In fact we’ve probably all done the activity where only the first and last letter of each word are correct and the ones in the middle are mixed up and we can still read it just fine. Try it out:

“Arocdnicg to rsceearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit pobelrm. Tihs is buseace the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.” (source)

Dr Ken Smith believes that the most common variant spellings should just be accepted. Words such as:

• arguement for argument
• twelth for twelfth
• judgement for judgment
• truely for truly

Mr Smith also suggested adding the word “misspelt” to the list and all those that break the “i before e” rule – weird, seize, neighbour and foreign. Overall his suggestion is too simply add the most commonly “misspelt” words to the English language as accepted variants.

So, why do we care so much about spelling, grammar, and punctuation? Some programs now-a-days actually try and get us to abbreviate everything (Twitter and text messages for example). If a few misspellings don’t prevent the transfer of knowledge then maybe we shouldn’t worry about it so much. I love some of the emails and comments I get when I accidentally misspell a word in one of these blog posts. Most of the time the email tries to infer that if you misspell a word then you must be a rotten person

So what do you think…are a few typos ok? What about 10 years from now…will anyone care about spelling? Do younger generations care as much as their parents and grandparents? Is correct spelling really directly related to a person’s IQ?

More spelling articles:
Children and spelling
Common Mistakes
English Spelling is “truely atrosious”

All too often we forget that eLearning can also have audio. Not just narration but also sound effects that emphasize and support the text/images/animations.

I met Sound80 for the first time the other day at a conference. They provided a great paper on “Best Practices in eLearning Audio“.

1. Keep it in focus
2. Sometimes silence really is golden
3. Make it real
4. Not all recordings are created equal
5. A picture is worth 1000 words.
6. Author!
7. Moving beyond narration
8. Money, Money, Money, MONEY!
9. Effective effects
10. Work with the best

Thanks to Sound80 for the information!

It’s typically not the tool that makes good eLearning, it’s the creativity and instructional design.

Here is a list of free software/tools:

• Audio/Video Capture and Editing
• Developing Tutorials
• Quizzes and Surveys
• LMS
• Image Capture and Editing

The other day I was on an airplane and watched the person next to me “read” a magazine. He basically flipped quickly through the pages and stopped occasionally on a pretty picture and usually started flipping again. At one point he stopped and seemed to read a bit.

When we create eLearning we should remember that people don’t read…they scan!  We all do it. We quickly scan a page to see if there is any information that interests us. Then if that passes our “interest” test we might actually read a sentence and possibly the entire paragraph. Do we develop our eLearning with this in mind? Do we think that people will read all of our text? (Here’s the secret…they won’t.)

Our training must look good and capture the attention of our “shallow” learners. If we do that they may start to pay attention and read.

Here some things to think about when making your eLearning look good:
1. Color – Choose colors that work together. Your marketing department may have some swatches you can use. Focus on branding.
2. Skin – Make your course skin look fresh and up-to-date.
3. Pictures – Create images that tell a story. They could even replace some of your text. Don’t just use image placeholders.
4. Less text – Users aren’t reading it anyway so thin out the text.
5. Consistency – Make everything look like it belongs together. (Standards)
5. Interactions – Break up your content and make it engaging.
6. Fonts – They can add some style to your course just don’t go crazy.

Additional Resources:
Articulate (Tom) did an article on why looks matter.
e Learning Templates that look great and are branded.
Fresh Articulate Skins.

1. Interactions
There are many times when you have various concepts or “chunks” of information on a page. You could break it into multiple pages or divide it into sections. For example use tabs and dividers so that the user only sees small parts at a time. Here are some tabs and dividers.

You could also use some type of simple flash memory cards or drag and drop.

2. Scenarios
If you have a lot of information to share you could package it into a scenario. This is a good way to make it “real”. It also helps the user understand how it relates to them and why they should pay attention. Scenarios don’t need to be complex. They nay just be a simple setup page and a question or two.

Here are some scenario examples:
”The company has recently opened 3 new offices and a launched a new website. What products might help this company process customers’ payments?”
“You see a customer at the counter complaining about their cold food. The customer is visibly angry. As a manager what should you do?”

Here is a simple eLearning scenario template.

3. Case Studies
There are times when your scenario needs to be more in-depth. I like to use case studies when a scenario is too simple. A case study would be more intense and could include background information, bios on persons involved, current setup/date/time, multiple phases/steps, twists along the way, and decision points. Case studies take some time to create but can be very engaging.

4. Quizzes
Knowledge checks can keep a learner’s attention. You could even do quizzes before the course content is presented. This might be a good way to help the learner start thinking about the content and to give them a preview of what’s to come. Theses quizzes could be combined to create the final test. Here are some fun quiz templates and games.

5. Hands-On Demos
Many people learn by actually trying out the system (hands-on approach). Online training is a great way to give learners a way to try out a system without being live. You can recreate a series of steps in a software transaction and package it as a simulation. Learners could have three options:

• Sit back and watch a demonstration of how the software works.
• Be prompted where to click and how to navigate the software.
• Be tested to see if they can use the software without any help.

It is basically the “Tell them, Show Them, Let Them Do It” approach. Simulations are a great way to let learners practice in a safe environment.

6. Learning Games
Is there a way to make your course fun and still educational? There are many types of game ideas from word puzzles, Jeopardy, and Millionaire to more complex, immersive games.

There are tons of ways to create interactive content. Most of the time it just takes a little extra thought.

Related articles:
Check out this past article on brainstorming.
Awesome eLearning Do’s and Don’ts.

Branding a course is more than just putting a logo in the corner. It’s also more than just some pretty colors.

So, what should we think about when creating a brand for our training? Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• What should people “think” when they hear about your group/training?
• What should users “feel” when they take your course?
• What does your course visual style say?
• What expectations do you want to create?
• What “style” of audience do you have?

Branding is your overall presence. It is you.

Here are a few companies to think about:

• Google (what do you think about when you hear the name? What have you heard about their “style and brand”?)
• Apple (would you recognize one of their products in a line up with others? What would you expect from Apple?)

If you took some online training from Apple, what would you expect that training to be like? Probably simple colors, sleek design, cool, informal, and very user-friendly. Everything they do should be inline with their public brand.

Here are a few features/parts of your course to consider when branding your training:

• tone of text
• color pallet
• pre-work / post-work
• availability of contacting a real person
• use of job aids and resources
• style of visuals (simple, technical, corporate, cartoon)
• testing (present or not, certification programs, how data is used)
• mandatory vs optional
• use of text, font, and formatting

Here are some more ideas for branding your training.

What else should we be looking at and considering?

Each pack:

• contains 75+ layouts
• is “clipped out” and ready to drop into your course
• has multiple layouts both looking at and away from the camera
• is high resolution allowing you to zoom in and still maintain quality

Using people in your course can really enhance the overall look and feel. Check out the eLearning People Pictures.

Do eLearning courses have necessary evils? I believe that they do…it’s TEXT. When we think of the worst online course that we’ve ever seen it was probably a “page-turner”. So there was a lot of text and that was it.

Here’s the secret that nobody wants to admit…online learners don’t read, they scan! Let’s admit it, most of our users are scanning our pages and seeing what stands out. If they are just scanning our text then we need to figure out how to help them understand our content.

So if text is a necessary evil, how do we keep it under control?

Make it Easy to Digest – Smaller Chunks
No learner wants to read a bunch of text on the screen and we can only remember a certain amount at a time. So, take your text and cut it into chunks. Many popular websites do this as well. Take a look at CNN and notice that every sentence is a new paragraph. This allows users to quickly scan the story. Maybe our courses should be written in that style? Or maybe something similar?

At times designers want to have less pages in a course. I really don’t pay attention to how many pages I have. I’d rather error on the side of having too many simple, clean pages than having pages with too much text.

Say NO to Jargon
Many times we work with SMEs to get our training content. They may be using words that a new employee won’t understand. It’s our job to break-down the jargon and write to the learner.

Cut, Cut, Cut…
Rewrite your text and then cut some and rewrite it again. There are many times when we use too many words. Can we convey the same meaning in 5 words instead of 15?

This reminds me of a LinkedIn discussion where people has to tell a story in 6 words. I know that a course will have more than 6 words but it shows how much information can truly be portrayed in very few words.

Use Bullets
Learners can easily scan a list. It helps them quickly breakdown the concepts.

(Before) Increased competition, recent uncertainty in the markets, and increasing expectations are just a few of the challenges we face as we seek to strengthen relationships with our clients.

(After) As we seek to strengthen relationships with our clients, we face:

• Increased competition
• Market uncertainty
• Increased expectations

Easy on the Bold, Italics, and Color
Using various text formatting can be very powerful. However if you overuse these formats they become useless.

The use of various text formatting should be explained in your internal style guide. When/what do you bold? When is colored text used? Can text be italicized?

As you format your text you can drastically help the user to understand what is important, what they should pay attention to, and how to interact with the course. Again, if it’s used too much the learner stops “seeing” it.

Talk to the Learner
I prefer to keep the text conversational. If we really want to connect with learners then formal text won’t work. As you write the course pretend like you’re are explaining it to a colleague.

When I see, “the user would then access the xxxxx screen” in a course it feels very distant. Just say, “You then access the xxxx screen”. eLearning is a one-to-one interaction.

Use Images
A picture if worth a 1000 words. Use images instead of text.

Conclusion
Is it possible to do online training with NO TEXT? Check out the videos at Common Craft. (I think that the answer is yes but probably not for every topic.)

Overall we just need to be more careful with our text. We could all spend a bit more time and come up with something that is more effective.

The phrase “Less is more” come to mind.

There are 2 ways to look at this problem:

1. The learner should be responsible and find ways to motivate themselves to complete the training.
2. Course designers should create courses that are more engaging and relevant.

How can this be accomplished? I like the ideas that Shelley shared in “Motivate Yourself to Learn through Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction“.

She mentions the ARCS model as a way to help learners be motivated:

• Attention
• Relevance
• Confidence
• Satisfaction

In the end we all need to be better training designers and training participants. Online training must have a motivated learner and motivating content.

Should our eLearning participants take notes?

Yes! Shelley Gable (“How Can Note Taking Help You with Online Learning?“) has a great article on this topic. She focuses on how taking notes can help a learner remember more. She also covers some note taking methods and what should be included in your notes.