating your e-learning content.
It often happens that the course content is very clear to the trainer, but it can lead to confusion for the interlocutors.
To avoid this, you must structure the information in a way that’s easy and visually attractive (in sections, and subsections…). This way, there is no room for getting lost throughout the course. Always using short and direct sentences and short paragraphs will be essential to bring dynamism to the content. This will help you solve problems beforehand and minimize doubts from your public, getting a remarkable learning experience.
Skills to impact your audience: amaze with your e-learning courses
Nowadays, beyond developing quality e-learning content, it’s crucial to create authentic learning experiences that encourage motivation, commitment, and participation among the alumni. Therefore, it’s important for you to incorporate interactive and multimedia elements in your courses, such as podcasts, infographics, or videos. They will make your training much more attractive and, let’s say it, fun.
Also, thanks to some gamification dynamics (games, tests, and exercises), you can ensure that the information has been correctly understood.
Skills to assess results: what is your users’ performance?
Assessment within e-learning is probably one of the most important concepts to keep in mind. But always in both ways:
- Evaluate yourself as a trainer. I.e., be your critic. Does the offered content fit the training needs of your company? Does it achieve the desired goals? Does it fit strongly with your interlocutors? Does it have practical applications?
- Evaluate the knowledge your students acquired or let them do it themselves through exercises that, in an entertaining way, check which knowledge they have internalized and which they have not.
Having a versatile assessment system that you can configure yourself is fundamental to guaranteeing the real effectiveness of your courses.
As our last suggestion, we recommend you be flexible. Adaptability will be your best friend when training in e-learning, which offers us infinite possibilities. Benefit from them all!
Tools that will increase your productivity when creating e-learning courses
Okay, you have all the essential skills for creating amazing e-learning courses. But… This means nothing if you don’t own the proper tools to develop them. Down below, you can discover three (very) important tools you must have to implement your training plan:
An LMS (Learning Management System)
An LMS is an indispensable tool for any trainer who wants to keep track of their users’ progress. Thanks to this kind of learning systems, employees can check their progress and see how far they’ve come, making their experience more positive while gaining autonomy.
Virtual classrooms
In 2021, online platforms that ease exchanging information between the trainer and the user will be a basic need. What are their biggest benefits? They don’t have time or space limitations, unlike traditional classrooms. Participants don’t have to travel from point A to point B, they can follow their schedule, and it’s possible to access to the platform from anywhere (in the world!).
A software to create your e-learning courses.
The most important thing is to own a dynamic and usable tool that allows you to be autonomous when creating your content. This way, you won’t need support from external training services, and you will be able to create all the courses you need very easily.
Also, when picking the right software to create your e-learning courses, choose one that allows you to design appealing, agile, and interactive courses that catches your users’ attention.
And you? Do you want a software for creating your e-learning courses that leverage your skills as a trainer and simultaneously, transform your courses into memorable stories, with interactive and dynamic resources? Try isEasy Author for free, the #1 software to create your e-learning courses.
