When it comes to identifying current elearning trends or simply getting a general overview, experts often disagree: there is just too much going on in the elearning world.
The development is breathtaking and it is increasingly complex for companies and organizations to keep their methods, development processes and tools up-to-date.
In this short overview I try to describe the most important trends, which in my opinion influence our elearning world in 2019. Do not mind “influencing” as a future development because these trends have been current for years. In 2019, however, they are moving into the center of interest.
Standardization
Companies and organizations are increasingly standardizing curriculum and course material development. The main points are the reuse of user interfaces and menus (GUI), templates and interaction schemes. This applies above all to the development and implementation of standards for teaching methodology, which underlies all courses in a curriculum.
Standardization improves the quality of course materials, increases training efficiency while reducing development costs and error rates.
Microlearning
Microlearning is learning in small units and short steps.
Most companies and organizations want their eLearning to be created and delivered today in the form of microlearning.
The learning content is split into bite-sized “independent” parts (chunks) of no more than 10 minutes.
Studies in the field of cognitive science clearly show that microlearning enables faster learning and a greater understanding of the learning content. In addition, a much higher retention rate can be achieved than in comparable training sessions based on conventional methodology.
Video
Millions of youtube users prove this trend. Learning through video is gaining in importance and has become widely accepted in companies and organizations in 2018.
Videos are now a preferred way to convey learning content. Videos can convey complex or abstract content and
Describe concepts and places that can hardly be opened up to the learner with conventional methods.
But beware, not all video formats are suitable for learning. Studies show that clips longer than 2 minutes overwhelm the learner. The attention is lost. The attention span is closely related to the generation of learners. The studies show that “baby boomers” can hold their attention for about 5-7 minutes, while millennials only hold about 60-120 seconds. Therefore, the attention span is one of the most important points to consider when producing educational videos. Know your target audience!
The same studies also prove that complex and lengthy videos overwhelm the learner. This becomes clear when looking at many video-based self-study courses. These often consist of hours of lessons, held by the same person in the same setup. 30 hours of Internet Marketing, 60 hours Photoshop or 80 hours of management practice … Less is more!
Course format
Adobe Flash is history! Flash based courses do not meet the needs of modern learning environments.
** HTML 5 ** is the format in which all modern eLearning courses have to be published today. The format was developed primarily for multimedia content that is published in an online environment. So perfect for eLearning.
Courses developed in HTML 5 should also be largely responsive and therefore mobile friendly.
Translating into different languages is easy and opens up courses for large groups of users.
LMS
** Learning Management Systems (LMS) ** are a dime a dozen. This shows a simple Google search. Thousands of systems of all Coloeur offer themselves to the overwhelmed user. Everything is possible. The online learner is only interested in starting their course with as few clicks as possible. It’s best to log in and a click starts the course where you left it last time. And when finished, certificates and awards should be easy to reach.
When choosing the right system, ensure that the user interface is less complex and that during the selection the learner needs are actually taken into account.
Open development standards for online course platforms
Why eLearning courses are still being created directly online within the Platform (LMS)? This approach is especially common in self-paced courses of digital entrepreneurs. It’s time-consuming, the courses are difficult to access and it’s a nightmare to update the content or reuse the content later in other courses. And if the platform provider is to be changed, the real problems begin.
In the field of professional eLearning development, it has been known for years that online course development does not really work to its many disadvantages.
A good authoring tool like Articulate 360, Adobe Captivate or iSpring helps to develop and standardize content offline. And SCORM or Xapi as open Standards help to communicate with the LMS Platform.
Make sure that the platform of your choice supports at least one of these standards.