Designing your eLearning course properly is the best way to ensure that it meets its educational objectives. Below are the main elements you should consider in eLearning course design.

Set Clear Goals and Objectives

Clearly define the needs and expectations of your audience for this course. Identify what the user of the course wants to achieve and which skills they need to develop to do so. Ask yourself whether the information provided will help them to overcome a challenge and provide desired benefits.

Provide Intuitive Navigation Elements

Structure your course materials so that they are easy to navigate. Make sure navigation icons clear and visible and not buried among text blocks and images. All links should be clearly shown and active and lead to the promised instructional area. Provide guidance if the interface is complex or difficult to navigate through an introduction or walk-through.

Use Relevant Multimedia

Modern learners are accustomed to getting information through a range of media such as videos, step-by-step demonstrations and slideshows. Judicious use of multimedia elements can help learner engagement and provide different ways to digest the information easily. Sometimes using external resources such as YouTube videos can also be effective.

Provide Strategic Assessments and Feedback

While most instructional designers only include assessment at the end of the eLearning course design, it often helps to provide assessment points throughout the course. For example, sometimes assessments are provided at the beginning of the course as well as the end to highlight what has been learned

Online learners need to know that they have mastered each part of the course and receive constructive feedback on what they need to improve. Positive feedback throughout the course can help them complete it effectively.

Use Content Chunking as Part of the Design

Studies have shown that separating content into discrete topics (or chunks) enables knowledge retention and prevents information overload. Do this by grouping the content into modules or lessons and then providing a summary of the key takeaways at the end of each to help with retention.

Links to Additional Resources

You can’t cover everything in one course so it’s always good practice to provide students with additional resources they can use to continue their education. Provide links to relevant websites, articles and videos for additional information on the topic of your eLearning course. You should provide this in an organized list of links that is divided into categories and check that your links are working correctly on a regular basis.