Table of Contents

Creating Learning Pathways in Elearning

overwhelming elearning

Have you ever taken an elearning course and thought: Hmmmm, this may be helpful for some of my colleagues, but this really isn’t covering stuff that will help with my job?

As learning designers, we never want a learner to sit in front of a screen wondering just how much of the information they should retain and how much they can flush out of their memory banks by the end. Creating learning experiences that allow a learner to choose the content they’re exposed to—by selecting their role at the company for example—not only saves time and money for the company, but it helps increase the learner’s engagement through content that is relevant and meaningful (two pillars of adult learning theory!). 

Learning Pathways in Practice

What does this look like in practice? Recently, we created a module for people who work with therapy animals. At the start, the learners are immediately prompted to select a pathway focused only on animals with which they’re working. Learners were able to move straight into the portion of the module that is applicable to them. If they need to review more than one, they have the opportunity to do so. Finally, before they can complete this particular module, the learner has to pass an assessment based on the information.  

Choosing a learning pathway

At Endurance Learning, I’m a member of the team who checks each navigational path for functionality and accuracy, and when I ran through each of these paths, it took me 45-60 minutes per path. Imagine if a learner had to do each and every one of these paths even if it didn’t apply to them.

branching example in articulate storyline

Imagine if a learner just needed very specific information or instructions on a topic, yet they received a generic overview of everything. 

When we approach a learning experience with this in mind—making sure we are providing each learner with content and skill-building material that meets their individual needs—we are building a better relationship with our learners and addressing their needs in a more personalized way.

Learning Pathways Mixed with Required Information

Of course, there may be times when all learners need to receive a certain quantity of information that is the same, regardless of role, while various groups of learners may also need some content specific to their role or circumstance. An example of how we addressed this challenge was to offer each learner an individual path where necessary, and then weave their learning path back to more general information that would be the same for everyone. 

flowchart showing individual learner paths

The key takeaway I want to make sure you leave this blog post with is that it doesn’t take much to personalize a learning experience. The next time you’re asked to develop an elearning module for a variety of audiences, think about using paths for various learners to navigate your course and to get exactly what they need.

Articles Similar to Creating Learning Pathways in Elearning

elearning developer qa checklist
Elearning
Lindsay Garcia

Elearning QA Checklist

Elearning developers should provide the first, and maybe the most thorough, quality assurance (QA) of an elearning module. Our team uses an elearning QA checklist

better learner certificates
Elearning
Hannah Radant

Better Learner Certificates in Articulate Storyline

Learner certificates often appear at the end of a course to verify and recognize the achievement of a learner. Articulate Storyline has made it very easy to do this by adding a print slide trigger.
Today’s blog post outlines the steps to elevating this print feature to a lightbox slide. It includes how to build it and a downloadable file as well!

adding audio in articulate rise
Elearning
Erin Clarke

5 Ways to Add Audio in Articulate Rise

What is one way to make Articulate Rise more engaging? Audio! Our team took on the challenge of exploring the options, benefits, and limitations in adding audio in Rise.

elearning easter eggs
Elearning
Brian Washburn

Fun with Elearning Design: Hiding Easter Eggs

Planting an Easter Egg (or a dozen Easter Eggs) in your elearning project is next level engagement. Today’s blog post offers a variety of ways you can drop an unexpected, surprise element into your next project.

Kate Udalova on microlearning and AI
Elearning
Brian Washburn

Using 7Taps with AI for Microlearning

AI is all the rage these days. 7Taps has figured out a way to embed AI into their microlearning platform to make your experience even quicker. It looks like this is the future of AI in learning tools. 7Taps co-founder Kate Udalova shares her insights.

Subscribe to Get Updates from Endurance Learning

Brian Washburn, Author

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll send you the latest updates from our blog. Thanks for following!

Find Your L&D Career Path

Explore the range of careers to understand what role might be a good fit for your L&D career.

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the What’s Possible in L&D Worksheet.

What's possible in L&D

Let's Talk Training!

Brian Washburn

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll get back to you soon.

Download the Feedback Lesson Plan

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the lesson plan as a PDF.

feedback lesson plan
MS Word Job Aid Template

Download the Microsoft Word Job Aid Template

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the Word version of this template.

Download the Free Lesson Plan Template!

Enter your email below and we’ll send you a Word document that you can start using today!

free lesson plan template
training materials checklist

Download the Training Materials Checklist

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Training Materials Checklist.

Subscribe to Endurance Learning for updates

Get regular updates from the Endurance Learning team.