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Online Course Development: A 10-Step Guide with Customizable Course Templates
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In the booming eLearning industry, creating effective and engaging online courses is essential to reach a wider audience and deliver quality education at a lower cost. This article provides a step-by-step strategy for developing such courses, with a particular focus on the use of visuals to enhance learner engagement.
Throughout the course development process, it's crucial to work closely with both subject matter experts (SMEs) and stakeholders, and define roles and responsibilities for both early in the design process. With ready-made course templates available in iSpring Suite and other authoring tools, content development can be faster and more efficient.
Before building anything in the authoring tool, it's recommended to create an online training course storyboard to map out the course content and sequence of activities. This will serve as a blueprint for the course, ensuring a well-structured and cohesive learning experience.
Writing the course script is an important step, and it should be based on information provided by the SME(s). Aim for short, concise sentences and a conversational style to make the content easy to digest. Visual elements like images, icons, and illustrations should be incorporated into course materials to increase learner engagement.
Assessments can be created using the quiz maker in authoring tools, and they can range from traditional multiple-choice and true/false style tests to fill-in-the-blank and drag-and-drop. Assessments are essential to measure the learner's understanding of the course material and provide feedback for improvement.
Publishing an online course is straightforward, with a single "Publish" click in most authoring tools. The published course can be uploaded to a learning management system (LMS), website, or YouTube for easy access by learners.
To create online courses that are both effective and engaging, follow these best strategies:
- Define clear learning outcomes to focus content and ensure relevance.
- Use visuals strategically to complement and reinforce spoken or written content rather than overload learners.
- Incorporate diverse types of visuals such as colorful slides, relevant pictures, GIFs, real-life props, and short videos to make lessons more relatable and engaging.
- Separate need-to-know content from nice-to-know using visual cues like headings or icons to keep the course focused and concise.
- Align visuals closely with learning objectives so they support key messages rather than distract or confuse learners.
- Make visuals accessible by providing verbal descriptions or captions, ensuring all learners can benefit.
- Encourage interactivity by using interactive tools alongside visuals to maintain engagement and deepen understanding.
- Organize course content into structured modules with set timeframes to pace content delivery effectively and enhance learner success.
Together, these strategies optimize cognitive processing, boost engagement, and help learners achieve the course goals efficiently.
Remember, when deciding on a course topic, it's smart to choose a niche in your expertise and a topic you know well, and consider the problems your target audience may be facing. For novice course developers, simpler authoring tools with a familiar interface are available, such as iSpring Suite.
Popular authoring tools include Articulate 360 and Adobe Captivate. Learning objectives should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). Feedback can be collected from learners after they complete a course, using various methods like surveys or feedback forms.
By following these strategies, you can create online courses that are not only informative but also engaging and effective, providing an enjoyable learning experience for your audience.
1.Engage in online education and self-development by utilizing effective strategies, such as creating a well-structured course by mapping out the content and sequence of activities with a storyboard, and employing the use of visuals to enhance learner engagement.
2.To develop an online course that promotes learning, use authoring tools like iSpring Suite to create interactive courses with a variety of visual elements, including images, icons, illustrations, and videos, while ensuring all visuals are accessible and aligned with learning objectives.
