With e-learning and distance learning quickly becoming a new normal, many businesses come to a point when building an online course becomes a necessity. You may need a course to onboard your new employees, teach your staff how to use your business-specific software, or help your workers learn a set of new skills. In this article, we will guide you through the important steps of creating your own e-learning courses to successfully reach your organization’s learning objectives.
Step 1: Know your goals
Speaking about objectives: you need to have them clearly outlined before you start working on a course. For example: “I want new employees to know everything about the rules and corporate culture of my company”. Or: “I want the sales team to become proficient in using new CRM software”. Envision the exact set of skills that you want employees to have after they complete the course. Ideally, align these course objectives with the goals and strategy of your organization.
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Step 2: Know our audience
Next, make sure you know who your audience is. What are their age and other demographics? Before you build your course, identify how many learners you will have, what their positions and job titles within your organization are, how familiar they already are with the subject of your course, and what devices they will be using as they study. These details will help you tailor your course exactly to your learner’s needs.
Step 3. Manage cooperation with course stakeholders and experts
Creating a course is hardly possible without the involvement of subject matter experts (SME) and the course stakeholders. SME’s will play a key part in developing the course content, while the stakeholders are usually the key personas interested in the course’s successful development. It may, for example, be a CEO, or head of a specific organization’s department.
Step 4: Choose a Learning Management System
You need a Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver your course to your target audience. VARTEQ’s ReaLMS, for example, has built-in management and analytics tools, enabling you to send invitations, run tests, and assessments, message course participants, schedule real-time virtual classes, etc.
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Step 5: Choose authoring tools
You need course authoring software to convert your learning content into online learning formats such as presentations, e-books, videos, and quizzes. This software will assist you throughout the entire course creation process and will help you create learning modules. In some cases, Learning Management Systems may integrate course authoring tools. For example, ReaLMS is an all-in-one platform, combining learning management features with the authoring tools for building online course modules.
Step 6: Map out your course
Next, you will need to create a course storyboard – a prototype of how your course will look in its complete form. The storyboard will include all the information you will use in a course in all its formats, such as graphics, videos, and presentations. There are some free ready-made templates for learning course storyboarding in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint.
Step 7: Create your course text script
A text script is the backbone of your course, as it will be guiding your learners through every course module. As a rule, a course includes two types of text scripts: a written script for the screen and a narration script that will sound behind the slides, but some courses may include an on-screen text only. The two types of text are inherently different – while the on-screen text is clear and concise, the narration text is more conversational.
Step 8: Record course audio and video
As of today, educational videos are considered the most effective means of delivering learning content. With ReaLMS course authoring tools, you can create videos and voice-overs for your course. Recording voice content from scratch requires specific skills, though, and you may want to hire professional actors to deliver your course materials.
Step 9: Assemble your course
Now that you have your storyboard ready and all the course content prepared and converted into different formats, you can finally put together your course materials. ReaLMS and its integrated course authoring toolset let you assemble your online course quickly and easily.
Step 10: Add quizzes and tests
No course is complete without knowledge assessment. In fact, according to some of the online courses’ best practices, test questions should come first, and you should build your course modules around them. VARTEQ’s ReaLMS includes tools for creating tests and quizzes, that help you evaluate your learners’ progress. On top of that, it includes analytics tools enabling you to identify typical knowledge gaps and learners’ repetitive behavioral patterns to help you improve your course.
Final Thoughts
With a plethora of course authoring tools available on both free and subscription basis, creating an online course has become easier than ever. Simply putting together structured content isn’t enough since you need to ensure your course meets your learning objectives. One of the most common e-learning mistakes that organizations frequently make is failing to create interactivity and engagement. Learners tend to learn better if they can discuss and share their knowledge. VARTEQ’s ReaLMS includes gamification modules so that you can easily encourage users to learn as they play. It also enables you to build discussion forums and foster knowledge sharing and communication.
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Looking for a set of tools you can use to build your own unique online courses? Contact our team now for a free consultation!