Ask about e-learning
Call or write, and we will set up a meeting and take it from where you are. It costs nothing, there is no obligation, and you do not have to buy anything.
I help with making e-learning — which tools to use, and all the way from slides, handbooks and what only exists in the heads of the people who know how, to a course that is out with people. And with making sure it does not end up as an information dump with a boring quiz at the end.
I help you get off to a good start, and I learn something myself from the challenges you face. So you are more than welcome. Further down you will find answers to some of the questions I often get ↓
11 questions
When you need e-learning, video or onboarding made.
Less than most people think. The most important thing is that you can answer one question: What should people do differently afterwards? Slides and handbooks are nice to have, but not necessary. Spend the time talking to some of the people it is about instead, and find out where things go wrong today.
The price depends mainly on three things: how much needs to be made, how interactive it should be, and how clearly the task is described. An unclear task becomes more expensive, because the supplier adds a buffer. But the biggest saving comes from somewhere else: When you understand the problem properly, you often end up with a smaller and shorter product that works better.
A rule of thumb in the industry is 80 to 140 hours of work for one hour of ordinary e-learning, and more if it is very interactive. The calendar time depends mostly on whether the content is ready, and how many people need to approve along the way. And on how much actually needs to be made: A course of an hour and a half can sometimes be replaced by three short videos that work better.
Choose based on what people need to do, and where they are when they need to do it. Sometimes it is an interactive course. Sometimes it is a couple of short videos. And sometimes it is a checklist or a message that arrives at the right moment.
Yes, it is a fine starting point. But slides turned into e-learning with a quiz afterwards is the simplest and often the most boring form. Use the material as raw material: Find the situations where people need to use it, and build the course around them.
There is no magic number of minutes, but shorter is almost always better. Much of what is in a course is something people do not need in their everyday work. Cut away everything that does not help anyone act, and let people skip what they already know.
Turn it around. Instead of theory followed by questions, put people in a recognisable situation where they have to choose what to do. If they answer wrong, they get the theory they were missing. If they answer right, they move on. That way they do not waste time on what they already know.
Then it is rarely knowledge that is missing. People actually want to do the right thing, but something is in the way: It feels unsafe, it makes no sense, they cannot, or it is too much hassle. Find that friction and remove it. One more course rarely helps.
Yes, and it becomes much easier if you plan for it from the start: Keep the language simple, and avoid text burned into images and videos. Also choose an LMS that can handle several languages of the same course, so you do not have to manage a copy per language.
There are many templates, but what most often goes wrong is information overload. New employees get everything at once and remember almost none of it. Give them what they need now, and the rest when they need it. A short welcome video with real colleagues often says more than a staff handbook.
An explainer is a short animated film of a couple of minutes that explains one thing. AI tools can make video, but they cannot work out what the film should get people to do. Start there, and write the script before you choose a tool.
9 questions
When you need SCORM, LMS and documentation in order.
SCORM is a standard format for e-learning, a bit like PDF is for documents. In practice, a SCORM file is a zip file with the course in it. You upload it to your LMS, and then the system can see who has completed it and what they answered.
For ordinary e-learning the difference is small, and both SCORM versions work in most LMSs. SCORM 2004 can store more about how people did. xAPI is a newer standard that can also record learning outside an LMS. Check what your LMS supports, and ask for courses in that format.
A Learning Management System is where your e-learning lives. It sends the courses out to the right employees, keeps track of who has finished, and sends reminders to those who have not.
First find out what kind you need: Are you going to sell courses to individuals, run a school or train employees? Those are three different types of system. Choose one that can run SCORM, so you are not locked to one supplier, and work out the price for the number of users you will have in a couple of years.
Yes, if the course is delivered as SCORM or xAPI, and your LMS supports it. Also ask for the source files, so you can edit the course yourselves later and are not tied to the supplier.
Yes, when the course runs in an LMS. The system records who has started, completed and passed, and what they answered, and you can pull reports on it. Just remember that completed is not the same as people doing it afterwards.
Most corporate LMSs can synchronise users automatically from Active Directory or Azure AD, so new employees come in by themselves, and those who leave disappear. Ask for it when you choose a system, and also ask whether users can be created from a spreadsheet or create themselves.
Yes, and an LMS that can run SCORM can also run them. A ready-made course just does not know your everyday work, so check whether the situations in it fit your employees before you buy.
Yes. If you are selling to individuals, a platform made for selling is often the easiest. If you are selling to companies, they will often want the course as SCORM for their own LMS. If you make the content in an authoring tool, you can deliver both.
8 questions
When you are going to build e-learning yourself.
Rise is the easiest choice and gives good-looking courses that work on mobile, but you are tied to the templates. Storyline asks more of you, but there are almost no limits to what you can make. If the content is mostly text, images and video, start with Rise. If people need to practise in situations, choose Storyline.
Make something real from the start, preferably a small course you need yourself. You learn the tool faster when you work with your own content. Articulate also has free tutorials and a large user forum.
Make it short, make it relevant to their everyday work, and do not force them through. Force makes people click as fast as possible, not learn. Put them in situations they know, and let them choose.
A learning objective is about what people should know. A behavior objective is about what they should do. Start with the behavior, and include only the knowledge it takes to be able to act. You can often cut the rest.
Test understanding, not memory. A question with one obvious right answer and three obviously wrong ones teaches nobody anything. Write wrong answers that are believable, and give feedback that explains why an answer is wrong.
Sometimes. Points, badges and leaderboards on top of a boring course rarely work and can demotivate the best people. What works is letting people make choices in realistic situations and see the consequence.
Blended learning is combining formats and using each for what it does best. Typically people take the theory as e-learning at their own pace and use the time together on exercises and reflection. A good place to start is a course you already run: Move the theory out before the course.
Yes, there are several. Mine is called DUDUR, from the Danish for Define the behavior, Investigate reality, Design solutions, Develop and Roll out. It starts with what people should do, and it can also end with no course being built at all.
5 questions
And which can save you a course nobody needs.
Because price and quality do not go together. There are expensive, advanced courses that are useless, and small, simple courses that are good. Most of it becomes boring because it starts with everything people should know, instead of what they should do.
Because learning objectives lead you towards more content. If you start with what people should know, you end up with a course full of knowledge that nobody uses. If you start with what they should do, you can see what is actually missing. And sometimes it is not knowledge at all.
When people know perfectly well what to do, but do not do it. Then the problem is not knowledge, and a course will not solve it. Sometimes it is enough to make the rules simpler or send a reminder to the right person at the right moment.
Clicking is not the same as thinking. If you tell people something and ask them about it on the next page, it is interactive, but they learn nothing. Learning comes from reflection, for example questions they have to use their own experience to answer.
Because knowledge does not automatically turn into action. I call it the knowledge-behavior illusion. People want to do the right thing, but if it feels unsafe, meaningless or a hassle in everyday work, everyday work wins.
Who answers?
I have made e-learning for more than 25 years for over 150 clients, including Per Aarsleff, Tryg, Odense Municipality and Region Zealand. I still build things myself, and we have also made our own LMS, Activate LMS.
I have written the book Superlæring: Læringens DNA (in Danish) about how we learn, and developed the DUDUR method, which we use in all our client projects.
It costs nothing to ask.
