The world’s worst content development advice

Even if you’ve only been in the eLearning world for a short period of time – I’m sure your brain is already going a mile a minute, thinking of things you would never advise your worst enemy to do on an eLearning content development project. Heck, you may have even been on the receiving end of someone else’s supposed words of wisdom yourself.

So, I’ve put a few examples together of what we think might be the worse content development advice:

1. Don’t worry about getting client sign-off right until the end

   Okay, I’ll admit it – I’d be surprised if anyone had received this advice word-for-word, but oftentimes eLearning creators think one conversation with their client is enough.

   But, nothing says “re-work” faster than assuming that all you need from your client is their content file. In a dream world we’d walk away with this file, work our development magic and deliver a product our customer will fall in love with straight away – but the chances are this won’t happen.

   Don’t find yourself giving poor excuses such as “I assumed they didn’t have a style guide” or “I thought they would like some clip art images”. Before you start designing, do your homework and put it all down in a design document for your client to sign-off in advance… You’ll be so glad you did.

2. There’s no need to waste time testing after you’ve uploaded to an LMS

   A lack of testing is a sure-fire way to ensure that there will be errors in your published course. Just because your LMS has notified you that your course uploaded successfully,   does not  mean your course will run perfectly. Always check your course on a variety of devices and browsers – and never skip this step. Yes, this may extend the testing phase of your roll-out process, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry, don’t you think?

3. Our learning objectives are obvious – we don’t need to clarify them

   Although you may want to dive right in and start designing your course – don’t! You should always start with establishing your learning objectives, otherwise your module could end up leaving the learner wondering “what was I supposed to get out of this?”

   The team at Cursim – Omniplex’s learning design & development division – use a ‘backwards learning design’ process when designing courses – which is made up of three steps:

   1. Identify desired results (or learning outcomes, you might say)
   2. Determine acceptable evidence of learning
   3. Design learning experiences and instruction

   This is a great way to make sure your eLearning is tailored towards your learning outcomes and your learners get the most out of your course. (And it’s also a very clear reason why you   should  clarify your objectives in advance!)

I’m sure I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface here, but these are some of the worst pieces of eLearning advice I’ve heard. But if you’ve been on the receiving end of some bad eLearning advice, tweet us at   @omniplexelearn – we’d love to hear your stories!