Getting Started with ELearning

By: Justin Ferriman • October 14, 2013
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cropped-cropped-logo-detouré-300-1001Every now and then I receive a message from someone on LinkedIn asking me for suggestions on the best way to get involved in the elearning industry and instructional design.

First, I often point them to the free resources available so that they can become familiar with the market and expectations – but sometimes digging through these resources can be overwhelming.

With this in mind, I decided to dig around a bit to find a more comprehensive resource to recommend to beginning instructional designers who want break into the field. I was looking for something that fell between completely free and paying for a formal degree.

Don’t get me wrong, there can be a lot of value in free information, but sometimes it isn’t always the best. What’s more, when you pay to learn something, you are more likely to dedicate yourself to understanding the content (note: more likely, not guaranteed)

So now, when someone asks what resources I recommend for a newbie instructional designer looking to get into the elearning world, I provide them a list of free resources and also a link to Learn E-Learning.

Learn E-Learning provides online tutorials on how you can get started as an instructional designer, tips for creating quality content, and even a community to further network and ask questions.

The curriculum at Learn E-Learning is broken-up into six segments, and it follows the ADDIE methodology.

  1. Getting Started
  2. Analyze
  3. Design
  4. Development
  5. Implement & Evaluate
  6. Conclusion

Each section has three to five sub-topics discussing everything from development tools to best practices.

So if you are looking to get involved with instructional design, Learn E-Learning might be a viable resource for you. They have a few free courses so you can always try it out first and decide if you want additional access.

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