eLearning Mistakes to Avoid

While eLearning is no longer in its infancy, the developing training method is still new to many. As a result, many mistakes are made when it comes to eLearning. What are some of the big ones to watch out for? Here are a few ways to avoid wasting money on a substandard eLearning program.

Meeting Company and Individual Needs

First of all, business learning solutions are all about the needs of the company and the individuals. Unfortunately, many training sessions just throw information at employees without practical benefit. They feature generalizations of topics instead of company specific needs. They provide theoretical knowledge without practical application. If you want your training to mean something, first determine exactly what those in the room will need to learn in order to do their job better. Then provide training that makes the learner practice what they are being told and give them feedback on how they did.

Avoid Time Wasting Content

The next issue is time wasting content. This happens both when elaborate courses that go beyond what is necessary are formed, as well as when courses are too basic. When an eLearning course is too elaborate, too much time is spent preparing the class, and employees spend too much time taking it. Often the problem is that there is too much focus on providing information and not enough on practical solutions. The problem with a course being too basic, however, is that the employee may already know the information or be able to easily acquire it elsewhere. If they don’t learning anything new, the time spent on the class is wasted, even if it is short.

Use Visuals the Right Way

eLearning is all about visual learning. That means it has to look good. If your eLearning program looks like garbage, don’t expect your employees to get much out of it. A visual makes it easy to draw contrasts. Make sure that certain elements stand out from the page to add to the learning. Repetition is also a vital part of learning. Certain onscreen elements can be the same from screen-to-screen, as this will help the learner to make needed connections. Be sure to align content properly so that it is easy to read and easy to understand how the content on a page fits together. Space objects farther apart to convey different ideas and closer together to show a relationship. Cluttered screens, misuse of colors, and poorly positioned content can muddle understanding and confuse learners.

These are just a few examples of mistakes that companies make when trying to implement eLearning for training purposes. Can you think of others? Feel free to comment below, and tell us about eLearning blunders you’ve seen in the workplace.