8 Simple Steps for Creating Online Training

Are you new to e-learning and looking for someone to walk you through the course creation workflow from A to Z? If so, you’re in the right place. Read on for a high-level overview of what happens in each step as well as some additional resources that’ll set you up for success. 

Step 1. Confirm Training Is Needed

When you land an e-learning project, the first thing to do is identify the “why” of the training request. Specifically, you want to learn what problem—usually a performance gap—e-learning is supposed to fix by doing a training needs analysis. When you do this, you might find that training isn’t really the appropriate solution. If that happens, share what you’ve found with the client or stakeholder. Odds are they’ll be open to what you have to say! But if—for example—you’ve been tasked with creating legally mandated training, there might not be a ton of flexibility for exploring other options. If that’s the case, don’t worry! Just move forward with developing the course as requested.

Step 2. Meet with Your Client

Once you’ve explored the root of the training request, you’re ready to gather some more project details. To do that, set up a meeting with the person who requested the training—often referred to as the client or primary stakeholder. You’ll want to go over things like:

• High-level learning objectives
• Budget or resource constraints 
• Course creation app the company uses
• Timelines for different deliverables 
• Review process and who has the final say
• Branding requirements and style guide information
• How learners will access the course (email with a link, learning management system [LMS], hosted online, etc.)

To learn more about what to cover at the start of a project, check out this article: 6 Agenda Items for Your E-Learning Project Kickoff Meeting. 

Step 3. Gather Content

With the project details sorted out, it’s time to start collecting the course content. Sometimes clients make your job easy by providing you with pre-existing content—like PowerPoint presentations—you can use to build out the course. It’s fantastic when this happens, but it’s not always a given. If there’s no existing content—or if there are gaps that you need to fill—you’ll likely need to research and write the content yourself. If the course topic is specific to the company, you might need to work closely with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to get the information you need. 

While every e-learning project is different, the aim of most trainings is generally the same—to teach someone a new skill. As you gather information, cut out anything that doesn’t support the overarching learning objective and help reach the training goal. For more information, see this list of articles: 

• 5 Steps for Collecting Content for Your E-Learning Project
• The Dos and Don’ts of Separating Need-to-Know from Nice-to-Know
• 3 Tips for Designing Courses on Topics You Don’t Understand

Step 4. Storyboard or Prototype

Ok, so you’ve collected all the content you need. Now it’s time to start organizing it in a logical way and deciding how to present it to learners. This step is often referred to as storyboarding. Storyboards often take the form of a Word or PowerPoint document. The purpose of the storyboard is to ensure you and your stakeholders agree on the course structure, content, and format, so there are no surprises later on—when it’s often harder to make adjustments. 

That being said, some people prefer to skip the storyboard phase and build a prototype—also called a functional storyboard—directly in their course creation app. This gives stakeholders something more tangible to interact with, making it easier for them to imagine what the finished course will look like.

It’s up to you to decide which option makes more sense for your project. But whatever you decide, be sure to check out the articles below for help with this step:

• E-Learning: Storyboard vs. Prototype
• 11 Best Practices for E-Learning Storyboarding
• What to Include in an E-Learning Storyboard

Step 5. Review and Edit

Once your storyboard or prototype is ready, it’s time to share it with your stakeholders for review. When you send it to them, emphasize that it’s just a first draft—and that it’s not the way the course will look when it’s done. This helps reviewers focus on the most important things—like content and course navigation—instead of the visuals. It’s also a good idea to tell your reviewers when you need their feedback completed by, so your project stays on track. 

Keep in mind that you might need to go through several rounds of review before you get everything exactly the way your stakeholders want it—which can be frustrating. But remember: feedback just makes the course better! And if you’re looking for tips on making the review process run more smoothly, check out this article: 5 Steps to an Easier E-Learning Course Review Process.

Step 6. Build the Course

If you started out with a storyboard, this is when you’ll begin moving your content into the authoring app. In this step you’ll make decisions around course functionality, fine-tune your course navigation, and design the visuals. 

Of course, if you skipped the storyboard step and went straight to a prototype, you’ll already have the functionality and navigation built out, so all that’s left is the design. 

Either way, it’s a good idea to follow some best practices during this step to ensure the final course is easy to use and professional looking. Check out the resources below for some tips:

• User Interface Design: 3 Things E-Learning Designers Need to Know
• Tips for Designing Buttons That Scream “Click Me!”
• How Do I Choose a Design for My E-Learning Course?
• Your Ultimate Guide to Choosing Graphics for E-Learning
• Improve Your E-Learning Designs Using White Space

Step 7. Quality Assurance and Testing

Now that your course is developed it’s ready to launch, right? Actually, not quite. Ensuring your course works as expected and doesn’t have any grammatical errors or design inconsistencies is a really important part of the development process. And the best way to ensure this is with a thorough round of quality assurance and testing! 

When you go to test your course, have a few different people look at it and ensure everything looks and works as expected. There are a whole host of things to watch out for, so having a checklist like this one can be really helpful, to make sure you don’t miss anything. 

Step 8. Publish and Share Your Course

Once you’ve gone through the testing phase and made any necessary edits, you’re finally ready to share your course with learners. How you do that will depend on your client’s needs—which you will have already discussed during the project kickoff. 

For more information on the different options, check out this article: How to Share E-Learning Courses with Learners.

Wrap-Up

Building an e-learning course can seem daunting if you’ve never done it before, but if you follow this simple workflow, you will get there—step by step! 

For more tips for e-learning newbies, check out these resources:

• What Is E-Learning?
• What You Need to Know to Create Amazing E-Learning
• How to Plan E-Learning Courses Like a Pro

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