5 Top Tips for Great eLearning Design
Rob Hubbard
MAY 5, 2010
Ministry of Instructional Design. LearningAge Solutions. Professional Networks. British Institute for Learning and Development. eLearning Network.
Rob Hubbard
Design Related Topics 
Grand designs: How to be inventive with your learning design
Rob Hubbard
MAY 12, 2016
As learning designers it is easy to pigeon-hole our skills. For many years we have been helping organisations and learning designers broaden their design thinking and skills and it has been my great privilege to tutor hundreds of learning designers. It is my belief that great design underpins any form of creation.
Design 
40
40 Join 84,000+
Insiders
Sign Up for our Newsletter
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Designing distance learning courses
Rob Hubbard
OCTOBER 8, 2013
Cathy Moore’s Action Mapping process can also be applied to the design of distance learning courses. Design assignments where students can practice these skills. Design in ways for students to collaborate on assignments and add to the body of knowledge. Design Distance Learning MOOCs'
How to Build Agility into your Learning Design
Rob Hubbard
MAY 24, 2013
Anyone who has attempted some form of learning design project will know that the goalposts have an annoying habit of moving. This means that traditional approaches to learning design and development can struggle to adapt the design and keep pace with continually evolving requirements. They are simply not agile enough.
Agile 71
71 
The risky business of learning design
Rob Hubbard
APRIL 12, 2016
This made me think about the kinds of learning design projects I most enjoy. Failing when trying to design something – this should be celebrated! If you appreciate that failure is a vital part of the design process and welcome it, you will start to take risks. You will become more innovative and your designs will improve.
Design 40
40 
Off-piste learning design
Rob Hubbard
MARCH 5, 2013
I would argue that off-piste learning design is where true innovation lies. It’s more challenging, more fun and more rewarding as a designer. In reality you wouldn’t constantly design off-piste but rather allow your explorations to inform your more on-piste projects. can learn from them.
Design 53
53 
How does responsive design impact learning culture?
Rob Hubbard
OCTOBER 13, 2015
Responsive design allows you to build sites which can adapt their layout according to screen size, platform and orientation by using fluid grids, flexible images and media queries and means that you don’t need to develop different sites for every gadget. Responsive design is one great way of doing this.
Culture 40
40 Learning Design : What can we learn from creativity in the arts
Rob Hubbard
MARCH 7, 2016
Whilst going through the tutorials, it got me thinking about how some artistic techniques can be equally applied to designing learning in order to help us see creative solutions and formulate a ‘well-composed’ intervention. When we design learning we often take time out for a walk, a quick bike ride or a spot of meditation.
Design 40
40 
10 lessons from Design Thinking that can be applied to digital learning
Rob Hubbard
JANUARY 13, 2016
If you haven’t heard of them before, they are a design consultancy headquartered in California but with offices throughout the world. They use the design thinking methodology to design products, services, environments, and digital experiences. Design not for people but with them. Talk to your people as humans.
Digital 40
40 
Stop Wasting Time: Designing Effective and Efficient Learning Systems
Rob Hubbard
AUGUST 11, 2011
The instructional design time? One of the key things I teach in the ID workshops I run, is to design learning solutions that are both effective and efficient. Efficient to design and develop, but most importantly efficient for your learners to go through. What’s the biggest cost in any elearning or training programme?
A quick guide to behavioural economics and 7 ways to apply it to learning design
Rob Hubbard
JUNE 7, 2016
Although primarily focussed on economic decisions, this way of thinking has interesting implications for learning design. Behavioural economics, as the name suggests, is all about behaviour and behaviour change – the Holy Grail for learning designers. This might be via a business simulation or a realistic scenario.
Cognitive 40
40 
Designing and Developing Great eLearning Podcast Interview with James McLuckie
Rob Hubbard
MARCH 21, 2012
Designing and Developing Great eLearning Podcast Interview with James McLuckie. In this podcast for Edentree, James and I discuss: why it’s important to have an expansive view of what e-learning is. the process we go through at the start of each e-learning project. my views on best practice e-learning development.
Podcasts 70
70 
5 Top Tips for Great eLearning Design
Rob Hubbard
SEPTEMBER 1, 2010
Great elearning design takes skill and a certain amount of experience, much like learning to play the violin. 2. Study Instructional Design. There are many excellent books and instructional design courses out there to give you the design foundations that you need to produce great elearning.
The BIG Debate: Can Rapid eLearning Ever Be Truly Engaging?
Rob Hubbard
MAY 5, 2010
Ministry of Instructional Design. LearningAge Solutions. Professional Networks. British Institute for Learning and Development. eLearning Network.
ReD is Dead
Rob Hubbard
MAY 8, 2014
Bac k in mid-2009 the concept of a fictional Ministry of Instructional Design with a secret mission became an itch that I had to scratch. Technology has moved on and so has my thinking on design. ReD will eventually have two children; Digital Learning Design (DLD) and Digital Learning Production (DLP).
5 Ways to Inject Magic into Digital Learning
Rob Hubbard
MAY 8, 2014
A well designed piece that looks fantastic and resonates well with the audience will automatically be better received. Don’t be afraid of being creative with your learning design. Design elearning' It is worth investing in beautiful graphics. Be playful. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of fun. Fun can be extremely memorable.
Digital 83
83 
The Art of Simple Design
Rob Hubbard
FEBRUARY 20, 2014
The same is true of design, and for the purposes of this article I’m going to focus on the design of learning experiences, websites and apps. The secret to great design is simplicity. The challenge is that designing a simple solution to a complex problem is usually a long journey. .” – Mark Twain. Get to know your users.
Design 73
73 
The Ingredients of Innovation
Rob Hubbard
DECEMBER 12, 2012
I’m a designer. I love design in all its forms and I’m passionate about making things work better. Being recognised for something that I designed (and that utterly consumed me for about nine months) is a BIG deal to me. This is so that my design isn’t influenced by what already exists.
Innovation 53
53 A recipe for learning new skills
Rob Hubbard
JANUARY 30, 2013
In your next learning design ensure you include all three of these elements, for example: Goals – don’t sheep-dip your learners, let them choose what they should learn based upon their skills gaps. Support – include some expert tuition or coaching for novices, allow people to connect and share with their peers.
Skills 70
70 
Top Tips for Encouraging Users to Engage with Your Learning
Rob Hubbard
MARCH 6, 2013
It is incredibly disheartening to put all of your creative efforts into a piece of learning design for it to be largely ignored by your target audience. You’ve identified the organisational need, followed a robust design process and come up with a killer approach – so why won’t people engage with it? Run a pilot.
10 top tips and essential resources for newcomers to elearning
Rob Hubbard
JUNE 23, 2017
Being immersed in the digital learning world, it’s easy to forget that there are an awful lot of people out there who are just exploring using technology for learning for the first time and boy can it be overwhelming… what author-tool, LMS, LRS, design methodology do I use? Do I need to gamify it, make it responsive, record user data.
Ongoing Deep Recon into the World of Transmedia
Rob Hubbard
OCTOBER 21, 2010
He gave us five guidelines for transmedia design which he revealed through stories of Coney Island in the US. Mike’s guidelines for great transmedia experiences also ring true for the design of great learning experiences. I’ve added the learning design equivalent in italics below. Ongoing Recon.
Case Study 49
49 
You’re a What?
Rob Hubbard
SEPTEMBER 22, 2011
As well as being a songwriter and musician, he is now also a writer, film director, choreographer, product designer, visual artist and more. As learning designers we can learn a lot from this approach. We should instead see ourselves as learning experience designers. We should be able to design for any of these formats.
Courseware 56
56 
Forget Me Not – How to Ensure Learners Remember
Rob Hubbard
MAY 19, 2011
How does that make you feel about the training you design and deliver and your delegates’ ability to remember it? This next important step is something I’m passionate about and the careful design of implementation guides and job aids is vital here. Remember this when designing your next piece of training.
Learner 56
56 
The BIG Debate: Can Rapid eLearning Ever Be Truly Engaging?
Rob Hubbard
SEPTEMBER 1, 2010
The higher the level of creativity, computer skill and understanding of instructional design an author has, the faster effective and engaging content can be built. The value of instructional design is that it speeds up the development process. What difference can instructional design make?
Top 10 Tools for Rapid eLearning
Rob Hubbard
JANUARY 22, 2013
MockFlow – Cloud-based collaborative design tool. SmartBuilder - a great and underrated elearning author tool specifically designed for building branching scenarios. As our team are located all over the world, we particularly love cloud-based tools that allow for collaboration: MockFlow Wireframe Editor Screenshot.
Together We’re Smarter: Tips for Using Digital Learning to Make the Most of Collective Intelligence
Rob Hubbard
APRIL 17, 2013
Collaboration conference Creativity elearning instructional design Learning approaches Social Learning' Increasingly organisations are looking for ways for their workforce to collaborate more and they should be doing this in their learning too.
Digital 81
81 
10 Ways to Encourage Participation in Distance Learning (DL)
Rob Hubbard
OCTOBER 8, 2013
For example; if you are an award-winning company, if people have been involved in the design who are well-known and well-respected in the sector you are likely to be perceived far more positively than a company who does not have this track record or involvement. Consider accreditation.
Breaking Down Barriers Between Learning and Doing
Rob Hubbard
MARCH 8, 2012
Design real-world activities where they put their learning into practice. Where you do need to provide knowledge and information make it concise and bite-sized. Allow people to access the material easily when they are working and when they are mobile, if that would be beneficial.
Theory 66
66 Case Study: Waterstones Academy – Goal-Based Learning for Booksellers
Rob Hubbard
NOVEMBER 21, 2013
The site needed to work cross-platform (so on computers and the Kindle devices themselves) and also the design needed to have the Wow factor. Collaboration Design elearning Goal-based learning' The final challenges were that Waterstones wanted to be able to create and edit the content themselves. The Solution.
Case Study 56
56 How interactive should your elearning be?
Rob Hubbard
OCTOBER 12, 2015
Design in repetition and reinforcement of key facts and always keep in mind that most people can hold between one and five pieces of information in their working memory at a time. Consider using videos and animations and mixing delivery up a bit.
Interactive 40
40 
Begin with the Blend in Mind
Rob Hubbard
NOVEMBER 10, 2011
So how might you achieve this when designing your workshop / webinar / elearning course? I believe that what happens after a learning intervention (be it workshop, webinar, elearning course or whatever) is even more important than what happens during the intervention. We are all busy people with 1001 things on our to-do lists.
Trailblazers Wanted
Rob Hubbard
MARCH 8, 2012
goalgetter is an innovative ‘goal-based learning system’ designed to help people put their learning into pra ctice, improving their performance by completing goals. It can be accessed from computer, tablet or smartphone and allows users to connect socially to other people attempting the same goal.
Coactivism – A Learning Model
Rob Hubbard
JUNE 29, 2011
All of this got me thinking and looking for an approach that would address these issues, so when I designed the Rapid eLearning Development (ReD) course I decided to free up access to the learning material. Essentially: Design assignments where people practice what you want them to do in the real world.
What is goal-based learning?
Rob Hubbard
OCTOBER 3, 2012
Within each goal, you then design practice activities where learners can have a go at doing these things. It’s fine to have lots of goals within a subject so learners have plenty of choice so that the learning can be more accurately tailored to each learner’s specific needs.
Is the Future of Communications Social?
Rob Hubbard
SEPTEMBER 30, 2010
We supplement this with Google Docs for collaborative document creation, have started using Prezi for storyboarding complex branching scenarios and Mindmeister for top level instructional design.
How to Create an Effective Blend
Rob Hubbard
APRIL 7, 2011
My advice always is to start simple and design something both effective and efficient. Social networks for learner-to-learner and learner-to-tutor communication. Micro-blogging services as a way to ask and answer questions. If you then want to add further bells and whistles you can build upon a solid foundation.
Don’t use the G-word!
Rob Hubbard
APRIL 3, 2014
Game techniques, as with social learning functionality, should be designed in to the solution only where they help the user achieve what they, or you, want them to achieve. Having different outcomes depending on the decisions made. These examples come from many projects but very seldom have we explicitly discussed the idea of games.
Gamification 45
45 
Microlearning – what the devil is it and 5 things it’s good for
Rob Hubbard
MARCH 31, 2016
The limitations of human memory are an eternal conundrum for learning designers – how exactly do you create meaningful learning experiences for learners who have a shorter attention span than a goldfish? Or who are only able to retain 7 items in their short term memory 1 ? Perhaps microlearning is the answer?
Learning by Doing
Rob Hubbard
JUNE 29, 2011
All you need do is: Design activities to help people implement what they’ve learnt. We need to give our learners more support in making this transition from theory into practice into ‘business as usual’. And this doesn’t have to be hard. Encourage them to reflect on their performance and strive to improve it.
Simulations 45
45 How to Harness Informal Learning
Rob Hubbard
SEPTEMBER 30, 2010
Experts disagree on the importance of informal learning in helping to achieve organisational goals but it is clear that it is something that organisations should, at least, acknowledge when designing their learning strategies. What is informal learning?
TEDx Transmedia Conference – An Inspiration
Rob Hubbard
OCTOBER 11, 2010
There are a few people using transmedia for learning purposes, however most projects so far have been designed to teach people about the energy crisis or global warming and had huge budgets. Transmedia projects follow similar processes and face similar challenges in engaging with the audience.
Conference 49
49 
5 Ways to Use Goal-Based Learning
Rob Hubbard
OCTOBER 3, 2012
If you really took that seriously, you would end up rethinking all aspects of the company from operations, how you design the organisation, even what kind of business strategy you would pursue, and certainly what kind of technology platforms you would use to support them in their work environments.”.
Let's personalize your content