How to create e-learning that gets completed
A practical guide to creating e-learning yourself: from learning objectives and short pages to quizzes, testing on a colleague, and assigning it to the right employees.
Many companies believe e-learning requires an agency, a big budget, and months of work. That is rarely the case. A good e-learning course can be built in a few days by the person who knows the subject best. The hard part is not the technology, but keeping the course short and concrete.
This guide shows you how to create e-learning that employees actually finish. It follows six steps that work for onboarding, new systems, and mandatory training alike.
Start with what the employee should be able to do
Before you write anything, decide what the employee should be able to do afterward. Write it as actions, not topics. "Understand our customer service" is hard to measure. "Be able to answer the five most common customer questions" can be verified.
Stick to three to five learning objectives per course. If you have more, it is often two courses. Small courses get completed more often, and they are easier to fix later.
- Write each objective with a verb: find, choose, fill out, explain.
- Ask a manager whether the objectives match everyday work.
- Remove any content that does not help reach an objective.
Build the course from short pages
A course is made up of pages. A good rhythm is an intro page, a few pages with text and media, a quiz, and a wrap-up. Each page should cover one thing and take a couple of minutes to read.
The intro page explains what the course is about, how long it takes, and what the employee gets out of it. Write it last, once you know what the course actually contains.
The content pages present what needs to be learned. Feel free to use a short video or screenshots from your own systems. Images from everyday work beat generic stock photos, because the employee recognizes the situation.
If you already have material in PowerPoint, start there. Reuse the text and images page by page, so you do not begin from a blank page.
Use quizzes and reflection thoughtfully
A quiz should check what matters most, not whether the employee can recall a specific phrasing. Three good questions beat ten bad ones. Make the questions resemble real work situations: "A customer calls and says … What do you do?"
Give feedback right away. When the employee answers incorrectly, briefly explain why the correct answer is correct. That way the quiz becomes part of the learning rather than just a check.
A reflection page is a good supplement. Here the employee writes how what they learned can be applied to their own tasks. The answer can be brought to a conversation with their manager, which makes the course more personal.
Test the course before assigning it
Have a colleague take the course before it goes live. Ask them to say out loud when something is unclear, or when they lose the urge to click on. What confuses your colleague will confuse your employees too.
Also view the course on mobile. Many people take courses on their phone, for example during a break or on the way home. Long text pages and small screenshots work poorly on a small screen.
In Skillflow, you can view the course exactly as the employee will see it before you publish it.
Assign the course to the right people
A course that no one is told to take does not get completed. Assign the course to those who need it: a group, a department, a location, or individual employees. Set a deadline if the course must be completed by a specific date.
If several courses belong together, bundle them into a program. The employee then sees one journey with a clear beginning and end instead of five loose courses.
Follow up and fix what is not working
Once the course is out, keep an eye on progress. How many have started? How many have finished? If many drop off on the same page, that page is probably too long or unclear.
Use the numbers to improve the course. Split a long page, clarify a question, or move a video forward. A course is rarely perfect the first time, and it does not need to be.
Quick checklist
- Three to five learning objectives, written as actions.
- Short pages, each covering one topic.
- A quiz with a few concrete questions and feedback.
- Tested by a colleague and viewed on mobile.
- Assigned to the right people, preferably with a deadline.
- Followed up, with fixes where employees drop off.
To see how the four steps from course to completion fit together in Skillflow, read How it works.