How to Move Past Locked Courses
The instinct to lock every screen in a course is understandable. If learners can skip freely, how do you know they learned anything? The answer is in the assessment, not the navigation.
tipsqueak
Helpful ideas. Squeaky value.
tipsqueak
Helpful ideas. Squeaky value.
Category E-Learning
Everything about creating online training and courses, from the thinking behind good instruction to the tools and tricks used to build it.
Read MoreHow to Move Past Locked Courses
A Simple Way to Fix Your Course’s Visual Design
You don't need a design degree to build good-looking courses. You need four principles and the discipline to apply them.
Instructional Techniques for Building Effective Online Training
Three structured approaches that move learners from information to applied skill A lot of online courses are still mostly linear. That’s fine for annual compliance content with no real performance objective attached. But if you want real behavior change, you…
Case Studies: The Secret to More Engaging E-Learning Courses
Skip the click-and-read information dump. Turn your content into a case study and build an e-learning course people actually remember.
Turn One Image Into an Interactive E-Learning Course
Learn how to build a zoomable, interactive course using a single image and Storyline 360's zoom region feature. This tutorial walks you through the full process with a working example and free resources.
How to Build E-Learning Courses People Actually Want to Complete
You can't force anyone to learn. But you can design a course that gives learners a real reason to try. Here's how to build motivation into your course from the start — before they ever click next.
The Real Reason E-Learning Is So Bad
You've taken the course. You know the one. Three hours, a lot of slides, a quiz at the end, and nothing that changed how you do your job. Bad e-learning isn't new, and it's not caused by the tools designers use. This post gets into what actually drives it — and where AI fits into that honestly.
What to Figure Out Before You Build Any Course
Most e-learning projects go sideways before the first slide is built. The problem usually isn't the design. It's what didn't get sorted out at the start. This post covers the discovery work that protects your project, and how to use AI in that process without ending up with content that sounds like it came from nowhere.
This Is Funny Because E-Learning’s Broken
Leslie Robinson's comedy video about mandatory training went viral for a reason. The comment section turned into a catalog of every broken e-learning pattern. It's worth reading as a design checklist.
What Every E-Learning Designer Needs to Know About Cognitive Load
Your learners' brains have a built-in limit on how much they can process at once. When you design without that in mind, the course feels hard in the wrong way. Here's what cognitive load is and why it matters for the courses you build.
8 Things to Know About Your Learners Before You Build a Course
You can build a technically solid course and still miss the mark completely. It happens when you design based on what you think learners need instead of what they actually face. Here are eight things to watch for before you start building.
Stop Building Courses Nobody Needs
Every training request that comes in costs time and budget to fulfill. But not all of them actually need a course. Three strategies can help you do less without delivering less.
Simple Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Your E-Learning Courses
Good course design isn't about adding more. It's about removing the stuff that gets in the way of learning. Here are a few practical things to keep in mind when cognitive load is working against your learners.
Why You Need a Professional E-Learning Portfolio
A portfolio isn't just a nice-to-have — it's the thing that gets you the interview. This post covers what to put in yours, how to organize it, and how to use it to build your reputation in the e-learning community.
Two Ways to Build an E-Learning Portfolio
Building an e-learning portfolio sounds like a big undertaking. But it doesn't have to be. The right approach depends on what you want your portfolio to actually do.