eLearning course development is a vital process that ensures learners receive high-quality, engaging, and effective online education. In 2024, with the rise of digital learning, it’s more important than ever to follow proven steps to create courses that meet your audience’s needs. From content planning to launch, these 6 must-do steps will guide you in developing a successful eLearning course that stands out in today’s competitive landscape.
| Step | What To Do |
| 1 | Identify Your Audience |
| 2 | Clarify Course Goals and Learning Objectives |
| 3 | Decide How to Deliver the Course |
| 4 | Gather Information and Structure Your Content |
| 5 | Complete the Learning Materials |
| 6 | Publish Your eLearning Course |
Step 1: Identify Your Audience
Some clients of F.Learning tend to build a one-size-fits-all eLearning course. It’s not right. Your audience should never be everyone. We always require them to identify who their audience is before starting with content development.
It’s necessary because who they are, including ages, positions, educational levels, characteristics, etc., can significantly impact their learning style. Only when having a particular answer can your course touch and fulfill its audience’s demand.
For example, children love the content with funny and colorful designs like cartoons. So in a project with The Bar Models Company, F.Learning chooses animation to illustrate maths in a kid-friendly concept.
Step 2: Clarify Course Goals and Learning Objectives
Another key step in the preparation process is clarifying the online course’s aims and objectives. What results will learners get upon completing the training? Or what should they be able to do throughout the course? Answer those questions to define the purpose of your course.
A clear goal and objective will play a role as a guideline for your entire course. It also helps you design an eLearning course that is useful for learners.
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Step 3: Decide How to Deliver the Course
This step will determine how learners will approach knowledge and experience the learning of the course. The delivery needs to be cohesive with the learners’ learning style and leverage the value of knowledge.
There are 3 popular forms to develop eLearning courses; text-based, video-based, and game-based courses. This depends on your audience and learning objectives. A permaculture online course, for instance, needs to show scientific explanations that are hard to deliver just in words. That’s why we work with the lecturer to transform the content into animated explainer videos.
After deciding on the delivery form, you will know whether you can develop the course’ materials by yourself or not. You can assign it to your in-house team or outsource it to a professional partner.
TIPS #1:
We recommend you consider outsourcing the learning material development if you:
– Need a high-quality & professional content design
– Aim at building a strong brand name for your business
– Have no idea of how to design the course
Do not try to save your expense just by doing it yourself. A good partner can still offer you the best option within your tight budget.
Step 4: Gather Information and Structure Your Content
To gather all the knowledge for a successful eLearning course, you need to work closely with subject matter experts and stakeholders.
- Subject matter experts (SMEs) act as the key idea generator and are the major sources for information. They also help to validate and revise the learning materials later.
- Stakeholders can be the course’s project managers, upper managers, trainers, or any tech experts. All of them will support you to keep the project on track at all times.
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The next step in creating an eLearning course is to organize all the gathered information. A clear and strong course structure or outline allows learners to overview the entire curriculum better. Otherwise, a disorganized structure can confuse the learners and make them feel lost during the course.
Regarding the content structure, F.Learning recently suggested changing to the Pull structure, rather than the traditional Push structure.
Pull structure is an approach in which each learner can access all information simultaneously. And It’s the learner who decides what content will be pulled next. In this way, learners will have their process that matches their learning style. As a result, it encourages the learners to learn and engage more in the course.
(Design an eLearning course with the Pull structure solution – Source: eLearning Heroes)
TIPS #2:
If your eLearning course includes a large volume of knowledge or information, divide it into shorter sessions or modules. In other words, we recommend you repurpose it into “microlearning.”
A microlearning course contains a series of 5-8 minutes lessons. Each lesson, or module, covers only one topic and targets one learning objective. You should always remember this rule for the microlearning course: one lesson – one skill.
Learn more about how to repurpose the online training materials for microlearning.
After completing the preceding steps, you can now finalize the instructional design document. This will be your scaffold for creating an eLearning course. If you don’t know how to write it properly, refer back to our templates for the best instructional design document.
Step 5: Complete the Learning Materials
Put All Content Together
In particular, you will work on the detailed content for all the course sessions. It means that you need to fill in all the photos, videos, charts, infographics, or animations, in the outline.
TIPS #3:
In most cases of eLearning course developments, F.Learning always prioritizes the storytelling method if possible. It’s because storytelling can enhance the training by more efficient and engaging narrations rather than the dry academic details.
Besides, you can utilize storytelling in a wide range of eLearning topics such as application or soft-skills training.
Also, take a look: Amazing advantages of the storytelling method in corporate training
Add Suitable Interaction Factors
One vital element to creating a successful eLearning course is interaction. If an eLearning or online course lacks the instructors’ presence, it will lead to a geographical distance in teaching-learning activities.
Interaction factors in eLearning can help grasp the learners’ attention and maintain their engagement during the course. This completes the online learning experience while making it memorable.
Here are some ways that F.Learning suggests partners add some interactions into their eLearning courses:
- Asking questions: Raise some questions for learners to brainstorm or ask for their feedback about sessions.
- Making scenarios: a real-life scenario will make knowledge more practical to the learners. Learners will enjoy a situation that is relevant to learners’ actual experience.
- Creating groups or communities: online learning groups or communities are a great way for learners instructors or peers to communicate and connect.
Read F.Learning’s guide on interactive online training at:
Add Assessment and Knowledge Check
Whether it’s an offline or online course, assessments or knowledge checks are necessary to keep track of the learning process. A good assessment must be relevant and integrated into the learning process.
In eLearning courses, quizzes and tests are the primary tools for assessments and knowledge checks. This also measures the course’s effectiveness at the level of how learners understand and remember the provided information.
For more details on measuring online training effectiveness:
TIPS #4:
Among various types, interactive quizzes are the one that drives engagement the most. It helps learners retain new knowledge longer, so consider including suitable interactive quizzes in your eLearning courses if possible.
TIPS #5:
Many courses instructional designers suggest developing the assessments first before the learning materials. As you build the course to answer those questions, it ensures that your course can reach its learning objectives. So you can give it a try!
Step 6: Publish Your eLearning Course
Before officially launching, you can do a pilot run with a small group of learners. Remember to choose those who have little knowledge of the course’s topic so that you can gain further feedback.
Now that you’re ready with the final version of a successful eLearning course. It’s time to upload them to a platform or learning management system, launching the training to your target learners. And do not forget to market your course to reach as much audience as possible.
To Sum Up
Mastering the eLearning course development process in 2024 requires attention to detail and a structured approach. By following these 6 essential steps, you’ll develop eLearning courses that not only deliver value but also keep learners engaged. With the right strategies, your course can meet modern learning needs and drive long-term success.
In case you’re struggling with how to create eLearning courses at any stage, contact F.Learning for free consultations.
Preparation Checklist to Power your Digital Transformation
Wondering if you miss anything in your preparation to digitize your training? This is just what you need.
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Sean Bui, the founder and creative director of F.Learning Studio, is a respected leader in the e-learning and multimedia production industry. With over 10 years of experience, he has dedicated his career to helping organizations create engaging and impactful learning experiences.
Under his leadership, F.Learning Studio has grown into a trusted partner for organizations in the education, healthcare, and corporate training sectors, producing over 2,000 minutes of educational animation.
