How to Update Your Old eLearning Content

eLearning is a critical component when it comes to training employees and keeping them updated on policies and procedures. But what happens when your eLearning becomes outdated and is no longer efficiently serving its purpose? Fortunately, you don’t need to reinvent your entire eLearning course from scratch. There are plenty of useful ways you can repurpose old eLearning content to ensure your learners are getting the most out of it.

Reasons Why You Should Update Your eLearning Content

In the past, it wasn’t uncommon for eLearning to only be accessible via laptops or desktop computers. But that’s no longer the case. Using smartphones and tablets to access information has become commonplace, thanks to technological advances. So, your eLearning courses need to be modified, so they’re accessible from mobile devices.

Irrelevant content that’s outdated isn’t doing your organization any favors. For this reason, your eLearning course might need to be revamped. Technology and digital tools are constantly being updated, as are policies and procedures, which can render most of your courses obsolete. So, it’s important to update materials and resources to keep them engaging and relevant.

You should also consider that the “one size fits all” motto is a thing of the past for eLearning. As often as possible, content should be customized to your individual learner’s preferences. Every user learns differently and prefers different methods. Thus, it is critical to provide customized training that caters to the learning needs of each of your employees. Furthermore, although the way content is presented might not be high on the priority list for a revamp, the impact of the format on learners should not be forgone. The aesthetics and design of your content should certainly be a consideration.

How to Upgrade Your eLearning Content

When considering upgrading your eLearning content, it’s important that you don’t forget about the importance of accessibility and enhancing content to make it more applicable and engaging. Even the most up-to-date and well-designed eLearning tools and resources will be useless if your learners can’t easily access them from where they want and when they want to. Below are some useful tips to consider when it comes to enhancing and revamping your training materials and eLearning.

Don’t Forget About the Importance of Mobile Learning

Most organizations today are undergoing digital transformations in order to remain relevant. Today’s workforce is expected to multitask and meet their organizational goals, making it impossible for them to devote a lot of time to learning. In addition, your employees want training that is relevant, engaging, and immersive to suit their lifestyles. These days, mobile accessibility is a critical component when it comes to what employees are looking for in an eLearning tool. Mobile learning means your employees are freer to undergo lessons and training at times and locations that suit them. Fortunately, there is mobile-friendly HTML5, which can be used to convert outdated eLearning courses.

Keep Lessons Bite-Size

When eLearning was restricted to use with desktop computers, it prevented the freedom to learn in bite-size chunks. Why? Because it meant that learning was largely restricted to an enclosed environment with allotted learning time. But mobile learning requires almost the opposite. It works more effectively when employees are presented with bite-size, easy-to-digest learning that can be quickly and efficiently absorbed. Thus, it’s best to revamp your eLearning by breaking it down into smaller lessons.

Make The Most of Social Learning

Social learning is encouraging your employees to learn with and from others. The learning process can take place either through direct contact (face-to-face) or indirect contact (online). So, yes, it is possible (and beneficial) for your distributed workers to utilize social learning. Social learning is one of the latest eLearning trends, and for good reason. It helps to keep employees motivated, makes them more efficient with their learning, and is generally a learning technique that you shouldn’t skip out on. But it does mean you will need to revamp your eLearning to allow for and encourage social interactions within the eLearning environment. To do so, consider the following tips:

• Create areas in which learners are able to express their ideas. Online discussion boards, communities, and virtual classrooms are all great ways to help motivate your team.
• Gamification can be incorporated into non-game practices, and competition, such as rewards, can be added to the course.
• Communicating and receiving feedback within a group are essential in eLearning environments. Utilize techniques such as sending personal responses via email or chat, sharing your reflections on questions, and posting online comments.
• Bringing the instructor/facilitator into the learning process will let learners express themselves, as well as help to encourage collaboration.

Utilize Immersive Learning

Just like social learning, immersive learning is a new trend in the eLearning world. This technique is a little more high-tech, but if it’s possible to implement, it can be extremely beneficial. Learning through immersive environments allows students to fully, well, immerse themselves in the subject matter. A virtual classroom is one of the best ways to utilize immersive learning, as it can transform abstract learning scenarios into tangible learning experiences. Immersive learning utilizes cutting-edge technologies, including augmented reality, virtual reality, and 3D immersive learning. Remember, a focus on immersion and personalized learning are hallmarks of immersive learning. Immersive learning can reap huge benefits, as immersion leaves no room for distractions and really helps learners come to grips with the concepts they are presented with during training.

If you’ve had eLearning available for your employees for quite some time, you’ve been doing something right. But technology advances at such a rapid rate these days that it’s important your organization keeps up. Remember, there’s no need to completely implement an entirely new eLearning program. You can save time, money, and effort by revamping and updating your old eLearning content to keep learners engaged and make sure they get the most out of their training.