The Most Critical Item in ELearning

By: Justin Ferriman • December 21, 2014
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devThere are many components to pay attention to when creating elearning. Clients usually get most excited with the flashy functionality like transitions, clickable regions, course branching, and so on.

While having these items can help with learning content delivery, there is one important aspect that impacts every elearning course ever created. Sadly though, this importance of this aspect is often overlooked.

No matter what program you use to create your elearning, the one consistent element across them all is the font that you choose.

Font selection can make or break your course. Too often instructional designers end up using font that is over-stylized. When selecting a font family, you should know with certainty how it will display across multiple devices, operating systems, and browsers.

Some fonts look fine in one browser, while others may not support it at all.

Beyond just the font family though, you should also pay attention to how the font is used in terms of bolding, italics, and underlines.

Italics are the most difficult to read, so it should really be used sparingly. Bold and underlined text loses its impact when used too much. In fact, it can quickly become distracting.

To make sure you are using appropriate font consistently, it is extremely important to establish a style-guide prior to creating any of the course content. This document should define acceptable font use and best practices.

When you are done adding the text, test it across multiple browsers. A great solution for this is BrowserStack. Using BrowserStack, you can see how your course will appear across every possible situation to ensure a pleasant experience for your learners.

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