Dear eLearning Creator,
I don’t normally do this but after what was one of the greatest hours of my life, I felt that I must. I’ve just completed a wonderful eLearning course that you created and I wanted to personally let you know how much I enjoyed it and that I was so engaged from start to finish.
Day-to-day I’m quite busy in my role, however when I received the notification that I needed to complete my module I was happy to stop what I was doing, set my phone to voicemail and get started. Actually, a quiet hush fell over the entire office when they found out that another course was ready as everyone was hungry to consume more content.
I love PowerPoint! I often see it in meetings so right from the beginning of the course there was a cosy familiarity about it. Even though I was sitting at my desk at work, using my company computer and sipping from my company branded coffee cup, I was delighted to see that our logo was visible throughout the entire course to remind me of where it came from. Not only that, you applied the our branding guidelines consistently and faultlessly throughout – the fonts, the colours and even the distance of the logo from the top right-hand corner of the screen – which really added to the experience.
I was thankful for the navigation instructions you provided up front. I use computers and the internet a lot here and at home, and I did have to log into our learning area and click on a link to open the course, but I was pleased to find out that clicking on a ‘Next’ button would take me forward, ‘Back’ would take me backwards and ‘Takeaways’ would have some extra information. The progress area came in handy too as it was useful to see how many of the 143 slides I’d completed.
I must admit that I was a little unsure about what I’d get out of completing the course but to my relief you let me know on the objectives slide what I’d be able to do by the end. I don’t quite remember what they were (they were some good verbs though) but if you say that I can do those things then I believe you!
Having the audio narration read everything on the screen for me was delightful! It allowed my senses to really soak up the material and it was clever that I couldn’t skip ahead until the audio had finished (meaning that I wouldn’t miss out on anything). I found the pictures in the course made the text less dull and the characters used reflected the happy and diverse mix of people working here. The animations you used certainly jazzed up the information and my right hand got a good workout from all that clicking, dragging and hovering!
You saved the best part until last – the knowledge check! (by the way, this sounds so much nicer than quiz or test). I thought that presenting the questions in a game show format was so fun! How did you know that true and false questions are my favourite? Multiple choice questions are a bit trickier but luckily I could have as many tries until, by process of elimination, I finally picked the right answer. I appreciated that I wasn’t just right or wrong but that I was Correct! or Incorrect! Funnily enough, that’s just how my boss says it when I answer one of his questions.
It was a bittersweet moment when I completed the course. I was sad that it was over however the gazillion points I received plus five gold stars did cheer me up as did the ability to print out a certificate to keep and treasure (which incidentally now hangs proudly on a wall in my home).
Well, that’s all I wanted to say and even though I will probably never meet you, keep those information courses coming – more often and longer would be great. I speak on behalf of my all colleagues when I say THANK-YOU!!
Signed,
The Engaged Learner.
Image source: JPPI on morgueFile.com
Comments
25 responses to “Letter to an eLearning Creator”
Nice post Matt!
Some years ago, the team I was on at the time started putting a “help” slide at the start of some of their courses, despite my protests. (Thankfully, the habit didn’t last long!)
On the subject of putting a logo on each slide, here’s my tip of what to do instead. (It’s for presenters running a PowerPoint slideshow, but the same tip could work well for elearning too. In terms of logo use, it could make elearning a little like watching a Warner Bros movie or similar!)
Thanks Craig and I love the tip! I wish more people would do what you’ve suggested!
I noticed that the link doesn’t show up well in my previous comment.
So here’s the link again in case anyone missed it. Thanks!
[…] for your letter and my apologies for the delay in replying. I receive so many from engaged learners like you that […]
[…] Letter to an eLearning Creator […]
Thanks Matt. This is great.
Thanks Matt 🙂
HAHAHAHA! How many times have I been told “the learners won’t know what to do if you don’t put specific instructions about the navigation”. Good laugh!
Thanks Michelle! 🙂
Ha! I steer clear of most of these. No logos! But i do use brand colors because the colors are good. I sometimes make learning objectives optional, for people like me who DO want to know what they’re going to get out of a course.
I once designed a short compliance course where i managed to not mention the company name even once. I didn’t use the pretty colors either. I didn’t even show a course title.😜It got rated highly for being short and to the point.
I asked other IDs to test my course once and one person asked if I intended to have the Next button enabled on software sim pages, since i wanted learners to perform software steps. Yes, I did intend to give totally open navigation.
Thanks Amy! Your compliance course example shows that maybe short and to the point is really what people want!
If only those in the real decision-making roles could see this and take it in. I love the statement :how will the learner know what to do?”
Thanks for stopping by Sandra!
🙂 Thank you for writing this.
Thanks for the good chuckle. Here’s to “more often and longer!”.
Thank you so much! My colleague and I laughed ourselves silly! We had tears rolling down our cheeks. on a serious note though these are the the pitfalls to avoid when designing online content to ensure that it is engaging for the learner.
Thanks Pam! I see these things all to often in eLearning and the post was my way of venting my frustration 🙂
Matt, you’ve nailed most of what is wrong with elearning! Short and sweet, covering the main points is often what is really needed, especially in compliance training.
Thanks Vanessa! I agree, too much focus content is a big problem in eLearning.
Hi Matt, thank you for writing and sharing this! I stumbled onto this hilarious and spot-on letter when a former colleague shared it last week on LinkedIn, and my current team has literally been laughing out loud ever since. We develop eLearning for a massively large organization, so your comments on consistent branding, death by PowerPoint, narrating the screen, and overexplaining the navigational controls really hit home with us. Happy to know that we are making such a difference in the lives of our learners! 😉
My pleasure Lisa, glad you enjoyed it! Keep fighting the good fight!
Thanks for the chuckle. Loved your sense of humor. Now for that compliance module I have to take even though not relevant to my actual role…but we have to get our check box done.
You’re welcome Suzanne, thanks for reading! 🙂
I’m trying hard to chuckle (and you surely have a great gift for humor and writing) but the message is SO painful. I really take your feedback to heart. As an eLearning professional, daily, I find myself critically re-examining my assumptions and priorities in instructional design. It’s time to crack open learning theory, and re-examine everything we “know” about how today’s learners learn. We need to look through an evolved lens, at our evolved (dare I say, eclipsed?) audience. Thanks for your post! Not just food for thought; it’s a buffet.
Thanks for commenting Michelle! I agree, we need to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate our ideas as the world around us keeps changing. Keep fighting the good fight against bad eLearning!