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Best Practices

Make a Good Investment . . . Develop eLearning Standards

Even if you are developing only a 30-minute eLearning lesson, it is important to prepare a set of standards that help create consistent and compelling eLearning. Without consistency, learners may get frustrated.

Page Types

Minimally, define a set of page types and the placement of objects for each. Typical page types include:

Lesson Title page
Lesson Introduction page
Lesson Content page
Question page
Lesson Summary page

Without predefined page types, authors (the individuals who "program" eLearning content in an authoring tool) won't have guidelines for where to place objects on the page. You may find that even with only one author, the pages are inconsistent. If you have multiple authors, you can guarantee it.

Style Guide

A style guide is another "must have." This section of the standards defines everything from the proper voice to use, to the correct way to format a bulleted list.

Interaction Models

Ideally, you also develop a set of interaction models that the instructional designer can consider when developing storyboards, and that the author can use when authoring the lesson. For example, you may create a model for hot-spot graphics that bring up pop-up windows. Interaction models speed up the development time and ensure that instructional designers plan interactions that are possible within the selected authoring tool.

Instructional Design Standards

Instructional design standards provide guidelines and recommendations for various interactions. For example, they define the number of tries that a learner can make in answering questions, as well as the type of feedback that is provided for questions.

Methodology Standards

If you are embarking on a large eLearning development effort, it is also important to clearly define the methodology that will be used. Methodology standards answer questions such as, What development steps will we follow? How is feedback from the subject-matter experts incorporated? Will we pilot our eLearning modules? And, who is responsible for what? For your next eLearning project, make the wise time investment of preparing a standards document up front.

Best Practices