How to avoid content bloat in your next eLearning project
You’ve probably come across the 200-slide PowerPoint problem.
A stakeholder or SME has a lot they want learners to know - for good reason. The risks matter, the context matters, and nobody wants to leave out something that could be important.
But putting everything into the course can quickly make the learning harder to get through and harder to take in.
So when you’re faced with a “put it all in the course” situation, how do you work out what really needs to be there?
Here are five practical ways to approach that conversation with SMEs and stakeholders.
1. Start with risk, not importance
If you ask whether something is important, the answer is probably going to be yes. It has made its way into the source material for a reason.
A more useful conversation is around the risks you’re trying to reduce.
What mistakes are most likely to happen?
Which would have the biggest consequences?
Where are people already getting things wrong?
The answers can help you work out which areas need the most attention in the learning.
If there are three things learners absolutely need to get right, those should be easy to spot. They may need more explanation, examples, or opportunities to practise, while lower-risk information may only need a brief mention or a place for learners to refer back to.
This can be particularly useful for topics such as Health & Safety or compliance, where there may be a long list of risks to cover. Looking at likelihood and consequence gives everyone a clearer way to decide where the learner’s attention is most needed.
2. Don’t make it a yes-or-no conversation
Content reviews can become difficult when every discussion comes down to whether something stays in the course or gets removed.
There are a few different ways to handle the same content.
For example:
Option A: Put everything into one course
Option B: Keep the must-know content in the course and provide supporting resources for the details
Option C: Break the content into a learning pathway
Each option works differently.
One course keeps everything in one place, another provides supporting resources to give learners somewhere to find specifics, and a learning pathway will help when the topic needs to be broken up across different audiences or stages.
Talking through these options gives SMEs and stakeholders a clearer picture of how the content should work for the learner, rather than turning the review into a conversation about what needs to be cut.
3. Consider whether a learning pathway would work better
Sometimes there really is a lot that learners need to cover. But this can also be a sign that a course is trying to do too much.
Breaking the learning into shorter modules can make sense when the topic has several distinct areas, or when different groups need different levels of detail.
For example, a piece of learning that applies across the whole organisation might include additional responsibilities for managers. Everyone may need the core information, but managers need a deeper understanding of their responsibilities when an issue is raised.
Putting all of that into one course means everyone works through the manager content, whether it applies to them or not.
A core module followed by role-specific learning can keep the experience relevant while still covering the information that needs to be there.
But simply splitting one long course into several shorter ones doesn’t necessarily solve the problem. If everyone still has to complete every module, the same amount of content remains.
There should be a real reason why different people need different parts of the learning.
4. Separate ‘learn’ from ‘look up’
Not everything someone might need for their job needs to be memorised during a course.
There will be information people need to understand well enough to use without referring to anything else. This could include recognising a risk, choosing the right action or knowing when something needs to be escalated.
There will also be detail they only need occasionally.
A long process, a list of approval limits, or detailed policy information that changes regularly may be more useful in a job aid, guide or knowledge base.
Think about when the learner will actually use the information. If they are likely to need it while completing a task, having something they can refer to at that point may be more useful than covering every detail in the course and expecting them to remember it weeks later.
A simple question can help:
Does the learner need to know this, or do they need to know where to find it?
The answer doesn't have to be one or the other. Some information may need to be introduced in the learning and then supported by a resource they can return to later.
5. Bring it back to the learner
When several people are reviewing a course, it’s easy for the conversation to become focused on what has or hasn’t been included.
That’s when it helps to go back to the learner.
What are they expected to do after the learning? What do they already know? Which parts of the topic apply to them? Where are they most likely to make a mistake?
These questions can also help when new requests appear later in the project.
If another section is suggested, look at what it adds for the learner. Does it help them make a decision, avoid a mistake or do something they need to do? Does it apply to everyone taking the course? Would they be better served by having that information readily available somewhere else?
This doesn't mean every piece of information needs to justify its existence. Sometimes context is important, or a small amount of additional information makes the main concept easier to understand.
The main point is to keep making deliberate decisions about what belongs in the learning, and why.
If you’ve got a lot of source material and you’re trying to work out what really needs to make it into the learning, we can help.
We work alongside clients and SMEs to make sense of the content, ask the right questions and make sure the learning stays focused on what people actually need.