Creating an online learning environment: 3 steps to success

Step 1: Determine your strategy

Who are you going to make the online learning environment for? What do you want to achieve with your training? What is the goal? Before you start making teaching materials, it is good to answer these questions and have a clear vision. This has a number of advantages:

• You increase the chance that participants accept and make the course. When they are well informed about the why of the training and what this brings them, you reduce the chance of unrest or rejection;
• It prevents unnecessary design time. When you have a clear idea of what you want, you don't have to think about it when making it;
• It also prevents unnecessary recovery time. The basis, the foundation, of the training is right. Comments and suggestions for improvement will be about details and are therefore quickly adapted and implemented.

Create an online learning environment for your target group

An important part of this step is getting to know your target group (even better). A good education connects to the participants. There are several ways to increase your knowledge about the target group. Preferably you start a conversation with real participants. If that is not possible, you can also send a survey to find out more about them.

Topics that you definitely want more information about and that will be of great use to you when creating the course material are:

• Intelligence and metacognition (knowledge about how people think, remember and learn)
• Age
• Foreknowledge & learning experiences
• Motivation

Responding to different learning styles is also very sensible! Take a look at the animation below.

PS. Find out more: ask for access to the free training: "Basic skills designing e-learning".

Step 2: Make attractive and comprehensible teaching materials

Difficult? No, certainly not. Of course, this only applies if you already know the content of what you want to teach the participants. Most companies already have a lot of learning material on the shelf. Think of machine instructions, hygiene guidelines or refresher courses aimed at nurses, for example.

If you have lesson material in the form of a reader, syllabus or even a book, you can use it to create an online learning environment. As a design you can use the order of the material. And you can easily enrich it with videos, read-aloud audio and interactive images.

You can easily create more than 30 different interactive exercises yourself. ProcademyAn example: watch the interactive exercise birds & feathers.

Step 3: Test the training with a group of participants

The online learning environment has nice exercises, questions and (partial) tests. Although you might want to shout it straight from the rooftops and roll it out big in your organization, you're usually wiser to first try out the online learning environment with a select group of 3 to 5 people. This way you avoid big mistakes that you might have overlooked and you can test if the training is clear and works.

Ready... and now for real!

Nothing stops you from sharing the online learning environment. Above all, tell (again) why this training is important and what it delivers. On to many enthusiastic students!

Want to create an online learning environment that invites participants to learn? In the online learning environment we Procademyoffer several courses including 'Basic skills designing e-learning' with lots more information and tips. Curious? Request a free demo.