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The pandemic has impacted education, and many projects have had to go online to stay afloat. Therefore, every online school owner tries to get the most out of the distance format.

To launch an e-course, you must select a learning management system (LMS). It allows students to acquire new knowledge from any computer, smartphone, or tablet PC. At the same time, the creators of educational content themselves can track students' progress and improve the course.

However, choosing an online learning management system is quite tricky as dozens of all-in-one platforms on the market have similar characteristics. At the same time, choosing the wrong solution can cost time and money.

Let's review common mistakes beginners make when choosing an educational platform and ways to avoid them.

Unrealistic Budget for a Learning Management System

Many online course creators assume that connecting an LMS is the only cost associated with launching an online course. However, there are many more fees. For example, you may be charged for system setup, ongoing maintenance, and timely updates. And these costs add up as your online school grows. Therefore, you need to clearly understand how much you are willing to spend on an educational platform now and in the future.

In addition, you should set a realistic budget for the monthly or yearly maintenance of the learning management system. If this fails, contact the eLearning system provider for pricing information. It is crucial to ensure that the provider distinguishes between mandatory fees and additional costs. For example, LMS creators may offer advanced reporting or service packages. Read the offer and decide what you need and what things you should refuse.

How To Plan a Budget for an Educational Platform

During cost planning, it is worth determining the total cost of your project. It depends on such factors:

• Buying or renting an online learning management system.
• LMS integration with other solutions for your school.
• Refinement of the learning management system (for example, a unique design, custom architecture, and a mobile application).
• Server installation and maintenance fee (if you wish to store student and course data internally).
• Creation of dashboards through third-party solutions (for example, Power BI).
• Course builder (if the platform itself does not provide it).
• Tools for learning design (if not provided in the LMS).
• Equipment for shooting training videos (you need a camera, a microphone, and studio lighting).
• Salary costs for employees (project manager, distance learning system administrator, and content manager).
• Payment for technical support.

If your employees work remotely, they must have enough powerful computers to work on online courses.

It is also essential how quickly you need to complete work on the educational platform and launch an online course. If you're chasing deadlines, the total cost can be simply multiplied by 2.

Underestimating the Importance of an Integrated API

Of course, you have other data processing systems besides the learning management system. You exploit them to upload and store data about employees and students and distribute access to this information.

However, is it convenient for you to bulk transfer data from external systems to LMS? What if the existing format is unsuitable for the standard transfer of information between tables?

It results in additional effort and time spent providing access to data on all e-platforms. Agree, this is a problem. And the huge one.

So make sure your educational platform has an integrated and fully documented API. Creating a fully functional solution may be missing something, but an LMS with a built-in API guarantees flawless operation and fast access to data. Moreover, you will save a lot of time, effort, and money.

Choice of Platform with Limited Functions

Most LMS developers offer a license or subscription on an annual basis. Often, a contract is signed between an online school and LMS developers for at least 2 years.

This approach has significant advantages. Thus, a long-term contract provides a more incredible payback for the project, and you will take this into account when analyzing business processes. First, however, you must be sure that the eLearning solution provider will provide quality support in the future.

The number of students in your courses changes constantly. But it doesn't have to make your education business harder or break your bank because you're outperforming or underperforming vital metrics.

In addition, you need an educational platform that will evolve with you. Yes, it may meet your needs now, but what about next year or 5 years?

Students and businesses are constantly evolving. Therefore, it is imperative to find a solution that will adapt to your needs and develop independently.

We recommend paying attention to all-in-one platforms. They have everything you need to create and manage online courses:

• course builder;
• tools for recording webinars / automatic webinars;
• functionality for creating tests, tasks, polls;
• tools for launching a chain of letters with a built-in constructor;
• a fully functional CRM system designed to connect the sales department;
• simplified landing page builder to quickly build a site dedicated to your course;
• the ability to connect a chatbot.

These advantages allow you to create and launch the first online course in just 30 minutes.

Choosing a System for Teachers, Not Students

Another common mistake is choosing a learning management system for teachers to control the learning process (add users, create and add modules, work with reports, etc.). The logic of such reflections is elementary: if the teacher is comfortable, the platform is suitable. At this moment, no one thinks about the students, but they shouldn't be.

Five seconds is precisely how long a person needs to consider the convenience and usefulness of the website. If they find the page too difficult, they leave it. Already on the main page of the online school, students should see how much they benefit from learning.

In addition, students must quickly understand the LMS. For example, where to enter the username and password, watch educational videos, find out the grade for homework, and the place in the overall rating. If users do not find all this, they will stop learning.

Here is a basic example: Sergei opened an email with an invitation to an introductory web design course. He followed the link and landed on a page with dozens of folders. He will understand where to click to get to the desired course. There are two possible scenarios:

1. Sergei will write to support and ask for help.
2. Sergei will close the tab and will never revisit this page.

Remember: if the user cannot open the video tutorial in a few clicks, you will lose it. And a project that you have spent a lot of time, effort, and money on will never pay off. Therefore, do your best to ensure that students spend a minimum of time accessing educational materials.

Neglect of Analytics Tools

And now, let's move on to the fifth and final mistake. Many e-course founders underestimate the importance of analytics tools. Most educational platforms offer a built-in analysis panel, and here you can track student progress and identify course problems in a matter of moments.

However, different learning management systems offer different types of reports. Some provide convenient data visualization in graphs and charts, while others are much more limited. It can be a problem for online schools that set high goals and constantly monitor all indicators.

Ideally, analytics tools should be fully aligned with your business goals and tasks. So, they should measure critical indicators related to the productivity and profitability of the eLearning course. Therefore, decide what data you need and how the educational platform should display it - visually or using standard tables. If the LMS developers do not provide clear information about the analytics features, request a detailed report. It will help test all the options and choose the best one qualitatively.

Aspects To Look For When Choosing a Learning Management System

But how to choose the right educational platform so as not to fail? Here are our tips!

1. Determine the requirements of your target audience. A detailed analysis of students' needs will help understand their goals. Based on the data obtained, you can create a course structure, develop a mission, and create learning content that will resonate with students. It's also worth analyzing how an LMS will help you achieve your goals as an online learning creator.
2. Look for an open and flexible learning management system. Ideally, it should have as many useful features as possible. You can then add other features, depending on your needs. Forget about complex LMS; it won't do you any good. But if you have already spent money on such a system, ask the system developer for help. It will tailor the educational platform to your needs.
3. Check out opportunities to test run and collect feedback from the first edition of an online course. These reviews are precious for further development. With their help, you will find weaknesses in marketing, content, and the LMS itself. Therefore, pay due attention to this, as well as to analytics tools.
4. Check if connecting additional technical support employees to the CRM is possible. We recommend hiring one or two well-versed employees in the educational platform who can provide frontline assistance (solving technical issues, registering new students, uploading progress reports, etc.). Yes, this will require additional costs. However, these employees will help have steady nerves for the students and keep their desire to pass e-courses.

You will choose the perfect platform to launch an online learning course if you follow these guidelines.

Conclusion

Let's sum it up. You can not choose an educational platform at random. Before choosing an LMS, decide on your needs and skills. You should also carefully consider your current eLearning strategy and goals. All this allows you to significantly limit the list of required functions to reduce the cost of creating courses and not be distracted by excessive functionality. In addition, there is no point in evaluating an online learning management system until you understand its primary value and ways to use it.

We hope you found our article helpful. If you have any questions about working with educational platforms, leave them in the comments below. We will answer your questions and analyze the top ones in the following articles.

Have you ever had the feeling that you are explaining something, but you are not understood? These things happen for a straightforward reason: the wrong approach. The same is true for online learning. Not every online school considers different learning options or chooses a suitable method for their topic. Let's look at one of the ways to make the learning process easier and more precise - multimodal learning.

What Is the Multimodal Learning

Educational experts also call this method "deep learning." It is a strategy based on various tools for learning and perception of information. A learning management system (LMS) often helps with this. The multimodal learning system uses text or voice and other types of content (videos, pictures, audio, and practical tasks). All this increases the effectiveness of learning.

Theory of Multimodality

Multimodality is based on three concepts that must be considered when developing an electronic course.

1. Multiple approach

Using the principles of multimodality in e-learning will show students that you are using the full potential of multimedia. Picture, sound, and visual graphics are just a few tools for creating a course. The theory of multimodal learning also analyzes various types of multimedia in e-learning and their organization in a virtual environment.

2. Cultural formation

According to the theory of multimodality, all the resources used and the means of transmitting information are formed under the cultural influence. Over time, they acquire a specific meaning, constantly changing as social norms and values adjust.

Here is a basic example: people from different countries or communities perceive the same information differently, depending on the socio-cultural code. Therefore, experts recommend considering the features of the target audience's culture when creating an electronic course. As people use the learning resources, they will become more elaborate and comprehensive.

3. Personal meaning

Let's move on to the third and most crucial point. People give their meaning to various online learning resources, and it is expressed in selecting, configuring, and organizing an e-course through a learning management system. The beliefs and norms of society also influence your students. Moreover, some motivational factors have weight (e.g., the interest of relatives and friends in electronic courses). Therefore, the personal preferences of the target audience are one of the most challenging aspects of working on e-learning. After all, you must understand how potential students understand and accept your product.

The VARK Framework

This is a unique framework that is used to categorize teaching methods. It was first proposed by a teacher from New Zealand, Neil Fleming. According to the framework, there are 4 most common online learning methods with high demand. Let's consider them in more detail.

V - Visual

A person perceives the vast majority of information through vision. Therefore, visual aids are essential in online learning. Colorful images, exciting infographics, and other visual forms are assimilated much better than other types of content, and they provide the main effect of electronic courses.

No matter how logical it may sound, it is vital to make sure that you use high-quality visual content (images, design, visual effects, etc.). The same applies to the educational platform: it should be as convenient and attractive as possible for students.

A - Auditory

It includes learning through audio content such as books, podcasts, and other recordings. You can listen to them at any time - during a trip in transport, at lunchtime and before going to bed. This approach is also suitable for learning new knowledge or improving existing skills.

R - Reading / writing

People don't always follow trends blindly. Many students continue to read books and take notes by hand. Therefore, you can refer to paper books during the lessons.

This approach is used to study the most critical points. And its effectiveness is impressive. Scientists have proven that reading books and writing by hand improve information memorization.

K - Kinesthetic

Learning by doing is much more helpful than learning theory. When people have gained knowledge and begin to apply it, they increase their level of work efficiency. At the same time, people gain valuable experience and better understand the content of the information received recently. Therefore, it is imperative to apply the practical strategy in teaching.

The owner of an online school must necessarily understand that students who attend their courses are well-intentioned. They aim to improve and achieve new heights in life, and it can only be achieved when the learning strategy matches their thinking and learning style.

Why You Should Add Elements of Multimodal Learning to Your E-course

Yes, applying one proven tool might be easier for you. However, using multiple approaches at once makes your eLearning more effective. The reason is simple: people with different learning styles will benefit equally from new knowledge.

Not all students learn the same way, so applying a multimodal learning strategy to your online course makes sense. Various training methods allow your learners to assimilate new concepts better and understand what you offer. In addition, the combination of several styles helps your audience to learn at a deeper level. Therefore, a person remembers new data more easily.

In addition, different learning styles increase concentration. The combination of visual, audio, and text content improves learning productivity. For example, if a student does not understand the teacher's story, an addition in a graph or diagram will help him.

The VARK framework provides a complete and engaging learning experience in a virtual environment. It is flexible enough to offer students ways to master skills that suit their unique learning styles. This, in turn, increases interest in the subject.

At the same time, even children can benefit from multimodal learning and express themselves. Researchers from Cisco have proven that students who work with text and images simultaneously achieve better results than those who just read the text. Combined training models are more effective than traditional methods, which are more rigid.

For instance, the standard math classes make many students bored. It is all because they are given a cold theory. It is much better to consolidate the material with the help of interactive multimodal tests with fascinating visuals.

How To Implement a Multimodal Approach to Online Learning

Suppose you believe your online course participants will achieve great results with a multimodal approach. In that case, the virtual learning environment should contain much more than regular video tutorials and Powerpoint presentations. It is necessary to motivate students to analyze information independently. So, they can discuss the lesson's topic with other students and apply personal experience in the learning process. This is the beauty of multimodal learning.

Further, it creates a unique and highly effective online learning environment. Therefore, the creators of eLearning courses should reasonably choose an LMS as a full-fledged educational platform. It should have all the necessary tools for working with the course: a convenient constructor, a checklist for launching the course, a chat for communicating with students, a statistics section with a detailed reporting network, and much more.

Here are 3 ways to apply a multimodal approach to online learning:

Virtualization

Studying in a virtual environment is becoming more and more popular and relevant, and it offers many more opportunities for students than the traditional approach. Virtualization allows you to build a course to do practical work and exchange thoughts in an online environment.

Moreover, virtual classrooms are much easier to manage than traditional ones, and this is where educational platforms with advanced tools for creating courses help. By following specific requirements, you can give students access to knowledge from anywhere in the world.

Online Conferences

Online conferences allow students to interact with each other, and this approach brings people together and makes them more open. Moreover, the discussion is an integral part of learning. Indeed, unexpected answers and cool ideas may appear in the dialogue process.

In addition, while taking online courses, you can share your thoughts in the chat. This allows students to express the lesson's topic on their own. However, not always textual discussions can be fascinating. Because students cannot always respond on time, some messages become redundant, and chat becomes boring. It is all because of trying to keep up with what other students said.

Game Mechanics

It is necessary to interest not only children but also adults. Therefore, it is crucial to add game elements to eLearning courses, and this approach makes the course more complex, more interactive, and fun. Therefore, gamification brings top benefits to both students and creators of online learning.

Using a Multimodal Approach Wisely

However, just because students can use different teaching methods does not mean you should use them all. Recent studies by American scientists show that when creating e-courses, you need to be more careful with multimedia content.

Moreover, students can be distracted from class if the screen is too overloaded with visuals or text. There is an overload of modalities, which significantly harms training effectiveness. As a result, students remember very little new knowledge.

All educational tools should work together. In this way, you will create educational content in which texts, videos, pictures, and interactive elements look appropriate. If multimedia is spread over considerable periods, it will lose its usefulness. Therefore, we recommend using a multimodal approach and helping students use maximum memory and attention, and it allows you to organize the online learning process properly and involve students.

Conclusion

Multimodal learning offers an innovative and diverse approach to creating e-learning courses. And all thanks to technical advancements that increase learning effectiveness - virtualization, video conferencing, gamification, and more. All this makes us think about creating a course of study that fully involves students. Therefore, the multimodal approach is used by many online schools worldwide.

Most students perceive multimodal strategies positively. The reason is simple: this approach allows you to more actively choose your own learning methods and increase motivation to get new knowledge. Further, several learning modes make it possible to create a complete and comprehensive solution for learning new knowledge improving memory and comprehension.

We hope you found our article helpful. If you have any questions about multimodal education, write them in the comments below. We will answer each question, and the top ones will be discussed in the following articles!

Online learning is becoming more and more popular as millions of people seek to learn new skills through the Internet. As a result, more and more e-courses appear on the market. How to stand out if you plan to launch your training or webinar series? The answer is simple: do not make mistakes.

The first mistake is perfectionism. You need to forget about wanting to create the perfect eLearning course. Too much perfection has never led to good results. However, there are more significant mistakes when creating courses, and let's consider them in more detail.

1. There is no well-considered topic, purpose and course structure

If you ignore your target audience, you are making a critical mistake. You will not create a quality online course without a thoughtful approach to potential students. Therefore, such a product can be thrown into the trash.

Before you start working on the course in more detail, start with the basics. First, find out why you decided to create a series of webinars or pieces of training? This will form the primary mission of the course.

In addition, it is vital to understand if your target audience wants to take this course. Naturally, you can line up to your topic, but will potential students have the same intense attraction? At the same time, you should not extend the course to the size of a college program with classes lasting more than 2 hours. In this case, you risk losing all the students. It is better to divide the training material into separate modules or apply micro-learning strategies. The step-by-step presentation of information guarantees a complete learning and correct application of knowledge in practice.

Once you fix this issue, you can pay attention to other details.

2. The course is taking too long

This mistake is related to the previous one. You may definitely want to get the most from the course and offer students the most detailed information. However, quantity does not always mean quality. Therefore, creating an online course lasting hundreds of hours is incredibly wrong.

Now you can easily access knowledge via the Internet, but not everyone has the time to learn.

It is much better to follow the perimeters of text and video content. Texts can be improved in two ways:

• Simple word count is the easiest way to create clear and concise material.
• Usage of unique services that work in real-time and give tips on how to improve your text.

As for video content, the optimal duration of a lesson is up to 10 minutes, which allows students to concentrate as much as possible on the lesson's material.

It is pretty difficult to force someone to study for several months in current conditions. After all, even short courses can be challenging. However, a course with short modules is a great idea. Firstly, it allows you to maintain a stable interest among students. And secondly, short videos can be watched at any convenient time (even during a lunch break at work).

3. There are no metrics to track eLearning performance

Another big mistake is not tracking your online course metrics. Measuring performance is critical to understanding the benefits of the content, and the easiest way to do this is through the feedback form. Educational experts recommend attaching it to your course using special services (for example, Google Forms or Survey Monkey).

The following questions should be added to the form:

1. How suitable is the current format of the online course for the student?
2. Is the course easy to navigate?
3. How easy is it to learn the lessons you offer?
4. How does the student evaluate the level of video and graphics?
5. What is missing in the e-course, and what seems superfluous?

It is also worth studying critical numbers in an online course. For example, how much time do students spend studying and how often they visit the educational platform. If possible, observe the changes to students after completing the training - how they use new knowledge in practice and how their behavior has changed.

4. You are not proofread texts for the course

The students trust you with their training as specialists. And it would be highly embarrassing for them to notice the incorrect spelling of words and the construction of sentences. Even the slightest mistake will make users doubt the uniqueness of the materials. After all, you not only made mistakes but did not even bother to correct them.

The biggest mistake you can make is to steal educational content blatantly. Therefore, when creating an electronic course, it is better to use anti-plagiarism services to ensure that the texts are original.

Maintaining a professional look and tone of voice for your online course is also crucial. Therefore, reduce text formatting (bold, underlining, italics) and capital letters in posts on social networks to a minimum.

5. Lack of communication with students

Communication with students is the most important part of e-learning. It doesn't matter if you do it online or offline. The teacher's primary role is not to help students learn new topics but to motivate them to develop. The right mentor who helps you focus on learning is 50% of success. And if there is no connection with the teacher, then there is no point in improving yourself. As a result, students will leave your online course.

Provide high-quality feedback on homework and have a one-to-one ratio with all students. If your resources are not enough, hire other teachers who will help the students grow.

6. You placed course materials in the cloud storage

If you place video, audio, and slides in the cloud, they may not display correctly on other devices. It is much better to use trustworthy educational platforms. These universal solutions allow you to conveniently post materials on the Web, while each student will have a separate personal account to access educational content.

However, there are dozens of such platforms, so choosing a convenient and functional solution for creating and launching electronic courses is crucial. You don't need to invent anything else because the developers have already done everything for you.

Use our checklist to choose a perfect website:

• The platform should provide access to a complete set of tools for working on educational content (without hidden fees).
• The website has a functional course builder to create modules, add images and videos, record new lessons, and launch final exams.
• The service offers a convenient chat for communication between students and teachers.
• The platform allows you to create a registration form for the course quickly.
• You can efficiently distribute access rights to the service among inspectors, course facilitators, and other teachers.
• The website offers basic notifications to students about the course they are taking.

Educational platforms end all problems with the technical part of eLearning development. Therefore, you can safely create top-notch content and build communication with listeners.

7. There is no adequate response to criticism

Unfortunately, criticism is inevitable, and no one wants to know that they did not do everything as expected. However, it is imperative to get an adverse reaction from students to make the e-course better.

If you avoid negative feedback and criticism and are unwilling to listen to suggestions for improving the course, you can forget about a practical course. Ignoring the requests of the audience = lack of communication = outflow of students.

It is much better to consider criticism and make the necessary changes. By doing this, you show that you are interested in your students' success and remember their intention to succeed, thereby increasing trust and authority.

How to avoid such mistakes

But there is good news: all the defects can be easily and quickly fixed. Use the following tips to make your course better!

Explain the structure of the course to the students

New knowledge is more difficult to understand if you have not told students about the structure of the e-course. Remind your learners regularly of how each stage relates to the end goal. Summarize each topic and module, reflecting on the topics covered and those you will study in the future. It is also worth saying basic and specific terms from your training series. All this will ensure that students understand the educational material and understand you.

Don't forget about consolidation

This has been a problem even during the school years. Remember the situation when the teacher asks, "Is everything clear?" after explaining a new topic, and then they listen to the sound of silence. Students are simply embarrassed to show that they do not fully understand the material, and it needs to be explained again.

The same is true for online courses. Therefore, you need to exploit a completely different approach here. So, to consolidate the theory, you should go to the practical part and analyze a specific example. For example, offer to solve a similar task on your own. You can also change the task's context so that students can remember the theory and find the right solutions. The more practical examples you consider, the more likely you will successfully consolidate knowledge.

Provide students with examples

Learning without a theoretical basis is impossible. However, it is essential to show the students how to apply the knowledge. Let them think of how the theory can help in different situations. If people understand that new information brings complete life changes, they become psychologically satisfied.

Pay attention to tests

Final tests are one of the main parts of the e-course. They allow you to determine how students have learned knowledge and find difficult questions in the educational material. Experts recommend adding midterms after each module and control tasks after a large piece, of course. Choose questions from different topics; it helps students search for the necessary information and create the structure of the answer. At the same time, the solution should not be based entirely on theory but, on the contrary, should make one think outside the box.

Start a test launch

After creating an online course, you need to conduct a trial run. To do this, select a limited audience (up to 50 people). As a result of the "test drive," you will get the first feedback from the students and will be able to use it to fix problems.

These tips will help you avoid mistakes and create a highly effective online course that will benefit people.

Conclusion

Remember, it's completely normal to make mistakes, and the main thing is to find and fix bugs in time. There are no perfect online courses and teachers, as well as students. So don't be afraid to try different formats, collect feedback from your audience, and use quality online tools.

We hope that you find our article helpful. If you have any questions about creating eLearning, leave them in the comments below. We will answer all your questions and analyze the most interesting ones in our following materials. Good luck!

Online learning platforms have been around for decades, but their prosperity has only just begun. The creators of the specific programs are doing their best to ensure that their technologies spread as quickly as possible. This is also facilitated by people's desire for a comfortable and high-tech learning environment. And the online environment is perfect for this, which offers tremendous opportunities and benefits that classical education does not have.

The main advantages of e-learning are mobility and convenience. These factors are critical while technologies are snowballing and people are tied to their smartphones. Therefore, millions of people are gaining knowledge and mastering new skills via the Internet. This is why creators of the courses can attract as many people as possible to the fascinating educational process. Let's look at the top online course management activities available to everyone and help you maximize your results.

Research your target audience and set clear learning goals

It's the first thing to do when creating an online course. Understanding the preferences and needs of the target audience will help determine what content will be most beneficial for students. If you don't, you will be wasting your time and money. You cannot speculate and assess prospects without knowing what skills and experiences potential learners have.

Therefore, to understand how best to present educational content to listeners, it is necessary to analyze the target audience. Otherwise, why would anyone study your subject if they don't know how the information will be helpful?

It is also essential to set specific goals at the start of each e-course. This approach will help students understand the benefits of studying with you and how the knowledge gained will expand their professional competencies. In turn, you will create the most comfortable environment for interacting with students.

Moreover, setting learning objectives adds value to your knowledge and allows you to think through the course structure. We will talk about this a bit later.

The study of the target audience is a crucial base that affects other aspects of the e-learning strategy.

Think carefully about the structure

After you understand the needs of your audience, think about what knowledge they will need the most. It is much better than setting unrealistic goals and endlessly expanding the course. This approach is counterproductive because it is impossible to assimilate a vast amount of information in weeks.

Therefore, it is vital to develop a convenient step-by-step structure, where huge topics are broken into separate blocks. The more step-by-step approach you use, the easier it is for learners to learn. At the same time, don't forget to repeat the material regularly to learn it better. Use different representation options (for example, alternate text + images and video with voice acting). It will allow students to maximize their personal learning needs and simplify their work with information.

Further, consider using causal links as often as possible in the writing process. When students logically link several concepts they encountered during class, they will work with them more effectively. In other words, the clearer and more logical the structure of an online course, the easier the learning itself.

Make courses visually appealing

Attractiveness is one of the synonyms for engagement. After all, engaging e-learning courses often have well-designed visuals. It attracts the attention and interest of potential students who are happy to come to the course to learn something new.

The first thing to remember is that less is more, and there shouldn't be too many elements in the visual. Here are the basic rules to help you create the perfect design:

• Texts should be short
• Use white space to make reading easier
• Pick high-quality images and videos
• Don't use too much animation in your online tests.

You can create an engaging online learning environment if you follow these guidelines. This, in turn, will create and keep your students engaged.

Add some interactivity

Interactive elements are one of the most important factors when creating online courses, and they help students show more interest in the course topic and stay focused throughout the study. All this leads to greater involvement in the educational environment because boredom and loss of concentration are the main enemies of learning.

You can use a variety of ways to design your e-learning strategy, from simple drag-and-drop interactions or animated online quizzes to creating a complete interactive course and virtual classroom environment. Moreover, with the advent of the metaverse, educational platform creators will look to implement this technology for learning.

Remember that your main goal is to engage and retain your target audience. And the more you know about student preferences, the easier it will be for you to find and integrate interactive elements that maximize engagement in the learning process.

Brevity is the soul of wit

Endlessly long lessons only distract students. No one has enough patience and time to devote entirely to learning (especially people with busy work schedules).

Therefore, it is best to keep the training modules short. Ideally, one session should not be longer than 10 minutes. This approach shows students respect for their time and makes interacting with the learning material easier. It is much more comfortable for students to work with small amounts of information than with hours of videos and long texts.

Three rules of brevity:

• We break content into short modules
• We offer blitz polls to test knowledge
• We don't overload the screen with information.

However, successful learning is impossible without an emotional connection. Let's consider this topic in more detail.

Reach out to students' emotions

Emotions enhance long-term memory, and scientists have proven that the emotional component is essential for memorizing information. Therefore, if you strive to consolidate knowledge effectively, create content to evoke emotions in students. If an online course is unresponsive, listeners will not perceive the information as meaningful. Therefore, they will probably forget about everything you taught them.

In other words, an emotion-centered approach is essential to learning. The best way to do this is to share information through stories and examples. This technique is prevalent because it helps focus on the educational process and consolidate knowledge. And this, in turn, is vital for improving long-term memory.

Share valuable knowledge

As we said before, learning content should be both valuable and unique. But why is it so important?

The answer is simple: if the students understand how your knowledge will be helpful, they will learn it better. Therefore, when creating an e-course, focus on appealing to the audience's emotions.

A human-centered approach to the learning process will allow you to implement all the tools for working with students and meeting their needs. And the students themselves will be able to see how new knowledge and skills relate to their experience.

What's more, reaching out to students' emotions is one of the best ways to build and maintain audience engagement. Sharp images, fascinating stories, and a little bit of humor - all this can arouse genuine interest, set a positive motivation for learning, and an emotional connection between students and the teacher.

Leverage students' knowledge and offer them an engaging and meaningful online extremely positive learning experience.

Let students explore the topic on their own

Research is the learning itself. When students get freedom and complete control to learn information, they do it with great interest. Moreover, such an approach could be much more beneficial than expected.

Students do not complete their online courses because there is little room for maneuver. Let's suppose you're watching a movie, miss a critical moment, and can't rewind to watch it again. Another example: you want to understand the meaning of an e-course and cannot find out more about its content until you have passed the training module or section to the end.

Allow students to explore the topic on their own. This will help them independently build their unique learning strategy, understand the context and become more involved in the learning process.

Make your course successful

Pride cannot be a prominent part of the strategy, but it is. Positive student feedback and growing interest in an online course are the leading indicators of valuable knowledge.

When you are genuinely proud of your achievements, you take responsibility for opposing critics of your approach. This means that you:

• did your best to achieve the result.
• paid attention to every detail.
• used all the tools available to create a quality online course.
• were in the students' shoes while working on the course and are happy with their progress.

Positive student response is a significant indicator of success, and this shows that the students enjoyed learning as much as you did the course during the course. And vice versa, a modest response to your creation indicates that you have created a mediocre product. So always ask yourself, "Do I like what I am doing?"

Conclusion

The success of e-learning highly depends on student interest. Robust control, a clear structure, experienced teachers, clear goals, open access to knowledge, and easy navigation through the online platform may increase student engagement and improve the quality of learning.

Moreover, now the creators of e-courses have access to top-notch educational platforms with a wide range of tools. They allow you to launch your first training module with videos, tests, and a unique design in just 30 minutes.

However, learning in a virtual environment requires constant motivation from your audience. So follow our tips for managing online learning, and you will surely enjoy the benefits of helping people.

We hope you find our article helpful. If you have any questions regarding online course management, leave them in the comments below. We will answer them and analyze the most interesting ones in the following materials.

Microlearning has already become a significant trend in e-learning, and many online schools and companies are already using a short content format that has maximum impact. Let's find out what microlearning is and look at 6 inspiring examples of "little by little" learning.

What Is Microlearning

The meaning of microlearning comes from the name itself. This is a format of providing knowledge in small portions - from 2 to 5 minutes. At the same time, classes are organized according to the "1 lesson - 1 topic" format.

E-learning course creators use text, video, and images at the same time. The advantage of the short format is that students focus on the topic as much as possible and quickly learn new knowledge. This is especially important given the tendency of people to clip thinking, which are the peculiarities of perceiving information as a sequence of individual events. Therefore, microlearning guarantees conciseness and specificity, concentrating helpful information.

The secret behind the popularity of microlearning is that even great skills can be mastered with short videos. That is why this format is ideal for those who value their time. And teachers, in turn, catch the trend towards the transition to learning through mobile devices and offer the most suitable conditions for developing skills.

What Is the Primary Purpose of Microlearning

Microlearning attracts students to master a new topic gradually. They do small tasks that relate to the topic of the lesson.

This approach also solves three main tasks:

• It acts as an addition to a broader training course.
• It helps to identify gaps in knowledge and decide which direction to move on.
• It solves specific problems at a particular time (for example, if a person lacks competence in solving a problem).

Therefore, the demand for the short content format is snowballing.

Best Microlearning Examples

There are dozens of successful cases with short format lessons, and they cover a variety of areas and solve global business problems. Let's take a look at 6 of the most exciting examples of microlearning:

Online Learning Solutions from Elucidat

You need to spend a lot of time and effort to put new knowledge into practice. At the same time, it is not necessary to pass a comprehensive training course, because the information received can be forgotten after a few weeks. Instead, it is better to pay attention to the interval learning method and learn gradually.

Elucidat, a cloud platform for creating e-learning courses, has developed a unique solution with great potential. It enables students to master the theory and immediately execute practical tasks to consolidate knowledge. As a result, students are most satisfied with the educational process.

Microtasks gradually develop the abilities and skills of students. And the high adaptability of the online application allows you to track progress and keep users motivated, which is essential for learning success.

Easy10 Mobile App for Learning Foreign Languages

One of the most popular niches in microlearning is foreign languages. The demand for learning English, German, French, and other languages remains stable. However, people are looking to get the maximum result in less time.

The Easy 10 app is designed to help users learn foreign languages. All you need is to learn only 10 words or phrases per day to succeed. Therefore, in just one year of study, you can learn 3,650 new words and expressions, from the simplest to vocabulary to the level of IELTS and TOEFL tests! The app is currently available in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and other languages ​​.

The Easy 10 application has a user-friendly interface - users may exploit cards where the word and its meaning are indicated. Further, students can look at the transcription of words and listen to their pronunciation. At the same time, an intelligent system for repeating the material covered is used. In addition to new words, you will complete tests and tasks to repeat the previous day's words every day. Words that you learn worse will be repeated more often and the time spent is significantly reduced.

You are awarded points for completing tasks, forming an overall rating among other users. You can track your progress on the calendar. Here you can find out how many words you have learned and how many days you have been studying without interruptions.

Thus, the Easy10 application combines the best features of adaptive and microlearning.

Short Q&A Videos For IT Experts From Cisco

Our following example is the case of Cisco, which found a way to help developers by launching a series of TechTalks videos.

This company runs a unique certification program. It allows you to test the knowledge and skills of developers who want to work with Cisco solutions. This uses micro-learning technology to learn all the necessary information to pass the exam.

Why did Cisco decide to do this project? The company's management understands that it is hard for potential users of their products to study extensive material before the exam. And information overload leads to students quickly forgetting almost everything they learned.

Therefore, the company has developed a particular Cisco Learning Network repository with TechTalks videos up to 10 minutes long. Each video addresses a specific concept or concept, and the video series aims to refresh knowledge on the most popular IT topics.

As for now, thousands of people can watch short videos about essential concepts in IT. This eliminates the need to watch long and endless videos because you may find all the information in one video.

Moreover, the content is balanced between attracting attention and keeping the student's interest. Therefore, Cisco's TechTalks videos are used to remind you of essential concepts and mechanics.

Google Manager Training Courses

The global tech giant continues to set trends. Google has created a simple and effective tool for training managers in a safe corporate culture. It extends the scope of traditional learning and offers more in less time.

Google Whisper Courses videos and seminars combine a theoretical and practical approach. In this way, they solve the problem of learning in the classroom and offer managers to gain valuable knowledge and immediately put it into practice.

The structure of the courses is straightforward: e-learning participants receive letters by email. They contain ideas for improving the efficiency of individual processes and the team. They can be voiced during the next team meeting, and you may get a response from your colleagues.

Why was this solution successful? It's all about human psychology, and we often need a little push to put the idea into practice. And in each Google Whisper Courses email, the student receives precise instructions for use and a call to action.

Grovo Microlearning Business Platform

In addition to individual apps, courses, or knowledge bases, there are some full-fledged educational platforms for training employees. One of the most famous is Grovo.

This platform allows teams of any level to grow and develop. Moreover, it facilitates the adaptation of new employees, making it faster and more transparent.

Grovo offers an extensive knowledge base with content on the most in-demand topics (e.g., leadership, business communications, personal growth, customer service, sales, etc.). In total, more than 2,500 positions are available on the website. Employees can view videos and complete interactive tests on the online platform. This approach improves learning and increases motivation to complete the training course.

In addition to using turnkey courses, companies can create their product using templates. All you need is to subscribe to Content Anytime and choose the template you like.

Digital Sales Automation Platform from Cardinal Health

It is also worth analyzing a case from Cardinal Health. Previously, the company's management faced difficulties in implementing solutions for sales automation, which required finding an effective solution.

The Canadian company is a Fortune 14 leader in civil health, and that is why its popularity has skyrocketed and the workload on its employees. Therefore, optimizing costs and automating routine tasks was necessary, especially for training employees and working with clients.

What challenges does Cardinal Health face?

1. Sales representatives were highly mobile, but this was a problem for arranging training in the company's office. So, it was not always possible to gather sufficient people to give them new and valuable knowledge.
2. A vast number of the same type of requests came to the support service, despite the constant training of employees. The reason for the problem was in the level of knowledge retention. Therefore, responding to repeated requests from customers took a massive amount of time.
3. Classes for sales managers focused on the importance of using Salesforce CRM rather than hands-on experience with digital solutions. The theoretical approach is ineffective, so many employees were lost when they started working with CRM.

So Cardinal Health turned to the digital platform Whatfix for help, which offered its technology to improve the training of sales representatives. They were trained in real-time using Whatfix's core technology, Digital Adoption. It consists of interactive step-by-step guides in the learning process, and sales managers perform 1 specific task in 1 session. This approach will reduce the training course duration and increase its effectiveness.

With an improved learning model, employees picked up Salesforce CRM faster. This, in turn, made it possible to process user requests faster. Sales managers could learn in their own style without interrupting their core tasks. Therefore, online learning has brought more benefits than classroom training.

Some Words To Sum Up

Microlearning has become a widespread trend in the world of online education. The innovative strategy fits perfectly into everyday life and brings much more benefit and pleasure than classic courses.

If you plan to use the short format, then look to the top educational platforms to create compelling content. They offer turnkey e-learning solutions that allow you to launch your first course in 30 minutes. A course builder with a step-by-step checklist, branding tools, and video recording instruments are among them.

You should also follow new trends and implement them into your product. Thus, adaptive learning technologies and game mechanics are in the most significant demand. These directions make courses more attractive and practical. As a result, completion of training modules and student satisfaction increase.

We hope you find this article helpful. If you have any questions about microlearning, please leave them in the comments below. We will answer all your questions, and the most interesting ones will be analyzed in detail in our following materials!

The main feature of mobile learning is convenience and acquiring new knowledge anywhere with an Internet connection. According to the author of The Mobile Learning Edge: Tools and Technologies for Developing Your Teams, Harry Woodill, this type of e-learning exempts you from traveling to a specific location. Moreover, this approach takes us back to ancient times, when vital knowledge was passed on by word of mouth. And with the spread of accessible mobile Internet, such learning is increasingly integrated into our lives and can use a variety of memory mechanisms, including long-term ones. We will consider this issue in our material.

What Are the Types of Long-term Memory

Before understanding the benefits of m-learning, you first need to learn more about the 2 main types of long-term memory.

Verbal memory

The first type of memory is responsible for storing general information about the world around us, not associated with a person's unique experience. When we try to remember the capital of Germany or who rules the United Kingdom, we are using semantic memory.

Verbal memory is as massive in volume as the knowledge we get, and it allows information to be stored for decades and take it using general concepts. For example, the answer to the question "Who is a lion" would be "a predatory mammal with four legs and a thick mane around its head."

Episodic Memory

This type of memory is associated with the actual experience, like a trip to the USA, a visit to the theater, or office work. To extract data from episodic memory, a person needs to remember events from the past. So, the word "lion" will be associated with a trip to the zoo or a safari. Therefore, episodic memory covers a specific context, time, and place in which certain events occurred.

In addition, episodic memory allows us to remember different stories, even if we were not directly involved in them. And thanks to emotional assessment and interest in the topic, events remain in memory with all the details.

But there is a nuance: episodic memories are gradually forgotten over time. Such fragile processes can be observed in Riley Anderson, Disney's Inside Out heroine.

Since smartphones significantly impact human life, some researchers suggest that m-learning is more about episodic memory. At the same time, classic electronic courses help to use more verbal memory.

How Does Mobile Learning Activate Episodic Memory

There are three areas in which the impact of mobile learning on episodic memory has been proven. Let's consider them in more detail:

• Practical learning allows you to remember specific information and where it can be used in the future. Thus, memories are formed, connecting new knowledge with work, emotions, and environment images. As a result, triggers appear, thanks to which the student can extract the necessary data from the episodic memory.
• The ability to get vital knowledge anywhere - e.g., on the road, at work, on the couch at home - creates a lot of memories. They link different aspects of life to the topic they are studying. It allows you to improve memorizing and using knowledge in various situations.

• Many memories associated with m-learning, over time, move into a more reliable type of long-term memory called semantic. In other words, the knowledge gained is transformed from memories into permanent knowledge. The effectiveness of this principle was once studied by Professor Martin Conway from the University of London. Together with his colleagues, he studied assimilation and memorization from an academic course in Psychology. Initial research indicated that most of the information was recalled as episodes (for example, data from the experiments of Morris, Bransford, and Franks). However, retesting a couple of months later showed that theoretical information had separated from learning memories. Moreover, it passed into semantic memory among the most successful students and was strengthened there.

All of this proves that m-learning affects episodic memory in one way or another. Information is first recorded regarding specific events, after which it is transferred to the category of general knowledge.

Prospects for Mobile Learning

At the same time, the future for this type of e-learning is more than bright. Mobile devices are so ingrained in our lives that mobility has become a top requirement among millions of students. Online learning using smartphones has enormous potential in many areas (especially foreign languages, personal growth, marketing, and IT).

More and more attention is now being paid to active learning approaches. For example, crowdsourcing is increasingly used in m-learning, which allows you to collect and visualize vast amounts of data thanks to a large army of smartphone and tablet PC users. Moreover, the use of cloud technologies will significantly facilitate the remote management of an online course and access to additional educational resources.

Many schools and universities around the world still prohibit mobile devices during classes. However, this approach will not last long because m-learning can be used for practical purposes (for example, to raise the literacy level and quickly find the necessary information).

5 Ways to Improve Your Education Courses by Using Smartphones

Mobile learning is a highly effective strategy. Therefore, it is crucial not to be angry with students for spending time on smartphones but to find ways to use them in the education process. Games, apps, and internet access are helping students improve their reading skills, explore more deeply, and share their learning experiences. It can be a milestone in the creation of adaptive learning strategies.

Here are 5 ways you can make your online courses even better:

Let Students Do Their Homework on Smartphones

As for now, students store a massive number of apps on their smartphones. Among them are often text editors or video editing programs.

Allow students to complete the assignment on a mobile device, but the finished work must be of high quality and meet all the requirements on one condition.

Therefore, online course participants are more motivated to make presentations, record videos, or create collages on their phones. And often, the result exceeds the expectations of students and teachers. As a result, high marks and pleasure from learning.

Have Students Use Telephones To Prepare for the Next Lesson

This is another way to involve students in the learning process. In one of the classes, you can say that there will be no specific homework. Instead, talk about your plans for the next lesson or the whole week, and ask students to look up initial information on smartphones or tablets. You can even create a specific chat in the messenger app to collect your students.

Of course, they will share memes and news, but at the same time, they will not forget about the primary goal of finding and discussing information for the lesson. If students have found little data, you can evaluate the quality of what has already been found.

Show Them How To Check Facts on Smartphones

The Internet is a vast repository of all kinds of data. Therefore, it can and should be used for research purposes. Let your students forget tons of dust-collecting books and start looking for unfamiliar terms and dates. Moreover, this can be done directly during the lesson (of course, with the teacher's permission).

Teach To Convert Speech to Text and Vice Versa

Teachers want students to read more and take notes, but not everyone feels confident about these questions. This is where converting speech to text and vice versa can come in handy. Many apps allow you to take notes using voice input, and this approach provides greater self-confidence among those students who are more accustomed to perceiving and reproducing information orally.

But even this approach has its drawbacks. For example, students still need to proofread the text for errors, edit it and format it to deliver the task to the teacher. But even this allows for high-quality learning through the use of adaptive methods.

Journalists and executives of large companies actively use Speech-to-text conversion. So why not take advantage of the free tools for regular students too?

Encourage the Use of Translation Software

Such tools are simply irreplaceable for those who study foreign languages. Online course instructors can improve the quality of learning and motivate students to use translation apps and mobile dictionaries. This approach has two main advantages:

• the ability to find quality materials for the lesson.
• the benefit of drawing up a strategy for working with complex texts in the future.

Conclusion

Let's sum up everything. Many educators believe that smartphones and learning are incompatible, as they distract from the educational process. However, mobile devices can be precious when used correctly.

Of course, as with any other technology, it needs the proper motivation for the presenters and owners of e-courses. They should discuss the issue of using smart devices with their learners.

In any case, smartphones are the main gate to the whole world of knowledge. And if used correctly, they can improve the quality of online learning.

Soon, mobile courses will continue to develop context-sensitive technologies that leverage student preferences to access the right resources at the right time.

When it comes to the impact on long-term memory, there is no doubt about the effectiveness of mobile learning. There are three main benefits of m-learning:

• The student remembers how and where they used the acquired knowledge, making it much easier to retrieve information from memory if needed.
• The ability to learn anywhere improves data retention.
• Many episodic memories form the basis of verbal memory, which is a system of general knowledge about the world around us.

We hope you find our article helpful. If you still have questions about mobile learning, leave them in the comments below. We will answer them and analyze the most interesting ones in the following materials.

When designing an e-course, it is crucial to understand that students will learn and remember the information to use in the future. The training course creator should be aware of different training technologies and use the essential principles of working with information (for example, presenting and structuring data). Meanwhile, it is imperative not to overdo your content delivery, especially if you are interested in your students' high performance. After all, if you overload students with information, they won't master the knowledge (which means they will not receive the expected benefit from online education).

Let's look at some critical aspects of content creation for online courses and understand when less is more.

Why Are Students Not Always Able To Remember What They Have Learned Previously

Lila Dawachi, director of the Center for Learning, Memory, and Emotion at NYU, said people experience coherence while learning. It is achieved by combining your content with the so-called "golden thread" - a central theme. This connecting link ensures the high assimilability of knowledge, and it helps the brain organize new information into so-called "schemas." Cognitive structures or concepts help organize and interpret information. If students are familiar with a specific concept, it will be much easier to learn new information.

If you remove the "golden thread" from your e-learning content, the brain will learn new information as separate elements. This is comparable to what popcorn looks like. New cores are scattered all over the place, making it difficult to assemble into a whole. Therefore, it is vital to use two types of schemas that help retain and recall learned information - the structure of educational content and the content itself.

The organizational structure can be different. For example, you can break an online course into separate parts. But if your task is to create a short instructional video, use three key questions:

• What should students learn?
• Why is it important?
• What needs to be done to learn?

When it comes to content, it's better to use the "less is more" method. It is much better to focus on a few critical concepts than to spread the students' attention over the many concepts that need to be learned. And don't forget about the unifying element that should connect all the pieces of educational content (for example, a specific metaphor or mnemonic device). After all, thanks to the "golden thread," students will be able to remember what they learned earlier quickly and better.

What Impacts the Learning

The two most essential aspects of mastering new knowledge are thinking and attention. Also, the success of online learning depends on executive functions (e.g., ability to make plans, set specific goals, make decisions, evaluate progress and prevent harmful actions).

Thinking depends on working (short-term) memory, which is the amount of information a student can remember at a specific moment. The volume of working memory expands at primary school age, so children are trained with tasks for mental processing of information (finding a picture that fits the meaning, oral counting, learning the alphabet, etc.)

Attention is a resource as limited as working memory, and it is tough to focus on several things simultaneously. Moreover, stress and fatigue affect the ability to retain new knowledge in working memory and concentration. Therefore, it is crucial to study the following question.

Why You Shouldn't Overload Your Students With Information

According to cognitive load theory, the human brain stores information in "schemas," which are unique structures that allow you to solve problems and think. Also, they make it possible to perceive the various elements within the lesson as a whole. As a result, schemas form our knowledge base.

For the student to successfully master the new knowledge, it is necessary to change the structure of the schema. Then a person will understand the information, process the received data in the working memory, and fix them in the long term. This allows you to build on the knowledge gained in the future and expand your competencies in many areas.

What happens if you grant learners too much information? Most likely, they will make too many mistakes and will not fully immerse themselves in the online course topic, which is called cognitive overload. Students will lose the motivation to work further and stop studying in the future.

If you don't change the structure of the cognitive schema of the students, they will not process the e-course material. Therefore, content needs to be crafted to reduce the risk of cognitive overload. This approach will also allow students to quickly and efficiently assimilate new knowledge to use it in their work.

Types of Cognitive Load

Есть три типа когнитивной нагрузки, которые напрямую влияют на онлайн обучение:

• Inner. It is considered as the level of complexity of tasks or educational material. Some topics are more complicated to understand than others. Complex tasks are more likely to cause internal cognitive overload.
• Outer. This type of load includes extraneous actions or elements that make students think (for example, complex graphs). They can be removed from the e-course without much difficulty.
• Reasonable. It allows students to concentrate on the lesson's topic and successfully enhance the knowledge base.

Any online course needs to be developed to dominate the latter type of cognitive load, as it is most effective.

How to Apply a Less Is More Approach to Online Courses

At first glance, this conjecture may seem illogical, but it determines the training courses' involvement and completeness. How do you get more value from less content?

First, stop asking yourself, "What else can you add to the course?" Instead, ask yourself the following questions:

• If students can only remember three concepts after an online course, which ones are essential? How can I explain their importance?
• How will students apply the gained knowledge in their work?
• How can I help them to learn?
• How can I distribute the workload so that students spend a minimum of time?
• Can I host online workshops to review homework and summarize the e-course?
• How can I test training videos to ensure that students effectively understand what they learn?

Research has shown that learning is assimilated better when classes are spread over time. Agree, students will like to study for 1 hour for five days, more than 2.5 hours for two days, and this approach allows the brain to structure the information it receives faster.

5 Ways to Make Online Course Easy for Students

If you want to reduce the cognitive load on your students, here are some tips!

Keep It Simple

Yes, writing short and succinctly is much more complicated than stretching one paragraph to fill the entire page or 10 minutes of video. However, short videos and texts reduce the cognitive load, and lengthy explanations consume vast amounts of short-term memory. Therefore, leave only the information that deserves attention in your online course and helps explain the topic.

According to a study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology, 500-word readers are the best at remembering and conveying information. At the same time, those participants who read the text without a summary at the end showed the lowest results.

Apply Different Techniques

When people know that there will be practice after theoretical knowledge, they take the learning process seriously.

One of the most popular methods is the "request method." Explain the concept to students, and then invite them to reflect on what they have learned. For example, think up and write one or two sentences using a new term.

Studies have shown that such tasks to work out the assimilated knowledge increase learning effectiveness.

Divide the Course Into Separate Parts

It is probably the easiest way to reduce student workload. In this case, they will move on to a new lesson only when they have fully mastered the material of the current lesson. This will allow learners not to overload short-term memory and fix information in the long term.

Remove Unnecessary Information

It is also vital to remove information buzz from e-learning which makes the course more complicated. This can be a complex course interface, an overloaded video design, or instructions that are difficult to understand. All extraneous details should not draw attention to themselves to not clutter up the working memory.

Therefore, it is necessary to remove irrelevant information, unnecessary visual elements and leave what is needed to work with the topic of the course. The main goal is to focus students' attention on the educational material.

Include Additional Materials

Additional materials can significantly ease short-term memory. Moreover, they can be used directly in the learning process to increase effectiveness. The most common elements used in online courses are:

• step-by-step instructions for completing complex tasks;
• detailed problem analysis as an example;
• the vocabulary of new terminology that is used during the course;
• schematic maps that show the link between individual concepts.

All of these materials can make the learning experience better for students.

Conclusion

Work on your cognitive load if you want to launch the most practical and effective online course. After all, if students work with a massive array of unnecessary information, they will make many mistakes and will not fully assimilate new knowledge.

If you need to add more content to your course, remember how you are preparing for a long trip. Most likely, you are not trying to fit the entire wardrobe in a suitcase but take only the most necessary things. It works the same with online learning; choose the essential elements to help students succeed.

Your listeners trust you to work on something exciting and useful for them in the near future. And if you adhere to the principle of "less is more," then your course will benefit from using scientifically proven methods of memorizing.

We hope this article was helpful to you. If you still have questions about creating content for online courses, leave them in the comments. We will answer them and analyze the most interesting ones in the following articles!

A business simulation is considered an online or offline business game based on a given topic. However, in this article, we will consider the first option since it simulates the actual internal processes of the company. An online simulation shows in detail, for example, the business model of a grocery store or metallurgical plant with tendering and two-stage production. Let's take a closer look at this concept.

What Is a Business Simulation

Business simulation is a game as close as possible to actual business conditions. It was first used by the Swedish company CELEMI in the early 1990s, after which such games quickly became popular worldwide. Moreover, over time, simulations quickly went out of business and were adopted by many universities.

So, business simulations are actively used during seminars in American institutions. Some games require such a level of training that teachers with a Ph.D. degree are involved.

In the CIS, business simulations appeared at the beginning of the 2000s. Initially, they were used by foreign companies for corporate training of employees, but very quickly, this approach was adopted by local businesses.

During the business simulation, its participants try to work with the tools based on the legend made by the presenter. By operating in "laboratory conditions," employees reduce the chance of errors in fundamental business processes.

Why Companies Use Business Simulations

There are two main reasons business simulations have become popular in corporate and academic training.

They Allow You To Assess the Knowledge of the Participants

For example, let's take a simulation of a grocery store where the user acts as a director. During the game, the participant performs tasks for analyzing the situation and setting priority tasks. After completing all the mini-games, the results are displayed on the screen. The most critical metrics are average bill, margin, write-off amount, turnover, and service level.

They Allow You To Teach Without Risks

The virtual environment allows learners to master skills that will be useful when performing real-life tasks. So, when taking part in the business simulation, students learn:

• to decide regarding business process management;
• to manage the company's employees;
• to engage strategic thinking;
• to implement specific tasks (e.g., hiring new employees);
• to develop relationships with clients and partners.

All these benefits make business simulators an excellent learning tool.

How Business Simulation Works

First, all teams can access an online panel containing data about the company (history, business direction, and financial indicators). The list of metrics includes data on cash flow, number of employees, current morale, and more. The nature of the metrics depends on the aim of the simulation - developing human resources, improving marketing strategy, financial management, and so on.

Business Simulation Rules

The main goal is to boost a virtual company following the established winning criteria and get the highest number for all metrics. The team that takes the highest place wins.

Each team starts with the same numbers. Participants also get access to the rating, where they can determine themselves from other parties and evaluate the effectiveness of all decisions.

Participants solve the tasks by a given set of parameters - the final price, the volume of goods sold or produced, the number of attracted customers, gross profit, etc. Each specific task has a deadline, before which data must be entered into the control panel. If the team loses the time to decide, access to the control panel is automatically disabled.

After the deadline, the moderator starts the simulation through a particular teacher tool.

Business Modeling Algorithm

Special software is used for business games called an algorithm. It combines the decisions of all participants and uses the data embedded in the script. For instance, if customers are sensitive to changes in the price of a specific item and all parties decide to raise prices, then market demand will fall.

The program creates new market situations automatically. The forecast is calculated according to the T+1 scheme (i.e., one year ahead from the moment of making the decision). After that, a simulation starts, which all participants in the game can access. Based on the findings, they track the effects of earlier decisions and do new tasks.

Business simulation works according to the following algorithm:

1. Teams receive data for starting metrics, competitor information, and end goals in the dashboard. The participants then begin a brainstorming session to discuss the strategy and action plan. They can also seek help from teachers.
2. Participants turn the strategy into ready-made solutions, considering the specified indicators (prices, the number of goods sold, gross profit, etc.). and the game's goals. The team must make and commit decisions before the end of the deadline.
3. When the deadline expires, the system locks access to the control panel and starts the simulation.
4. Teams gain access again, analyze the simulation results, and begin another brainstorming session.

In general, each game has 3 to 7 rounds of simulation.

How Students Learn by Practicing

One of the main benefits of business simulators is practical skills training and theory development.

First, teams use loads of data about clients, employees, price sensitivity, and many more. This is necessary for the decisions made to meet the target audience's needs. For instance, if the audience is technologically sensitive, investment in research and development will stimulate demand for the product.

Second, participants must develop an analytical view of competitors. After all, it is quite possible that competitors better understand the target audience's needs and make a better offer. Therefore, the dashboard also reflects the performance of other teams, which helps to correct decisions.

Pros and Cons of Business Simulations

Online games like this have many advantages:

• A low level of resistance from teams. During the business simulation, participants independently conclude and gain valuable practical experience. It can be transferred to actual business processes and improved.
• The participants in the game can see the internal processes from different angles. They also learn to consider not one factor but a whole system that affects decision-making.
• Employees of different departments and different levels of training can participate in the simulation. This allows the exchange of experience and improved communication between departments.
• Using a virtual environment reduces risks to zero. The reason is simple: mistakes don't affect real business. Teams can use a variety of tactics, track the results of decisions made, and draw conclusions quickly.
• Business simulators collect user data that can help identify knowledge gaps in participants. In addition to studying the information received, some games provide complete recommendations for further development.
• The business simulator engages users as much as possible in the game process and motivates them to complete practical training. The point is that business simulations are unique and developed individually for each company. It allows you to fully imitate the familiar corporate environment, where employees can benefit. This is why the motivation grows.

However, such games also have disadvantages:

1. Developing a full-fledged business simulation requires more time and money than classic online courses.

The game scenario affects the cost of the project and the timing of the work. To do this, you need to research the client's tasks, the customer company, and its business processes. The data obtained becomes the basis for future simulation.

After that, as the primary information was prepared, it is necessary to draw up a technical requirement. It needs to specify the business simulator's target audience and a list of skills for assessment or development. Also, technical restrictions are indicated in terms of reference (for example, supported devices for running the business game).

When ToRs are ready, you need to develop the game's concept. A separate document must contain the following data:

• main screens of the simulator;
• plot;
• testing mechanics;
• criteria for accessing the participants' progress;
• game mechanics;
• main game cycle;
• main training cycle;
• user engagement tools.

The final stage of work is the implementation of the project. Here you need to correctly estimate the timing of the work, write the code, develop the design and prepare texts for the simulator. To create a top-notch business game, you need a large team of specialists and several months of work (taking into account all rounds of approval).

2. The Simulator Is Not Suitable for All Types of Business

Business simulation is an excellent solution for a large company that constantly trains new and experienced employees. As for small businesses, it is better to use other formats. For example, online courses on an educational platform. It is pretty easy to create them because a convenient course builder and great branding opportunities come at the business owner's service. This is why you can launch the first module in just 30 minutes.

Who Can Use Simulators For Business Games

These tools are used in training programs in large companies, universities, business schools, and special programs for training executives (for example, EMBA).

The main benefit of business simulators is the high level of interaction between the participants. Each team wants to learn more about the simulation's logic and the target audience and find a way to win! This is where curiosity meets the desire to overtake competitors. It allows one to get valuable knowledge of business management methods. Plus, all participants have fun when developing a virtual company.

When conducting the brainstorming session, moderators answer the teams' questions and help them explain their own decision. Another person is also involved in business games - a facilitator, and its task is to guide the participants towards the correct solution through leading and sometimes entirely surprising questions. As a result, employee training depends on the employees themselves.

In addition to the practical part, moderators can conduct theoretical sessions after each simulation round. This allows for a clear connection between simulation and the overall training program. During classes, the teacher can show videos or give theoretical material related to the context of the business simulator and lead discussions about the decisions made.

Each player learns from their own experience, which positively affects the assimilation of knowledge. Moreover, participants gain a much more valuable skill - analyzing customer data, evaluating products, and positioning the business. These things are vital for a company that seeks to gain and maintain a leading position in the market.

Another strength of business modeling is flexibility. The experts recommend using a 2-hour block to discuss and make decisions for each simulation round. But this is not necessary because decisions can be made at any time during the day. Some businesses organize sessions once a week, while others - several times a day. Here everyone can establish their own rules of the game.

We hope you found our article helpful. If you have any questions regarding the development and running of business simulations, leave them in the comments below this material. We will answer them and analyze the most interesting ones in the following articles!

Digital content plays a huge role in online learning now. Over the many years in the e-learning sphere, it has become even more perfect, colorful, and adapted for different screens (PCs, smartphones, tablets). Moreover, full-fledged educational platforms have significantly improved the user experience when taking online courses and the availability of e-learning. This has dramatically influenced the definition and genre diversity of educational content.

Multimedia is one of the most powerful tools for engaging students in online courses. It helps keep students interested and motivated and can also be a valuable way to provide extra information or clarification. Therefore, such content can help make online courses more fun and exciting.

Let's look at the top techniques for using multimedia content in online courses that optimize learning efficiency and make courses visually appealing.

Why Include Multimedia in Your Online Course

It is not surprising that multimedia elements are one of the main types of content in online learning. They allow you to familiarize learners with the material in full detail and immerse them in the educational process. Moreover, a person perceives 95% of the information presented in an engaging format (for comparison, the percentage of memorizing information from a text is 10%).

For example, different types of content are most effective when used for the following purposes:

• To create a model of behavioral or interpersonal skills.
• To show good and bad examples of performing tasks.
• To highlight the importance of a particular concept or point of view.
• When more engagement is needed than pictures or text can provide.

Most of all, interest is caused by interactive elements that reach the audience directly. It allows the student to turn from a passive listener into an active participant in the educational process.

How To Choose Content for an E-course

Millions of people worldwide have access to a wide variety of media tools. They not only increase engagement but also make e-learning courses more effective. Creators of training videos and seminars can add different types of visuals - from Motion Design to interactive presentations. Beautiful and engaging elements can be outstanding if you adhere to specific rules. Let's consider the main rules for selecting multimedia content for e-courses.

Use the Total Potential of Multimedia To Maximize Student Engagement

Diversity plays a vital role in getting new knowledge. Therefore, be sure to choose several types of multimedia elements at once for your online course, and this allows a wide variety of student needs to be met.

For example, those who perceive information better through hearing will significantly benefit from audio recordings (e.g., lectures and background music). At the same time, visual lovers will appreciate interactive games and videos in which you have to answer the lecturer's questions by choosing the correct answer. However, don't overdo it with the selection of components. After all, multimedia materials should follow the main content, improve the perception of information, and not become a top point of the program.

Thus, educational platforms offer convenient tools for working with multimedia. You can easily add images, video, and audio to training modules.

Choose Relevant Images That Are Not Copyrighted

Images that represent learning material or relate to the topic of an online course also play a significant role. High-quality pictures can interest students and make modules visually attractive.

When looking for new images, you should pay attention to those not protected by copyright. In this case, you will not be faced with the need to pay royalties.

It is also worth noting that learning modules shouldn't be too cluttered with images. Otherwise, students will be distracted from the lesson material. Pay attention to images that reflect the essence of the material. For example, you can add photos of sales areas in interactive scenarios, increasing learning and making the e-course more valuable.

Popular services, Depositphotos and Shutterstock, often provide stock images. However, high-quality photos are also available on free photo websites (like Pixabay or Unsplash).

Offer Photos To Explain Difficult Points

If you need to present a rather complex topic, offer photos to illustrate the lesson's material. For example, you can show diagrams about algorithms of internal computing processes or a drawing of a specific mechanism. If you cannot use full-fledged images, translate them into another visual representation (diagram or flowchart) or create a text description.

In terms of usage rights requirements, be sure to use non-copyright photos. In this case, you will not face legal problems and the need to pay royalties.

Use Videos for Lectures, Training, and Seminars

No online course is fun without videos. Video tutorials with a remote teacher and even a course author will be a great addition to your e-course. Students will be more interested in seeing a living person than constantly changing pictures and diagrams. Therefore, such content will benefit both listeners and the owner of the educational platform.

By integrating video into online training, you can:

• get immediate feedback on how much you engage students in the learning process and keep their attention;
• better evaluate whether they have learned the information or not;
• follow the lesson immediately if they have trouble understanding any part of your material.

It is best to conduct video tutorials in real-time. Moreover, they can also be saved to a recording for later use. For example, you can create a short introduction video and use it repeatedly to attract new listeners.

Further, you can make videos more interesting and interactive thanks to new technologies. They increase student engagement and course completion rates.

Make Educational Content Easier To Read With Slideshows

Slideshows have been used for decades in classical education. Therefore, they quickly found their place in online courses in more advanced and exciting forms. Slideshows allow you to integrate quite a few interesting elements without distracting students. As a result, you will receive an interactive course that will relieve students of cognitive overload. The reason is quite simple: the listener can fully understand the material on one slide before moving on to the next.

Use Sound To Offer More Interactive Experience

Like visuals, sound plays a huge role in eLearning creation. Audio recordings of lessons or even background music increase the interactivity and attractiveness of e-learning. Thus, students find themselves more involved in the learning process, especially for background sounds related to the lesson material and sound scenarios.

Of course, such content should be of high quality. So it's better to spare your money for professional voice recording. Also, look out for background music on free sites (e.g., Bensound, MixKit, SoundCloud) where thousands of excellent quality tracks are available. Another good place to look for music scores is the YouTube Audio Library.

However, don't use audio recordings throughout the entire lesson. So, students get tired over time and become distracted from the lesson. Plus, you probably don't want to retell all of the material orally.

Integrate AR, VR, Simulation, and Gamification

New technologies make life easier for ordinary people and owners of educational platforms. Augmented reality, 3D and 4D graphics, and VR technology make learning more exciting and fun. In addition, e-learning creators are increasingly focusing on game mechanics, rating systems, and multimedia content modeling.

All of these approaches make learning a fun adventure where people learn as they play and play as they learn. In addition, innovative methods ensure that students are fully engaged in the learning process and retain them for as long as possible.

Consider Technical Limitations When Integrating Multimedia Content

Another vital factor to consider when using multimedia content is technical limitations and student requirements. Here is a list of questions to be answered:

• Will students take the course separately, or will they be trained on the job?
• What technology is used to display multimedia elements? It is worth noting that Adobe has ended support for Flash technology. So you need to look for alternatives (JavaScript, Silverlight).
• What is the level of technical training of the target audience? Will students be able to work correctly with multimedia elements?

After answering these questions, you can add pictures, video, and sound per the requirements of the educational platform and students. This is why the high-quality functionality of the e-learning platform will allow you to adapt the content to the needs of students.

What Is the Recommended Duration of Multimedia Content

Online course creators always try to make learning as exciting and fun as possible. Therefore, they are increasingly exploring the potential of multimedia in e-learning. There are several key points regarding the length of the content.

• Almost all designers and methodologists agree that short training modules are more popular and effective. The reason is simple: the trainees are motivated to complete the training. Therefore, the optimal duration of a video course is from 15 to 30 minutes. This number is based on the results of the psychological research of students.
• There is also an opinion that it is necessary to use several interactive materials simultaneously for more excellent attractiveness in an electronic course. Interactive charts, videos, tests, and assignments have the highest engagement rates. In addition, it is necessary to answer the questions "What do the students need to know?" and "What is the best and most effective way to explain the topic of the course?"

Therefore, breaking a 45-minute video into two 30-minute training modules is much easier. At the same time, it is crucial to correctly divide the video into segments that attract the most attention and provide deep immersion in the topic of the e-course. This will allow students to draw the correct conclusions.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are significant benefits to using multimedia content in online learning. It allows you to expand the functionality and increase the value of knowledge, and multimedia can also boost course completion and student engagement rates.

Whichever media you choose in your course, be sure to provide students with easy access to them. One way to do this is to place the multimedia resources in a separate location so that students don't have to search for them every time they want to revisit the material. You also need to decide what type of content is best for your material. You can easily integrate multimedia with your online courses with these nuances in mind.

We hope this article was helpful to you. If you still have questions about integrating multimedia in e-learning, leave them in the comments below. We will definitely answer them, and we will consider the most interesting ones in our following articles!

The cost of creating an electronic course depends on its complexity. If the project is simple, then $1,000 will be enough for it. But if you need a full-scale course with graphics and complex gamification, then such a product will cost dozens of thousands. In any case, it takes a little time to understand your needs and accurately calculate the costs of developing an online course. Let's look at the aspects to look out for when planning a budget.

What Things To Consider at the Very Beginning

First of all, you need to answer four sets of questions:

• What is the target audience of the online course? Are you creating lessons for beginners or skilled learners? Do these people know the subject? What will be new for them in your course?
• Why should they take online training? What problems will the electronic course solve?
• What are the primary purpose and key benefits of the course? What should listeners learn, and how will it improve their lives in the future?
• How to understand that the business has achieved its goals? What instruments will be used to measure this?

The answers will help you determine if you need to use interactive elements, game mechanics, professional voiceover, and animation in the course. By formulating a more precise course objective, you can better identify the resources needed and choose the course type.

There are three main types of online courses:

1. Informational. These are traditional courses with slides. Their main goal is to deliver specific information to students. Moreover, it's suitable for online courses that require a lot of theory. In this case, you don't need to add some interactivity and gamification. It's much more critical to take some time to prepare the text and graphics of the class.
2. Motivational. Their purpose is to induce specific actions. For example, a person has significant problems with time planning, and an urgent project needs to be completed by the end of the week. Motivational courses use both theoretical and practical lessons. Therefore, it's necessary to develop various games and tests for students.
3. Training videos. In this case, we are talking about full-fledged training of specific skills. An online training course has a minimum of theory and a maximum of practice. Ideally, it should have a clear plot with a specific story. It will entertain the audience as much as possible.

Once you have decided on the type of course, you will better understand the scope of your online learning experience. After that, you can start planning your budget. If you chose a developer from your team, you could use the following formula for calculating:

(Cost per hour of developer's work) * (Overall time spent in hours) + (Cost per hour of work of an expert) * (Overall time spent in hours) = Cost of developing an online course

However, if you have conceived a complex project or don't have time to complete it, you will have to turn to freelancers for help. In this article, we will analyze every detail of e-learning development and estimate the cost of the work of professionals. We use data on prices from the Tagline digital agency (for the Russian market) and the Upwork freelancing platform (abroad).

Online learning development consists of four stages: scriptwriting, design creation, page making, and testing. Let's consider each level in more detail.

Scriptwriting

It's an essential part of the development of motivational courses as well as pieces of training. A well-crafted course makes it easier to cover complex topics and excites listeners.

In this case, you don't need the script if your task is to deliver a cold theory. For example, a short microlearning video covers one topic in 8-10 minutes. Therefore, thinking over the characters is not needed.

In e-learning, a particular specialist is responsible for creating a script - a methodologist. He is competent in developing a curriculum and puts teaching elements and principles of pedagogical design in the plot. The reason is simple: the plot should be fun and useful.

The work of a scriptwriter-methodologist from the CIS will cost at least 30,000 rubles. For this money, you will receive a script for a short online course that meets all the methodological recommendations.

A foreign specialist with Upwork will ask for at least $50 per hour of work. Therefore, a simple script with a linear plot, which will be written in 20 hours, will cost from $1000.

How To Save Money on the Script

The first option is to create the script independently or just find suitable material on the course subject. The less time a methodologist spends collecting data and writing a script, the more money will be saved.

You can also use ready-made content as a learning base (e.g., articles, videos, presentations, etc.). Complex tutorials will also be helpful, but they have to be adjusted to suit your course's needs. Therefore, in this case, you won't be able to get a discount.

Design

A freelance designer from the CIS takes about 1800 rubles per hour of work, and a similar specialist from the United States will require a payment of $ 40 per hour. It will take about five hours to design pages or slides according to corporate style — pictures, text, and infographics.

You also need to pay due attention to the characters and locations accompanying students throughout the course, and it takes 3-5 days to draw them.

In general, the minimum budget for a designer from the CIS is 30 thousand rubles (or $1000 for a freelancer from Upwork).

Therefore, it's better to get an expensive design for materials that should form a positive opinion about the company offering online training.

How To Save Money on the Design

There are hundreds of eLearning templates available on the internet. Often, you can find free samples on the Dribbble and Behance platforms.

The templates for presentations are available on the official page of Microsoft and aggregator websites (PoweredTemplates, Slidesgo, SlidesMania, and others).

In addition, educational platforms offer comprehensive solutions for creating online course designs. A convenient constructor holds hundreds of styles, icons, and photos to create a top-notch design for online training.

Page Making

Often, designers don't just send the rendered images but also make the pages or slides independently. So, the layout designer sets up navigation, adds buttons for navigating between pages, an interactive menu (if necessary), and practical tasks (for example, quizzes, games, etc.).

For an hour of work, a layout designer from the CIS asks for about 2,000 rubles. The short course with a final test of 25 questions in the last lesson will take about 5 hours of work. Total: 2,000*5 = 10,000 rubles is the minimum amount you need to spend on the layout of the electronic course.

Now let's calculate the budget for the Upwork layout designer. The minimum rate is $60. Therefore, a short course with a final test will be typeset in 5 hours and cost 60*5 = $300.

However, this number can be higher if it's necessary to create a simulation of computer programs, interactive simulators for sales managers, or a full-fledged multi-level game. Such activities require more time to develop. In this case, the hourly rate of a layout designer with programming skills will be higher - from 3,500 rubles (or $80/h for a specialist with Upwork).

How To Save Money on the Page Making

It's a great idea to develop a universal template for creating new e-courses in the future. It will save money for the further development of online learning and maintain the same style of all materials.

Testing

The final step of work is the pilot launch of the online course. It's a kind of rehearsal for a full-fledged start of the educational business. For testing, a small group of students is selected. At the end of the training, they leave feedback on possible mistakes and improve the course. The best way to do this is filling a questionnaire, which consists of five points:

1. Tips for improving the course. How convenient is the educational platform? What features need to be added or changed?
2. The usefulness of the e-course. What new knowledge and skills did you gain after completing the course? What information will be most useful in the future?
3. Illustrations and photos. Does the graphics help you learn the topic faster?
4. Content presentation logic. How is the teaching material presented consistently? Are there grammatical errors and other faults?
5. Practical tasks. Here students describe their experience in solving tests, and for example, how well the assignments correspond to actual work experience.

As for the budget, its minimum amount is 20 thousand rubles (or $500 for a QA specialist from the US). Moreover, this money is not for testing itself but for correcting possible errors.

Example of Calculating the Cost of the Course

To do this, we will choose an average 1-hour soft-skills course (about 70 presentation slides). It's necessary to involve to work:

• methodologist (total time - 90 hours)
• designer (total time - 90 hours)
• developer (total time - 50 hours)
• QA tester (total time - 20 hours)
• manager (total time - 70 hours)

The total time spent on the development, editing, and approval of the project is 320 hours.

This is an example of calculating the course cost for freelancers from Russian and American freelancing platforms. The average rate for a specialist from the CIS is 1600 rubles per hour and $45 for a US-based freelancer:

Additional Expenses

If you want to add more interactive elements to your course, you should consider the additional development costs:

Narrator's work from 600 rubles for 1 minute of reading (from $100 for Upwork)

Voiceover helps make the course more lively, and the students will understand the topic of the course faster. Also, the translation of the text into audio format relieves the learning a little. You can save money if you do the voiceover dubbing of the lessons yourself.

Shooting a video - from 3000 rubles (from $150 for Upwork)

The videos help explain some of the complex aspects and processes. They are mandatory when teaching design, programming, or project management.

The average price for an operator from the CIS starts from 1800 rubles per hour ($50 for a US-based specialist). After that, you get high-quality footage (Full HD or 4K). Next, you need to involve an editor who will create a full-fledged video with effects. An hour of work for this specialist will cost at least 1200 rubles, and a similar editor from the United States will ask for $50.

Motion Design - from 18,000 rubles (from $1,500 for Upwork)

Motion Design is creating animated graphics and visual effects. It uses three channels of information perception at once - picture, text, and sound. Therefore, students will be able to work with the material more straightforwardly.

Visual effects are often used in image courses (for example, introductory classes on a broad topic or materials on working with specific products).

As for the price, one minute of finished animation will cost $600.

You can also add other options to your expenses (e.g., professional photography and translation services into foreign languages). Remember: all features need to meet your business demands.

Checklist: How Not To Overpay for the Course

1. Provide the specialist with the complete source pack before starting work. Then the expert will estimate the volume of work correctly and name the final cost of services.
2. Organize all materials. It will reduce the time spent by the methodologists who develop the script for your future course.
3. Set clear goals and objectives for e-learning. It will reduce the number of edits along the way.
4. Coordinate the staff who will agree on the course. Ideally, your employees should see each other's revisions and submit all comments in one document.

We hope you found our article helpful. If you have any questions about calculating the budget of the e-course, leave them in the comments below. We will be happy to answer them. See you in the following articles!

Creating an online course is a pretty sensitive subject. Of course, the product should stand out from competitors, but an inexperienced designer might commit a mistake when showing all his skills using digital tools. However, this is where you need to pay more attention to the needs of the students. We aren't talking about the suitability of the elements on the pages but the excess variety. It increases the cognitive load on the learner and violates the main principles of e-course creation: uniformity and integrity.

Why It Is Important Not to Overdo Creativity When Producing an Online Course

What is better: the precision and uniformity of the course or a large number of creative elements? There is no exact answer to this question. First, it depends on the general demands of the educational business owner and the target audience's habits. In this case, clear logic and structure must be present, but sometimes they are broken.

Let's look at 8 common mistakes committed when designing an online training course and how to avoid them in your work.

1. Meaningless Headlines

If you ignore the headlines, you're missing out on an opportunity to support the added value of your course. This is where the WIIFM (What's in it for me) approach comes to play. By adding a distinctive and descriptive headline, you can immediately show customers the importance of your online training and encourage them to learn more.

Unfortunately, many eLearning creators don't give due attention to the title or skip it altogether. You may know precisely what your lesson or study module is about, but the students won't. That's why such a small step like creating a headline can be critical to the success of a course. Students will feel confused or annoyed because they will not know why they should join an online course.

It's much better to come up with a powerful and engaging headline. In this case, it's worth paying attention to the needs of your students. For example, "Creating a Website" doesn't sound as convincing as "Creating a Professional Website in 3 Hours". The second option focuses on clients' pain and meets their needs to benefit you and the students.

2. Distorted Images

Another classic visual mistake that you can regularly see in e-learning design. Often, the problem occurs when the image is resized. The picture is distorted when it's scaled too much in height or width. The result is obvious: a stretched picture, an unattractive look, and customer disappointment.

Each of you has definitely come across a similar phenomenon. However, it's much more common than it seems.

It is straightforward to avoid such an annoying mistake, keeping the aspect ratio while resizing. This feature is available in most software. If there is no such function, you can change the size by clicking the Shift key and dragging the cursor on the corner of the image. This blocks the ability to change the aspect ratio.

3. Misaligned and Distributed Design Elements

Another major problem that can be faced when creating an online course. In this case, the designer often distributes and aligns text, graphics, or images by hand. It leads to the fact that when displayed on other devices, all design elements have shifted. If this happens to a promising e-learning project, it'll be a total failure.

It's much better to use advanced tools to align and distribute objects. For example, you can exploit a grid or ruler to help distribute design elements evenly and avoid breaking the structure. Such functions are available in any software or educational platform.

4. Too Much Text

Online learning is 80% visual content. And filling the entire screen with text is a sure road to nowhere. Such a move shows that educational content creators don't know anything about platforms' capabilities to launch e-learning courses. You can use many channels to present information other than plain text. For example, educational platforms allow you to work with video and audio content, animation, infographics, and other types of information presentation.

It is pretty easy to avoid this mistake, using all available means to present the necessary knowledge to your students. If you plan to add audio recordings, show the meaning of the spoken words using images. After all, students aren't always available to listen to a lessons' audio.

5. Bad Stock Photos

At first, using stock photos seems like a pretty good idea, but you need to detect bad photos and reject them. Unfortunately, there is no universal way to recognize a lousy stock image from a good one. Often, low-quality photos look too staged and implausible. And if you use such images in your e-learning design, you risk making the online course cheap and unreliable for students.

It's better to avoid using mediocre photos, looking for images with real emotions and people's poses. After all, an online course that is framed with average stock photos will itself look pretty average.

6. Font Mismatch

Trying to diversify the look of the e-course as much as possible, designers add too many fonts (and not always the most readable ones). This makes it difficult to read the text or even distracts students from the learning process. If this mistake is not corrected, students will look for a better e-learning platform.

Therefore, avoid mismatched fonts. To do this, you can follow the demands of the e-learning business owner and simple rules for combining fonts. For example, you can combine a large expressive font and small lettering or contrasting font pairs.

In addition, the number of fonts shouldn't be more than 3 (for headings, subheadings, and plain text). If you use four or more lettering options, it will complicate the presentation of content.

7. Bad Choice of Colors

Along with fonts, colors play a tremendous role in the learning process. First, you need to choose colors that your brand will represent. Second, certain tone combinations affect the overall mood of e-learning. However, the wrong color combination will make it challenging to work with the online course; therefore, students will not continue studying on the educational platform.

It's not difficult to avoid such a mistake when developing an e-course. If you work for a large company, you probably have a brand book - a collection of the primary visual elements of the brand (including the color palette). If you want to develop a unique design, you should use advanced digital tools. Most educational platforms offer turnkey solutions for creating your own company color scheme. It will make your product stand out from competitors.

8. Using Several Formats at Once for Presenting One-sided Information

In addition to using relevant photos, the structure of the content also plays a significant role. And here, we're not talking about the visual component or the correct sequence of the text but keeping a single style.

For example, you decide to use three content delivery mechanics at once - "accordion" on the first page, "carousel" on the second, and "tabs" on the third. Will this draw the attention of the students? Yes. But will this bring real benefits to the students? No.

Therefore, try to choose a single content delivery mechanic and use it throughout the entire online course. The user must first get used to the style to pay attention only to the content later. This will significantly simplify the audience's life because the students won't need to think about the next steps. Here are our tips for delivering content correctly:

• Strict hierarchy. It allows students to focus on important information while filtering out less essential elements. The learners themselves will rank the importance of content based on the location of the elements and user psychology. This "eliminating" will happen subconsciously, so make sure to include the most crucial information at the beginning.
• No grammar mistakes. They simply lose both current and potential target audiences. We are talking about both misspelling words and cases of missing one letter. If this is found everywhere, then the students will pay attention to it. You can fix the problem by using quality online spell checkers.
• Visual elements for working with the audience. Use unique colors and tone combinations, fonts, spacing, and other elements to guide the student around the screen throughout the lesson.

All of this will help create a consistent style for your online course.

How Can You Avoid Such Mistakes?

So we have completed the analysis of the main mistakes to avoid when developing an e-course. But how to prevent similar situations in the future? Here are six key points to rely on when creating your online course:

• The simplicity of design. Aesthetic appeal is just as important as knowledge. However, in design, it often happens that less is more. Make sure all elements add value to learning and benefit students. Sometimes it's better to delete a decorative element if it seems excessive.
• Color palette. Choose 2-3 colors that you will use when developing an online course, and stick to the specified vector. Although sometimes you can change some elements, randomly using a different color will confuse the student and distract him from the learning process.
• The balanced white space. Make the spaces work for you. White space around visuals often grabs more attention and benefits than a page cluttered with decorative elements.
• Management of information fragments. If your course has multiple goals, divide each major topic into separate modules. It will help students find the necessary material, especially if they don't have enough time to study.
• Ease of learning. If you need to place much vital information on one screen, break the layer of text into separate headings. It will assist in reviewing the information much faster.
• Convenient navigation. There is no room for super creativity. It is enough to add buttons that make it possible to navigate the online course conveniently. It is crucial for those taking the e-course on a smartphone or tablet PC. And for those who watch educational videos on a computer, it will also make their lives easier.

We hope our article gave you enough information about the mistakes when creating an e-learning design. Our tips will help you avoid failure when developing an online course in the future.

If you have any questions regarding the design of online courses, write in the comments below. We will answer each of them promptly, and we will analyze the most interesting questions in the following articles!

There are two new trends in the online learning sphere. Experts pointed out an increase in the number of students willing to pay for online courses and the new technologies that make learning faster and more efficient. Therefore, existing educational platforms are looking for new ways to attract customers and investments. Let's take a look at the top 6 best practices for increasing customer loyalty and retention.

How Important Is It To Use an Educational Platform as a Tool for Attracting and Retaining Customers?

Educational platforms allow you to master new skills and get knowledge in a short time. Special tools help you create and edit learning modules, launch marketing campaigns, and track statistics for courses.

The right online learning management system allows you to monitor students' engagement and collect customers' feedback on completed courses. Remember that the basis of a successful e-learning business is access to educational materials at any convenient time and wherever there is an Internet connection.

The online learning platform should have a user-friendly interface. Users will utilize it to interact with educational content. For example, they can watch webinars and recorded videos, send questions to teachers, take tests and much more.

Why is online learning so popular? There are several reasons for this:

• The ability to quickly gain new knowledge;
• Savings on renting premises and hiring renowned teachers permanently;
• Great freedom of action concerning self-development.

Now let's move on to the analysis of popular customer retention techniques.

1. API Functions That Increase Brand Value

Educational platforms offer third-party plug-in solutions that make online learning more effective and fun. Meanwhile, founders of online learning businesses rely on the following features:

1. Platforms for interaction with students

Providing 24/7 multi-channel support and building knowledge bases allowed many brands to better engage with their audiences. Learners no longer feel frustrated with online learning. On the contrary, they feel they can quickly solve problems using an educational platform.

2. Loyalty programs

Customer loyalty software has long been used in many industries, but API-based programs are just getting started in e-learning. They can increase the customer's lifetime value, vital for businesses competing with other e-learning platforms.

3. Built-in API functions

In addition to loyalty programs, there are also cloud-based solutions for various aspects of online learning. For example, there are hundreds of API tools for building educational platforms. They help developers use ready-made solutions for integration with LMS.

2. Effective Content Delivery

Online education platforms are constantly evolving to adapt to market demands. Therefore, the use of LMS allows you to introduce new features, share news about updates on the platform, and promptly add new lessons to the training modules. An integrated approach to content delivery makes it possible to attract more potential students to the e-learning system.

3. Combining UX With LX

Moreover, founders of e-learning businesses pay great attention to the learning experience (LX). It's the core aspect for the proper development and design of any educational platform. Therefore, job websites are increasingly posting positions for LX designers. It's all because educational platforms must take into account the needs of the students.

The successful combination of training, technology and design makes the brand successful. Therefore, it is essential to pay equal attention to both UX and LX. If the developers and designers do everything right, teachers and students will benefit from the online platform. The first will get access to high-quality tools for creating educational content. The latter will be able to optimize the learning process and mastery of skills.

Several categories show the strongest relationship between UX and LX. Here they are:

• Dashboards. They help you track important metrics. They are designed in the same style with convenient data visualization (graphs or diagrams). Further, the user-friendly interface allows you to work with analytics, even those without technical knowledge.
• Bulk Actions. You can use them effectively to manage groups of students, current and final assignments, and educational content.
• AI-powered tools. For example, recommendation systems (similar to those used by Netflix or Youtube) appear increasingly on educational platforms.
• Interactive Interface. It brings together learning modules, quizzes, videos and blogs in one place.
• Social integration. It covers the ability to connect accounts on social networks (Facebook, Instagram, VK, LinkedIn and many others). Users can do it to validate their presence on the e-learning platform.

4. Flexibility of Learning

Moreover, online learning gives students complete freedom of action. For example, they will be able to combine study with work or find more time for hobbies. The traditional learning model concentrates the student's life around the college or university. With the help of online courses, everyone can plan their time on their own.

A flexible approach to learning opens up significant opportunities. First, the courses can be completed by people of any age, social status and skill level. Also, e-learning is suitable for additional education. So, you can work and improve your professional level through new knowledge. Meanwhile, it's absolutely unnecessary to ask your boss for time off or even quit a job. You can work while you are studying and then change your job without losing income.

5. Student Analytics

Good business analytics is essential in the education industry as well. Thus, it allows redoubling efforts to increase the profitability of the e-learning business and improve the UX. There are tens of thousands of analytics tools, including the most famous one - Google Analytics.

However, it wasn't long before founders of educational businesses took the concept of data analysis seriously. Data analysis on the online learning platform has three aspects:

1. Informed decisions based on data

Analytics tools in LMS allow you to set business goals more clearly. In addition, they can be used to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the e-learning platform. For example, what stage is the most challenging for students? What is the most successful learning model? You can get answers after collecting the relevant analytics.

2. Student engagement

The old linear online learning methods are a thing of the past. They were replaced by a fun and exciting tracking of personal progress. Thanks to the friendly interface of the analytics section, teachers and owners of online learning platforms can improve training modules based on the interests and needs of students.

3. Data visualization

Marketers were the first to use visual representations of data. Infographics, charts, and other types of visualizations are great for getting complete information about your ad campaigns. The same tactic applies to online learning platforms as well. Owners of educational services can monitor trends, patterns and pitfalls in the learning process (involvement, growth or decline in the number of students, the most popular training modules, etc.)

6. Gamification

Game mechanics have come a long way, from innovative learning models to modern e-learning platforms. As for now, gamification is the main engine of online learning. It is deeply integrated with analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and data analytics. Further, game mechanics are critical in promoting educational services. It's all because online platforms with gamification elements perform well in mobile app stores.

Here are the top 6 gamification features that are most used in the education sphere:

• Virtual currency. Students can earn it for completing tasks and other activities in the learning process. They can spend coins unlocking the new content or profile design that distinguishes the student from other users.
• Multiplayer game. That's the reason why online platforms offer to connect profiles on social networks. Students can make friends and compete in various tasks.
• Rating. The summary table adds elements of competition to the learning process. Therefore, the amount of time spent on the app increases significantly.
• Special badges and indicators of levels. They help teachers and students confirm the level of knowledge and skills. Moreover, badges confirm their status as the best, motivating other users to reach for their level.
• Skill tree. It shows the progress in learning a particular skill or the way that remains to go to complete the course.
• Daily tasks. They usually come together with push notifications. It motivates students to visit the educational platform every day to complete tasks and turn learning into a useful habit.

Creative Interactions With Brand Advocates

There is a separate category of users among the online learning platform users called 'brand advocates'. And the core task is to build a special relationship with them. Here are five methods to strengthen relationships with active users:

1. Increase interest in the e-learning platform

Reach out to your customers and talk about the educational platform. It is the most critical piece of advice for good communication. It will generate interest in your business and increase the number of advocates for your learning approach.

2. Make your service perfect

Offer unique and quality courses that students will share with their friends and colleagues. After that, your audience will grow dramatically.

3. Collaborate with influencers

Indeed there are some people among your brand advocates whose words are valuable. Ask them to provide feedback on your platform to increase student enrollment in your microlearning courses and modules.

4. Track new brand followers

Sometimes it doesn't take much. Just mention brand ambassadors to attract new students. Moreover, track which learners are using your services the longest and encourage them to get on the side of brand advocates. Tell them that their opinions and words matter.

5. Sell brand values

Show your students that you share their values ​​and beliefs. It's important to set not only financial but also other learning goals. For example, social responsibility, mental health, inclusion, equality, etc., are considered crucial in society. Only a brand that understands its customers will become truly successful.

Conclusion

As you can see, proper communication with the audience is the primary key to success. Meanwhile, you also need to invest in an online learning solution. There are top products that will make the scaling process as convenient and efficient as possible. Further, they will help you identify the most critical customer pains and make your business stand out from the competition.

Above all, some educational platforms allow you to create your first course in 30 minutes. You can get information about the success of the training module after the first stream. Detailed analytics with convenient data visualization will help identify the pros and cons of training to improve the quality of education and attract even more clients.

Modern online learning services are gradually moving away from the classic "start-to-finish" scheme. Users have greater freedom of choice. But at the same time, there is a problem with mindfulness, as students are less and less focused on the learning process. Therefore, there are more and more opportunities to attract students. One of them is gamification. Let's look at what it is and how to use game mechanics in the learning process.

The Basics of Gamification

Gamification uses game formats and mechanics to increase engagement in the online learning process and achieve specific goals for students. The result is the high coverage and the growing popularity of training videos! It makes e-learning courses more exciting.

At the same time, gamification is not only tests and quizzes. It includes a much more comprehensive range of simple and complex scenarios, from rapid-fire questions to game simulations. Despite the choice of mechanics, all this leads to only one thing - the attraction and motivation of students. That's why gamification is so widely used in online education.

Eastern Europe quickly picked up the Western trend towards gamification, as it is closely related to the concept of interactivity - the possibility of dialogue, motivation and student engagement. Meanwhile, game mechanics will become more and more in demand in the coming years. According to MarketsandMarkets, the global gamification market will exceed $30 billion by 2025.

Benefits of Gamification for Students

First and foremost, we're talking about the more fun parts of the learning process. That's why people choose online education. Some course creators still don't appreciate the value of gamification, so they ignore game mechanics. Moreover, they ask the following questions:

• How effective is gamification?
• Will game mechanics help increase learning engagement and student performance?
• Does gamification provide benefits to students and e-learning creators?

But the fact remains that the success of any educational strategy depends on how it's applied. A well-designed gamification strategy has the following features:

1. It attracts and retains the attention of students.
2. It challenges them.
3. It ensures the completion of the course and the acquisition of essential skills.
4. It truly teaches through games.

That's the only way to satisfy students and raise the popularity of the online course. And their percentage will be pretty significant. According to the Polytechnic Muadzam Shah Pahang University in Malaysia, about 80% of students agree that gamified learning is more productive than regular learning. At the same time, 67% also note that a course with gamification motivates much more than a classic set of training videos.

Also, game mechanics speed up the process of mastering new skills almost twice. That's proved by the results of a study by Deloitte.

How To Use Gamification in Online Learning

When it comes to online courses or training videos with game elements, we usually don't mean a full-fledged video game. It's just about taking the elements that make games fun and motivating and adding them to the learning process. Most often, the following elements are added to e-courses:

Stories

Remember the math course in elementary school, where each problem had its plot? It works for an older audience too! Create a unique storyline that engages and invites students on a journey. The plot can be divided into separate stages tied to individual sections of the online course. Therefore, creating a compelling story is a great way to create and maintain high engagement. You can also create characters or avatars to represent students of your course.

Visual Effects

A person perceives 75% of information through sight. Therefore, the visuals and attractive design will make your courses stand out from others. What's more, vibrant and colourful graphics play a critical role in learning. They increase student engagement and satisfaction with the learning process.

Competition Elements

Healthy competition has never harmed anyone yet. Let your students compete with other students, anonymous learners and even themselves! All this keeps a high level of motivation and allows you to achieve high results. In this regard, it's an excellent idea to create a rating table. By seeing the online course leaderboard, your students will see how hard they try against their friends.

Solving a Real Problem

Give your students frequent and easy tasks, gradually increasing the difficulty level as they progress through the lesson's topic. This approach not only helps understand the real problem but also prepares students for complex tasks. Meanwhile, you can be sure that they will use the knowledge gained to solve problems.

Rewards

These can be new levels, badges or virtual medals. This incentive helps increase motivation and can keep student engagement at a reasonably high level. The principle of encouraging makeshift awards has been familiar for decades, but it still shows high efficiency when used correctly.

Feedback

When a student completes an assignment or test, it's important to have instant feedback. It keeps students focused and invites them to track their progress during the passage of different stages.

4 Best Examples of Gamification in E-learning

Now let's move from theory to practice. There are a lot of good gamification integration cases; you can easily count several dozen of them. However, let's switch from wild speculation to actions and present 4 top examples of gamification in online learning that include the above game elements.

1. Game Quiz With Badges as a Motivational Instrument

The classic quiz is used in both traditional and online education. But when can it turn into a really addicting game? The visual rewards and scoring system and the motivational elements may provide significant benefits. For example, you can set a timer that counts down to the end of the quiz.

This kind of game mechanic is used for all types of online learning, as it is a traditional test, but in a modern and attractive cover.

Why does this gamification work?

• You can add not only text questions but also video or audio questions. They greatly expand the possibilities of the classic quiz.
• This approach struck a balance between giving the student a certain amount of time to think and a strict time frame for the test. All of this is also increasing competition for online courses.
• The student's path has two main goals - to set as many badges as possible and win them for completing tasks.

2. Scenario + Game Elements = Sales Simulation

It's another straightforward game mechanic that is used together with a specific scenario. All this creates the most realistic learning environment in which the creators of many online platforms are interested.

Why is this model highly efficient? There are three reasons:

1. The combination of a ready-made script with gamification creates a sense of competition and urgency. It allows you to connect real-life examples with skills training.
2. In this regard, there is simply no characters. The characters are the students themselves. Therefore, the game can be transferred to any virtual environment because the stakes are pretty high.
3. For such a simulation, it is necessary to use high-quality graphics and a soundtrack.

3. Improving Professional Skills: The Basics of Account Management for Project Managers and Account Managers

Let's take a look at a great example of layered gamification. Different levels reflect the skill level of the students as they progress through the course.

Why does such a system work successfully?

• The learning process is based on scenarios and tasks that are quite possible in real life.
• The educational tunnel "theory - practice - work" is a characteristic of classical education. But modern educators don't waste hours explaining theory. In online learning, you can start solving a problem almost immediately. It allows the learners to understand how much they are involved in solving the problem. If you have any questions, you can always get expert advice.
• Creators add the well-thought-out content for the e-course. Students can return to the educational platform and brush up on their own knowledge.

4. Partial Gamification: Features of Gaming Activities

Now is the time to learn how you can stimulate your education business through partial gamification tools. Let's consider the question using the example of a time management course. The use of game mechanics during training dramatically increases the involvement of students in the process of learning.

Why is this example so practical?

• Adding a minigame increases the level of concentration on tasks. In the case of a time management course, students need to identify so-called "time wasters". You need to choose these activities and match them with the flying clocks that appear from different screen sides. It's not only fun but also affects the final grade for the lesson. The more you skip floating clocks, the lower the final score.
• Unlike the standard "drag-and-drop" scheme, interactions with moving objects look much more enjoyable. It encourages learners to perform the task carefully and have an excellent online learning practice.

Conclusion

The concept of "gamification" is often implemented in the following way:

1. We take an existing algorithm of actions (for example, learning a foreign language or fitness).
2. Add improvised game rewards in the form of medals, scores or badges.
3. PROFIT!

After that, course creators think that life will become more accessible and more fun. Learning will instantly become highly effective, and students will say a big "thank you". It's not that simple.

Gamification is not just a cure from boredom but an effective business tool with many benefits. Moreover, game mechanics won't stop at ordinary computer graphics, ratings and minigames. Online learning platforms using VR are already being tested. It's possible that very soon, students will be able to experience total immersion in new topics.

Meanwhile, one shouldn't forget the measure. Sometimes you need to be strict, but it's also not worth turning mastering skills into a continuous party. Use game mechanics only when you spice up a serious activity or explain a rather complex topic. Only then students will attend your online lessons with great interest. And next-generation educational platforms help you launch your first e-course in just 30 minutes.

Microlearning is a unique method of delivering content in small volumes and with a specific purpose. Its main difference is that students can independently determine when and how they will get new knowledge. And this is extremely important because self-control allows you to acquire new skills and start using them in practice quickly. In addition, it increases the level of engagement and quality of work. The result is a high efficiency of training and a desire to look for additional sources of information.

But if we consider the concept in detail, then microlearning is a new strategy that allows you to master new skills and get knowledge quickly. It's trendy for several reasons:

• The speed of life is boosting. That's why information quickly becomes obsolete.

• You can find educational materials on the Internet.
• You can get new knowledge anytime and wherever there's an Internet connection.

The growing popularity of smartphones has given new momentum to the development of microlearning. It allows students to watch new content on the go. Also, there are unique educational platforms that help create educational and interactive content. They allow you to launch your first micro-course with presentations, tests and quizzes in just 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, microlearning has benefits that increase its effectiveness. Let's look at them in more detail:

1. Bridging Skills Gaps

When people realize that they don't have enough skills to complete specific tasks, their motivation and satisfaction drop drastically. It also reduces work efficiency.

Microlearning fills knowledge gaps quickly and effectively. It's all about the principles of building such training. Shorter time intervals allow you to better concentrate on mastering a new skill.

Here's a basic example: people have problems at work because they don't have time to complete a project without delay. The best way to fix the situation is to watch a short video about time management's core principles and benefits. After getting valuable practical advice on time planning, the trainee will quickly finish their work tasks.

What's more, microlearning can save you time finding the information you need. It's all because video tutorials provide the most valuable and concrete knowledge. It's better to spend 10 minutes watching a video than browsing the Internet for hours searching for the necessary knowledge.

2. Reducing the Time Spent on Content Development

Another vital benefit of microlearning. The short duration of the videos means you spend less time thinking and filming content. Also, the shorter the development cycle, the lower the cost per video and the higher the potential profitability. It's another big plus for the educational business.

Plus, the individual modules are easy to update. You can change one module without affecting the other parts of the course. Towards Maturity Research conducted an enterprise survey in 2016. It showed that 87% of companies are interested in saving on training costs.

Short video tutorials have proven their effectiveness on many levels:

• Students save time and get the necessary knowledge much faster.
• Businesses can create and update courses much faster than using the classic distance method, which reduces costs.
• There's no need to rent the place and hire famous experts as the training takes place online.

Education expert and PhD Ray Jimenez believes microlearning reduces course development costs in half. At the same time, the speed and efficiency of development increase by 300%!

At the same time, microlearning can be applied in very different ways. For example, you can create a stand-alone mini-course on the educational platform or record a series of short videos as part of a more comprehensive training program. Meanwhile, you can combine individual modules to create an entirely new course.

As for the learning cycle, microlearning fits into all its stages - preliminary training, basic training and consolidation of the gained knowledge. It allows you to provide more information at a low cost.

3. Freedom of Learning

A large amount of text materials accompanies classic distance learning. Therefore, it's not suitable for getting new knowledge as soon as possible. Moreover, few people want to spend time on a full-fledged 1-hour lesson.

In this case, microlearning comes in with an innovative approach. You can acquire new skills in your free time and enjoy them. Moreover, short videos can be downloaded and watched anytime and anywhere. It's another great benefit of microlearning.

Educational platforms can significantly improve efficiency and make mobile learning easier. So, short training modules allow you to allocate 10-15 minutes and not be distracted by anything. It's profitable in both the short and long term.

4. Easier Learning

During the learning process, the student constantly receives new information. However, it's not always remembered the first time. German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus found that after the usual cramming of the material, a person can remember about 45% of the information in an hour. A week later, this figure drops by almost half - to 25%.

The speed of forgetting can be reduced in two ways:

1. Regularly study the training material;
2. Learn new knowledge in several ways.

A short video has only 1-2 main goals, while traditional distance learning provides knowledge in 4-5 fields. Therefore, you can better learn the material after short lessons. In a 2017 Journal of Applied Psychology article, learning in small pieces increases effectiveness by 17%. Therefore, you can use skills in practice much easier and faster.

Microlearning divides a massive amount of information into individual pieces. It allows you to think and evaluate new knowledge much better.

5. Higher Student Satisfaction

According to a recent survey, nearly 50% of U.S. workers were born after 1980. Millennials and Gen Z are constantly using new technologies both in their work and in their free time. Therefore, it's crucial to understand the interests of a young audience and approach content development equally.

Now people are interested in getting access to the necessary knowledge quickly and easily. Ideally, learn from your smartphone or tablet PC. Microlearning is a perfect choice for this. It's focused on mobile devices, so it's an excellent solution for finding answers.

In cooperation with Unboxed Technology, BH Media media holding has launched a unified training for sales professionals based on microlearning. It lasted for about a year. At the end of it, the participants almost solidly expressed their satisfaction with the training. 98% of employees said that they would use the gained knowledge in their daily work.

The TikTok app also influenced the popularity of microlearning. It confirmed that clip-thinking now runs the world. The application has collected more than 100 million users in 3 years. However, the focus of content gradually began to shift towards expert videos. Here you can learn cooking, languages, fitness and other valuable things.

There's no wonder because modern people value their time. Therefore, microlearning ideally covers the need for quick access to knowledge.

Tips for Improving Microlearning Effectiveness

All of the above benefits make microlearning an ideal way to give people important information. However, you can make the efficiency of short videos even higher. Here are our tips on how to do this:

Check if Microlearning Is the Right Choice for You

When creating short videos, consider if you can explain one topic in a short amount of time. If your topic is very complex, you may need more than microlearning.

Offer High-quality and Helpful Content

It will make learning more productive. In addition, thorough preparation of the materials will shorten the time for their improvement. By the way, don't be afraid to spend a little more time creating videos and interactive elements. Make your students feel that the content of the video is worth their attention.

Choose Different Ways to Share Knowledge

Present the content to your students in several ways. Conduct small quizzes and tests, add infographics and interactive videos. All of this will create additional value to your information. Further, it will keep your students engaged with your lessons even more.

Don't Forget About Gamification

Game elements play a critical role in online learning. Among other things, this also applies to short videos. Gamification makes learning even more fun. There are many ways to add game elements to microlearning. For example, you can award points for completing tasks and make a rating of students.

Find the Best Educational Platform

It should have enough functionality to create and run microlearning. Separately, it's worth noting the course builder for the step-by-step creation of lessons, interactive tests and quizzes. It will allow you to launch the first video course in 30 minutes. It's also crucial that the educational platform has the tools for branding a unique course. It will allow you to personalize your training and stand out from competitors.

Conclusion

Educational content is available in plenty of formats. The most popular of them are short videos. In the future, most of the educational content will be available on social networks like Instagram and TikTok. The reason is simple: it is much easier for generation Z, influenced by clip-thinking, to learn different things in this format. Moreover, ordinary learning doesn't make people so happy.

Microlearning has enormous potential to generate essential knowledge. Moreover, it empowers people and helps them develop their skills without passing very long courses.

Further, the opportunity to use game mechanics entertains and motivates listeners. When combined with a smartphone and tablet PC, short videos will maximize the benefit of learning new knowledge.

Using the best microlearning techniques and our tips, you can easily pack your short lessons well. Meanwhile, it's vital to provide full-fledged benefits in every video. If there's no benefit, then it's no longer microlearning.

The growing popularity of video games couldn't but impact other spheres of life that aren't linked to games. People noticed that using the game elements and game mechanics in non-game areas of life generates positive results. That was the origin of gamification — the introduction of various game instruments and elements to reach a wider audience, retain clients and increase involvement, and so on. Gamification is used in everyday life, business, marketing, and other contexts, but today we'll talk about introducing this method to online education.

Online-schools owners and course creators are constantly searching for new methods and approaches that'll make them differ from the boring and routine courses and educational institutions. Online education isn't compulsory, so people spend their energy and money to get valuable knowledge and skills. That's why your task as a course creator or school owner is to make your product as interesting and useful as possible and make people fall in love with your education to purchase more and more courses in your school. And gamification is one of the ways to transform boring lessons into catchy and memorable ones.

We face gamification in everyday life even more often than we think. When we register an account on social media, we are offered to take a few steps to fill in a profile. Shops offer us to get various loyalty cards, and it's also the element of gamification. This method lets both online schools and students enjoy multiple benefits to consider gamification in detail.

The Benefits of Gamification For Course Creators and Students

All people involved in the work of online schools, whether their owners, course creators or teachers, are interested in selling the product to a more significant number of people. That's why they are constantly searching for new promotion methods and instruments that'll help them create good content. In other words, they need to spend their own time and efforts to attract clients. But what if we tell you that gamification can turn the situation around and make clients beg you to sell this course?

Online education has always been popular, but the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine restrictions made it even more demanded. People started to spend more time at home, some of them don't want to waste this time and prefer obtaining new knowledge and skills. But it doesn't mean that online education shouldn't improve, develop and introduce new approaches. It's time to discuss all the benefits gamification gives us.

№1. Increase in sales volume

Many online schools and different courses have owners and creators do their best to attract new clients. But ultimately, it turns out that they are using traditional approaches to education that are outdated now. Schools and projects already using gamification are the most popular, and you've probably heard about them. We'll discuss successful examples a bit later.

If we discuss the advantages of gamification for school owners and course creators, we'll conclude that the increase in conversion rate and sales are the key advantages of gamification. People purchase your course, pass it and share their positive experience with friends attracting new clients to your school. When you set a clear purpose before implementing gamification, it'll certainly yield a positive result.

№2. Increasing the completion rate

All course creators know that a low completion rate is a widespread problem that needs to be solved. People start a course but then drop it due to unclear reasons. However, the reasons are obvious: you have problems with the way you present educational materials. You can't interest people and give them the motivation they need. Sometimes the intrinsic motivation isn't enough to do something, so you shouldn't rely only on the inner inspiration of your students. Therein lies one of the difficulties of distance learning — not all people can be effective and diligent learners online. That's why your courses should keep students involved in the educational process and don't let them lose motivation.

№3. Better quality of education

It's great that you have a strong desire to attract more clients and earn more money, but don't forget that your main goal is to provide high-quality knowledge to people. The implementation of such an instrument lets online schools increase students' academic performance, memorization, and students' productivity. It all means that your courses are effective and will help people change their lives. Students see their achievements and get ready to delve further into the studying of new topics.

Strategies for Implementation of Gamification In E-Learning

If you want these changes to be successful, please, carry out a little research to define the psychological portrait of your target audience, other possible ways to support students' motivation you use, and problems that may arise after combining gamification with other instruments. Remember that gamification should contain game dynamics, mechanics, and game design elements. There are three degrees of immersion in a game: complete, medium, and light. The use of this or that degree is up to you. Now you'll get acquainted with the examples of gamification, but don't rush: try using this or that strategy, test each one carefully. It'll help you to define drawbacks and change the online course to make it convenient. Create a focus group and ask them to share their opinion about your product. It's the only correct approach you should use when trying to introduce an update.

№1. Welcome-scenario

If you have a lot of new students during each course launch, it's helpful to create a guide on using your service in the form of a game. Create an attractive animation and familiarize your students with a platform step-by-step.

№2. Achievements

There's no better way to motivate students than to give them bonuses for completing certain course sections. Avoid using publicly available league tables because those who'll be at the end of the list will think they're the worst.

№3. Competitive elements

It's another good way to make students complete each assignment and part of your course. Organize a competition between students. It's also possible to invite teachers and mentors to participate in these challenges to establish a good student-teacher connection. Use your imagination to create something unique.

№4. Points or credits

Unlike achievements, points aren't one-time promotions. They can be given for each completed stage or be accumulated and then changed for a valuable bonus like a check-list or free book. By the way, points can be used for purchasing any helpful content. You may use points, virtual currencies, and any other elements.

№5. Badges and titles

This element has much in common with points, but new titles seem to be more respectable rewards for students. People try to have a higher reputation in society, so why can't they translate this sentiment in studying?

№6. Time limitations

Finding a person having no problems with time management is a difficult task. So that you don't set limits for completing a task or module, be ready that students will put everything off. Assess the number of times necessary for completing each section of your course and notify students about this time limit. Give bonuses to those who finish the course earlier than you've set.

№7. Interactive feedback

Students shouldn't feel lonely, so give them support. Feedback is especially necessary after students complete specific assignments or read theoretical information. Communication between students and mentors is very important. Don't forget to assess all students' actions, even wrong ones.

Successful Cases of Gamification

Before you make any significant changes to your product, check the experience of your competitors. It helps people avoid mistakes and find inspiration for new ideas.

Khan Academy

It's one of the most popular educational platforms, using the elements of gamification: aims, achievements, titles, points, and other instruments. The founders of Khan Academy use creative names for titles: they tied them to celestial bodies. Students can check the feedback about their assignments.

Duolingo

Each of us has installed this app at least once in the hope of learning a particular language. And studying was quite successful because Duolingo is the best example of gamification in e-learning. More than 25 million people regularly use this app. Duolingo managed to combine education and entertainment using multiple mechanisms of gamification: achievements, competitions.

Ribbon Hero

This game was created by the developers of Microsoft Office to teach people how to use this program. Many of them consider this software too tricky or are just lazy. Here players earn points after successfully completing different tasks (to change the page's design, text, or presentation, etc.). The game tracks your progress and lets you share it on social media.

Memrise

It's one of the most successful competitors of Duolingo. It can boast of different gamification instruments: interactive feedback, welcome-scenario, the possibility to purchase something using bonus points, in-built chats, and even a punishment system. Even though it's free, people get so involved with it that they get ready to purchase paid options.

A Bottom Line

Well, gamification in e-learning is really the most effective way to transform your lessons and make your course yield an income. This method has a big future, so you shouldn't lag behind your competitors, who have long been enjoying its advantages. Gamification is also widely used in offline education, but it's not so effective. Start small: introduce a few essential elements to your online course and track results. If you see progress, continue in the same vein.

We hope we managed to tell you everything you need to know about gamification. But you can still ask questions in the comments section below, and we'll answer all of them.