by Janice Florent
Course designs that are not user-friendly can make it very difficult for students to be successful in a course.
Undoubtedly you spent a great deal of time crafting your course content and perfecting your layout, which is why it's crucial to focus on usability. Students have a lot going on in their lives and don’t want to go through a maze-like course; click on dead-end links; have to use too many mouse clicks to get to the content; or scroll through long pages of information.
If you want students to be successful in your online/hybrid course, the course should be intuitive, well organized, and easy to navigate.
In a recent eLearning Industry blog post, Christopher Pappas shared eight tips that can help you create a user-friendly eLearning course for your students. Christopher’s tips are:
- Provide detailed instructions
- Keep text short and succinct
- Opt for brief bursts of information
- Create an effective course menu
- Test out your course navigation
- Integrate supplemental links
- Include optional tips and tricks that can help students to complete the course
If this has piqued your interest, you can read more in Christopher’s 8 Tips Towards Α User-Friendly eLearning Course blog post for more information.
Image credit: “user friendly” by jflorent is licensed under CC BY 4.0 and is a deravitive of "maze" by naveed.butt licensed under CC BY 2.0
