Creating Visually Appealing e-Learning Courses
February 2nd, 2018
With e-Learning taking over the K-12 education sphere, it is important for educators to make learning fun and interesting. An effective way of doing this is creating courses that are not just informative, but also visually appealing and engaging. While pretty design elements and imagery come to mind for achieving this, there are some tactical changes with psychological impacts that can be employed to improve learning subtly.
Visual appeal is an important factor to consider while creating a good e-Learning course. Educators must create content that is aesthetically appealing to help learners retain more information. The information in a course module must be relevant and of high quality along with the method of its presentation. Without visual appeal, the course content loses its power to engage learners, especially in a time of short attention spans. Thus, creating eye-catching e-Learning courses must be a primary consideration when developing them.
Read more: Your Guide To Creating An Effective E-Learning Course
Best practices to create visually-appealing e-Learning courses
- Simple structure: The content in a course module must be to-the-point and well-spaced. Decide on the critical content and design elements that must be retained and those that can be discarded. Crowding the course with too many graphics or too much text overwhelms the learner and should be avoided. Additionally, in a cluttered page, calls-to-action or important texts are often lost.
- Standardized theme: Maintain uniformity in course structure for cohesiveness. Each element of a course layout should blend seamlessly – be it images, graphics, fonts, and so on. Choose a template with a theme that complements subject matter and aligns with the background or interests of the learner. Use the same type of font throughout, stick to a set color scheme, create a style-guide, pay close attention to the borders, and keep the course design layout as simple as possible.
- Colour coordination: The colors used in a module must be in line with the subject matter, logo, etc. Since colors hold the immense power of conveying emotion and meaning, selecting the right color scheme is important. Additionally, keep your brand or institution’s official branding in mind. Choose colors that align with it, making your course design more cohesive and credible.
- Icons for navigation: Since we scan a page from left to right, allowing the reader’s eye to naturally look at the top left of the screen when he first lands on a webpage. Thus, all important information should be placed there with other supporting text and images on the right or the bottom of the screen. Navigation icons should be clearly visible, placed at the bottom of the page where learners can easily find them. With the aesthetic appeal of the design, it is also important to keep the course’s navigability in mind. Even the most stunning course design isn’t helpful to learners if they have difficulty navigating through the module. Ensure there aren’t any extraneous links or buttons, unnecessary images or distracting text. To enhance the overall user experience, MagicBoxTM allows for interactive icons and visual elements on its platform, helping learners effectively navigate through the course content.
- Engaging graphics and multimedia: Leverage attractive and intuitive multimedia to boost learner engagement and knowledge retention. Integrating videos, images, and audios in your course design makes learners active participants in their educational process. It also adds to the overall aesthetic appeal and cater to different learning needs.
- Font as per the brand: Use easy-to-read fonts with the brand guidelines in mind to make your text legible that allows learners to acquire the information they need quickly and conveniently. Some fonts have a more formal feel to them, and the others look casual. The style of the font should also match the overall tone of your content – if you’re dealing with a heavy, serious subject matter, a fancy font won’t convey the right subconscious message.
The importance of creating aesthetic e-Learning courses
A well-designed course allows learners to achieve more out of it as long as it provides them with a cohesive and visually-appealing environment.
Therefore, it’s important to design e-Learning courses that please the eye to increase learner retention and boost overall learning outcomes. Learners are more likely to remember information when it’s visual, interactive, and engaging.
MagicBoxTM lets you create eLearning courses that are a visual treat to provide your learners with a highly effective e-Learning experience that keeps them interested and motivated. Contact us for sample courses and free product demo!
