Hurix DigitalHurix DigitalHurix DigitalHurix Digital
  • Home
  • What we do
    • Digital Content Solutions
      • eLearning & Training Solutions
      • Higher Education Solutions
      • K-12 Content Solutions
      • Design, Animation & Video Services
    • Digital Content Transformation
      • Production Services
      • Pre Press & Editorial Services
      • Quality As A Service
      • Robotic Process Automation
    • Digital Engineering & Technology
      • Learning Technology Services
      • Managed Cloud Services
      • Custom Software Development
      • E-Commerce Solutions
      • Business Analysis as a service
    • Digital Platforms
      • Kitaboo
      • Kitaboo Insight
      • Kitaboo College
      • Learning Management System
  • Who we are
    • About Us
    • Life at Hurix
    • Careers
  • Who We Serve
    • Higher Education Institutions
    • K-12 Institutions
    • Enterprises
    • Publishers
    • Societies & Nonprofit Associations
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Case Studies
    • How To Guides
    • Whitepapers
    • Point Of View
    • Awards
    • Press Releases
    • Podcast
  • Contact Us
Educational Program Design

Best Practices in Educational Program Design

By Hurix | Higher Ed & K-12 Solutions | Comments are Closed | 13 December, 2021 | 0

A professional instructional designer uses several best practices and excellent strategies while designing their courses that help the learner understand, grasp, and retain the content effectively. Following instructional design best practices is critical to driving maximum learning impact while also taking care of learners’ time and short attention spans. Further, it also ensures that knowledge transfer happens seamlessly, thus leaving a lasting impact on learners’ skill sets.

This blog aims to outline some of the most important best practices adopted by expert instructional designers to make the most effective educational program designs.

Best practices in educational program design


1. Set clear learning goals and objectives

As an instructional designer, it’s important to clearly explain the goals and objectives of the course or the educational program you’re creating. Clearly understanding the overall learning requirements, the audience who needs to take the training, and how the training is supposed to benefit learners should be established before you begin to work on the course design.

You must know what you want your learners to achieve at the end of the course. Remember that any content that does not align with a learning objective, course goal, or the desired learning outcome is irrelevant information. It is something that students do not need to know to develop required skill sets, knowledge, or to be successful. 

2. Promote active learning strategies

When it comes to online learning specifically, it is often self-paced and self-directed, making active learning an important aspect for engaging with students, keeping them focused, and improving their motivation. 

Active learning strategies help address various learning needs and cultivate a strong sense of community among students. Some of the active learning strategies you can employ here include-

  • Connecting lessons to the real world to make the course material and overall educational program design more relevant to the participants
  • Incorporating more interactivity into your courses, such as simulations, quizzes, polls, exercises, and drag-and-drop activities
  • Facilitating active collaboration by either inviting learners to share their ideas/notes or generating a discussion prompt for everyone to participate in a discussion

3. Create 10-20 minute lessons

Breaking down the content into 10-20 minutes short lessons is an excellent way to help learners stay focused on the topic while learning. Adopting such a microlearning approach of breaking your content into smaller, more manageable chunks makes it easier for your learners to fit it into their schedules, along with making it more accessible and easier to consume. While designing the course, make sure to review your content and consider ways to break it down into separate topics and sub-topics.

4. Gamify the content

Gamification refers to the application of gaming mechanics to non-gaming environments to make difficult tasks more palatable.

Some of the common game mechanics you can include in your educational program include points, badges, leaderboards, and levels. Incorporating these game elements while designing the courses makes learning more fun, engaging and also enables you to tap into some powerful human emotions.

Learners in any scenario love to compete against others and get rewards. It also gives you several indicators of learner progress and makes the overall learning experience more engaging and effective. 

5. Focus on reliable and measurable outcomes

It is important to accurately and effectively gauge learner performance by making learner engagement and performance data the heart of your educational program design process.

Some of the questions that can help you at this stage include-

  • What exactly are you teaching and why?
  • How will you know that your learners have met the desired level of mastery?
  • What is your instructional goal, and what your learner’s participants will be able to do differently or what they will know that they didn’t know before?

Apart from this, take advantage of a combination of various multimedia elements to keep your learners engaged and focused on the content. For instance, using a short, concise and relevant video clip to reinforce a concept/topic is much more impactful as compared to static graphics and on-screen text.

6. Provide feedback to the learners

Providing clear and consistent feedback to the learner is just as important as the course design itself. It is also important to remember that feedback should be quick and explanatory in nature.

For instance, if a learner selects a correct option, the feedback shouldn’t simply say ‘that’s correct!’ Instead, it should offer a brief explanation of why it is correct, which helps to reinforce the key concepts of the topic.

On the contrary, if the learner selects an incorrect option, the feedback, instead of just saying ‘Sorry, that’s incorrect,’ should explain why the answer is wrong.

Final thoughts

Designing an educational program can be a challenging task for instructional designers. However, there are things that instructional designers can do to make learning programs more impactful. By following the above-mentioned best practices, you can make a real difference in learning.

The key here is to start by thoroughly assessing your audience and clearly establishing their needs. This will allow you to fine-tune your program design until it’s perfectly optimized for learners. Once done, all you need to do is to craft active learning experiences and ensure that your content is easily accessible on all digital devices, and use various game mechanics to incentivize your participants into action.

Educational Program Design

Related Post

  • scenario based learning | Scenario Based Learning to Boost the eLearning Experience & ROI

    8 tips to gain maximum ROI from Learning Management Systems (LMS)

    By Hurix | Comments are Closed

    Lifelong learning will drive results for the modern workforce. Anyone from 18-80 years of age working as a pizza delivery boy , a CEO, or a retired professional – all of them need to learnRead more

  • How learner personas enhance mobile learning within organizations

    By Hurix | Comments are Closed

    A large percentage of your workforce is constantly on the move and needs access to vital pieces of information – and they need it immediately, anytime, anywhere. Also, since they have a small window ofRead more

  • Everything You Need to Know About Software Testing Metrics

    By Hurix | Comments are Closed

    As software projects become more and more complex, it becomes imperative for project leads/managers to track the quality at every stage of the software development cycle to ensure that the end-product is completely error-free. TheyRead more

  • Top Reasons Why Companies Outsource Quality Assurance Services

    By Hurix | Comments are Closed

    Software development companies are well aware that innovation is the keyword to retain a competitive edge in the market. However, with in-house teams focusing on developing innovative applications, at times, quality takes a back seat.Read more

  • 4 Easy Analytics Hacks for Successful Employee Training

    By Hurix | Comments are Closed

    Data analytics generates a lot of excitement in the corporate field. The world is talking about how companies are using big data & analytics to know their customer better. The same science, when applied toRead more

  • WCAG – Quick Facts and Guide

    By Hurix | Comments are Closed

    At a time when digital media has turned into a way of life, be it for businesses, marketers or individuals, conforming to a set of rules that help define how content and design should beRead more

  • Five Industries That Will Drive Virtual Reality in Corporate Training

    By Hurix | Comments are Closed

    The future of immersive learning is here and now, and it’s virtual. Pegged as the next big L&D trend, virtual reality is predicted to revolutionize corporate training across businesses. As the world gets faster withRead more

  • Web Accessibility Guidelines

    By Hurix | Comments are Closed

    Web Accessibility Guidelines InfographicRead more

More Resources

  • Case Studies
  • Whitepapers
  • How To Guides
  • Point of View
  • Awards
  • Press Release
  • Podcast

Follow Us

Recent Posts

  • 25 March, 2023
    Comments Off on Top X Blended Learning Resources for Workforce Training and Development

    Top X Blended Learning Resources for Workforce Training and Development

  • 25 March, 2023
    Comments Off on What are the Blended Learning Best Practices in 2023?

    What are the Blended Learning Best Practices in 2023?

  • 25 March, 2023
    Comments Off on What is Interactive E-Learning and How to Implement it in Your Organization?

    What is Interactive E-Learning and How to Implement it in Your Organization?

  • 25 March, 2023
    Comments Off on All You Need to Know About Courseware Digitization Process

    All You Need to Know About Courseware Digitization Process

Categories

  • Digital Content Solutions
  • Digital Engineering & Technology
  • Digital Products & Platforms
  • Digital Transformation Services
  • Higher Ed & K-12 Solutions

Services & Solutions

  • Managed Cloud Services
  • Custom Software Development
  • eLearning & Training Solutions
  • Pre Press & Editorial Services
  • Higher Education Solutions

Products and Platforms

  • Kitaboo
  • Kitaboo Insight
  • Kitaboo College
  • Learning Management System
  • ePUB3 Conversion

Resources

  • Blog
  • Case Studies
  • Press Releases
  • How To Guides
  • Whitepapers
  • Point Of View

About Us

  • Our Clients
  • Contact Us
  • Awards
  • CSR Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
Copyright © 2023 Hurix | All Rights Reserved.
  • Home
  • What we do
    • Digital Content Solutions
      • eLearning & Training Solutions
      • Higher Education Solutions
      • K-12 Content Solutions
      • Design, Animation & Video Services
    • Digital Content Transformation
      • Production Services
      • Pre Press & Editorial Services
      • Quality As A Service
      • Robotic Process Automation
    • Digital Engineering & Technology
      • Learning Technology Services
      • Managed Cloud Services
      • Custom Software Development
      • E-Commerce Solutions
      • Business Analysis as a service
    • Digital Platforms
      • Kitaboo
      • Kitaboo Insight
      • Kitaboo College
      • Learning Management System
  • Who we are
    • About Us
    • Life at Hurix
    • Careers
  • Who We Serve
    • Higher Education Institutions
    • K-12 Institutions
    • Enterprises
    • Publishers
    • Societies & Nonprofit Associations
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Case Studies
    • How To Guides
    • Whitepapers
    • Point Of View
    • Awards
    • Press Releases
    • Podcast
  • Contact Us
Hurix Digital
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
Cookie SettingsAccept All
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT