Rapid elearning delivering cost effective education

20 Tips for Making online learning cost-effective Begin with your learner

Be clear about the module’s objectives – your learners (and yours)

1. Spend time getting the learner experience design right at the beginning

2. Have examples of what you want your elearning to do, look and feel like including reference sites you like, media or a mood board.

3. Don’t get caught up in whistles and bells. You want your course to be engaging but keep your eye on your learner outcomes.

4. Engage staff and learners as narrators and talent. This not only means you don’t have to employ actors for photos and videos but using real-life examples increases the relatability of the content

Be prepared

1. Have your content ready to go – making sure it’s objective-focused and relevant

2. Unless you want a low-budget DIY feel, don’t make your own videos – reuse content (with permission) from reputable sources

3. Avoid replicating something that already exists e.g. embed a blog feed rather than creating anew

4. Approach the project with an awareness of your industry and what changes may be on the horizon that could impact on your elearning e.g. are there legislation changes about to be announced?

5. Minimise future updates by making sure external links are top level links (e.g. elearnaustralia.com.au rather than elearnaustralia.com.au/menu/services/courses.htm)

6. Once the course is released, collate any updates so that changes are submitted in a block rather than in dribs and drabs

Be clear about the process

1. Start with a small scalable plan

2. Use an iterative approach

3. Factor in minor changes after release

4. Have clear review processes and milestones

5. Be clear about stakeholders and their responsibilities – especially who is signing off at each milestone and whether that person is going to be available to sign off at completion. Delays cause inconvenience and cost money.

6. If your project is funded by, or requires approval from, a third party, then make sure they are included in signing off on content at each milestone.

7. Allocate sufficient time to the storyboarding and content planning stages

8. Be mindful of adding new content once the project enters development. It costs money.

9. Get involved in the testing process – this is your chance to make sure the course does what you want to.