E-learning templates.. love it or hate it

Read time: 2 minutes

Today’s issue of my blog is sponsored by FasterCourse.com. FasterCourse has more than 50 beautifully designed and programmed Articulate Storyline e-learning templates that hundreds of people worldwide use to create effective and engaging e-learning courses. (including me!)

With the coupon code upwardonline, you’ll now get a 10% discount on all of the FasterCourse e-learning templates! Go to the FasterCourse website and enter the coupon code on the checkout page for your 10% discount!

E-learning templates are boring and don’t work well.

Many people think e-learning templates are boring and don’t work well. I get where this misconception comes from when I see what templates I sometimes have to work with.  

It’s sad that this misconception about e-learning templates still exists. 

When you have a set of good templates, you can save heaps of time and make much better quality e-learning courses. 

But then your e-learning templates must meet a few requirements 

✅ Adoption: you can have a fantastic template, but it will remain a mess if no one knows how it works. Ensure you include clear instructions so everyone can work with the templates in your organisation.  

✅ The correct settings: I see many templates that are not. They are loose elements added to the slides. Make sure you create the slides in Storyline in the Slide Master. Also, set the right colours and fonts here so that all text, shapes, etc., are automatically in the right style. 
 
✅ Balance in variety: you want to provide enough different layouts to create your e-learning courses. Too few layouts will cause people to “tinker” themselves, and too many layouts will make it cluttered. So this needs to be balanced. Most of my templates have about 10 layouts to choose from. 

✅ Think about the design: creating templates is often uneasy. You have to design templates based on content that does not exist yet and of which you do not know how long it will be. Make your templates as fluid as possible. 

✅ Test your templates: Are your templates ready to start building with? Stop and take a step back. First, test your templates thoroughly before using them. It’s easy to adjust something in 1 template instead of in 10 different places in your course. 

I have been designing templates for both SMBs and large multinationals for years and see that a well-developed template delivers the following: 
 
✅ Major time savings on creating courses 
✅ Your e-learning courses are consistent, and all look good 
✅ Your courses fit entirely into your company’s corporate identity. Should the corporate identity change, you can easily modify templates and existing courses built with templates. 

Do you also want good-looking templates that are easy for your organisation?  

Then keep an eye on my emails and social media because soon I will launch a brand new service for quality custom e-learning templates for your organization. 

See you next week 

Mark 

P.s: Whenever you’re ready, this is how I can help you:

Want to become a Storyline pro, build confidence and improve your career? Subscribe now to my ultimate Articulate Storyline online course.

. In this online course, you will learn everything you need from e-learning design, states, triggers, variables and conditions to creating templates and implementing your finished course in an LMS. This online course has 63+ videos—5+ hours of truly practical video content.

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