Rethinking E-Learning Templates

You’ve probably experienced trying force content into a course template that doesn’t fit. It looked good when you downloaded it. And it was supposed to save time. Instead, it created a different kind of work with lots ot tweaking. Or you start to tweak it and then realize there are odd constraints caused by the template and then just live with a broken course or leave it and start over.

Here’s the case for templates (and against using them everywhere).

Where templates genuinely help

Templates work because they eliminate decisions for content that doesn’t change much. Most courses share a handful of common screen types:

• welcome screens
• learning objectives
• section dividers
• exit screens

These are prime candidates for templates because the structure is predictable and consistent.

Where templates fall apart

Templates always look great with placeholder content. When you add your own, the template may not look as good.

The challenge really starts with course content itself. A software training course is driven by screenshots. A customer interaction course needs visuals that reflect the actual conversation. When content has specific requirements, generic templates often need so much tweaking that starting from scratch is faster.

A hybrid approach that works

The most practical approach is to split your course into three zones.

• Entering the course: welcome screens, objectives, and navigation instructions
• Course content: the actual teaching screens
• Exiting the course: summaries, next steps, and completion messaging

Templates fit well in zones one and three. Those screens follow a predictable pattern and are easy to update. Zone two is different. That’s where content drives design, not the other way around.

Use templates for simple layouts in the content zone. Don’t force complex or contextual screens into a template just to stay consistent. A blank screen you design for the content is often faster than a template you spend an hour reshaping.

Key takeaways

The goal of a template is to save time. When a template costs more time than it saves, it’s no longer a tool. Think about your next project and where you’re likely to spend the most design effort. That’s usually a signal to step back from the template and let the content shape the screen.