The First Aid Kit for Standards

Content standards play an important role while you develop any eLearning course. There have been instances where standards have not been set before the development of the actual course which leads to multiple iterations of reviews. This post will help identify the general course standards that need to be set prior to any content development.

Titles: Decide upon a standard for topic titles. They could be a combination of Sentence case or uppercase format. All titles should ideally be in camel case.

Instructional Text (iText): Interactivities in an eLearning course need an iText. Some common interactivities may have the following iTexts:

• Images:
  
  
  
  • Single Image- Click the image to learn more.
  
  
  • Multiple Images - Click each image to learn more.
  
  
  
  
• Tabs: Click each tab to learn more.


• Bullet: Click each bullet to learn more.


• Block: Click each block to learn more.


• Icon:
  
  
  
  • Single icon: Click the icon the learn more.
  
  
  • Multiple icons: Click each icon to learn more.
  
  
  
  

Assessment/Knowledge Check:

• Single choice: Select the appropriate option and click Submit.


• Multiple choices: Select the appropriate options and click Submit.


• Drag and drop: Drag each option and place it in the appropriate block.


• Match the column: Select an option and then select its corresponding match and then click Submit.

Other standards: There may be other standards like clickable boxes, circles, etc. for flowcharts. Make sure these standards touch ground before the development process begins.

Special formatting words: Always make sure to get a list from the client where special formatting is applicable to words. For example, some words like organization may be spelt as Organization, ORGANIZATION, Org. etc.

Guru Tip: Although there may be iterations at this level, the key to a hassle free development and review cycle is finalizing a standard document and then moving forward to the next step.