A solid course creation workflow is essential to optimizing your eLearning training program. The content you provide your employees will determine what they know and whether skill gaps exist.
Career development is a key perk that top talent looks for in a company. That means your training courses affect hiring and employee retention.
Whether you have a full training program in place or are building from the ground up, it’s important to have a streamlined course creation workflow. This should cover all the necessary bases and allow your team to produce quality content without a large time investment.
Perfecting course creation will also help you figure out how to build effective employee development plans with your LMS.
The following will help you get started. Honing your course creation workflow is an ongoing process. Pay attention to new developments in eLearning to ensure that you are using the best tools for your industry and purpose. Business goals change, which can lead to a need to shift training focus or to update your workflow.
To begin, you need to know what you want to get out of each course your team creates.
Defining a Training Goal for a New Course
It is nearly impossible to build an effective course if you don’t know what you want to get out of it. Define a training goal that outlines what you want to achieve.
Knowing your audience is important to determine what information to deliver and how to deliver it. The training material should be presented in a way that matches the knowledge and skill level of the learners using it. A course created for onboarding new hires will be less complex than content created for a high-level employee with a specialized job role.
What do you want to get out of the training? Why is this going to be a good time investment for your employees? Some common goals include:
- Training on newly introduced technology or industry developments
- Improving performance or productivity inconsistencies
- Closing skill gaps for specific jobs or teams
- Meeting compliance and certification requirements
Some goals may be more specialized for specific job roles, while others may be broader for a larger audience.
Know What eLearning Tools Are Available to Reach Training Goals
Familiarize yourself with the eLearning tools that are available to you. There are many to choose from that cover just about anything and everything.
Today’s LMS platforms offer a long list of built-in features that can help expand and diversify your training content. Check out online LMS reviews to learn more about what’s out there.
Make sure that anyone who participates in course creation knows about the available tools as well. This is something that doesn’t have to be done every time, but should be done initially and each time new training tools are added.
Develop Your New Course Outlines and Storyboards
Next, you’ll need to create an outline and/or storyboard. This will serve as a road map for developing your new training course.
This should show all the key points the course needs to cover. It should also organize those points into a logical order. Outlines and storyboards help show the connection between each topic and how they build off each other.
A written storyboard may be sufficient, while visual storyboards may work well for courses that include simulations, video, or animations.
Build Quality Training Content or Bring in Content
Using your storyboard or outline, you can begin creating each piece of training content. This includes text documents, videos, audio files, images, and scheduled lectures. The number of items a course contains will vary.
Some organizations create training content in-house. This is appealing because it gives you complete control over what’s included, how it’s presented, and branding, if applicable. The downside is that doing it in-house requires more time and resources to produce.
Others prefer to bring in third-party content. Many LMS platforms connect with eLearning marketplaces. These sell ready-to-use courses that can be imported to your chosen platform.
There is no hard rule about how to obtain content. Some organizations choose one method exclusively, while others prefer a mix of in-house and third-party content.
Include a Way to Assess Progress and Obtain Course Feedback
Courses should include assessments and a way to obtain feedback. These two tools are essential for ongoing performance tracking and improvement.
Assessments show how successful learners are with the course. Look for trends in assessment results. A course that gets a lot of passing assessments is likely well-designed. One that is consistently getting poor or failing assessments needs improvement.
Learner feedback is a valuable resource. Your trainees can share their experiences and thoughts to help you find ways to improve or expand your training program.
Confirm That Courses Support Accessibility and Mobile-First Design
Courses should be created with accessibility in mind. Accessibility means that a course is designed for all learners, including those with disabilities. When a course is more accessible, everyone benefits.
Mobile-first design is another important element in course development. It ensures that all employees can access courses no matter what device they use. Mobile-first design is done by beginning the design process using the smallest screen and then enhancing content for larger screens.
That means that someone on a mobile phone will have the same or similar experience as someone using a large tablet, laptop, or desktop computer.
Most LMSs give users 24-hour access to course content. Many businesses train with self-paced courses, which means the learner works through content on their own rather than in a scheduled classroom. Being able to access courses on different devices at any time is essential to providing a flexible learning experience.
Check in with Your Subject Matter Experts and Test the Course
Checking in with your team’s subject matter experts can help hone each course. Depending on the complexity of the topic, you may want to consult subject matter experts before developing content. These are the people who can provide advice and guidance and ensure accuracy.
When completed, it can help to have a subject matter expert review the course to check for issues or missing instruction.
This step may not be as essential for basic topics but is especially helpful when dealing with difficult or niche topics.
All courses should go through a testing phase before being published. Have a team that can go through the course and check for problems.
Publish and Distribute Your New Courses
Now that your course is finished and polished, it’s time to publish and distribute it. Most eLearning platforms include ways to get the course in front of the employees who need it.
You should also consider these 7 important employee training questions that your LMS can answer.
Once a new course is created and published, it’s considered complete. It’s important to continue monitoring performance. Continue reviewing assessments and feedback. New developments should be reflected in the material.
Continuing to tweak and improve the course will ensure that it provides a quality training experience for every employee who uses it.
