What do the experts think?

We spoke to leading L&D experts to get their perspectives on the challenges and opportunities those on the frontline face. Here are their thoughts on the current digital learning landscape and what it means for 2025.

Technology

Over the last year, businesses and L&D moved from ‘trying out’ to ‘rolling out’ new learning technology. Whilst every new tech comes with opportunities, it also comes with risk, especially if it’s adopted at high speed.  Finding ways to avoid key pitfalls is critical for success in 2025.

Let’s see what the experts said…

“Just because we have a new ‘tool’ in the toolbox (ever increasing access to AI capabilities), don’t just use it because it’s there. Consider its use, its benefit and how it can help you and your end customer. It’s brilliant – no question – but ensure you’re always looking through the lens of your learners first.”

Nathan Frost

Learning and Development Business Partner, 

Wickes

“As digital transformation accelerates, there’s a tendency to adopt new technologies – especially with AI tools flooding the market – simply because they’re trending, rather than because they serve a clear learning need. Instead of focusing on the technology itself, focus on the experience it enables for learners and what business problems we’re trying to solve.”

Stella Lee

Director, 

Paradox Learning

“L&D teams should avoid investing in a single learning platform as a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, focus on platform integrations, but keep in mind that managing these integrations can be as challenging as selecting and implementing new platforms.”

David Barone, Head of Global Digital Learning, Takeda

Head of Global Digital Learning, 

Takeda

“Failing to be part of critical conversations, particularly those around AI will be an issue. As organizations invest in dedicated teams for embedding AI into workplace processes, L&D needs to position itself as a strategic partner in these discussions. The risk lies in being sidelined or acting solely as an order-taker rather than an innovator.”

Lloyd Dean

Senior Global Learning and Development Manager, 

AXA XL

“Just because it’s new or cool to you doesn’t mean it’s new or cool to your audience. Avoid the “shiny object” syndrome that many L&D teams have when a new tool is presented. Give tools time to generate use cases, and always choose the tool that best fits the situation, not the other way around.”

Heidi Kirby

Learning and Development Consultant and Coach, 

Useful Stuff

Content

Over recent years, L&D has begun to recognize that just providing more online learning doesn’t lead to greater engagement or impact. However, the rush to reap the rewards of AI with rapid content creation means the risk of information overload is as relevant as ever.

“Producing content will only get easier and easier with AI, and doesn’t everyone know it! There’s a risk that content is produced fast to ‘fill the skill’, without enough thought or experimentation to ensure it’s an effective learning approach. Also don’t just use AI for content production – analytics, needs analysis, personalization…there’s so many other ways to benefit from it!”

Kirstie Greany

Head of Learning Strategy, 

Elucidat

“Stop using AI to build more courses. There are already way too many courses out there and they often aren’t fit for purpose. Focus more on effective learning experiences validated by data or better AI-enabled searchability of existing libraries and content.”

Lori Niles-Hofmann

Senior Learning EdTech Transformation Strategist, 

NilesNolen

“AI shouldn’t be used to create content wholesale without serious review in place – it should be treated as a tool, not an author.”

Heidi Kirby

Learning and Development Consultant and Coach, 

Useful Stuff

“L&D are comfortable with content: producing it, curating it, making it smaller or bigger. L&D have always been prone to drowning our workers in LOVE (layers of virtual excess)! The challenge is that more content doesn’t create a skill or improve a task. Less obvious, but still a pitfall to avoid is content complacency. Where our past successes stop us from spotting that the world may be changing and has moved on.”

Laura Overton

Founder, 

Learning Changemakers

“Creating more and more content is leading to overload. Instead, curate, consolidate and simplify the end user’s experience.”

Anonymous Expert

Global Head of Talent and Elearning, 

Global Real Estate Company

Organization and processes

Faced with accelerated change, L&D needs solid foundations. From learning needs analysis to collaborative content creation, you can only deliver impact in 2025 if you have the right ways of working in place.

“Asking good questions is a simple strategy that L&D teams should follow. When a new training request comes in, ask why the business needs it and how it ties into the overall business strategy. We need to step away from rapidly creating more content, overwhelming our learners, and move towards asking the right questions that connect us to the business and our learners.”

Bianca Baumann

VP, Learning Solutions & Innovation, 

Ardent

“What purpose is L&D serving in the organization? What are they trying to achieve, and how are they demonstrating impact? These fundamentals are often overlooked; forget about the shiny toys and get the basics right first!”

Lloyd Dean

Senior Global Learning and Development Manager, 

AXA XL

“Focus on active learning, reflective practice and learning transfer in platforms and blended learning solutions. Programs and learning which connect the dots to support real-world application either at point of need or as part of a program…None of this is new but there’s a chance to reimagine it with different technologies.”

Cheryl Clemons

CEO, 

Storytagger

“Always dig to the root of the issue – what are you (or your stakeholders) trying to change? Just keep digging as it will often challenge them to think again about what they initially thought was a ‘training need’ – get this right, and the solution (training or otherwise) is far more likely to succeed.”

Nathan Frost

Learning and Development Business Partner, 

Wickes

“L&D can end up pushing learning for learning’s sake. Not aligning learning to the business strategy, and not understanding the ROI / potential value add of the learning they’re deploying.”

Anonymous Expert

Global Head of Talent and Elearning, 

Global Real Estate Company

The learning landscape continues to evolve, but 2025 will be a year of consolidation. Taking onboard the learning from the previous year’s experiments is critical to L&D’s success. Responding at speed and scale to fast-changing skills requirements while maintaining quality requires effective use of new technology, approaches, and processes. 

L&D professionals and experts highlighted three strategies to help you drive effective learning at an enterprise scale in the year ahead.

1. Use AI meaningfully

From content overload to ineffective learning, 2024 saw the challenges of new tech coming into focus. But that isn’t a reason to take a step back. Instead, use technology with intention. Consider how it can help you achieve efficiencies and minimize disruption. Explore where it can augment roles and add value. Build strong L&D foundations to achieve the full potential of new technologies.

“

AI can make a massive difference in the hands of those who are actively willing to experiment and explore how it can help them solve problems, innovate and spot new opportunities.”

Laura Overton

Founder, Learning Changemakers

2. Refocus on skills

Faced with an ever-changing skills landscape, L&D should refocus on what they do best – supporting skills development. But remember, the shift to becoming a skills-based organization can’t be achieved by L&D alone. Collaborate to support the change rather than trying to lead it. Explore your organization’s data to understand where to focus your effort.

“

Think about data differently. Align learning projects directly with business goals, ensuring that programs not only support skill-building but also drive measurable impact.”

Heidi Kirby

Learning and Development Consultant and Coach, Useful Stuff

3. Empower internal experts

Experiments with AI have proven that SMEs are just as critical as ever. Checking content for accuracy. Bringing it to life with real-world stories. Creating that human connection. These are things that new tech just can’t do. L&D collaboration remains key to harnessing SME’s knowledge effectively, meeting rapidly changing learning needs, and delivering high-quality digital learning. 

“

Take an intentional approach to providing the right scaffolding and guidance, governance, community and recognition to your SMEs. If people have been empowered with the right tools and skills, then this is a powerful strategy which will deliver a lot of impact.”

Cheryl Clemons

CEO, Storytagger

This report was produced by Elucidat. Elucidat is a multi-award winning elearning authoring platform chosen by the world’s largest enterprises for its unparalleled capability to enable them to deliver impactful and scalable learning experiences. To learn more about Elucidat’s authoring platform and how you can create unique, personalized digital learning, book a demo to get started.

3 key insights on the modern learning experience

Insight #1: Time is squeezed

The modern learner has 3 hours or less a month set aside for learning at work. That’s a mere 1-2% of a full-time worker’s hours. This might not even be 20 minutes in one go or one place. In this time-pressured environment, it’s clear that digital learning offers a far more flexible solution than traditional classroom learning. However, whether it’s online or in person, time away from work needs to be time well spent. So, it’s crucial that any elearning respects your people’s time.

Insight #2: Learning can misalign

Making good use of your people’s time ultimately means delivering training that meets their learning needs. Often quicker to develop than face-to-face training, digital learning can help organizations and individuals keep up with new and evolving skill requirements. However, around a third of employees feel that their digital learning does not fully align with their company’s goals. And if elearning isn’t covering the skills and knowledge employees need, then it’s wasting their time.

Insight #3: Room for improvement

Covering the right skills is the minimal viable product. Making the most of people’s time means maximizing the impact of any training. But with more than 50% of elearning in large organizations rated as fair to poor, there’s definitely room for improvement. So, we asked learners to give us their thoughts on what good and bad elearning looks like to them. The answer was clear. Long, passive, click-through elearning? No thanks. People want focused, active and relevant digital learning that they can easily access and apply in their work.

How to design a successful elearning course

So, how do you take these learner insights and use them to deliver more successful people-centered training that tackles your business’ skill gaps? What does a good elearning course look like?

Here are 4 key principles for impactful digital learning

1. Make it relevant

Solutions that overtly meet the
specific performance needs of individuals
in their context

Taking a one-size-fits-all or a
“top down” approach
to learning

62% of learners said relevant content was the most important factor when it came to elearning. If something is really useful it gives people intrinsic motivation to use it.

Mundane, generic content is easily spotted by learners, and they are then likely to switch off. The average person gives learning content around 7 seconds to decide if a page is for them or not, and will leave if their needs aren’t met.

“Acquiring knowledge must have an element of purpose…You’re going to get the information that matters to you right now. Because you’re faced with a situation where having the knowledge becomes essential.”

Lila Warren, Global Head of Retail Academy, Pret a Manger
Harnessing curiosity to empower learners

2. Get truly interactive

Content and experiences that connect with audiences and motivate them to do something

Online manuals, technical jargon, passive experiences, indirect communications, click-through content

20% of learners said they switched off when elearning lacked interactivity. But they’re clear that interactivity isn’t just about clicking on the screen. It’s about engaging them through active participation and connection using a variety of approaches, including visual and multimedia content.

“[Effective learning] drives action, opportunity to practice and creates a series. There’s a more-ish effect. So, I’ve had a little taste and I want a bit more. I can fall into the rabbit hole, or I can grab what I’ve got and move on.”

David Hepworth, Learning & Talent – Design and Technology Lead, Aviva
Embedding democratized learning creation at Aviva

3. Keep it concise

Uses people’s time wisely, makes learning no longer than it needs to be

A splatter gun of disconnected pieces; just “info” without any support

17% of learners reported improved learner engagement when elearning was concise, easy to understand, and well-organized. Bite-sized, digestible digital learning can fit around schedules, so it’s no wonder it’s popular with busy employees.

But effective elearning courses aren’t just short for the sake of it. For elearning best method, go for solutions that deliver real value and make good use of learners’ time – whether that’s in 2 minutes, 10 minutes or longer.

“Content does not become more useful simply by virtue of breaking it into smaller pieces. To create useful content, we would actually have to talk to the people we are creating it for.”

Nick Shackleton-Jones,  CEO and Founder of Shackleton Consulting
Stop going through the motions and start delivering learning impact

3. Ensure it’s easy to access

Content that’s easy to find and use when people want it, wherever they are

Content that’s hidden in long courses, behind complex menus or systems, with obscure names

22% of learners said learning engagement increased when it was easy to access at the point of need. The vast majority of workplace learners prefer learning on the job.

This means learning through doing, trying, observing and discussing. But it also means that any additional learning – e.g., answers to questions someone might have about a process or what tactics to use – should be easily accessible in those moments of need. Effective elearning is sympathetic to this, and doesn’t force lengthy, hard-to-use courses on people. Rather, it provides short form, responsive content.

“L&D is not responsible for learning. Learning happens in someone’s brain. Our job is to provide the best conditions …That doesn’t mean, we’re going to give you courses. It means that we’re going to understand what your problems are, and then provide you tools. And that may be a course, but it could be a simple checklist.”

Zsolt Olah, Senior Learning Technologist, Amazon
Rethinking learner engagement to deliver real impact

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How to design engaging elearning [Course]

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1. Microlearning and on-the-job resources

There’s been a big shift from courses to resources in the last ten or so years. This microlearning approach can take various different shapes – from standalone job aids to multiple resources that are part of a cohesive learning journey or campaign. Here are two examples:

On-the-job resources

Access to microlearning resources which employees can use at the point of need has an immediate impact on performance. 

This product knowledge example supports people on the shop floor. It’s short and focused. Learners can use it as and when needed – to explore the product catalog  or check a quick detail while with a customer.

Structured microlearning journeys

This quick guide example is designed to be part of an onboarding campaign for new starters. It uses an in-page progress menu to help learners orient themselves in the elearning course. The guide ends with real world actions to take on the shop floor during their first shift.

2. Gamification

Game-like learning taps into a fundamental aspect of human behavior: motivation. Creating a sense of play and competition in your corporate elearning is great for engagement – and easy to achieve through gamification.

Gamified scenarios

Using levels, points and badges are classic devices to reward and motivate. 

This game-like quiz example is made up of three rounds on data protection. Each round offers the chance to win points and badges. Learners are incentivized to apply their knowledge correctly, making the content more likely to stick in the learner’s mind when handling a real situation.

3. Interactive multimedia and content

Interactivity is all about driving engagement. Rather than simply reading text or watching a video, you need to get people reflecting on what they’ve seen or putting what they’ve learnt into practice. There isn’t one right way to deliver content. But by using a well-chosen and arranged combination of content and interactions you can produce learning with impact.

Digital storytelling

Storytelling is an incredibly powerful force for learning and memory. It has been part of what humans do since the beginning of time. When done right, it has the ability to strike up emotions and connect with users – which are both crucial to engaging their hearts as well as their minds.

This storytelling for learning example shows how storytelling doesn’t always need audio or video to work. It’s a subtly interactive story that asks users to make some choices for themselves partway through. Great for the start of a wider performance change campaign.

Scenario-based video learning

Scenario based learning puts users in the driver’s seat and is a great way of increasing their engagement with a digital learning experience. “Choose your own adventure”-style scenarios like the examples below immerse users in a story and allow them to make decisions that control the outcome. This approach allows users to learn through experiencing consequences rather than being informed of them. In particular, it enables people to learn from (safely) making mistakes.

This video branching scenario, based around mental health issues, asks users to make a call on what they think is going on and what action someone should take. The personalized results at the end analyze the approach the user took, compares it with others’, and sets out how other options would have played out.

Reflective learning

Getting people to reflect on their current capabilities is critical to improving their performance. Afterall, you need to know what you want to improve before you can improve it.  

This guided self reflection encourages learners to stop, reflect and then commit to actions they’ll take forward to manage their team more effectively. Including social polling appeals to people’s natural curiosity as they can compare their own responses to those of their peers.

4. Accessible and inclusive content

Everyone should be able to have a great learning experience. With employees accessing elearning anytime, anywhere, and on any device, delivering quality responsive elearning on smaller screens is critical. And if you want to ensure your digital learning is truly inclusive, it means making sure you consider accessibility and responsive design from the start.

Mobile learning

This quick briefing example shows how a short interactive resource could be used for just-in-time support. The simple structure (What, Why, How and What’s next) can be quickly scanned through on any device. So people can access the information they’re after in the moment of need.

5. Assessments, quizzes and questions

Assessments that test learners’ understanding are often critical, especially where compliance is concerned. But don’t just save these for the end of your course assessment. Start with a question to find out what they already know. Challenge their preconceptions. Get them to reflect on how they approach things. Use questions to pace the learning. Follow up after you’ve provided key content to check their knowledge.

Upfront diagnostics

This personalized toolkit example asks targeted multiple-choice questions to users about their current habits and struggles when delegating work.  It then serves up a tailored report based on how they answered to help them see where they need to improve. It makes effective use of learners’ time by honing in on real gaps and providing targeted guidance on the next things they need to do.

Of course, this sophisticated diagnostic isn’t the only way to help learners find content that’s relevant. Smart menus that include reflective questions and give clear choices allow people to tailor their learning experience.

Robust assessments with question pools

In this compliance test, question pools are used to create a robust assessment. Question pools mean that when a learner retakes the test, they’re unlikely to see the same questions again. This helps ensure learners truly understand the content – they won’t be able to simply choose a different answer on a second attempt.

It also makes it harder for learners to share answers as it is unlikely their colleagues will have been posed the same set of questions.

Capture – start with a clear plan:
Understand the problem, so you can shape your solution. 

Conceptualize – lead with a prototype:
Turn what you know about your audience’s needs into a vision for effective and engaging learning.

Create – build with confidence:
Start building in your authoring platform with a streamlined, efficient development process.

Cultivate – improve and refine:
Use data to improve projects and inform future strategy.

Commercialize – deliver better ROI: Making sure your product works for your busin

Ready-to-go with templates

Don’t reinvent the wheel with every learning project. Using templates reduces the time you need to create courses with real impact. 

Clear review stages

The key to ensuring you’re creating impactful elearning is to set and hold up standards. Getting the right people’s input and review at the right points in the process will help you do this.

Scalable

Don’t wait for the translation requests to start stacking up. Shift from being reactive to proactive by setting up a clear, consistent process that will help you to scale-up elearning translation without stress. With the right approach, you can empower everyone to play an effective part in meeting your growing language needs, while maintaining control, quality, and consistency.

Do

Empower employees with smart tools and quick processes to translate proactively.

Don’t

React to increasing translation needs by falling back on ineffective methods.

Centralized

Managing separate language versions is a headache that can lead to errors and discrepancies. Keep all your translations in one place. From brand alignment to regular updates, a centralized workflow will help you maintain consistency and relevance across multiple languages.

Do

Select tools that centralize your translation efforts for better control and consistency.

Don’t

Duplicate content for every language – chaos will follow.

Streamlined

Avoid unnecessary work and rework by streamlining your process. Define roles and responsibilities at each stage, so everyone knows what’s expected of them. When a task is clear, people can stay focused and collaborate more efficiently and effectively to deliver successful translations.

Do

Standardize translation processes with defined roles for SMEs, translators and reviewers.

Don’t

Assume centralization will magically fix everything – clarity and structure are key.

Leverage automation and AI

Automation and AI can help you streamline your process, slashing translation time and effort. Instead of starting from scratch or outsourcing, AI gives you an initial translation that can be reviewed for final tweaks. Less time. Less cost. More efficiency.

Do

Explore authoring tools with automation, AI translation and review features built in for a more seamless experience.

Don’t

Rely fully on automated translation or your translations could be full of inconsistencies and errors – human review is non-negotiable.

Getting inexperienced authors onboard, engaged, and producing effective learning needs a little upfront investment.

But you don’t have to do it all in one go. Start small, find your model, and build up.

Soon your effort will pay off: more capacity, faster turnarounds, better results.

• Identify and engage with a smaller group first, to create champions
  
• Build out processes and governance early on, learning from a pilot
  
• Offer upfront onboarding and consider short courses in learning design for those who will do multiple projects
  
• Use regular community share sessions or similar to drive focus and ongoing development
  
• Provide templates to shortcut SMEs’ learning curves, and uphold consistency

The key to an effective digital corporate learning and development strategy is a blended approach based on user-centered research. Digging into your employees’ current habits, needs, trends and opportunities will help your team set up a strategy for success now and in the future.

Digital learning has many benefits for the modern workplace. It doesn’t require large groups of people to be in one physical space working at the same pace. Instead, it prioritizes flexibility, personalization and learning in the flow of work. As technology continues to transform our workplaces, it’s time to make sure digital is at the heart of your blended learning strategy. 

As you implement your strategy, make the most of learning analytics to discover what’s working and what you can iterate. Keep your ears to the ground and your eyes on the impact and your digital learning strategy will take off!

Back up your strategy with the right tools for the job 

From transitioning to Elucidat, to making big project releases go smoothly, we’ll make sure your elearning is a huge success – both for your team and your learners. 

Book a free tailored demo today

To see how Elucidat can help you to produce digital learning that delivers a transformational impact, as well as developing an effective online learning strategy.

Book a demo today

Useful resources

• State of Digital Learning Report 2024 – Elucidat
• ‘6 strategies for digital learning success’ – Centre for Creative Leadership 
• How to build an outstanding elearning development process: The complete guide – Elucidat 
• The Power of Collaborative Learning – Josh Bersin 
• Learning At Large Podcast – Elucidat 
• Customer stories – Elucidat 
• Learning Methods Factsheet – CIPD 
• The ultimate authoring tools buyers guide – Elucidat

What is an elearning development process?

An elearning development process is a set of steps that get you from “We need some learning to help us with this problem” to “Problem solved!”. It includes checking whether elearning is the best solution, creating the elearning, getting it in front of learners, and refining it over time.

There’s no one ‘right’ process; the details will vary based on factors such as the size of your organization, the skills in your L&D team and the tools you use. But based on our experience supporting L&D teams that create content for over 15 million learners between them, there are some key steps. We recommend you follow these, regardless of your situation. 

Think of this as the elearning production process 101.

Benefits of having a clear elearning methodology

With demand for digital learning at an all-time high, the pressure is on to respond at speed.  Some elearning teams may be tempted to free fall through their elearning design, making it up as they go along. It’s so easy to communicate throughout the project lifecycle via social working tools that “going with the flow” might feel intuitive. Perhaps there’s also an assumption that creative design requires a blank slate and no fixed rules. 

However, we find that organizations that put even basic elearning development processes in place achieve stronger results. They:

Set out and work toward clear goals 

Work more efficiently and get learning products to market quicker 

Reuse tools and templates to their creative advantage 

More easily onboard and bring stakeholders along with them on the journey 

Proactively put lessons learned from other projects into new ones 

Involve end users and – most importantly – put them at the heart of every stage

So, how do you develop a process that maximizes these benefits? Read on to explore the most common elearning development processes and see our recommended steps and tips for successful production – from start to finish.

What’s the best development process to use?

If you search for “elearning development processes,” you’re sure to find plenty of different results and lots of debate around which is the best one to use. Here’s a quick overview of some of the most common models and their pros and cons:

ADDIE

ADDIE is a longstanding elearning development process. It stands for Analyze, Design, Development, Implementand Evaluate. In its traditional form, it guides you systematically through one stage at a time. The idea is that you don’t move on to the next stage until “sign off” of the previous stage is complete. More modern takes on ADDIE recognize the risk of not evaluating until a project is launched and put evaluation into each stage. 

ADDIE’s evaluation stage is often synonymous with Donald Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Learning Evaluation. This is a relatively in-depth and high input form of evaluation that teams often skip due to time constraints.

ADDIE Pros: Easy to implement. Projects are signed off along the way.

ADDIE Cons: Locked down approach that may leave evaluation too late or out of the picture.

Agile

At the other end of the spectrum is the more modern Agile approach. Starting as a software development process, it’s spun off into other applications, including for learning design. At its core is the idea that small multi-skilled teams work collaboratively in “sprints” – short time frames of 1 – 4 weeks – to develop and iterate a solution. 

The aim is to have something tangible to share and test with both stakeholders and learners after each sprint. This focus on testing and iterating gives you confidence that the final result will have the desired impact. It also means you have to be open to including your users and sometimes hearing tough feedback, which some teams struggle with.

With authoring tools making it quicker and easier to dive in and produce prototypes and designs, it’s no surprise that this is a popular elearning design process for many.

Agile Pros: Nimble, collaborative and iterative, with the focus on producing something to test over re-working abstract design documents. Brings stakeholders together regularly.

Agile Cons: Not all stakeholders are “agile” aligned and may struggle to work in sprints. Some may struggle to work piecemeal.

5Cs

While the above processes can be applied to many design and development projects, the 5C Framework has been created for elearning projects specifically. Learning design experts here at Elucidat observed the varying processes used by our customers and took the best bits to form a 5-step process with Return On Investment (ROI) and impact at the center. 

The 5Cs are: 

• Capture – start with a clear plan, performance-focused goals and personalized user profiles 
• Conceptualize – form design ideas around the goals and lead with a prototype 
• Create – build out the solution with confidence (testing as you go) 
• Cultivate – use learning analytics to improve and refine the solution 
• Commercialize – plan and refine how your project will deliver a clear ROI

You’ll notice that the 5th C – Commercialize – runs alongside the other 4Cs. That’s because every project should be focused on and tied to a clear ROI, bringing clear value to end users and reaching as many people as it can. Having this mindset from the start helps elearning development teams stay focused on measurable goals and impact. 

5C Framework Pros: Easy to use. Comes with free tools. Puts end users and measurable performance improvements at the heart of the process.

5C Framework Cons: Because it focuses on end users and real-life goals, it can be a bit of a leap for non-designers to land on design ideas that fit that specific bill. 

Access free tools and templates to guide you through the 5Cs process

The 4 must-do steps for developing successful elearning 

Having outlined some of the processes out there, let’s dive into the detail. Here are four steps that take the best bits from all these processes and translate them into practical actions you can take to make your elearning a success.

Step 1: Set out clear goals for your elearning project

Learners decide in just 7 seconds whether online content is worth their attention. So, what makes it worth their attention? The answer will be different for every piece of elearning and every audience. That’s why every project should start with user profiles and measurable goals. Let’s look at each in turn. 

“Think about how you can advocate for your learners. Ask why is this useful? What’s the purpose we serve by implementing this program? I really think that we have an opportunity to influence from a learner centric perspective.”

Stella Lee, Founder, Paradox Learning

Leading with purpose through thoughtful L&D

Create user profiles

When we talk about learning, we’re really talking about changing people’s behaviors and habits. To be successful, you need to get under the skin of your audience. Who are they? What would really help them? What are their go-to places for help currently? What would motivate them to take action? To find out, you need to speak to your learners. At Elucidat, we run an annual study to understand what modern enterprise learners want. But there are lots of other ways to get to know your audience: have conversations, run surveys, observe them, use learning analytics from previous projects and more.

Off the back of what you discover, set up some user profiles. 

Set measurable goals 

Once you understand your users, get super clear how your elearning project is going to add value to them. Work with stakeholders upfront to decide on the goals you are going to measure for your learning project. Think beyond mere completions and scores, to the business impact you want to have. Ask yourself:

The idea is to set out the data you’ll track and look for correlations with your elearning. 

“Prior to designing a learning solution, let’s have the conversation about the intention. Let’s define what purpose fulfilled looks like. Because if we can define what purpose fulfilled looks like, we can measure the extent to which that purpose was fulfilled.”

Kevin M. Yates, L&D Detective

Using L&D detection to find measures that show purposeful impact

Download for free the Project Planning Template for successful learning

Step 2: Create a clear design vision 

With your elearning project goals clear in your mind, set about generating some ideas for how they can be met. This is a great step to do collaboratively, using brainstorming techniques. Crucially, we would recommend you don’t look at the course content to do this. Instead think about what types of activities, experiences, tools and tips are most likely to work for the audience and goals. 

Everyone does this differently, so here are some techniques to try as you find out which works best for you:

Mindmapping

Exploring ideas freely and sometimes collaboratively, primarily through text

Storyboarding

Setting out a sequence of potential pages or videos, like a comic strip

Cathy Moore’s Action Mapping

A great way to build out solutions based on building competency and change

Cathy Moore’s Action Mapping

A great way to build out solutions based on building competency and change

Wireframing

Sets out layouts and sample content, without getting caught up in styling

Prototyping

Visual styling and interactive walkthroughs of an idea to test reactions

Prototyping is a crucial step. Even if you’ve worked up ideas on paper, always look to build out something interactive for stakeholders to play around with and review. This could be 5 minutes of your 20-minute topic.

Don’t make prototyping a big deal. Do it early, do it regularly, do it collaboratively. Or, even better, choose an authoring tool that builds you a ready-made prototype in just a few clicks. Embracing prototyping will enable you to improve your design and make your project better in the long run. If you don’t seek or choose to ignore feedback, you’re probably creating your own art project rather than a user-centered design project!

Of course, you don’t have to start from a blank canvas. Seek inspiration from elearning examples, many of which are available for re-use.

Like the idea of a ready-made course structure you can test and iterate?

Find out more about Elucidat’s best practice templates here, and start a free trial.

Step 3: Develop detailed content, smartly

It’s time to get stuck into developing the detailed content, but this doesn’t mean opening the floodgates to the Subject Matter Expert’s (SME’s) cupboard of content. Hold back on that PowerPoint if you can! This stage is often overlooked as the “easy” step in production. You have your design pinned down, so it’s just a case of writing the content, creating the graphics and putting it all together, right? Not quite.

Avoid the temptation to copy and paste dry content into an authoring tool. This won’t result in an effective learning experience. Instead, flip your thinking and make your design model the blueprint. Use the subject matter to support the learning experiences you’re setting out to create. Here’s how…

Design first, content second

It’s often the case that the SMEs for your project don’t come from a learning design background. They might be health and safety experts, compliance officers, sales trainers – ultimately they’re experts in their area rather than in learning. Your challenge is to take their expertise and shape it into a format that fits with your area of expertise – the learning design approach you sketched out in step 2. 

Here are two ways to do this.

Collaborate with your SMEs in your elearning authoring tool 

Modern authoring tools know that collaboration and crowdsourcing of content is the future, so they’re set up to allow SMEs to actively contribute to the production of elearning content. This is particularly important where elearning needs to be created at scale. Through effective collaboration within your authoring tool, SMEs can create high quality content to help meet demand and take the pressure off you and your team.  

So, how would this work in practice? 

You can take the prototype you created in step 2, amend it based on user feedback, then invite your SMEs to add their content directly into it. The built prototype already has the activities and interactions built in so your SMEs are adding content into that framework rather than simply adding paragraphs of text. You can work on the project with them at the same time, finessing wording and supporting them with visuals and practical activities. 

Collaborate on paper 

If your elearning authoring tool doesn’t support collaboration, you could set up some paper-based templates to capture the right kind of content. You may have done this already as part of your design concept work. These could be storyboard or wireframe style templates that mimic the design approach you’ve agreed on. Or they could be templates built in an elearning authoring tool of your choice. 

Don’t just hand over the design to them to fill in. Work closely with the SME to explain the kind of content you need from them and what the learner needs to be able to do after the elearning (not just know). Hopefully, they’ll have been involved in your process from the start, so will be in-the-know. This is where your content capture templates come into their own. 

Notice how this storyboard guides the SME as they add their content. Ideas, suggestions and word counts all help make sure that the content is provided in a way that fits with the design you’ve already agreed.

“The L&D function’s job is to say: You’re the experts. Here are some ways that we’ve set up that make it really easy for you to share your expertise.”

Heather Gilmartin Adams, Senior Analyst, RedThread Research

Tackling the learning content dilemma with a new model

Curate – don’t always create

Not everything needs creating from scratch. Often, those teams that meet learning needs most effectively are drawing on useful resources and tools that others can benefit from. Pull together, or ask the SME to pull together, any useful existing content that fits your design model. For example, there might be some great on-the-job resources or some YouTube videos that explain the theory better than you ever could (for free?!). Perhaps there’s an existing workshop activity you can rework or an assessment that works well and you can copy?

Get building your content

Once you’re clear on what each page needs to include, you can start putting it all together. Our top tip here is to borrow from Agile and work in sprints. For example:

• Set up your overall styling and navigation elements 
• Set up any elements that will be replicated and re-used – e.g., topic structures, menus and/or pages you will re-use 
• Build out one topic first – check in on feedback and make changes 
• Build out the other topics in parallel or one at a time – checking in on feedback as they are completed and make changes 
• QA as you go, but always fully at the end

Involve stakeholders along the way – especially some sample end users! And don’t be scared to invite others in to edit the content directly, if your tool makes it easy enough to do so. 

Involving the right people at the right time will make your elearning process a success

Find out more about this in this Guide to Building an Elearning Dream Team

How to speed up elearning content development even more

There’s a fine balance between quality and speed within L&D. Your elearning must be high quality in order to make an impact. But, spend too long perfecting and polishing your elearning and you miss a big window to make an impact. Smart production is about finding the minimum viable product to do the job well, but not overdo it. 

Work collaboratively

If you’ve been holding your SMEs and stakeholders at arm’s length, trying to retain control over all aspects of your elearning, consider this your invitation to share the load. Engaging and empowering your SMEs to directly contribute to your elearning is a game changer. They can work into an elearning authoring tool itself, seeing the content come to life and why 300-word blocks of text just aren’t going to cut it. Set them up for success with templates that have design best practice baked in and. With the right support, SMEs can play a key part in helping you achieve quality elearning at scale. 

To make it work, you’ll need: A cloud-based authoring tool with smart permission settings that allow you to give your SMEs the permissions they need, and no more! 

Find out more about Elucidat’s advanced user management.

Set up reusable elements

There’s no need to start from scratch with each project. Make life quicker and easier by setting up reusable visual styles, elearning structures and page layouts. This will allow you to prototype solutions fast and give you a base from which to make changes for each specific project. 

To make it work, you’ll need: An authoring tool that allows you to create and save reusable elements and templates. Or, even better, one that comes pre-loaded with over 25 elearning course templates that you can use as a starting point for your projects. 

Find out more about Elucidat’s expert designed, customisable templates.

Test early

Don’t waste time perfecting an elearning module just to realize it’s not having the impact you hoped. Embrace the idea of a Minimum Viable Product, then test, iterate, and test again. 

To make it work, you’ll need: A pilot group of learners for each elearning project you create and a tool that enables you to quickly create, publish and analyze your prototypes. 

Find out more about Elucidat’s learning analytics suite.

Resource list

Elearning production processes 

• Definition of the ADDIE Model: Wikipedia 
• Definition of the Agile Model: Wikipedia 
• The 5C elearning Framework: Elucidat 

Theory around learning production successes and failures 

• Why Training and Development Fails: ROI Institute 
• Professionalising Learning Report: CIPD 
• People-Centred Learning. The modern learning manager’s strategic guide to deliver maximum value: Elucidat. 

Other methods for learning analysis and evaluation 

• Conducting a Learning Needs Analysis: CIPD 
• Using the Action Mapping Technique: Cathy Moore 
• Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Learning Evaluation: Kirkpatrick 

Summary

Whatever way you choose to go with your elearning development process and the exact order you complete each step, three key things are clear: 

Collaborative and iterative elearning production processes that involve stakeholders along the way – especially SMEs and end users – produce better outcomes and are more likely to hit their target. 

Learning production processes that put time into upfront analysis, clearly shape their goals and keep everyone concentrated on these, and ultimately produce higher ROI. 

Learning development that uses data and learning analytics to tweak and refine along the way deliver more impact. 

We can help you do it! 

Get a smarter, faster way to produce transformative elearning with Elucidat’s authoring platform. 

We’ll even tailor your demo to show you how we can help you solve your biggest elearning challenges.

Book a demo today