Online learning (eLearning) creates opportunities for students and working professionals to develop and sharpen skills at their own pace. Students acquire in-demand job skills by joining various online courses and training programs. At the same time, companies and startups reskill and upskill employees by running multiple learning and development (L&D) programs.
However, no educational institution or firm can adopt and implement eLearning successfully without ensuring high-quality eLearning content creation. They must enable learners to develop skills by acquiring eLearning content in multiple formats – eBooks, journals, audio, video, images, and quizzes.
At the same time, they must ensure that each learner can access the online learning content seamlessly using computers or mobile devices. Hence, organizations streamline eLearning content creation using various strategies and tools. We are discussing some of these strategies and tools for simplifying the creation of multi-format learning content.
Strategies for Streamlining and Improving eLearning Content Creation
Define eLearning Objectives
An organization’s content creation strategy must align with its eLearning goals. Clear eLearning goals help learners understand what they will learn and how they are expected to apply the knowledge. At the same time, content creators can refer to the goals to decide what steps a learner must take or what process he must follow to accomplish the predefined goal.
Analyze Learners
Before creating eLearning content, content creators must spend time analyzing the target audience. The analysis is essential to understand learners’ needs, expectations, and preferences. Also, content creators can understand how to produce content that makes a learner understand a concept or topic from scratch. They choose the approach that makes the content understandable to a beginner or fresher.
Create Different Types of Content
Learners consume the online learning content in multiple formats and using. For instance, some learners prefer reading eBooks, articles, and blogs, while some watch videos or listen to audio. Hence, an organization’s eLearning content creation strategy must focus on developing learning content in popular formats – eBooks, videos, podcasts, infographics, and slide presentations.
Consider Micro-Learning
Microlearning is currently one of the hottest eLearning trends. The approach emphasizes delivering eLearning content in small units. While creating content, creators must focus on keeping content pieces short. The approach will make eLearning more engaging and effective. Also, the short content pieces will help learners retain and apply knowledge after completing online courses or training programs. Here are some benefits of microlearning.
Use Storytelling Techniques
As highlighted by multiple studies, learners find it easier to remember stories than information and statistics. While creating eLearning content, authors must foster knowledge retention by applying various storytelling techniques. They can engage learners using written, digital, and visual storytelling techniques. After reading these stories, learners will be able to connect the knowledge with real-time use cases and applications.
Foster Learner Interaction
In a virtual learning environment, learners lack the option to interact with instructors and peers in real time. The absence of real-time interaction often impacts knowledge acquisition and retention. Authors can overcome this key constraint by making eLearning content interactive. They can add interactive elements like videos, animation, and diagrams to the eLearning content. At the same time, they must measure learner progress and collect feedback by adding quizzes after each lesson.
Boost Learner Engagement
Often learners abandon online courses due to lack of engagement. While creating eLearning content, authors must engage and motivate learners using common gamification techniques. In addition to fostering knowledge retention, the gamified eLearning content will persuade learners to complete online courses. Authors can gamify eLearning content using elements like surveys, quizzes, polls, and assessments.
Repurpose and Reuse Existing Content
Authors can reduce eLearning content creation time significantly by repurposing and reusing existing content. Before creating fresh content, they must inventory and review the eLearning content. The assessment will help them identify content gaps and reusable content. However, authors must use content creation tools to convert one form of digital content into another. For instance, they can use tools to convert articles and blogs into videos.
Tools for Simplifying and Accelerating eLearning Content Creation
Digital Library Software
Digital library software helps organizations eliminate the need to create content in multiple formats. It enables learners to access content in their preferred digital format – eBooks, videos, audio, journals, images, and quizzes. Additionally, the software shares relevant curated content with learners. The curated content helps learners access in-depth and up-to-date information about a topic.
New-age digital library software further keeps learners engaged using eLearning gamification techniques like virtual coins and badges. An organization can further boost content delivery by integrating the cloud-based digital library software with a learning management system (LMS) or online classroom software. The unification results in the implementation of a unified learning platform.
eLearning Authoring Tools
eLearning authoring tools help organizations streamline the in-house eLearning content creation process. Leading content authoring tools feature intuitive user interfaces (UI), drag-and-drop editors, and customizable templates. These features make it easier for instructors and trainers to create digital content and courses without writing longer lines of code.
At the same time, instructors can use the tools to engage learners by producing personalized and people-centric digital learning content. Also, instructors can improve the content regularly based on data and feedback. However, organizations must implement and integrate multiple tools to enable instructors to produce digital learning content in multiple formats.
Content Curation Tools
Content curation tools help organizations eliminate the need to create the content from scratch. The software drives eLearning by sharing relevant and valuable content collected from internal and external sources. New-age content curation tools use intelligence technologies to find and deliver high-quality content related to a topic or subject.
At the same time, they make it easier for learners to find additional information by featuring an intuitive search interface. Learners can use the search interface to find high-quality content shared by various influencers and content publishers. Content authoring tools further recommend relevant content to learners regularly based on their interests and preferences.
Conclusion
Content is the new oil that drives enterprises and academic eLearning. Every organization must implement eLearning successfully by creating high-quality content in multiple formats. At the same time, it must curtail eLearning content creation time and costs through automation. Hence, decision-makers must streamline the learning content creation using various strategies and tools.
