by Diane Stricklan, Senior Instructional Designer
One of my favorite requests from a client is “We’d like you to make this compliance eLearning course more effective and fun, but it’s probably not possible.” I bet we can! And it will be memorable.
Compliance eLearning courses have a bad reputation and we hear it all the time…
We are here to change that attitude and we have been doing it for the past decade. Our collaborative design approach involves learning about your business, target audience, ideas, and what you want to accomplish. We ask lots of questions and listen.
From there, developing fun, memorable eLearning concepts follows a formula:
What we learn + instructional design + inspiration + budget = concepts
Inspiration is our “special sauce.” We take everything in and let it percolate. The result is one (or more) possible concepts for your compliance eLearning course.
We do recognize that fun concepts may not always be the best approach based on your business goals and audience. However, adding humor or fun elements is a great way to grab the learner’s attention when covering what might be considered dry material.
There are several ways to create a more memorable, fun course that keeps the learners engaged:
- Telling an engaging story
- Simulating real-life context
- Effectively using media (videos)
If you look at the overall process to keep learners engaged, it looks a bit like this:
The solution doesn’t need to be expensive. As an example, video is a great way to tell a story. But cost, technical expertise, and bandwidth limitations may make it prohibitive. So we might recommend using a lesser expensive Whiteboard Animation video or telling your story using a video-like design by embedding stock photography images to address compliance risks.
Let’s say you’re on board, but others in your organization are skeptical. Here are some common concerns we’ve heard and how we’ve responded:
We’ve heard…
Using fun and humor will make the topic less serious.
We say…
Using humor doesn’t mean making fun of a compliance topic. It means making the experience of learning about it more enjoyable and memorable.
We’ve heard…
Our experts require certain language be used.
We say…
Using legal or textbook style language works well when writing policies, rules, and regulations. But in eLearning, this style can actually make learning and retention harder. An eLearning course that’s conversational makes it easier to read and remember, especially with compliance. You can always link to the “required language” or include it in a downloadable handout.
We’ve heard…
It will cost too much money.
We say…
It doesn’t have to. We have extensive experience and can work within most any budget to develop a fun, memorable compliance eLearning course and training program.
We’ve heard…
I can’t picture how this would work.
We say…
Let us show you!
Start capturing your users attention with the important topics in your compliance initiatives. Schedule a demo and we can discuss how we can help turn your compliance eLearning courses into more effective and memorable programs for your audience.
