Catching up... with Rapid eLearning Design

Who doesn’t like to get things done fast? Time is money, and the more people you have to involve in a process, the more expensive and time-intensive development becomes.

Rapid eLearning Design was developed in 2004 in response to research indicating organisations typically wanted the ability to get training to employees in under 3 weeks. When Rapid eLearning Design is utilised, many processes are simplified.

For example, with the use of simplified design programs, the number of professionals involved in designing instruction may be scaled down to simply a Subject

A Subject Matter Expert or SME and a single instructional designer (instead of an SME, instructional designer, developer, project lead, liaison manager, etc.); accordingly, communication and design of courses or modules can often become more efficient and economical than other methods of design.

With fewer heads involved, and developing using structured but flexible processes and tools, characteristically, content can be published much more quickly, and SMEs have significantly more direct input into the content and functionality of the course than they would under a different instructional design model.

I have found some of the built-in learning objects in Canvas and Blackboard useful for rapid eLearning design, but there is so much more available in tools like Captivate, Articulate and Lectora.