If you are looking for a comprehensive training content development plan for higher education learning or corporate training, you have reached the perfect place!

Training content development is the cornerstone of creating efficient employees and successful learning programs in any organization. Whether you’re developing eLearning courses, corporate training modules, or educational curricula, the foundation has to be laid right to achieve the desired results.

It could be a tedious job to plan, outline, design, launch, and market an effective eLearning course development structure. Organizations must create an engaging eLearning curriculum design and initiate a powerful Instructional Design Process that can deliver knowledge and engage learners. However, with the right approach and methodology, you can create training content that not only educates but also inspires and empowers learners.

But why are we giving so much importance to training content development? Sure, you can create a guide or a manual on how to do certain tasks and operations within your organization. Yet, modern-day employees do not prefer standard off-the-shelf content. You need to talk to them, understand their learning needs and learning styles, and create training content that is customized to their specific needs and job roles.

Welcome to this comprehensive, step-by-step guide, which professionals and subject-matter experts approve to help you create an exceptional course structure. This process includes instructional design best practices that will equip you with the appropriate skills and knowledge to create outstanding training programs for modern learners.

Table of Contents:

The Significance of Training Content Development

It is essential to understand why training content development and eLearning Course Development are crucial in today’s digital-first world. The modern workplace is driven by digital learning because it is a cost-effective, sustainable, and eco-friendly alternative that offers personalized convenience, allowing learners to learn at their own pace.

The Hallmarks of Effective Training Content

Effective training content development creates programs that:

  • Keep employees engaged: Interactive and relevant content maintains learner interest throughout the training journey
  • Better knowledge retention: Well-designed content improves information retention by up to 50%
  • Improve employee productivity: Properly trained employees perform tasks more efficiently, saving time and resources
  • Increase employee motivation: Engaging training content makes learning enjoyable and rewarding

10 Essential Steps for Training Content Development

To start your training content development journey effectively, certain aspects need to be addressed and identified before you begin. This comprehensive 10-point guide will walk you through the entire process:

Essential Steps for Training Content Development

Step 1: Business Needs Analysis

To start training content development, we first need to understand the business’s end goal.

For example, your business has purchased new software. Your employees need to learn and understand its functions so that they can perform their tasks efficiently, eventually improve productivity, and save time. Understanding this business need sets the foundation for all subsequent training development activities.

Step 2: Learning Needs Analysis

Once we understand the business needs, we need to identify the specific learning needs.

Continuing with our example, the software has different streams or modules, such as sales, purchases, accounts, HR, etc. Now, we must determine which role in the organization needs training in which module(s). This targeted approach ensures that training content development efforts are focused and relevant.

Step 3: Learner Profile

It’s important to understand that not all employee roles require the same training. Every job role has unique learning needs, so we need to zero in on the exact areas of training.

For example, not every employee in the Accounts department needs to be trained on the entire Accounts module. Some may need training only on Accounts Receivable, and some on Accounts Payable. Creating detailed learner profiles ensures your training content development is precisely targeted to the right audience.

Step 4: Terminal Learning Objectives

Once we have identified the learner profiles, we need to define the overall learning objectives for every role or profile. The terminal objectives define what a learner will learn in the training and what they will be able to achieve on completion of the training.

Ask yourself: “What do I want my learners to know or be able to do after they complete this course?” and “Who are my learners, and what do they need from this course?” Having a clear understanding of your objectives and target audience will help you design a course that is relevant, engaging, and effective.

Step 5: Enabling Learning Outcomes

Enabling outcomes are intermediate goals or milestones that a learner achieves to fulfill larger terminal objectives. These are like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that form the larger picture.

Each enabling objective should represent a specific skill or knowledge component that builds toward the terminal objective. This step-by-step approach in training content development ensures learners can track their progress and build confidence as they advance.

Step 6: Formative Assessments

Formative assessments are intermediate checkpoints to ensure the learner has absorbed the information provided in the training content.

Each enabling objective must be aligned with at least one question. However, there can be multiple questions aligned to an enabling objective. They are normally not scored and provide descriptive feedback for reinforcement. This continuous evaluation approach is crucial for effective training content development.

Step 7: Summative Assessments

Summative assessments are aligned with the terminal objectives and touch upon the enabling objectives.

These assessments are used to ensure the end objective of the training content is met. They are scored and often require a minimum score to be completed successfully. Providing regular feedback and assessment is an important part of any eLearning course, helping learners track their progress and identify areas for improvement.

Step 8: Content Outline

Once we have identified the enabling objectives and decided on what parameters we want to test the learners on, we need to list the topics and subtopics for the developing training content.

The content outline should focus on what the learner needs to learn to meet the enabling and terminal objectives and complete the formative and summative assessments. This is the blueprint for your training content development project.

Step 9: Identify Possible Sources

This is the treasure hunt part of the exercise. The information we are looking for to create the training content can be with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), in manuals, government notifications or circulars, or simply in someone’s head. It can be anywhere. The job is to hunt it down and document it.

Collaborating with SMEs and gathering authentic source material is essential for creating credible and valuable training content. Always confirm that your content is authentic and not outdated.

Step 10: Content Format

Finally, we need to know how we are delivering the training. It always helps to know if the content training will occur in a classroom or through eLearning, microlearning, videos, etc.

Consider your target audience and their learning style when choosing the format for your course. For example:

  • If you’re targeting visual learners, include more videos and images
  • If you’re targeting auditory learners, focus on audio recordings and podcasts
  • For kinesthetic learners, incorporate interactive simulations and hands-on activities

Blended learning means mixing two or more delivery methods. Traditionally, it used classroom and virtual learning together, but now it has an extended meaning. You can offer mobile learning, virtual learning, digital learning, and classroom learning, all under blended learning.

6 Easy Steps to Develop an eLearning Course

Once you’ve completed the foundational training content development planning, you can move into the practical course creation phase. Creating an eLearning course means following 6 essential steps to help educators and organizations deliver high-quality content:

Easy Steps to Develop an eLearning Course

Step 1: Set Up Your Learning Objectives

All eLearning courses that gain prevalence usually begin with clearly defined learning objectives. Those goals tell students what they can expect to learn during the course. Thus, take some time to think about what specific knowledge or skills you want learners to gain after taking this course.

Keep these objectives in mind throughout the process of creating content for your lessons. In fact, this is a great time to confirm that your goals are measurable and specific—a cornerstone of effective training content development.

Step 2: Know Your Target Audience

You must understand your target group well enough to create an effective online education course. We need to know more than just their age bracket; we must also consider factors such as the level of education attained so far, professional background, current competency levels, and learning preferences.

What drives them towards learning? What could pose challenges along the way? Such questions help us get into headspaces that are different from ours, which then enables customization according to individual needs during teaching periods.

Step 3: Select Content and Design Course Structure

After identifying learning objectives and knowing who your audience is, choose suitable materials for delivery purposes in this e-learning program. Some examples include text-based readings, videos, and interactive quizzes, among many others. All items used must be engaging enough while still being relevant to the goals mentioned in step one above. Simplify complex ideas by splitting them down into smaller units, but remember that multiple-choice questions.

In addition, designing the structure for your eLearning course development is essential. Arrange your contents in a flow that makes sense, beginning with an introduction that sets the scene and ending with a conclusion that restates key takeaways. Split up your course into modules or sections, and each should concentrate on a specific topic or learning outcome. You can create a navigation system allowing learners to move easily through the course while keeping track of their progress.

Step 4: Develop Engaging Activities

Engaging learners is absolutely vital for the success and enjoyment of any eLearning program! Activities that spark interest not only elevate the learning experience but also enhance information retention in remarkable ways. When learners dive into the material and participate actively, they are much more likely to grasp and apply new concepts with confidence.

Use multimedia effectively. Multimedia, such as videos, images, and audio recordings, can be a powerful tool to help learners understand and retain information. However, it’s important to use multimedia effectively and avoid overwhelming learners with too much information at once.

Step 5: Test and Iterate

This step involves testing what you have created before releasing it into the World Wide Web as an eLearning course. Ensure everything works fine by inviting a few beta testers who will review the content, navigation, and functionality aspects of the course from their point of view.

Create a survey to understand the viability and feasibility of the course. This survey should include questions through which your employees can deliver their feedback. Depending upon the feedback, revisit the above steps and make changes accordingly.

Listen carefully while they give feedback, but also be ready to make necessary changes where needed, depending on what was suggested during the testing phase, since this could help improve the overall design in some cases. This iterative approach is essential in training content development for creating truly effective learning experiences.

Step 6: Launch and Evaluate

When you are happy with your eLearning course, it is time to publish it to your target audience. Advertise the course through appropriate channels, such as your organization’s learning management system, a dedicated website, or a third-party eLearning platform.

Measure learners’ engagement and satisfaction levels and then collect feedback to continuously improve the course over time. Use analytics tools to track learner progress and evaluate whether the course meets its learning objectives.

Consider using quizzes, tests, and other forms of assessment to help learners evaluate their understanding of the material and provide regular feedback to help them stay on track.

Final Thoughts

In a nutshell, developing effective training content doesn’t have to be a daunting task. By following these comprehensive steps and best practices, you can create high-quality, engaging learning experiences for your audience.

The level of engagement the training content provides determines whether an employee will stay focused throughout the training program. Moreover, with careful planning and execution, you can effortlessly develop training content that inspires and empowers learners to achieve their goals.

Are you ready to take your eLearning initiatives and training content development to the next level? Look no further than Hurix Digital.

Hurix Digital has provided digital content solutions to organizations of various scales and across multiple sectors. We offer innovative and engaging programs for training content development and employee training.

Transform your training and education with a customized e-learning course designed to meet your unique needs. We are here to help if you want to create compelling and engaging training content for your employees! To learn more about Hurix Digital’s innovative solutions, click here or book a discovery call with our eLearning experts to explore customized content creation strategies that drive engagement and results.