My husband and I were talking one morning after the kids were off to school. He was telling me about this elearning course he wanted to finish that afternoon. By the time he was finished, I thought, “That’s the topic for my next newsletter!”
First, let me say that my husband works for a great company that has been incredibly supportive during the pandemic. Aside from this example, they also have other examples of really effective elearning.
Elearning Background
Here’s the background for the elearning he needed to complete.
- The course is about the company’s culture, values, mission, industry, etc.
- My husband has worked for this company since 2012, so he’s not a new employee.
- The elearning course has 23 hours of content.
- There is an exam at the end, and he needs to get 32 out of 40 questions correct.
- The exam is timed. He has 40 minutes to complete it, so 1 minute per question.
- If he doesn’t pass, he needs to retake the exam but has to wait two weeks before he can do so.
- The exam is ‘open book’ so he can reference the company’s website, annual reports etc. to find answers if needed.
- The course content is outdated and references information from 2018 – the number of employees, annual revenue, etc., but the company’s website, etc., includes current data.
- The course was originally written in another language, and the translation to English isn’t 100%. Some of the words to describe the mission, values etc., aren’t clear or are mixed up.
Elearning tips
Here are a six tips for designing elearning that will engage not frustrate learners.
On a personal note
In January 2020, I sent an email to friends and colleagues sharing that I was going to start a monthly newsletter. Who knew it would be such a challenging year!
Thank you for being on this journey with me – whether you received 12 newsletters, or this was your first one. I appreciate your support in a year when connecting with friends and colleagues has been so challenging.
I hope you have had a lovely December and some time the past couple of weeks to decompress and relax. I wish you all the best for 2021 and am looking forward to keeping in touch with you.
In case you missed it
I’ve shared some additional posts online. Here they are in case you missed them.
- Checklist for Critiquing elearning – Tips and a checklist you can download.
- How do Adult learning principles inform good instructional design? – Principles applied to elearning.
- Combatting the forgetting curve – Includes data on how to structure quiz questions.
- Tips for systems training delivered online
- Tips for motivating participants to complete pre-work
- Tips for including self-assessments with online training