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subject matter expert (SME) is an expert in a particular field and has strong expertise and skills in the specific topic. An SME can be anywhere—HR, sales, finance, and other departments. In elearning, SMEs play an important role while creating high-quality online courses. They mainly concentrate on the quality of learning and make the module more efficient. They help in defining learning objectives, crafting content, and providing valuable feedback while developing the course. In general, if you need to create a practical training course, transferring knowledge with subject matter experts is essential so that your workflows and information are appropriately managed to complete the critical elearning course requirements.

However, in the starting of the storyboard method, it is highly suggested for an Instructional Design professional to discuss with the subject matter experts and recognise the necessities for the content. This will make sure a smooth flow of communication and assist in obtaining strategies to build up elearning modules that assemble the clients’ potentials.

When the efforts offered by the client are not understandable, learning developers look for help from the SME to recognise the content. The SMEs can facilitate the elearning developers by providing the correct understanding of the material.They will explain the complex animations and procedures in terms of easy learning units. Moreover, they will also provide you with the advice to make use of the interactivities, graphics, images and engaging functionality according to learning requirements.

Are you looking to develop training courses without the help of a professional instructional designer? If yes, you can build up rich and interactive sessions with the use of instructional design software or rapid authoring tools. However, it may be challenging for you to select the right design software tool that caters to your need. Through this guide, we will help you to choose the right tool for creating a practical training course for your employees.

When you are deciding which instructional design software you need, consider these following questions

·         Does the product come with training or online support? How complicated is the product, and can it be taught? Are there others in your business or group using the tool?

·         What is your business willing to pay for? Explore all alternatives, including free of charge, open source, and commercial software.

·         What kind of files and images will you be functioning with? Will your product be able to be uploaded to your Learning Management system (LMS)?

·         What functionality do you require? Are you forming videos, audios, or gamifying your online classes? Do you want to gather data to review the efficiency of your content?

 Adobe Captivate

This software helps you to make responsive elearning content and convert non-mobile courses to mobile learning content. You can use Adobe Captivate to create courses and tests on LMS, presentations, videos and many more. There are various options available on Adobe Captivate that appeal to both non-technical users and highly skilled instructional designers.

 iSpring Suite

An authoring toolkit that you can use for developing elearning courses in Microsoft PowerPoint, you can quickly build courses with surveys, interactions, quizzes, assessments and additional practice material.However, you only need to download iSpring Suite as an add-on for PowerPoint for creating these presentations.

 CloudApp

CloudApp is an enterprise-level application that can be used to create content for training employees on software applications rapidly. Explaining a course by essentially showing the steps drawn in it gives a lot more clearness to the employees. CloudApp includes screenshots, GIFs, screen recording, and the editing of captured elements. It is compatible with apps like Atlassian JIRA, Slack, Trello, and Zendesk, and as a result you can quickly share course content for any specific question or course.

 Kahoot

Kahoot is a game-based learning and trivia proposal. This is a good quality tool to have as acomponent of your instructional design software collection. You can make quizzes on any topic in any language and run extremely interactive training conference on offline or online mode. Kahoot has a widespread bank of premade quizzes. After an examination, learners can give immediate feedback.

Integration of graphics and images into your elearning training programs can enhance learner engagement and make your elearning course more aesthetically attractive. Therefore, you must know the ways to incorporate these visual elements into your instructional design process effectively. Instructional graphics, images, diagrams, and figures manipulate the efficiency of elearning courses and make a world of difference when they are appropriately used. Here we will share with you the ways you can choose graphics so that you are guaranteed that in the area of images, you deliver a consistent, truly inspirational and helpful elearning experience to your employees.

Determine Your Budget

The first step you need to perform before choosing the graphics for elearning courses is to determine the budget because its size will influence your collection. This will save you time and effort.  However, if you are unable or unwilling to pay for graphics, search for free clip art, images, and illustrations. If you are familiar with graphic design, you can directly and easily createyour own examples. In general, you should understand how image rights work and knowing the terms of use of your graphics will assist you in evading possible fines and legal costs.

Precise Scale Between Quality and Size

Whenever you involve various graphics in your instructional design, varying size and quality can irritate or confuse your viewers. Therefore you should consider the following points:

·         Do not overload your slides with visuals

·         Optimise all graphics so that they can be uploaded rapidly in all internet connections, while still being visibly appealing

·         Suitable formats for your graphics like GIF for charts and graphics, JPEG for images and many more

·         Apply the same sizes to all visual elements and compress down the large ones into one selected size

·         Make use of a visual hierarchy, since graphics arean additional method to guide your learners through your elearning courses and instructional design process.

·         Regulate your colour scheme for all graphics as it is key to visual communication

Concentration Navigation Graphics

However, if you find it complicated to navigate through elearning courses, then you may use navigation aids like arrows, previous and next buttons. Make sure that they are appropriately labelled andcontinuously placed logically in the instructional design. Furthermore, you may also employ colours to highlight their functionality. Keep navigation simple so that your learners can easily use and identify where they are at any instant and where they can move ahead. You must test your navigation many times to make sure that they are functioning correctly.

 The Bottom Line

Getting a corporate elearning program designed and implemented for your company is not a simple task. Firstly the learning and development executive will examine the requirements of every department and every employee in the case of custom learning. Next comes content curation, in which a manager needs to search the internet and other resources to look for content suitable for employees. Further, when it comes to designing, the first framework of corporate instructional design or storyboarding is outlined out by a learning professional. Then there is a need to find the learning management software to deliver and schedule the training program for every employee easily.

Unfortunately, the job is not complete yet. What about the evaluation of elearning programs? You may have formed the best training program,but it would not be functional if it does not deliver the desired results. How do you know whether it has failed or succeeded?  Evaluation is the end game that plays an essential part in a corporate training program. Through this article, we will provide you with some methods to evaluate your corporate training program.

 Focus Team

You may choose some employees who are best at examining things. Confer them a pilot test before launching your elearning course for the rest of the staff members. Ask them for feedback,or it might be better if you plan a set of questions for them. For instance, what are the drawbacks they realise in the elearning course? Will the elearning program influence job performance, and can the learning be applied in real life? As a result, this method of evaluation will make you sure to correct the errors in corporate instructional design before introducing it to other employees.

 Online Forums

As your employees are involved in the training program, it is the best way to understand program mistakes or negative aspects from them. You can create an online forum in which your employees can discuss ideas to enhance your elearning programs. The feedback you obtain will be invaluable for you. You must include a moderator in the online forum so that they can get the discussion back on track when it veers off topic.

 Assessments

Assessments are valid tests that will make clear whether employees are learning or not. It should involve multiple choice questions or true-false type questions so that it should be easy for employees. Your assessments should be designed in the way to collect maximum measurable data. As a result, this data will enlighten you as to what each employee wants to master and what each does exceptionally well. Furthermore, you could also accomplish pre-assessments to assess employees on a class of ‘before and after’ basis.

Are you looking to cut down your elearning course development time without giving up elearning personalisation? Do you want to offer your online learners modified course content that fits their targets? Most of the elearning professionals make use of elearning templates and online asset libraries to createcost-effective elearning courses. Nowadays there are various applications that you can use to automate your instructional design process. Complex equations and computer coding permit professionals to design personalised elearning courses and examine online learner progress.In this article, we will discuss everything you need to know about elearning automation.

 Elearning automation can enhance the efficiency of your training course and save you time and resources. With the power of algorithms, your instructional design elearning course provides personalised content according to the online learner’s requirements. However, elearning authoring tools permit you to assess your online learners and give instant feedback. Instructional designers use algorithms for all automated elearning courses. These programming codes control several parts of elearning course design. For instance, elearning content your online learners can access and questions that appear in their elearning evaluations can be automated.

Furthermore one of the most common applications of automated instructional elearning course is an exam. The Learning Management System (LMS) creates the questions and then scores them. Moreover, it also gives instantaneous feedback and exposes the right answer to the learner. With the help of automated instructional design, you are also capable of building up custom elearning content. For example, the platform discovers that an online learner is stressed with a particular issue. As such, it will direct them to review a section instead of giving them the permission to move forward.  Future automated elearning courses may develop elearning content with the help of subject matter experts’ conditions and pre-determined objectives.

Instructional design personalisation maximises the learners’ engagement and motivation in the training courses.  Online learners understand that elearning content is significant to their requirements and goals and are more likely to take part in the elearning experience. Instructional designers can make elearning assessments that progressively become more complicated as the questions advance. This helps online learners isolate their acquaintance and ability gaps so that they can look for additional assets. Encourage online learners to obtain the complete advantage of your elearning course and are probably going to turn out to be lifetime, online learners.

Let’s explore the renowned conflict between the two most well-known instructional design methodologies: Agile vs ADDIE. Both of these approaches have benefits and drawbacks. You may decide to change your approach according to your project that you are spearheading. Through this guide, I will assist you in taking a deep dive into these methodologies, examining them and comparing their differences and similarities.

ADDIE Model

Florida State University created the ADDIE model in the mid-1970s to provide a framework to organise training for the United States Army. ADDIE is an acronym formed by the five words as follows: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. However, the ADDIE methodology was built on a linear model; one would need to complete every stage of ADDIE with results before moving ahead to the next step.  As a result, it takes times to complete, and so it is best for longer term projects. In ADDIE, project management can be easy and based on a comprehensive master plan.

Agile Model

The Agile Development Model for Instructional Design has formed its own set of acronyms, with “SAM” which stands for Successive Approximation Model.  A central principle of these models is that after the primary necessities are recognised and implied, fast prototyping and iterative design suggest the delivery of content and to make sure deliverables aggregate client expectations. However instructional designers who are comfortable with the ADDIE model need to learn the following core competencies for using Agile.

·         Flexibility-You can quickly review the prototypes with the project stakeholders after the first stage.

·         Collaboration- In Agile, multiple people take the lead in the different stages. You can share your ideas and concerns for the best learning solution development

·         Being acceptable with malfunction-Failingquickly is significant to Agile improvement success.

·         Course understanding- If you have never developed learning solutions, here in the Agilemethodology, you can research earlier for the topic as much as you need to.

In the modern world, the term Agile is becoming increasingly popular these days. It provides a wide range of benefits for elearning professionals because it makes elearning design more valuable, practical and well-organised.However, what is Agile, and what are the advantages it offers experts while developing the next elearning course?

The Agile instructional design approach is a project-oriented method introduced by Conrad Gottfredson. It covers the five phases included when designing elearning course: Align, Get set, Iterate and implement, Leverage and Evaluate.

According to Gottfredson, Agile is geared towards meeting the requirements of today’s companies to be agile and adaptive. However, the organisations are continually looking for faster and more resourceful ways to teach their employees and enhance their job performance. Agile is an iterative method that provides them chances to use feedback, collaboration and iterations for streamlining the development and design process. As a result, it will speed up elearning course development time and completes elearning deliverable in a more thriving manner.

The Agile Instructional Design Process

 First, instructional designers will meet with all clients, employees, stakeholders, elearning professionals and elearning experts and prepare a plan for moving ahead with the progress of the elearning course. Then all the members of the business agree upon the manifestation and core elearning content of elearning lessons. Next, designers will develop segments rapidly that were discussed before. However, there will be one more meeting to concentrate on any additions or alterations that need to be made before moving to the next step. After solving all problems, the elearning team will repeat the process for every section of the elearning course. Consequently, all parts of the elearning content are entirely developedbefore creating the next module or unit.

Benefits of Agile Instructional Design

 Agile instructional design concentrates on the learners and ways through which they interact with the elearning course itself. During every meeting, the instructional designers take serious consideration of the needs of the learner and how they will connect and take part in the elearning course. These help elearning professionals design training courses that are more engaging and immersive. Another essential feature of Agile design in elearning course is collaboration. The members from each range are included,i.e. stakeholders to actual learners. All teams can share their opinions and feedback, which in turn give elearning professionals the benefits of insight and capabilities of other members. All groups are confident to voice their anxiety, draw attention to any issues they may discover, and offer suggestions that will create the complete elearning course and appealing elearning practice for the target audience.

Instructional design has evolved over the years to become an essential part of business and industry. The integrations of advanced technologies like cloud computing, microblogging and many more will continue transforming instructional design into a useful learning experience for users.

Let us examine the progress these technologies have already made and learn how they could potentially be used in the future.

 Artificial Intelligence

Also called machine intelligence, makes data-driven analysis and decisions faster than that of humans. It adds context, personalisation and relevance to the learning experiences in learning and development. Furthermore, AI also provides feedback of training programs to employers. It is creating unparalleled opportunities for employee development in the workplace. In the future, AI will involve 3D experiences to guide employees. Since the cost of virtual reality training will decrease, managers will be capable of employing it to offer hands-on training in any circumstance they require to inspire instantaneously.AI makes the ideal learning experience for employees to make sure that they meet business and performance objectives. Also, employees will be even more connected to the work environment, creating a modified experience to hold employees' concentration stronger. AI also highlights areas that need improvement in teaching or training software.

 Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is not only useful for storing data but also for much more through the web browser. You do not need to have a license to install software on every computer. Software-as-a-service model minimises the costs of a monthly or annual subscription fee. However, it can be used by both instructional designers and clients. There would be no need for printing and publication. Therefore, the cost of manual books will also come down dramatically. Companies may seek out more multimedia resources if they are previously looking for most of their materials online.

Moreover, you may also transform your instructional design digital course with cloud computing software so that your clients can remain up to date with learning. Cloud-based programs are frequently more compatible with various types of devices, from desktops to smartphones. Through cloud computing, you can share content quickly and work together with each other.

 Virtual Reality

Virtual reality allows learners to interact directly with instructional design materials.  They do not have to watch passively or read about a particular topic for a long time. Instead, they can experience it for themselves. It is designed to create engaging interactions that help the learner to incorporate new information, concepts, and ideas, and results in the capture of new transferable skills.  This feature is also used for creating imaginary characters for playing games in the real world. Business owners can use virtual reality to change the décor of the office and do modifications before an actual change can take place.

The ADDIE model is an instructional design method that helps you to systematise as well as modernise the production of your course content. Introduced in 1970, it is still commonly used for instructional design due to its simple and useful features. Through this blog, I will make clear the various steps involved and how you can start streamlining ADDIE as a technique in your instructional design.

ADDIE is an abbreviation for the five phases: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. Its success depends on each stage, and the method should be used with a focus on iteration and reflection. Moreover, it offers you a streamlined, focused approach that provides feedback for continuous improvement.

 Analysis

The analysis phase can be recognised as the goal setting stage. In this stage, the instruction issue is clarified; goals and objectives of the companyget established; and the learning atmosphere and learners’ existing skills are acknowledged. During the analysis phase, you need to address the following questions:

·         What are the delivery options?

·         Who are audiences and their characteristics?

·         What is your deadline for project completion?

·         What are the needs of employees?

·         What were any learning constraints used earlier?

 Design

The design stage deals with exercises, SME (subject matter expert) analysis, lesson planning, media selection, learning objectives, and assessment instruments. Your design phase should be systematic and specific.  You should have a systematic and logical way to identify, develop and evaluate a strategy’s target for reaching the project goals. However, every element of the instructional design plan must properly be executed with proper details.

 Development

In the development phase, developers formulate and assemble the content resources that were designed in the design stage. Programmers work to develop or incorporate technologies. Furthermore, testers will execute debugging methods. Finally, the project will be reviewed and revised according to the feedback given.

 Implementation

The development phase is where the software for training the learners and facilitators is developed.The facilitators’ training must cover the course prospectus, learning effects, the system of delivery, and testing or assessment procedures. Preparation of the learners takes into account training them on the latest new hardware or software tools.

 Evaluation

The last stage of the ADDIE model is Evaluation. It consists of two parts, named as formative and summative. Formative assessmentis done in every phase of the ADDIE process. On the other hand, summative assessment involves testing for domain-specific criteria and offers opportunities for feedback from the users.

Did you know how elearning came into being? Globalisation is one of the factors that demanded an online training solution for employees: located in multiple, dispersed geographical locations, training them via traditional methods would be time-consuming and costly for business owners. Moreover, markets are expanding and products are increasingly specialized and localized. These are the reasons that there is a need for online learning development process to update employees’ knowledge and skills.

ELearning development process is the modern technology that you can use to enable your employees to learn whenever they want. It is created by taking into account adult learning theories, learning styles and instructional design principles. There are six stages involved in elearning design, and the development process is as follows: Analysis, Design, Development, Evaluation Implementation,Translation, and Learning Management System hosting.

Adult Learning Theories

The way adults learn is different from that of children. Adult learning theories are not simply a gathering of dialects, models, and thoughts concerning how adults learn. There are various theories of adult learning categorised as and ragogy, neuroscience, experiential learning, self-directed learning, and transformational learning. Each theory has one aim: to create a productive learning experience for the adult corporate learner. These provide instructional designers with as tructure or guidelines for developing content for adult learners from different perspectives

Learning Styles

Every individual has different learning approaches. Some prefer to learn quickly through reading, while others like hearing or performing practically for particular topics. Therefore, your learning development process requires dealing with the various style of learning. You must do it properly by adding text, graphics, videos, and audio to your programs.

Instructional Design Principles

In the end, you need to apply instructional design principles to make learning easy for employees. Various instructional design models need to be followed, depending on the audience profile and issues. ADDIE is the most common model used to prescribe an audience and content examination; designing of the course in terms of visual, instructional and auditory policy; developing the course utilising the elearning authoring tools; implementation ;and finally, evaluation.

Learning and development training often goes unnoticed and underappreciated as an employee retention and recruitment tool. It is one of the essential things that you need to consider when you decide the budget for your business.  However,organising professional learning and development conferences programs will help your employees to perform their best and to prepare them for a position with more significant tasks. Furthermore, continuing professional development is very engaging for a lot of employees who are currently looking to extend their skills in a rapidly shifting global market.

Let us discuss the rewards you will gain by organising learning and development seminars for your team

Make Your Company More Interesting

When you provide opportunities for L&D, you gain a positive reputation as a boss that cares about staff and makes every effort to employ only the best. Furthermore, your clients and customers will reap the benefits, as they will eventually receive a high level of efficient service. Remember, employees are the outward face of your business and they are your brand ambassadors. Whenever they attend these workshops or conferences, they represent and reveal all the right features of your organisation.

Retaining the Best Talent

A professional development program helps employees to stay interested in their profession. It opens up new possibilities, knowledge, strategies and skill areas for your team. Attending conferences is one of the most significant providers of the most current information for a particular line of work. Moreover, it also benefits employee retention, as it assists in promoting as well as grooming of the strongest talent. As a company CEO or manager, motivate your employees to seek out conferences that are suitable for your company and their skill sets.

Making Your Succession Planning Easy

Do you experience that some of your employees decline from seeking promotions and additional responsibilities? L&D programs are the best tool for preparing up and coming leaders for your organisation. Hence if you’re thinking of giving promotions to your staff on administrative positions in the future, targeted training will help you to prepare the best and brightest employee for a move up. They will become aware of the changing trends and technologies coming their way in the industry. Keep in mind, the more knowledge an individual receives for a specific skill, the more confidently he or she will perform in your business.

 The Bottom Line

 You are investing in the learning and development of employees and also as an aid to improve their experience. Making an investment in the future of a worker can demonstrate that you are eager to help them reach their full potential. When you have a business full of appreciated individuals, self-esteem and productivity will always surpass your expectations.

Are you thinking that elearning course creation is simply too stressful and time-consuming? Don’t worry. Through this article, we will discuss the tips that you can use to create successful elearning without having any specialised training in visual design, technical applications and many more.

 Select an Authoring Tool That Is Best for You

The elearning authoring tools you choose and utilise can make or break your elearning course. Therefore, it is required to opt for the best elearning authoring tool that provides the functionality and features you want. You must evaluate the skills and abilities of your team to search for the right options. However, if you know that your team has less experience in programming and graphic design, then you should look for the tool that includes primary features with pre-made templates or a graphics library. In the event you have a team of elearning experts who have vast knowledge and talent, then select an authoring tool that offers you advanced features and functions you need to design dynamic and immersive elearning instructional design for your training courses.

 Your Elearning Audience and Subject Matter Experts

An elearning professional often makes mistakes when developing a course. They do not efficiently examine and analyse the audience or review the resources of subject matter experts (SMEs). Therefore, you must enlist the aid of SMEs to get an idea of what type of content should be added and omitted in your elearning courses. You should conduct surveys and interviews to obtain feedback from the learner audience and focus groups. By doing so, you will be able to acquire an in-depth understanding of what learners look forward to accomplishing while participating in an elearning course and their potential for learning.

  Make an Elearning Template or Use an Existing One

Various elearning tools provide access to the page layout templates,and you can use those templates in your elearning course design. This will help you to reduce elearning course development time. However, you may also customise the templates to include your business branding. Customisation will give experienced professionals the ability to develop their elearning courses without the need for programming and design knowledge.

 Choose a Cloud-Based Learning Management System

However, experts may design complete elearning course from initial to the final stage with a Web-based learning management system. If you do not have much understanding about elearning instructional design, you can log in with the helpful platforms like Litmos, Docebo, or Talent LMS and integrate your custom content. You can import graphics and multimedia components into your elearning courses. Also, you may add quizzes into your sessions and make an instructive calendar that highlights essential task targets and learning events for your beginners. You may also incorporate links to videos, presentations and other online resources directly into your elearning courses. Your design will look more polished and professional because videos can be directly played within the elearning framework. Do not use long blocks of text; you can break down content into bullet points or bolded subheadings to avoid cognitive overload.

A Learning Management System is one of the best ways for a corporate subject matter expert to deliver e-learning content to employees. But e-learning content does not automatically emerge in an attractive style. That’s where the technology of elearning authoring tools enters the picture within the growing Ed Tech Industry. Here we will discuss some of the more popular authoring tools, as each can be custom-made to suit the needs of your training programs.

Adobe Captivate

Adobe Captivate is one of the most powerful elearning authoring tools available for both Windows and Mac OS. It allows the user to update information on storyboards that contain elearning elements and publish to the cloud for presentation. Furthermore, you can also modify your courses to automatically adjust or respond to various devices and examine sizes with relatively well-designed layouts and geolocation support. You can also record and introduce multiple video formats and coordinate audio or visuals with slides and instance objects. It also allows you to import your PowerPoint presentations into elearning projects. Hence, it is best suitable for use in corporations and large businesses for creating training courses that look attractive and consistent.

 Articulate Storyline

Storyline provides customizable workspaces with basic templates to make entirely eye-catching, immersive, and appealing courses. It is available in five languages and helps you import existing content from PowerPoint slides. You can publish the courses to HTML5 and Flash for use with iPad or Android applications. Users may also make, import and edit audio, images, and videos to incorporate multimedia objects into their training courses. You may use layers and triggers for making objects respond to learners’ actions, in order to construct complex customer interactions.  Through Storyline, you may also examine learners’ understanding and progress by creating quizzes or import existing content to create a question bank. However, your developers can create complex learning courses with a professional tool having complex functionality. The storyline also has relationships with elearning heroes, with a robust community site where they can get free templates, and specialised assistance and users can post regarding ways to take the most advantage of the software.

 Elucidat

Elucidat is one of the cloud-based and responsive elearning authoring tools that facilitate teamwork among group members in a training team. One of the features is a comment system like Google Docs so that users can discuss if they need any changes in the courses. It has gamification elements like badges and points to enhance learners’ engagement in the training courses, and analytics to determine course efficiency. Moreover, it offers two extraordinary time-saving capabilities. Elucidat Rapid Release syncs Elucidat with your company website and Learning Management System so that you can merely modernise content without the need for re-uploading files on those systems. Another helps you to identify the master elements and change them within the courses where they are needed. For instance, if you change your brand name and put a new logo, then your updated logo will automatically replace the old in all courses.