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If you have ever tried developing an eLearning course or program you know it is not very easy. The usual perception may be that you can just throw together some PowerPoint slides and you're done, but if you've tried doing it you know that is certainly not the case. Creating an effective eLearning program requires careful planning and research, and commitment to the overall objectives of the project. First and foremost those objectives include creating a program that is engaging, interesting, and produces the results you are after - individuals whose level of specific training has been significantly enhanced. Some of the most significant pitfalls that stand in the way of the creator of eLearning programs are organizational and tactical issues. These include such things as properly understanding the objectives of the project, organizing a team of skilled personnel, and coordinating their efforts through to project completion. The REDD system tackles these organizational and procedural issues head on. This system was developed by Kerry Kalous of Resource Bridge, a developer of learning management systems, custom web-based training, and e-learning solutions. REDD stands for Rapid eLearning Development and Deployment. The focus of this system is to give you a fast and effective way to create online training programs and get them up and running as quickly as possible. At the heart of the REDD system is careful planning, team selection, timeline creation, deadline enforcement and management approval coordination. With the REDD system everyone knows their job, stays in contact with everyone else, and meets their deadlines. Of course this requires building a strong team with an experienced leader. The team leader must not only perform her own tasks, but manage the entire project, and motivate the other members of the team. Without a strong, knowledgeable team leader the project will very likely not run as smoothly as it should. Because of the creative nature of much of the work involved in developing an eLearning program it is very easy to get off course, follow blind alleys, and miss deadlines. So it is up to the leader to select team members who not only have the necessary skills required, but are also motivated to meet their deadlines. If such people are not available in your organization, then it is up to the team leader to monitor the process even more closely and keep team members on track. Typically the people required to develop a significant eLearning project include an instructional designer to develop the course subject matter, a graphic artist to create the look and feel of the project, and a web designer to build the web interface. But the starting point is someone intimately familiar with the subject matter to create the course objectives and the approach to communicating them to the people using the program. Once the team is selected it is important to outline how the project will be presented to management. This is vital to the success or failure of the project, because it is ultimately management that decides the fate of the project. The best arrangement is one in which your management liaison is handled by one person with the authority to make final approvals or send team proposals back for modifications. Having a clearly defined approval and deadline system is critical for moving the project efficiently to completion. This is what makes the REDD system unique: everyone involved accepts that there is only one approval required at each stage. Management reviews proposals put forward and approves them step by step. The team then can use this approval to move on to the next stage. This makes it extremely important that management personnel take their step-by-step approval seriously. If followed religiously, this system virtually eliminates last-minute changes and tweaks or extensive reworking of components previously approved. Once this structure is in place, and the importance of deadlines is understood by all team members it is time to begin working on the project. The first objective is to gather content and create an outline of the entire course. Course content and the general approach to the program are the defining characteristics of the project, so this stage is extremely important. When the initial outline is approved it is time to create storyboards that show more explicitly how you intend to approach the subject matter. Will you use photography, animation, or video to present the course material? What kind of testing methods are most appropriate to your specific audience? Remember that different audiences have different levels of technical know how. Call-center personnel may respond better to some treatments than do sales people, IT staff, or software engineers. After the initial storyboarding is presented and approved it is time to put your design ideas into effect and create the first working training module. This is your prototype for the entire project and should be as close as possible to a finished product. Applying the REDD process at each step along the way should have guaranteed that major revisions at this stage are not going to happen. All that is left once the prototype is approved is to create all the remaining modules based on the approved design. Once the final modules have been produced and approved it is time to test the system using a broad range of participants and staff. This testing process gives you the opportunity to make final changes and iron out glitches before the system is rolled out to the people for whom it was targeted. Following this procedure is the best way to ensure that your eLearning project will be successful. Not only will the courseware production process be smooth and efficient, but your customer or client will start reaping the benefits of improved training sooner rather than later.
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