#custom elearning content development

In today’s quick-moving work world, how well people do their jobs can give a company a real edge. For better results, businesses need to put time into training tools that adapt easily, hold attention, stay relevant to workers’ actual tasks. That’s when tailored online courses start making sense. Instead of one-size-fits-all lessons, made-to-order digital training helps firms shape material around their own values, workflows, targets, specific team hurdles. For more information, visit us-

In the ever-evolving world of digital learning, businesses and educational institutions are increasingly turning to custom eLearning development to meet their unique training needs. Unlike off-the-shelf solutions, custom e learning offers personalized, targeted, and scalable solutions that align closely with organizational goals and learner requirements. Whether you’re a training manager, instructional designer, or L&D leader, understanding the best practices for custom elearning content development is essential for creating impactful and effective learning experiences.

You’ve decided to leverage the power of game-based learning to create a serious game that trains users while being entertaining and engaging. You’re ready to get started.

An important early step is to decide what kind of game will suit your pedagogical needs. It depends on your industry, learners, and subject matter, in addition to some other factors.

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What are the possible structures for an e-learning game?

There are many kinds of video game, which can be adapted to suit e-learning requirements. Broadly, they can be categorized as below:

Role-playing games

Role-playing games involve the player acting as the main character in a storyline. Gameplay depends on their decisions, and the flow of events is not determined until the player has taken those decisions. Theoretically, there is an infinite number of possible paths, and gameplay is different every time that the learner participates in the learning game.

Some examples of role-playing games are The Witcher, Mass Effect, and Dungeons & Dragons.

Such role-playing games can be used in conjunction with strategy-based decision games, to allow employees to choose their own path and identify if their choices are the right ones.

For instance, a role-playing strategy game would be one where the learner’s character begins as an entry-level sales executive. They engage with customers, ask questions and make suggestions and decisions. Based on their decisions, new scenarios are presented to the learner, and the learner progresses through a career, learning along the way through role-based on-the-job training.

Strategy games

These games involve the application of thought and — as the name suggests — strategy, to achieve game objectives in the most efficient way possible. There’s a minimum amount of luck involved, since the priority is to figure out solutions to various problems.

It could include simple games of strategy such as chess or checkers, or more complex ones like Starcraft.

How can you use a strategy game in your e-learning? Strategy games are some of the most effective for corporate learning. In these games, they must choose the best course of action to respond to a given situation. In addition to role-playing strategy games, another way to use strategy is through detective games, in which you can set up clues through which you can guide the learner through various scenarios. Since the learner is picking up information through observation and growth, they’re learning on their own and retain the information longer.

Action games

Action games are fast-paced, engaging and interactive, and typically require quick reflexes. There’s a lot of rapid movement, and since you’re moving so fast in your reactions, your adrenaline surges and players get really excited and involved in the game. This helps retain players over time, and would help them retain the information that they are gaining through the game.

Action games could, for example, be first-person shooter video games or simpler games such as Space Invader.

How do you use an action game to impart professional or on-the-job training? After all, you don’t want to appear to be encouraging violence in the workplace! In essence, action games are not about the great graphics or fast violence, so much as the adrenaline rush created by the ticking clock. By putting a timer on any game, you increase the associated excitement and motivate your learners to complete the challenges before them.

Another great way to increase excitement is by converting the game into a contest. By putting up an ‘average’ score to be beaten, or having two learners take a game-based assessment at the same time, you motivate them with a sense of competition. This boosts engagement.

Adventure games

These story-driven games involve a relatively long-term focus, where game players complete multiple tasks to win the campaign. These games follow complex storylines, with several tasks or games within the same adventure.

Some examples of adventure games include The Legend of Zelda and King’s Quest.

Typically, adventure games incorporate both collaborative and competitive elements. Learners often work in teams to collaborate on solving a problem or completing challenges. They can also compete with each other to score points. An entire e-learning module can be built around an adventure game in the form of a multi-task campaign, where the learning is delivered in the form of a large number of challenges to be completed and overcome.

Have you noticed how animation films use color extensively? Why is color so important? Here are 10 ways color can make your eLearning courses a pleasure.

Colors play a big role in animation. In our eLearning courses, we use color palettes to define tone, lighting, emotion, and mood of the course. Finding Nemo is set underwater. What shades of blue to use? How to convey emotions in such a dark space? How to ensure that the main characters stand out? By rendering a few keyframes from the storyboard, color scripts bring these aspects to the forefront for the team to discuss.

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Here are 10 ways we use color in our courses.

Quick Visual Search: Our brains are wired to understand color-coded information quickly- however complicated it might be. Crisscrossing grids of metro maps are easy to read because they are color coded.

Object Identification: We identify objects better when they reflect what we see in real life. A flamingo painted purple confuses our brain because we expect flamingoes to be pink. However, we sometimes use this dissonance to draw attention.

Emphasis: In our eLearning courses, a section highlighted using color shouts out to the brain that it is the most important piece on the screen.

Conveys Structure: Arranging sections of eLearning modules by color gives the user a sense of cohesion.

Establishes Identity: We use color to ensure that our courses are aligned to your brand identity.

Symbolism: Color can also be used to convey feelings and emotions. To make an eLearning module fun, we add more vibrant colors. Yellow-colored Pikachu became Pokemon’s mascot because it was endearing to children.

Improves Usability: In eLearning courses, ‘call to action’ buttons are made in stand-out colors so that the eye is drawn to it immediately.

Mood Setting: The emotions that a bright blue sky or dark grey clouds evoke, are a function of color. We use the same principles in our eLearning solutions.

Shows Associations: When there is a lot of information to map out, we use color to compartmentalize content, and show their relation to each other.

Express Metaphors: In animation films, color is used to express metaphors like ‘green with envy’, or ‘feeling blue’.

You say, “we have tried instructor-led training and have seen reasonable success. Is eLearning worth the risk?” We say, “hell, yes.” Let us elaborate.

As an immersive eLearning company, we get asked this question often. Most skeptical, yet open-minded, clients of ours worry that they might be embarking on something that isn’t tried and tested. However, when we tell them all the reasons eLearning is, in fact, better than instructor-led-training (ILT) in many cases, they are inevitably convinced to take the plunge.

The Market research firm Global Industry Analysts had the same question, and they’ve found some interesting answers. As per their forecast, the Global eLearning market will triple its revenue from $107 Billion in 2015 and Reach $325 billion by 2025.

eLearning is often better than ILT

With companies increasingly moving towards blended learning, eLearning is considered the second most important training method.

In 2010, a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education (US DOE) found that “students in online conditions performed modestly better, on an average than those learning the same material through traditional face-to-face instruction.” This is still evident by the steady increase of expenditure in online education.

Self-paced or learner-centric eLearning is better.

This is almost obvious, but when we give the learners the freedom to choose when and how they learn, they learn better. US DOE’s data reassures us that “online learning can be enhanced by giving learners control of their interactions with media and prompting learner reflection”.

The Workplace Learning Report 2018 published by LinkedIn Learning observed that an increasing number of “employees prefer opportunities to learn at their own pace”.

eLearning doesn’t replace instructors. It just makes them more valuable.

Human-interaction and community engagement are important to holistic learning. The US DOE’s study also shows that “instruction combining online and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction”. So, instructors can contribute at a deeper level, facilitating hands-on learning.

If you are thinking, “eLearning isn’t for me”, think again.

eLearning performs consistently irrespective of subject matter and learner profile. Research shows that the “effectiveness of online learning approaches appears quite broad across different content and learner types”.

Moreover, the Workplace Learning Report 2018 observed that 90% of the companies in the US offered online corporate training to their employees in 2018. India’s online education industry is expected to touch USD 1.96 Billion by 2021 which will be a 52% growth from 2016. Online or computer-based eLearning is growing at a pace much higher than any other traditional learning method. More and more companies in the world are believing in eLearning as their primary learning method. Hornbillfx is one of the leading Elearning development companies in India.

Does it still sound like that much of a risk? Talk to us.

When you play a game, whether it’s competitive or collaborative, alone or with an opponent, a near-universal truth is that you play the game to win and face the chance of loss. On the other hand, many managers prefer not to demotivate adult learners (often already disengaged) through negative reinforcement like failure or loss.

However, failure, errors and mistakes can teach us a great deal. Mistake-driven training is a powerful tool to drive learning outcomes. In the real world, mistakes and failure are a part of life. Rather than coddling the learner in a failure-free learning environment, it’s important to encourage your users to test and understand the boundaries of their knowledge by allowing them to get things wrong.

Gaming and failure

How do games work? “You try something that doesn’t work, then you try something else, and you repeat until you find the solution,” says Ashleigh Hull. Gamers focus on thinking around an issues.

Unlike the real world, the gamer is guaranteed to find at least one path to success. Working with the knowledge that failure is not the end, he or she remains persistent and refuses to quit until they succeed.

Failure and education

When students receive a failing grade, they feel despair because they believe that education is intended to help the learner pass a test, rather than to achieve learning. Failure can be used as a “teaching tool” for “problem-solving, leadership, communication, decision making, learning, and so on”. It’s just a matter of breaking free of the mindset that failure is the end of the world. “We don’t allow room for mistakes,” says Hull. “We live with a sometimes crippling fear of not reaching targets or goals.”

Managing losing in game-based learning

So how do you apply this insight to game-based learning? Games should not be too easy (failure should be possible) and yet they should not be too difficult (winning should be possible too). Easy games are uninteresting and cause over-confidence. Difficult games are demotivating.

A great way to maintain this balance is through diversified learning paths. Each time a learner beats a level, based on the speed with which they do so, the difficulty of the next level can be adjusted to suit. The most important strategy is to allow repetition and retakes until the learner achieves success. Don’t let loss or failure be final.

Since games are rules-based, it’s easy to understand what went wrong and create a plan to get it right the next time. Games take the fear out of failure, as you know that you have another chance to win, and another after that.

Share feedback, not grading at the end of each game. The priority when it comes to game-based learning is not win/loss or pass/fail, but the learning that comes through the game. Advise your learners on what went wrong and how to succeed the next time. Don’t present a stark GAME OVER end-screen, but instead use a loss as a learning opportunity.

Use inspirational sound design that avoids mocking loss sounds! While the occasional ‘oops’ may be funny and appealing, some loss sound effects can have a disheartening effect on struggling learners. Create sound design with compassion and the objective to motivate the learner.

‘Failing forward’

Every time the learner loses, they have found another of the “10,000 ways that won’t work”, as Thomas Edison put it. Every failure has the seed of success in it. By allowing learners to fail without penalty, you empower them to take risks, thus creating an environment of innovation.

However, for many of us, this concept of failing without consequence in formal learning is alien. That’s where games come into the picture. Virtual learning, and games, are an opportunity to take risks and grow. By learning through games, you don’t just make learning fun — you make it risk-safe.

A new study by TalentLMS and Workable shows that a whopping 72% of employees working in Tech/IT roles in the US are thinking of quitting their job in the next twelve months. While the Great Resignation is hitting all industries, the same rate for the overall workforce stands at only 55 percent.

The study provided three main takeaways to help retain tech talent:

Nurture your existing team, rewarding them rather than recruiting afresh

Provide more career development opportunities, including training

Offer flexibility and a better work-life balance

Interestingly, 91% of tech employees (compared to 21% of all employees), would like more L&D opportunities from their current employer. This could be because for tech employees, being on the cutting-edge is crucial and stagnation is career death. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed wanted training on hard skills related to their current role, and 60% on emerging technologies.

E-learning Strategy

Only 24% of survey respondents wanted to invest in a postgraduate degree, due to fears of too much unnecessary, irrelevant or outdated information in the syllabus.

Address these concerns with the right corporate L&D strategy. Create and frequently update multiple modules for each emerging tech. Allow the employee to select which they wish to study. Keep the content of each short and focused, and leverage microlearning.

Medium of Learning Delivery

When asked what mode of delivery they preferred, an overwhelming 71% of respondents chose video tutorials. Videos work well for visual learners, and are well suited to training learners on simpler technologies and tools.

However, as tech becomes more complex, hands-on training becomes valuable. With Hornbill, enhance training videos with a layer of simulation, through which users can interact with the tool they’re learning about.

Learning Frequency

Eighty-one percent of respondents stated that, in their opinion, the onus is on the employer to regularly provide L&D as part of the job, and not on them to request it. This is because the expense and ultimate benefit of the training accrues to the employer.

Commit to regular employee training and institute a continuous learning policy to deliver on this promise. Create a learning management system through which modules can be regularly rolled out to all employees.

Engagement in E-learning

One of the takeaways from the study is that well-nurtured employees are less likely to move on to new opportunities. An interesting way you could increase employee nurturing through learning and development is to implement gamification and game-based learning for more engagement.

You could even consider a strategy where points earned through completing e-learning modules can be used to claim real-world benefits and rewards. Everything from gift vouchers to nominal internal roles (Learning Overlord, for example) could be up for grabs!