E-Learning Newbie

Besides all the good examples and ideas on this site, you could give Lynda.com training a look over. Most local libraries offer "free" access if you don't want to invest in your own account. There's a ton of stuff all over the net too. Maybe take a look at the eLearning Guild's site as well and see if any of their information looks interesting to you.

Hey there Shauna, 

Thanks for posting your question here in the E-Learning Heroes Community! You've come to the right place.  This is a really exciting time for you, transitioning into e-learning, good for you! It's a really fun field to be in.

Since you've already been designing ILT, I assume you already have a pretty strong foundation in using the ADDIE model to design your instruction, and a solid background in Instructional Design? Because (as someone who's also experienced converting ILT to e-learning) I find that a lot of the same skill set applies to both designing ILT and e-learning: being able to identify tasks that need to be learned, identifying learning objectives, separating need to know from nice to know, strong organizational and really good writing skills, being able to create the text content, selecting which activity types work best for certain content, etc. These are all skills that apply to both and are the foundation for effective course design. If you're not already strong in those areas, definitely a good place to look first. 

Here's a series of articles completely designed for those who are new to e-learning: 

Getting Started With E-Learning

The main difference between ILT and e-learning design in my experience is that you're choosing and designing different activity types. Also, when you're designing e-learning you also want to be considered with visual design. So a couple of areas for you to focus on could be, developing your graphic design skills. Working on choosing colour palettes, fonts, laying out content, etc. Being able to use basic video, audio, and photo editing software would be great skills for you to work on as well. 

You'll also want to work on your development skills, so it could be a great idea to build a few sample courses in Rise and Storyline (both available in Articulate 360). It's a great idea to have a portfolio of examples you've created to show your work and capabilities. A great way to get some practice and ideas for what kind of examples you should create is to participate in our Weekly E-Learning Challenges. Follow the link and jump into any challenge at any time! 

You might also want to consider working on developing your scenario building skills. One of the best ways to create engaging and meaningful e-learning content is to frame it in terms of scenarios. Here's a few examples of scenarios and articles to help you out:

Scenario Examples:

• Job Interview
• Process a Refund

Articles:

• Build 3 Step Scenarios with Storyline

And you might also want to check out the examples available in the E-Learning Examples hub to get inspired for what you can create! 

And don't forget that with your Articulate 360 subscription you get access to Articulate Live which is weekly webinars that teach you how to use the tools and do all kinds of cool stuff. A great place to work on your Articulate skills! 

You made a great first step, which was coming to this community :) Hopefully some of this info will help you out.