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The path to becoming a fully-fledged eLearning Specialist can take place over many years. Most of what we learn happens on the job, through the experiences of actually “doing the work”. Every project is different and requires a different approach to design, build and implement the learning solution.
We’ve put together a learning pathway to help eLearning designers and developers learn the essential skills to becoming an eLearning specialist.
Below is an outline of our eLearning Foundations and eLearning Advanced courses. These courses together can take up to 12 weeks, or can be completed independently depending on previous experience or specific learning goals.
Customisation is certainly possible based on specific requirements and previous experience. Each of the courses below have practical components where students are required to complete projects based on the content being taught. For example, in the foundations course, students develop an eLearning strategy. In the Advanced course, students design and develop an eLearning experience. We can also incorporate practical hands sessions on Adobe Captivate to support the “Build and Implement eLearning” module.
The courses are delivered via a combination of self paced learning and live virtual classes. The mix of these delivery modes will be confirmed after consultation with the students.
Time Investment
You will probably need to invest anywhere between 3 hours a week, up to 5 / 6 hours a week.
There is lots of content to work through, plus the end of level assignments and gate activities. Contributing to the discussions and reading through other participants contributions can take time as well. The more you put into the course, the more you will get out of the course.
We also recommend setting up centralised web-based conversation threads to capture requirements, goals, and outcomes, not only for the students involved, but also all stakeholders and decision makers. This allows consolidated of this information for easy reference. We are happy to work with any platform like Skype, Discord, Slack or MS Teams.
More information about our Adobe Captivate course can be found here.
eLearning Specialist Foundations Course
This 4-week course is divided into four levels, with a level released each week to ensure plenty of time for learners to go through the content.
The foundations course is for participants who want an overview of the online learning landscape so they can have more effective conversations with vendors, stakeholders, designers, developers. This course also provides enough information for participants to navigate the technical landscape of eLearning and make more informed decisions.
- Level 1 – Welcome to eLearning: An In-depth Overview
- This level settles users into the course, we look at the history of eLearning and the terms that are used in the eLearning and learning industry.
- Level 2 – Getting Started
- In the second week of the course we look at the things required to get started with eLearning. This like why eLearning fails and how to mitigate the risks, what skill sets are required to complete eLearning projects, project management and creating an eLearning strategy.
- Level 3 – Designing eLearning
- Week three is an introduction to the design stage. We get introduced to learning design models and methods, the many types of eLearning, and different ways that eLearning can be packaged and delivered.
- Level 4 – Building and Delivering eLearning
- The final level of the foundations course looks at the tools and technology required to build and implement online learning solutions.
eLearning Specialist Advanced Course
The eLearning Advanced course is made up of two separate modules, both lasting 4 weeks. The first module in the advanced course is all about designing our learning solutions. We look at the steps we need to explore, as part of the design process. We take a deep dive into Learning design, User Experience design and Visual design. Once again, the levels are released each week to space out the learning experience.
Module 1 – Designing eLearning
This module is all about designing our learning solutions. We look at the steps we need to take as part of the design process. We take a deep dive into Learning design, User Experience design and Visual design.
- Level 1 – Welcome to Designing eLearning
- Welcome! This level is to help settle you into the four weeks ahead. We look at the practical component expected at the end of the 4 weeks. We also look at project management, conducting an analysis of our learning solutions and accessibility.
- Level 2 – Learning Design
- This week we get into the core of learning design and the other factors we need to consider when designing our learning experiences.
- Level 3 – User Experience Design
- User Experience (UX) is all about taking the user’s emotions and attitudes into account when designing a product or service.
- Level 4 – Visual Design
- Visual Design looks at aesthetics, colour, typography, layout. We put the finishing touches on our design to get ready for the development and implementation
Module 2 – Build and Implement eLearning
This module explores the technology, tools, and platforms to implement our online learning solutions.
- Level 1 – Welcome to Build and Implement eLearning
- This level helps learners settle in to the next 4 weeks by going over the content at a high level. We are also introduced to key concepts
- Level 2 – The technology behind eLearning
- We explore the technologies that sit behind our learning experiences such as learning protocols (SCORM) and web technologies that allow our content to be delivered online. We also explore the technologies that sit behind our content like video, audio and the various document types that our content can be delivered as.
- Level 3 – The tools used to create our content and build our learning experiences
- There are many different types of tools that can be used to create and manage online learning content. We not only explore the actual tools themselves but also the categories that our tools fall under so we can associate the right type of tool to the specific content that needs to be created.
- Level 4 – Platforms and systems to deliver and implement our learning solutions
- Our learning experiences are delivered via various platforms and systems. This level explores the different types of platforms and systems, the advantages and disadvantages of those platforms and systems, and why you would use one type of platform or system over another.