There’s a song by one of my favorite bands, The Police, called When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around. When it comes to creating E-learning, you can make the best of what’s around and not have to break the bank to create effective training. It’s not so much the tools or applications that are used to create E-learning, it’s about the strategy, design, planning and execution behind the training versus the authoring tool itself and its capabilities.
The E-learning authoring application industry is overwhelming. Anybody researching this field to find the right tool at the right price to meet their specific needs can spend days on this task. However, the tools to create E-Learning are only a means to an end. This week there were two readings for my class that discussed how effective E-learning can be created without high-end authoring tools. To be successful, it starts with taking on a different paradigm to E-learning.
The readings were excerpts from two books by Jane Bozarth:
- E-Learning solutions on a shoestring: Help for the chronically underfunded trainer
- Better than bullet points: Creating engaging e-learning with PowerPoint
People have different definitions of E-learning, but the end result (in my opinion) really defines the true meaning of E-learning. E-Learning comes in many forms, but ultimately it is designed to improve workplace or personal performance delivered by electronic means. Leveraging available technology to deliver training holds many benefits:
- Provides just in time training to help maintain productivity
- Cuts travel costs
- Cuts other associated training costs (trainer compensation, logistics costs, equipment purchases, etc.)
- Places more control in the hands of the learner and empowers them to set the course of their own training
Learners expect quality in their learning experiences, so the same should hold true in the content you provide. PowerPoint slides loaded with text and pictures pulled together to create a page-turner don’t equate to quality E-learning. Slides with audio and some interactions do bring a better learning experience. People like to rip on PowerPoint, and it is justified. If you are like me you have sat through very boring PowerPoint presentations passed off as E-Learning. Believe it or not, PowerPoint can be an effective E-learning tool. You just have to research the capabilities of the application and learn how to use them. According to a report by Ina Fried at CNet News, 9 out of ever 10 features customers wanted to see added to an Office product (like PowerPoint) were already in the program. They’re there, you just have to dig deeper to find them.
As Bozarth indicates in her E-learning solutions on a shoestring book, trainers and developers of E-learning need to focus on what matters. In most cases, it is the performance of the learner as a result of the training. Therefore you need to focus on the audience, their needs and leverage the tools you have available to create a quality learning experience.
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