How To Deal With Serious eLearning Challenges
The ultimate goal of all eLearning is engaged learners who successfully achieve the desired learning objectives. Course creators direct all their efforts in building eLearning that makes an impact. But when we delve deeper into this zone, we understand that eLearning comes with its own share of hurdles. eLearning professionals face some peculiar challenges that need to be overcome so as for an eLearning course to be successful. Here are the most common ones and possible workarounds to deal with them:
1. Unrealistic Deadlines
All eLearning professionals have worked on unrealistic eLearning development deadlines at some point or another. These folks have lost sleep over work, reallocated resources, and even tried to negotiate with an internal team or the client, but without much success. In cases where they could still manage to deliver on those timelines, the quality of the work has suffered.
So what is the best possible workaround? Well, you, as the course creator, need to set it out straight with the relevant stakeholders at the onset. Be honest about the estimated efforts. In cases concerning an external client, it is quite possible that the client is not fully aware of the eLearning design and development process. Explain everything to them so that they know how much work goes in to create impactful eLearning. Involve them at each step in the process so that they know what to expect and when.
The key to meeting unrealistic deadlines is not having them in the first place. But if you still end up with stringent deadlines, then look for a rapid eLearning development tool. It could save you a lot of time and efforts, and you could still deliver on the anticipated timelines without any quality concerns.
2. Limited Resources And Shoestring Budgets
Most eLearning projects are to be delivered using limited resources and within shoestring budgets. In many cases, the eLearning development team is limited to one or two people. There are times when the stakeholders realize in the middle of the course development process that they will not be able to deliver in the allocated budget. But stretching the budget midway is not the ideal solution and might have other repercussions.
How do you tackle this? The simplest thing you could do is outlining a detailed eLearning budget that includes every single expense, in the beginning. And in cases where you know stretching the budget would not even be a possibility, investing in a good and affordable eLearning development tool could be your best bet. Choose a tool that fits in well with your ecosystem and helps you create eLearning with minimum resources.
3. Low Learner Engagement
There is no worse eLearning nightmare than disengaged learners. It is the absence of meaningful interactivity that disengages learners and impacts their performance. You cannot expect high engagement when your course is in the form of a flat PowerPoint, lacks interactive assessments and games, does not present content in an appealing format, is too long, or is simply a page turner module that does not require much action from the learner. For learners to be fully engaged, you must provide them with immersive eLearning experiences that require them to participate. Use learning games, simulations, and fun quizzes to make your course enjoyable.
Raptivity, a popular interactivity builder, can come in handy to create such interactions. Raptivity’s 190+ interactive templates range across categories like games, simulations, assessments, quizzes, presentations, and more. It doesn’t require any programming knowledge and produces interactive learning nuggets in both Flash and HTML5 formats. Here is a detailed comparison sheet that compares Raptivity’s interaction building capabilities against some of the other tools available in the market. It is important to note that the tools have been evaluated purely for the interaction templates supported by them, and not for their course authoring capabilities (if any).
4. Doesn’t Connect To Real Life
Remember, good eLearning should get learners to change their behavior, and not just remember information to pass a test. Learners need to know why they are learning something. Because it is in their syllabus or is a compliance mandate, is not the best answer. Giving them examples of how they might apply a skill in real life makes it more relevant and engaging.
To know how your course can address their real-life concerns, you need to engage with the people you are educating. Ask them a lot of questions and then proceed to design your solution.
5. Finding The Perfect eLearning Tool
The market is flooded with options. There are authoring tools, interactivity builders, and even template providers. So many tools to choose from and so little time! It is advisable to shortlist your must-have features based on the requirements, and then take advantage of tool demos and free trials. The ideal tool will address most of the above-listed challenges. It is affordable, supports rapid development, fits in with your entire learning ecosystem, doesn’t require many resources to operate it, and above all - aids in interactive eLearning content development.
Have you faced any of the above challenges? How did you deal with them?
