Many eLearning developers neglect to use a soundtrack in eLearning programs. Music is used in film and television to set the mood, convey emotions, and provide transition cues yet many avoid using music in eLearning because of a perceived cost, lack of musical skills, possible copyright issues, or simply no recording space. Fortunately there are many tools and sources available for us to quickly build music tracks that can connect emotionally and enhance the learning.

“Don’t limit yourself” is terrible advice, yet getting into a creative rhythm is not always easy. When the pressure is mounting, often we can find ourselves blocked in our effort to present a new and fresh idea for the project we’re working on. How can you stay in the flow and find the next great idea for your work?

In early 2014 Jane Bozarth’s husband was diagnosed with a large tumor perched atop his brain stem like a golf ball on a tee. The story of his surgery and recovery became the most popular piece she’s ever published, “Performance Matters,” which appeared in The eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions Magazine. Join Jane and Jeannette Campos as they explore the story, its associated observations, and issues learned throughout that are relevant to L&D.

Learner engagement can be elusive. It is difficult to grab and hold a learner’s attention with so many smartphone distractions at their desk or at their fingertips. But engagement is possible through specific techniques that command attention and engage the learner.

Instructional designers and eLearning developers are not typically trained in how to design a visual experience for their learners, yet a cluttered presentation of information interferes with learner cognition and retention. Often, the effort to transform unappealing, text-heavy content can seem overwhelming, but there are simple approaches that you can master to create a visually appealing experience.

As trainers, we work hard to create great training. As a result, we are disappointed when our employees fail to learn or don’t transfer learning back to their workplace. We may be tempted to blame our students, but the truth is that we often fail because we don’t understand the mind of the learner. As a result, we build training modules that are not consistent with the brain’s natural means of acquisition. Teaching should be more effective, and it can be more effective once we understand how the learner’s mind operates.

Writing is an underdiscussed aspect of instructional design. In fact, many people get into the field without realizing that writing is a significant part of a learning designer’s job. It is difficult to do it well. Learning designers may be required to write in at least ten different forms that involve unique styles. Yet there is no single source of instruction for writing in all of these styles.

It’s critical that learners come away with new knowledge and information from eLearning lessons, but frequently they don’t. Learners sometimes find the material or presentation so foreign that even high-quality information just doesn’t stay with them. Integrating mutually shared pop culture and historical experiences into eLearning is one approach to making lessons both entertaining and lasting while creating engaging eLearning courses.

There’s been a large amount of research in recent years exploring the value music has on the brain and learning. We’ve all experienced it in some way in our lives, be it from listening to music while learning or studying, learning something from a catchy song, or by learning to play an instrument.

Chances are you didn’t dream of becoming of an eLearning designer when you grew up, did you? Most of the instructional designers in the eLearning business arrived here by accident. So now that you’re here and doing this work, how can you become a more intentional practitioner?

Learning and development professionals are under pressure to produce real results. Many times the traditional methods of instructional design and content development are not getting the job done. We have to think differently on how to design, develop, and leverage technology to create learning experiences that actually impact performance and get the results that matter.

Games are a hot topic in the learning industry right now. At the same time, few people truly understand the differences between games and gamification or their applications to learning. Learning professionals interested in gaming need to understand how games work and how technology can be used to bring games to life.

Developing an online course can be an overwhelming process. Oftentimes it can be difficult to know where to start and what resources are available. In addition to timelines, tools, and scope, you need to be able to manage the flow of information and the critical relationships with other designers, developers, and subject matter experts (SMEs).

Due to distance and lack of resources, in-person classroom sessions were not possible for every client who needed to learn Altair Engineering’s software. Its clients did not always want to wait for scheduled classes, so Altair needed to deliver content to them to their desktops in a quick and effective manner at their time of need, not when and where the training schedule dictated. 

We use eLearning and other technology platforms because they are cost effective, easily accessible, provide a consistent learner experience, and increase our geographical reach. Unfortunately, it is quite easy to lose the human connection that is so critical to the engagement of employees and learners.

Most designers and developers strive for continuous improvement in the quality and effectiveness of eLearning programs. However, measuring the success and failure of eLearning is often an afterthought. Worse, the metrics used to measure effectiveness send false messages that lead a person to think the eLearning is more effective than it actually is. This is unfortunate because eLearning offers more measurement options than traditional classroom training.

eLearning designers are often faced with complex training topics that are difficult to deliver concisely. The results are lengthy courses that are counter to the needs of today’s learners, who need to be extremely efficient with their time. To deliver learning to this audience means being very concise in both content and course design, while still having impact and not sacrificing instructional integrity.

If you work in L&D, chances are you use design assets (like photos, drawings, icons, and fonts) all the time. And if you don’t have a graphic design background, chances are you’re paying someone else to make these design assets for you. Professional designers and stock photos are fantastic resources, and ones I’d never want to get rid of, but sometimes what you need is a DIY solution that’s fast, free, or even better: both.

It’s hard enough to get learners to engage with the content of your eLearning course. The issue is compounded even further when learners can’t figure out how to use the course in the first place. All too often, new eLearning designers put their focus solely into designing the learning content, while at the same time ignoring the interface it’s encapsulated in. This leads to confusion on the part of the learner and disrupts the learning process.

A number of myths persist about people’s allegedly ever-shortening attention spans—but what does the science say? Neuroscience, behavioral economics, and consumer psychology all offer insights into how we manage and allocate attention. Additionally, our ability to manage attention and focus seems to be related to our abilities to allocate willpower and influence how we make decisions.

There’s been a large amount of research in recent years exploring the value music has on the brain and learning. We’ve all experienced it in some way in our lives, be it from listening to music while learning or studying, learning something from a catchy song, or by learning to play an instrument.

Have you ever wondered whether there are special tactics for enhancing memory recall that psychologists are keeping locked away in their ivory towers? Well, such tactics exist! Not only do they exist, but many best practices and techniques can be extrapolated from research, and are entirely accessible to eLearning developers to generate high levels of memory retention.

There’s no doubt that employees of the 21^st century are different. The way they engage in workplace tasks is different. The way they consume content is different. Their brains themselves are different. How do you create a more effective learning solution for people whose brains have been rewired by our quick-change, bite-sized content world? Easy. You simply rewire the whole learning experience.

Learning professionals today are under a great deal of pressure. It becomes easy to get formulaic and forget two important things: our learners’ needs and our own joy, growth, and fulfillment. How can we break out of the mold, stay connected with our audiences, and remain excited about our profession? And what are some techniques we can use to contribute to a learning culture, even if the rest of the organization isn’t quite there yet?

Implementing a great user experience is critical for designing the optimal learning experience and requires the content developer to think from the perspective of the learner. There is much research on user experience (UX) available and bad practices still in circulation. Identifying what works and what doesn’t is a task worth undertaking.

The holy grail of all learning is retention (and subsequent behavior change). Relevance drives retention. And we have no faster path to relevance than through effective stories. Stories engage us and trigger our imagination to take us places. We’ve all read about the importance of storytelling, we’ve listened to webcasts, maybe we’ve even bought a book or two about effective storytelling. Storytelling is a major buzzword today, but how can we effectively use storytelling in learning solutions?

Do you spend more of your time copying and pasting from one content format to another than you do creating new instructional materials? Do you have to deliver the same information for more than one learning deliverable? If you answered yes to either of those questions, then it’s time to reclaim your time and use a single source for your content.

During design and development, SMEs and other stakeholders sometimes suggest ideas or practices that are antithetical to good instructional design. For example, a stakeholder believes it’s best to film a daylong stand-up training session and deliver it as one video. An SME might write learning material on a complex topic without breaking concepts down for beginners. In these cases, it is helpful for the designer to be able to present research findings to help the stakeholders understand why you should design learning solutions differently.