6 Tips for Managing ELearning Revisions

By: Justin Ferriman • April 30, 2014
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During my consulting engagements, the one thing that we were constantly battling was the number of times we had to revise (or rework) our elearning content.

This is not to say that we did not care for revisions altogether, in fact, they are a very necessary part of any project.

The problem with revisions is when they come after the elearning module is signed-off, or even worse, after it is live and being delivered.

In order to better combat the constant requests for revisions to your elearning, it is a good idea to establish some ground rules for you, your team, and the client (be it internally or externally). Below are six tips for dealing with revisions, as originally detailed by Scholarix.

6 Tips for Managing Revisions

1. Understand and define the scope of revisions before starting development. This is a must. You should define with all involved parties what is considered an acceptable revision after the project begins.

2. Stick to revision deadlines. As part of the process completed in the first tip, you should also set deadlines for revisions. This is a matter of holding key stakeholders responsible for review cycles and feedback (which can be quite difficult depending on the type of subject matter expert you are dealing with).

3. Consolidate all revisions. Nothing is more frustrating than when revisions are sent one-by-one via email. Set-up a repository for all revision submissions (SharePoint is a good tool for this).

4. Establish a chain of control. Revisions and changes can get out of hand quickly. To help manage this, there needs to be one person, or perhaps a committee, who reviews change and revision requests. This governing person or group has the final say. Period. Make sure that everyone involved in the project agrees and understands who (or whom) is responsible for approving and denying revisions.

5. Clearly define roles and responsibilities. Each individual should have a well defined and visible role on the project. This will prevent revision emails from being sent to the wrong people so that they don’t get lost in cyberspace. This tip coupled with #3 will go a long way in keeping the process clear for everyone.

6. Make all minor changes internally. Let’s face it, sometimes it doesn’t make sense to have an hour discussion on some minor change. When a minor change comes about, just make it and move on. The important changes are usually in regards to the content, not formatting. If you are wasting time with formatting discussions, then maybe you should have implemented (and had everyone sign-off on) a style guide before beginning the work. 🙂

Justin Ferriman

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter