Designing E-Learning: Outside the Box

In many ways, designing successful e-learning is a nearly impossible task.

The complexity can be overwhelming, with challenges coming from voluminous content that somehow manages to be incomplete, unsympathetic technology, anxious and inattentive learners, inadequate budgets, subject matter experts who are asked to be designers, and restrictive deadlines.

Simpler media present fewer design and development challenges, expose fewer design weaknesses, and cost less to develop. Unfortunately, they typically have limited potential. Any ineffective solution is expensive, but poorly designed e-learning ups the ante in wastefulness.

So what can workplace learning professionals do differently?

Before revamping the list of design responsibilities, we must first define what we mean by successful design. I do not think e-learning or any other educational program is successful if it results only in high posttest scores. I do not think success is reached if the targeted audience comes only to know things it didnt before. No one succeeds just by knowing things. Success comes from doing the right thing at the right time.