eLearning Course Design Inspiration
In the day and age we live in, visual engagement reigns supreme. It’s all about what looks good to the eye; and, the more graphic, quirky and creative something is the more people engage with it. Instructional Design is, after all, a design technique, and depends fully on turning drab content into eye-catching and engaging interactive courses. The more visually-appealing your courses are, the more likely learners are to engage with it, and the more likely they are to learn and retain information better. However, even professional Instructional Designers know that their "well of creativity" is not infinite and runs dry from time to time. You’ll run into the problem of finding inspiration a lot of times in your career, and that is when you must know where to look and what to do. This article is written to help you with exactly that. Let’s find you some design inspiration for your eLearning course!
1. Find Inspiration In The Unlikeliest Of Places
Only looking at other existing courses available on the internet will get you so far. If you need some unadulterated creativity, you need to keep your eyes peeled all the time. Inspiration can hit you anywhere. You can find some new design, a new way to present a font, a quirky color combination, an apt video, a fitting tune, anywhere. For example, on a candy wrapper, an advertisement on a billboard, while watching a movie, from a comic book or a magazine or from countless ineffable observations you may make any day.
2. Use Pinterest
Pinterest is a veritable haven for designers of all types. It is chock-full of random ideas that’ll get the creative juices in your brain flowing, and allow you to create fun and engaging designs that keep learners hooked on your courses. Start with a theme, an idea or an object and search for pins related to it. Then, surf through innumerable ideas until you find what you were looking for or at least something that tickles your fancy!
3. Follow Your Favorite Designers
Every Instructional Designer has at least a sprinkling of designers they’re inspired by. Famous designers usually share their design ideas and insights on the internet, either on their own websites, blogs, social media profiles like Twitter and Quora, or their RSS feeds. This is a great way to siphon off some creativity and inspiration from them and create courses with designs from the masters themselves.
4. Rifle Through Photos On The Internet
There is literally an infinite number of photos on the internet by photographers, big and small-time, that can provide inspiration to Instructional Designers. Start with an idea or theme, and work your way from there. You can either search on Google or image sharing websites like Flickr, Instagram or DeviantArt.
5. Brainstorm
Creating eLearning courses is usually a team effort. Though, it is the Instructional Designer who is usually the one that does all the eLearning course design. However, it doesn’t mean that they cannot involve other members of the team in it. Brainstorming with your peers ensures that you get various perspectives, one of which may be a stroke of genius! Or, you could take multiple ideas and modify them to your liking to form an entirely different idea! Either way, brainstorming with your team or other Instructional Designers is a great way to get some ideas.
6. Stay Motivated
All of the above-mentioned ways to find inspiration for your eLearning course are worth nothing if you don’t keep yourself motivated about your work. All design is art, and every designer is an artist. Every designer realizes that one thing in their lives which sets them apart from the others. It is usually different for every designer. You just have to find your own. Remember, that staying motivated all the time is not an easy job, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll have trouble remembering a time you couldn’t. You’ll become a razor-sharp observer and find inspiration in the smallest of things and the littlest of details. It is when you have reached this state that you’ll actually realize that you’re an artist. A nonsensical sentence, but actually true if you look at it closely: “You have to constantly motivate yourself to stay motivated!”
