Top 3 Elements You Should Improve in Your eLearning Course

Do you still remember any classroom session from school? If yes, what was so unique about it? Was the content very engaging? Was the instructor really good? Was the content actually useful? We all come across at least one session in high school or in college which stays with us forever. If you haven't come across any such content in your life, maybe you still remember a movie you watched when you were twelve. The point is, some content stays with us for a very long time. Don't you wish the same for your eLearning content?

The blame can be put on low budgets, tight deadlines, lousy managers, boring topics, and the like. It's time to leave such excuses behind and make sure that your eLearning content is interactive and interesting, and most importantly adds value to the users. 

Here are some elements you can improve to make your eLearning course successful. It's worth mentioning that the best VILT Companies take benefit from these, as they are fully dependent on a virtual environment for the success of their eLearning course. 

1. Visual Appearance – It doesn't matter how good your content is if it doesn't have a good design and is not visually attractive. A good design means right spacing, correct usage of colours, layouts, and placement of images – rightly balanced.

No one likes an outdated design. This also means that your course is unprofessional. Users are more likely to drop out because of poor design and visuals – bad design makes it difficult to find the relevant content. 

Good design makes sure that the relevant content easily available and the overall experience is user-friendly. It is surprising to see that even today courses serve blurry videos and images that look like we are still living in the 1990s. Some changes in your design can help reduce dropout rates and make learning fun.  

How to improve the design?

• Avoid long sentences or videos. Make sure that your content is broken in small parts and organised clearly so that the users are able to easily grasp the information.
• Use high-quality images and videos. Your videos should be of good quality and clear sounds.
• Simplify complex topics by using infographics or pictures that are easy to understand and get rid of redundant graphics.
• Avoid cluttering of the content. There should be enough white space on every screen. Most users say that they look at the design first and then at the content.

2. Content – If you have a good design but your content lacks quality, the users can be easily irritated. Nothing is worse than reading content that is boring and monotonous. This also makes users suspect the quality of the content. Your eLearning content should be precise and crisp, delivering the right amount of information and adding value.

How to improve the content?

• Eliminate content that is not relevant or monotonous.
• Make sure that your content is built in a progressive way. Delivering information in the correct sequence builds a strong foundation that helps the users to gain the maximum from the course.
• Create engaging content by telling stories. Always add stories in your content to make it less boring, especially for purely technical courses.

3. Navigation – Let the users easily navigate within the course. Use arrows, buttons, and similar features to allow smooth navigation to the users. Such buttons should be rightly placed and clearly visible.

   How to improve navigation?

   • Make sure that the users are able to see the progress of their course. Also, make sure that the users are able to see the past, present, and future components of the course.
   • Give the users complete control over their course. Allow them to navigate to any page they wish to.
   • Do not add too many menus or options for navigation. Use them only where necessary.

Final Words
Creating a piece of content that stays with the users forever is the dream of every instructional designer. The above-mentioned points have clearly suggested that your content should not be too informational or too shiny. It is important to find the right balance.