Want to Build Better Courses? Then Do This.

Three habits that will help you build better e-learning over time

I run a lot of elearning workshops. Most people who show up are just getting started.

Here’s how the transition usually goes. Someone’s good at explaining things, so they get promoted from explainer to trainer. Then one day the organization decides to go online.

Now that trainer has to make another jump. She goes from building and running live workshops to building elearning courses. And building an online course is a different skill than running a room.

So here’s the real challenge. How do you get better at building online training, especially when you’re working with limited resources?

Start before you’re ready

The biggest mistake new e-learning designers make is waiting until they know enough to do it right. You’ll never know enough. The only way to learn is to start, make mistakes, and pay attention to what went wrong.

The first e-learning course I ever built was a disaster. It was long, dense, and about as fun to take as reading a terms-of-service agreement. But I learned from it, and the next one was a little better.

Most likely, your first course will be imperfect. So will the second one. That’s not a failure. It’s how the work improves. Every course you ship teaches you something the next one will benefit from.

Practice deliberately, not just on the clock

I always say, “You build the same course 100 times and not 100 different courses.” The truth for many e-learning developers is that they build the same course over and over again. Building the same type of course on repeat won’t make you better. It just makes you faster at the same thing. Getting better requires doing something new on purpose.

You don’t need a lot of time. An hour a week outside your normal project work adds up fast. Try a new interaction type. Experiment with a layout you’ve never used. The skill compounds over time.

One of the best ways to get structured practice is through community challenges. The Articulate community runs a weekly e-learning challenge designed exactly for this. The idea is to build something new, share it, and get feedback. Most participants build simple prototypes. Some add more polish. It doesn’t matter either way. Just do something to push your limits.

Write about what you’re learning

This one’s harder to commit to, but it pays off more than you’d expect. Starting a blog or public portfolio forces you to reflect on what you’re actually learning. That reflection makes the learning stick.

You don’t need a big following. The goal isn’t fame. It’s clarity. Writing about what you tried forces you to understand it at a different level. When someone reads it and asks a question, that understanding deepens even further.

Key takeaways

Pick one of these three habits and start this week. Build something small for practice, write about what you tried, or do one thing different from your last project. The designers who improve the fastest are the ones who keep moving. What are you doing right now to improve your craft?