There may be several causes that lead to low interest in all the e-learning material that is available but the most common one is the design. So much effort goes into making sure the LMS has all the features that the L&D, HR and Financial departments want that not enough attention is given to the most important party at the table: the end user. They are the center around which it should all be evolving and not the other way around.

I have been a corporate trainer for over a decade and in my personal experience, teaching adults is more science than anything else. Same goes for e-learning. I suppose that as long as there is ‘the art of living”, “the art of baking the perfect muffin” and even “the art of electronics’, there is room on the bookshelf for “the art of training”. As long as inside you find the hard cold facts of how to do it.

It’s common sense that before you set out to do something for other people, you should get an idea of who they are and what they expect. Then, once the content is designed and delivered, it’s best to assess its impact as perceived by the attendee. All these can only happen with the use of polls and surveys. So check out these following best practices on how to ensure your L&D survey will get you the right answers.

Video ads have been around for a long time and they still manage to bring a lot of money to companies that chose to advertise that way. The workings of video publicity can easily be incorporated in e-learning for better engagement and information retention. Learning modules are aimed at driving behavior (just like publicity is) so there are quite a few things to be learned from those colorful interruptions of our favorite TV programs.

A lot of times trainers and designers fear that incorporating stories into technical training may be weird or inappropriate. Storytelling is aimed at connecting people emotionally with the subject. Adult learners may not respond well to being emotionally manipulated. With the proper motivation, however, they can be persuaded to move mountains and stories have the gift to do just that – engage and motivate.

Scenario based learning has many obvious benefits. It has the ability to engage learners and gives them the possibility to make decisions, try out different versions of solving a particular problem and see the consequences of their actions without translating them into the real world. Just like with any other type of learning design, there are necessary steps to take before embarking on the actual creation of the course.

Scenarios are very important in human development as they are the recognizable patterns by which the brain works. This is why it makes perfect sense to make as much of learning as possible scenario-based. SBL is a new trend relying on something very old and valuable – our natural partiality to storytelling. It’s also natural to harness that appetence for educational purposes. Read on to find out more about SBL.

L&D professionals always have a complicated puzzle to solve: how to motivate employees while keeping business goals in mind, making sure that the first are content and the latter attained. Motivational psychology in the workplace is there to help, but only if it’s understood properly. So here are a few tips on how to solve the puzzle.

Trainers and instructional designers would like nothing better than to be able to accommodate everybody and deliver on all desired outcomes and as a result constantly look for ways to make that happen. Vicky Halsey is one of those who set out to search for viable models for the modern learner. Her signature tested ENGAGE model is a great starting point for any learning initiative.

Attention is a cognitive process that is closely related to another very important aspect of learning: memory. A certain learning intervention is deemed successful when the participants are able to remember and apply what was taught. For e-learning designers who face the challenge of creating quality modules that facilitate information retention and transfer it’s important to know how the brain works when it comes to attention.