Training How-To: Maintain E-Consistency July 28, 2008
By Rose Jorgensen
It's been said that people only give you credit for the things they see you do consistently. Consistency is the mark of professionalism. It's the difference between becoming a one-hit wonder and a lifetime achievement award winner. And it's no different in the world of training. When creating online courses, one of the fundamental principles upon which all development is built is maintaining consistency.
Consistency allows learners to concentrate more on the material and less on the course layout, structure, and terminology. In addition, consistency is aesthetically pleasing, and promotes craftsmanship that extends an air of credibility to the content being presented.
How can you achieve this? Implement styles and standards within your organization. "Styles" refer generally to just about any visual or functional attribute of an e-learning element involved in the presentation of content to the learner. All the factors that affect the look and feel of content presentation are elements of style. "Standards" refer to the specific set of styles, or allowed range of styles, that has been selected for a specific e-learning course, application, or range of courses or applications within an organization or business. Here are some e-styles and standards tips:
1. Check for current standards. Your organization already may have some basic styles and standards in place for printed and published documentation, as well as for its Website content. These might be a good starting point for creating styles and standards specific to your online courses.
2. Document your styles and standards. All course developers should have the information at hand to implement the styles and standards as they are developing. This can be achieved by creating a styles and standards guide (SSG) for easy reference. When creating an SSG, enlist the assistance of course developers. Chances are they already use some basic styles and standards.
3. Keep in mind some of the more important styles and standards for online courses:
• Technical
• Instructional
• User Interface
• Page Design
• Writing and Language
• Multimedia
• Interactivity
• Question
• Testing
4. Keep it flexible. Organizations must prepare an overall strategy concerning which styles they will use and what standards they will set, and under what circumstances. While consistency between courses over time is a laudable goal, the resulting advantages must be intelligently balanced with the need to accommodate change and innovation. Specifying how and when design teams can depart from general standards can eliminate many procedural problems.
5. Make it a living document. Even while guarding consistency, SSGs should be considered living documents that can accommodate changing circumstances, and should not be considered immutable. A separate review of an organization-wide SSG should be conducted periodically to ensure that factors such as changing technology and circumstances have not rendered certain requirements antiquated or obsolete, and that appropriate options have been left to the discretion of those developing specific courses.
6. Avoid the sin of absolutism. Organizations and developers also should be aware that, while it is essential to provide an e-learning SSG, it is of utmost importance to understand the sin of "absolutism." Styles and standards provide the foundation for consistency within courseware, but there is always the exception to the rule. Never stifle creativity for the sake of "sticking to the rules."
Rose Jorgensen is the senior instructional designer of the Educational Product Development Group (EPDG) at OutStart, a global provider of software for learning and knowledge sharing. She can be reached at rjorgensen@outstart.com.
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