The 5 Steps to My eLearning Development Process
When I first started creating eLearning courses, I had no idea what I was doing, and I certainly did not follow any type of development process. However, over the years, I’ve since created a standard eLearning development process that I follow each time I create a new course. And while there are a lot of different methods and processes to eLearning development, I’ve found my eLearning development process works the best for me.
In this post, I’ll share with you the five steps to my eLearning development process.
Step One: Plan the Project
The first step in my eLearning development process is to: Plan the Project. Before you begin building your eLearning course, it’s important to spend time with your stakeholders and subject matter experts to plan and scope the total project. When planning your eLearning project, you’ll conduct a kickoff meeting with your stakeholders to determine the learning objectives of your course, agree upon a project plan, and draft a development timeline.
Check out these posts to learn more about planning your eLearning project:
- How to Conduct a Successful eLearning Project Kickoff Meeting
- How to Create an eLearning Project Plan
- How to Create an eLearning Project Schedule
- 15 eLearning Questions to Ask Your Subject Matter Experts
Step Two: Draft a Storyboard
The second step in my eLearning development process is to: Draft a Storyboard. During this step of the eLearning development process, you’ll work with your subject matter experts to collect and organize your learning content. You’ll then develop that content into a storyboard for your stakeholders and subject matter experts to review.
Check out these posts to learn more about drafting a storyboard:
- How to Write Your First eLearning Storyboard
- How to Organize Your eLearning Content with Sticky Notes
- Instructional Design for eLearning: 4 Things You Need to Know
- Tips for Brainstorming & Designing eLearning Interactions
Step Three: Develop the Course
The third step in my eLearning development process is to: Develop the Course. Development typically starts by creating a prototype of the course. A prototype is simply a short sample of the course, which lets your stakeholders and subject matter experts get a preview of what the final course will look like. This lets them make any changes or suggestions to the final look and feel. Once the prototype is approved, you’ll then develop the entire course and conduct a series of review cycles with your stakeholders and subject matter experts along the way.
Check out these posts to learn more about developing your course:
- 3 Things You Should Always Include in an eLearning Prototype
- Visual Design Tips for eLearning
- 3 Ways to Design Better eLearning
- 4 Tips for Effective User Interface Design for eLearning
Step Four: Review the Course
The fourth step in my eLearning development process is to: Review the Course. Once you’ve finalized the development of your eLearning course, you want to spend time conduct a detailed quality assurance (QA) check of the entire course. A QA check is meant to help you identify any outstanding typos, grammar errors, and most importantly, any functionality errors.
Check out these posts to learn more about reviewing your course:
- 4 Tips for eLearning QA Testing
- How to Conduct User Acceptance Testing for eLearning
- 3 Tips for Getting SME Feedback on Your eLearning
Step Five: Deliver the Course
The fifth step in my eLearning development process is to: Deliver the Course. Depending on how you want to make your eLearning course available to your learners, you’ll either publish your course to a Learning Management System (LMS) or some other methods via the internet. During this steps, it’s also important for you to organize and archive your project files and conduct a project retrospective.
Check out these posts to learn more about finalizing your eLearning project:
Is your eLearning development process similar or different from mine? If so, how? Share your thoughts by commenting below!
Thanks for sharing! My process is similar but this is a great reminder of how simple it can be!
I LOVE that you have two steps before you even OPEN an authoring tool. Thank you for the additional links beneath each individual step. Great article. Great learning, Tim.
Thanks, Scot! I appreciate it!
I enjoyed these steps and think e-learning is essential. Making sure to have a plan and execute it effectively! Very helpful!
This is even helpful for professional elearning content development companies. As an elearning company by ourselves this post has shown us an insight how simple the development stages can be. Thank you for contributing such an helpful article for the elearning community.
Thank you, Vishnu!
These 5 steps are really helpful. Thanks for contributing.