The King’s New Clothes: Repurposing f2f content for eLearning 

Wondering whether your existing face-to-face content is suitable for use in an eLearning initiative? Stop wondering.
It isn’t. 

Sorry, that’s just the plain truth. Your content may be perfect for a live instructor to deliver, but if you try to force-feed it into an eLearning tool and serve it to trainees, your learning initiative is probably doomed.

However, a bit of solid instructional design work will fix this. Here’s a quick guide on how to evaluate your existing content, and how to make it eLearning ready!

1. Check the learning objectives 

If your f2f content was written some time ago, or as part of a different business initiative, its learning objectives might or might not match your current ones. You need to be quite strict here and be willing to put in however much effort is required to get the content in shape.

Remember, if its learning objectives don’t 100% match your current ones, you run the risk of developing something that doesn’t produce the business results your stakeholders expect.  

• If the content is aimed at some of your learning objectives, but not all, add to it.
   
• If some of it serves learning objectives you don’t currently need, exclude these parts of it from your own initiative. 
  
  
• If the content has the same learning objectives as your current needs, but for whatever reason you feel it doesn’t adequately serve them, make improvements. 

2. Make sure it’s aged well 

If your f2f content was written some time ago, make sure it’s still up to date. Check all facts, but also things like references to current affairs and current technology.

We recently evaluated some content which referenced the iPhone 5 as being cutting edge. In another project, we came across content that discussed kinds of financial trading without ever referencing cryptocurrency. Updating was necessary.

If your trainees suspect that the content is out of date, they will feel it’s irrelevant to them and they will become disengaged.   

3. Split it into small, self-standing learning objects 

Your f2f content was probably delivered in sessions that lasted for hours or even entire days. Your eLearning needs to be delivered in small chunks with a seat time of 20 minutes each or less. See if your content can be easily split into small learning objects. It’s likely that you will need to restructure or rewrite parts of it, but it’s a job that really needs doing. 

4. Develop the content 

If your content is in the form of a presentation that your instructors used, a lot of learning material is probably available in bullet points only. Remember that eLearners will not have a human available to explain for them, so the content might need to be fleshed out.  

5. Add opportunities for interactivity 

In f2f training, a good instructor has ways of making learning fun, and engaging the trainees. These techniques are not usually ‘written into’ the content. It’s important to restructure, rewrite and develop the content so that your eLearning features enough interaction, and maybe even a few fun tasks.  

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We’re always available to chat about this or any other eLearning matter.

We love what we do, and we love talking to people about it! 🙂