I’m contacted regularly by organizations who tell me they need me to create an eLearning course. After inquiring about the details, sometimes I surprise them by suggesting that they don’t really need a formal, full-blown eLearning course at all. You should always ask yourself the same question (or contact me, and I’ll ask!).
If what you need to share is really “information only,” then instead of creating a custom course, consider whether you might actually be able to make your key points in a simple, illustrated job aid, published in PDF format. Record a simple podcast. Create a little self-playing presentation in PowerPoint or Keynote, and save it to a movie format. Use formats like PDF, Mp3, and MOV or Mp4, that your learners can access at their convenience from virtually any device, including smart phones, iPads, and other tablets. This approach can be time and a lot of money.
Even when creating a full eLearning course is the appropriate solution, I always encourage you to think in small, bite-size chunks of information that your learners can readily “digest.” I’ve composed a rhyming couplet to help you keep this in mind:
Less can often amount to more,
And keeping it simple will help you score.
If you don’t have the time or resources in house, I’d be happy to work with you on creating one or more job aids, or on scripting and recording podcasts or presentations that will both engage and inform your target audience. Don’t get me wrong–I love creating eLearning! But you should always match the solution to the need. To paraphrase the old saying: you wouldn’t use a cannon to shoot a fly, would you? Not all learning events require a formal invitation, or a formal approach.