The Successful eLearning Professionals Infographic

The Successful eLearning Professionals Infographic

10 Things Successful eLearning Professionals Do Differently

1. They Make it a Goal to Learn About Their Audience.
   Successful eLearning professionals know what motivates their learners to take online courses instead of spending their time on other activities.
2. They Think of Learners as Social Individuals
   Successful eLearning professionals go beyond understanding learners’ needs and requirements. They also make sure instruction is designed to suit the context in which they learn.
3. They've Stopped Thinking That Learners Have Unlimited Time and Attention Spans
   In almost all courses, learners want the course to get to the point sooner, wrap up faster, and finish earlier. Helping students to pay attention is a primary concern of successful eLearning professionals.
4. They Design with the Brain In Mind
   Successful eLearning professionals understand how the memory works, how the brain learns and create their courses accordingly. Spaced learning, for example, is a strategy that aligns learning with memory formation rather than trying to force content into memory.
5. They Utilize Quiet Design
   In quiet design, everything on a screen has a purpose. This reduces time learners spend away from learning when processing unnecessary visuals or trying to work out an interface. To properly utilize quiet design, successful eLearning developers keep information to a minimum, favor graphics over text, and place an explanatory text near visuals, to emphasize that the two are related.
6. They Embrace a Beginner’s Mind
   Having a beginner’s mind is about being comfortable not knowing, being open to new perspectives and ideas, and committing to continuous learning rather than looking to meet specific goals. This last point is particularly important in eLearning as those professionals who do not seek to constantly expand their knowledge fail to develop the necessary skills needed for a changing environment and soon get left behind.
7. They Think Beyond the Course
   Successful eLearning professionals don’t think of eLearning as an event. Instead of delivering information to learners through the course alone, they think how they can provide content periodically to help students synthesize information.
8. They Are Authentic and Problem-based
   To increase the likelihood that students absorb information from the eLearning course, successful professionals know why they need this knowledge and what real-world value it holds. Developers aim to present the right information at the right time to the right learners and empower students to decide what and where they want to learn.
9. They Focus on Quality
   Successful eLearning professionals place a higher value on content than aesthetics and remember that function is far more important than looks; for instance, by engaging learners from the start with a learning activity that allows the audience to explore, learn from their mistakes, and apply the lessons to real life.
10. They Have Strong Instructional Design Foundations
    Although graphic design is useful, instructional design is essential as it focuses on the small details, which can make the different between a highly successful course and a complete failure. Instructional design is a key aspect of any eLearning course.