‘Ninja’ Trick for Keeping Courses Current

By: Justin Ferriman • September 4, 2015
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A lot of time is put into creating an elearning course.

Everything from planning to development, testing the course and delivering it – the entire process is quite the time investment.

But the job isn’t done just because the course is complete.

Seasoned instructional designers know that elearning courses are not a “one-and-done” event. They require constant maintenance and monitoring to ensure that the material remains relevant.

Situations change over time and what was once the procedure may not be the best solution at a later date.

The more courses that an organization has the more time consuming the process is for constantly reviewing the course material. Some will even schedule regular review sessions multiple times per year to review the course content.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was something that could make this process less of a burden?

Well, there is!

In fact, this little “ninja” trick will help you to be proactive in monitoring the course content at any point in time, not just at scheduled intervals.

Make Your Life Easier

The idea is simple: on every elearning course you should have a clear icon (or note) on the screen that prompts a user to report out of date or incorrect content.

This can be done with hyperlink text that opens a new form (i.e. “Report incorrect content on this page”). When selected, the form opens and the user can indicated what they believe is incorrect. This is then sent to a point person or shared inbox of the instructional design team.

Another way is to implement a tab that sits on the side of the screen, always available to be selected. There are programs that can also take a screen capture at the time of submission so that you know exactly the content the person is referring to.

While you will still need to conduct regular checks of the course content, you now can consolidate live feedback from people who are taking the course.

You’ll be amazed at the number of people who will go out of their way to contribute – which in the end makes your job a lot easier!

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