Questions for clients when building an e-learning course

Jan 12, 2014

Hello, my company is venturing into the world of e-learning after doing many years of successful face to face classroom learning. I would like to know if there is a list of questions that anyone knows of to ask clients about the parameters of their e-learning course.  Some examples would be:

How will the course be marked complete?  By page view (full or percentage), or by quiz score?

Will this course be modular or forced linear?

I realize instructional design questions are important as well, and we do have a good list of those.  I would like to know if anyone has suggestions that are particular to the software or LMS. Thanks in advance for you assistance.

5 Replies
Bruce Graham

Hi TJ, and welcome to the Heroes Community.

It might be easier if you came up with some specific topic areas, as this is a potentially MASSIVE subject.

When you say "...particular to the software..." , what software are you planning to build your courses with?

If you can be a little more specific about your thoughts and/or fears perhaps we can focus in on some good examples for you.

Once again - a warm welcome to the community.

TJ McDonald

Thanks for the welcome Bruce.  The questions sounded good in my mind, but was probably not clear to others When I say specific to software I didn't mean specific to Articulate or Captivate.  I meant it was specific for an e-learning course, and that they would be questions you would not ask if it was face to face training. 

For example, you would not ask if a course is modular or forced linear if it was face to face.  This would be specific to e-learning.  Does that make more sense?

Bud Keegan

We find that Storyline can be a bit fiddly & demanding regarding complete module pageviews and this annoys learners who say they've 100% completed a module when our reporting only shows, say, 80%.  Consequently, we now count 80% or more as "complete" for reporting purposes back to clients.

We've also found that final assessments for our field work at 60-70% work fine.  

I'd suggest an FAQ-- we've developed one that covers off on basic issues that we actually include in all module resource banks.  For more serious issues, we deal w/inquiries through a dial-in Help desk capability.

We have found, after loads of trial & error, optimum module length to be 30 - 45 mins.  More than that and completion rates lag.

We use e-learning to level set knowledge levels before a face-to-face session, which is far more interactive and specific to the client's needs.

Hope these help!

Keith Koh

Hi TJ.

I guess the following questions should work as a starting point for you:

1. How will the course be deployed? (LMS, html or mobile?)

2. What are the learner's connection? (high-bandwidth or low-bandwidth, as this will impact on whether you should include heavy media content or just very 'light' content)

3. Type of content and learner's habits? (should you design very short courses, like 15min sessions or longer courses, like 60min)

Below are some of the questions that you have already asked:

1. Completion criteria (whether through the assessment/quizzes or page viewed)

2. LMS and the standards they require (SCORM or AICC)

For a start, I think these questions should be sufficient for you to start your project.

Daniel Brigham

Welcome, TJ: It's hard to ask enough questions at the beginning, especially if your client has never built online training before. Here's a link to the questions I use. Questions to Potential Clients

You might also checkout the Articulate Word of Mouth blog about Creating Solid Contracts. Some great tips there from veteran freelancers such as Bruce Graham (who responded above), Holly MacDonald, and Sheila Cole-Bulthuis and others. Hope these resources help. --Daniel

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