New to E-Learning? Here are Some Simple Steps to Help You Get Started by Tom Kuhlmann

"To a novice even simple things seem complex. And when things appear complex, we can become frustrated or feel like we don’t have the skills to accomplish what it is we want to do." writes Tom Kuhlmann, The Rapid E-Learning Blog. 

I recall years ago when I was learning video production. I felt like my skills were inadequate (which they were). So my instructor told me to record some television commercials and then break them down into pieces to see how they were built. He said that this would help me focus less on the glossiness of the commercials and more on their construction. So I recorded commercials and then built a storyboard around the different scenes in them. I made notes of the scenes, where the edits were, and what might have motivated the edits.

The Basics

Photo: The Rapid E-Learning Blog

In a very simple sense an elearning course is about creating an environment where a person goes from a point of not knowing to knowing. They’re at point A today and tomorrow they need to be at point B. The course is about helping them get from A to B.

Here are what I see as common “chunks” that make up an elearning course.

• Welcome: some sort of title screen that welcomes the learner
• Instructions: review of the interface and how to navigate the course
• Introduction: information about the course and its purpose
• Objectives: learning objectives and reason for taking the course
• Section screens: this is the area that holds the core content. Each section can have its own welcome, instructions, content, assessment, and summary
• Assessment: process to review overall understanding
• Summary: summary of course objectives
• Resources: additional content and resources that augment the course and support ongoing learning
• Exit: next steps and see you later alligator

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Source: The Rapid E-Learning Blog