Turning Offline Content into ELearning

By: Justin Ferriman • November 25, 2014
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Finding content for your elearning can sometimes be the most challenging aspect of course creation. Generating learning material from scratch can seem nearly impossible.

Naturally, when it is time to create an online course, it only makes sense to leverage already existing material. But what if the only material available is in the form of offline content?

The natural temptation is to simply scan the offline materials and then make them available as a downloadable PDF. As you can imagine, there are many reasons as to why this is a terrible idea. Most obvious though is that they are not user-friendly and can actually be a detriment to learning. Version control also begins to become a hassle.

If you are going to transition offline content to an elearning course, then you need to do it properly. Most people will be tempted to open up Microsoft PowerPoint and begin creating slides. While this may be a viable option for some content, it should not be considered the “go-to” for elearning.

For example, instead of PowerPoint, why not set-up a website instead? Using tools like WordPress and LearnDash, you can create a pretty robust online learning platform for your offline content – including interactions with things points, quizzes, certificates, and badges.

Another nice advantage to this approach is that the content is very much “living”. You can modify it as needed over time.

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