A friend told me she'd thought about me recently when she had to do some eLearning at work. She said she wished I had designed it - It just wasn’t… (waving her hands around) engaging enough. It was the dreaded ‘read and click next’ eLearning. She works for a huge organisation, so I was pretty surprised that they were still putting their learners through this.
Here are some of my tips for creating engaging eLearning, designed with the learner in mind.
Assuming you have
all of your content ready
your learning objectives
some great ideas for your screens
are ready to start the build
Here are a few tips to help make your learning much more engaging.
Display Less Text
Not many people think ‘oh goody’ when presented with a huge block of text to read. There’s nothing more dauting for most learners, so keep paragraphs short.
You may not have written your content, but you can help to make it more digestible: You could have the paragraphs coming on screen one at a time - Once your learner has started reading the first paragraph, they are more likely to want to continue as more content appears.
Possibly the best solution though, is to have an action button to move on to the next paragraph. For example, you could have your first paragraph in a container with navigation to read the next part. Use headings for each section if you can, and add an image, illustration, or icon to represent each one.
Short Sentences
If you are writing your own content, keep sentences short. It makes it much easier to digest. Consider using bullet points where appropriate too.
Avoid what I call ‘flowery text’ where you use extra words that have no benefit to the learner. Forget school/college where you tried to pad out your text to reach a word count – now it’s the other way round! Say what you need to say with as few words as possible, while not losing the learning objective.
Clear Instruction
Ensure the learner knows what to do when they land on a page. Use arrows and other icons to point out any action needed. Don’t rely on written instruction only.
Most learners just want to get through their training as quickly as they can (unless it’s a subject they have chosen to learn about themselves), so specific, immediately clear instructions are vital.
Colour
Use colour to highlight actions. I like to stick with one highlight colour, along with black, greys and white. It makes the design clear and any highlighted action will really stand out.
Clear Layout
Don’t be tempted to fill the screen. White space is good!
If you use a gallery type of layout, use things like navigation pips so that the learner knows how far through they are.
Voiceover
If you are using voiceover, use it for everything and don’t use voiceover instead of text. Think accessibility for this one.
Easy Navigation
If you want a user to click buttons in a particular order, consider numbering them, or have them appear one at a time. Make sure buttons have a visited state so that the learner can clearly see where they’ve been and where they still need to go. Be consistent with the colour/style of your buttons – your learners want to intuitively see what to do next.
Give an Overview
If you have covered a lot of points in one slide, for example multiple buttons with content for each, consider summarising the main learning points using bullets.
Consolidate the Learning
To consolidate learning you can use quizzes or games. I always think of this separately to end of section tests or an end of module exam. It should be a bit of light-hearted fun with multiple attempts allowed to really help those learning points sink in. Think about what the learning objective of the section or whole module is, and base your game on that.
Designing for Errors
This one could be a whole new blog in itself! The basic idea is to think what your learners may do that will take them off track and cause them to miss vital learning. For example, if there are multiple actions to take on a slide before moving on, can you disable the next button until they have all been completed? Remember, if your learners make an error, it’s down to the design, not them. Mostly...
Take a step back
When you have completed your module, take a step back and go through the whole thing as if you have never seen it before. This can be a difficult trick to master but is well worth the effort. If you can, leave it until the next day when your mind is clear. Try to spot any errors the learner may make as they go through the module, as well as anything that isn’t clear, text that doesn’t flow well, and design inconsistencies. Think about the learning objectives and ensure they have been met.
I’m sure that there are many more, so please leave your thoughts in the comments. I’d love to hear them!