Anyone who has ever created an online program knows that it can take a long time to develop a high quality, engaging result.. That being said, there are some smart ways you can cut down development time yet still create a strong, effective online program.
The length of time it could take you to create a great online course varies depending on the duration and details of the program in question. On average, it could take between 30 and 500 hours in total to create an online program (Dan Institute, 2021). A mini professional development course will naturally take a lot less time to create than an entire online MBA, and whether the course is fully online or blended will also impact development time.
Using technology to your advantage is important for learning designers, but it all depends on the quality of the tech you choose. At the end of the day, an online tool or software can only speed things up if they’re actually easy and intuitive to use! You should therefore make sure that any software you do use only helps simplify the process and save you time, for example by offering ready-made, reusable templates, rather than spending more time overall trying to learn how to use it.
Additionally, your tech of choice should ideally offer 24/7 support (in case you do run into any issues learning to use it) and make it easy to author content, such as quizzes or additional materials. Online materials are inherently scalable and reusable, so make sure it is easy to copy, paste and share learning assets. This will help you avoid having to start from scratch each time you need to create a new online program in the future.
Always develop a detailed plan or outline before starting to develop your course. This helps streamline the process by providing a clear roadmap right at the start that you can refer back to during the development process. Collaborating at this stage with other professionals such as Learning Designers can also help ensure content accuracy and reduce the need for extensive revisions later.
Seek or create brand guidelines ahead of time to help inform decisions around aspects of design such as fonts and colours. As well as decreasing the time you spend during the development process, sticking to brand guidelines will also mean the final result feels more cohesive and clearer for learners, thus improving their online learning experience.
If you reach a creative roadblock, don’t waste time overthinking design and go back to basics. Remember, you can always go back and improve or iterate the design later on! This is another reason why choosing the right tech is important - don’t choose a tool that doesn’t let you edit your program once it's launched. Furthermore, consider ‘content chunking’ to help you - break down your content into smaller, more manageable chunks so that the development process becomes less overwhelming.
Reusing existing training materials, such as presentations, PDFs, or videos, is a great way to save time on content creation – providing they are still relevant and correct! As time goes on, these resources can always be updated to reflect new brand guidelines or improved with insights from learner feedback.
Develop checklists or quality control processes at the very start to ensure consistency throughout and reduce errors during the course creation process. Collaborating with other team members or external experts can help streamline the quality control process and give an extra set of eyes to help spot errors.
Enlist the help of a team who have a wealth of experience in online and blended education, such as direct teaching experience or PhDs in educational technology and research. Make sure they exercise both practical and academic knowledge during the entire process, from initial design through to development and delivery. Consider receiving help from any or all of the following experts:
Don’t be afraid to launch and reiterate in the future based on learner and colleague feedback. While this may initially seem like a time consuming task, in the long run this will help you to create online programs faster and more efficiently by providing a strong bank of high-quality content to repurpose in the future.
Dan Institute. (2021). How Long Does it Take to Create an Online Course? Read it here: https://daninstitute.com/blog/