7 steps to creating engaging and effective e-learning video lectures.

E-learning is a form of education, training, and knowledge sharing through online platforms. Many industries can apply this method, such as academic education, corporate training, and skill development courses. Refer to the content below to understand the 7-step process for creating engaging e-learning video lectures. 

Things you need to know about E-learning

Before learning about the process of building e-learning video lectures, you need to understand the concept itself and related information.

The concept of E-learning

E-learning (Electronic Learning) means online training. It's a new form of learning that allows training and teaching to be conducted through an internet-connected system. This format can be used in many different fields, such as:

• Academic education
• Corporate training
• Specialized development
• Skill development courses
• …

The development of e-learning has been ongoing for a long time, but it was only with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic that e-learning truly became widely adopted. This was due to the complete disruption of the in-person education system, leading to a sudden surge in demand for online learning solutions.

The history of the emergence of E-learning

In November 1999, the term E-learning was coined by American education expert Elliott Masie. He stated at the TechLearn conference that: "E-learning is the use of network technology to design, deliver, manage, and scale education."

By 2000, e-learning had taken a giant leap forward, becoming revolutionary and widely used on mobile devices and tablets.

The benefits of e-learning for businesses.

For businesses of all sizes, the use of e-learning is considered essential for managing employee training and development. This includes teaching them new knowledge and skills, and updating and improving their proficiency.

Online learning and training through e-learning offers many benefits to businesses, such as:

• Reduce training costs.When using e-learning, your business doesn't need to spend a lot of money on renting classrooms, organizing conferences, or travel expenses. All you need is an electronic device like a computer or phone with an internet connection to participate in online e-learning classes.
• Extensive coverageCompared to on-site training, distance learning through online e-learning has absolutely no barriers. Businesses can train hundreds or thousands of employees simultaneously with the same unified content. Employees from different locations also don't have to spend a lot of time traveling to class. All they need is an electronic device with a stable internet connection.
• It has a data management system.In online e-learning, lecture content or new knowledge is stored by a learning management system. All information is stored, categorized, and retrieved as needed. Simply put, it's like an online library where any student can access learning materials.
• Easily track your learning progress.Although instructors cannot meet and discuss student abilities in person, they can assess student performance through automated analyses via learning management systems, providing reports and charts.

Types of E-learning content

• E-learning video lectures in PowerPoint slide format.
• e-books
• Screencast (screen recording video)
• Podcast
• …

Each type has its own strengths and is suitable for different learning and teaching goals. Depending on the type of content and objectives, you can choose the appropriate e-learning format. The important thing to remember is to correctly identify the target audience and learning objectives.

7-Step Process for Creating Effective E-learning Video Lectures

Implementing e-learning requires many factors such as design capabilities, teamwork, and finances. Typically, for a business needing to implement e-learning, the preparation alone can take anywhere from one week to one year, depending on the scale of the project.

To create effective and engaging e-learning video lectures, you need a detailed plan. The following 7-step process will help make your e-learning lectures a success:

Step 1: Conduct a needs analysis.

Analyzing needs will help you conduct training effectively.

Define training goals and objectives.:

The first step in creating an e-learning video lecture is to figure out why people need to participate in this lecture. What do you want to achieve with this course?

Identify the target audience.

Before you begin creating e-learning video lectures, take a closer look at your potential audience. Also, answer the following specific questions:

• How many students are there?
• What are their job titles and responsibilities (human resources, customer service, sales, etc.)?
• What demographic data and student characteristics are needed? For example, average age, educational level, place of residence, equipment used, computer proficiency, etc.
• Have the learners ever been exposed to this topic before? Or have they received any prior training in this field?

Identify an online learning platform.

The next step is to determine how you will deliver your course to your students. Based on how you want to convey your e-learning content, choose the appropriate format and software.

Currently, there are many different e-learning software applications available, allowing users to deliver entire lectures, tests, and interactive sessions online.

• FPT.eLearning
• Lac Viet E-learning software
• VNPT E-learning
• VnResource E-learning Pro
• Canvas LMS
• Moodle
• MindFlash
• Gitiho
• LotusLMS

Prepare tools for creating e-learning content.

This will be the tool to help you create all the content for your e-learning video lectures. Depending on your usage skills and lecture objectives, you can choose the appropriate toolset. A typical example is PowerPoint, which follows the SCORM standard.

Step 2: Perform content analysis

Once you've identified the reason and target audience for your e-learning video lecture, you need to delve deeper into content analysis. Because no matter how well-designed the lecture is, if the content doesn't provide real value, the course won't be successful.

At this step, you need to perform the following analyses:

• Clearly define from the outset what knowledge or skills learners will acquire upon completion of the course.
• You can discuss content topics with experts. They are a great source of information, providing ideas to help you develop and build effective e-learning content. They also help check and validate the content, ensuring the project stays on track.
• Develop ideas for the type of content you will include in each section of the lecture. For example, concepts, processes, rules, etc. This step will help you gain an overview, see the connections between the information, and organize it appropriately.

Step 3: Build the lesson storyboard.

After breaking down the content into main and sub-topics, you can use this to build a lecture storyboard. Include all information such as titles, slide names, text, etc., in the form of images, icons, charts, infographics, or videos.

Step 4: Write the script

Once you have a complete content draft, proceed to build a complete script. The script is considered the key to the success of your e-learning video lecture. Depending on your capabilities, you can write the script yourself or hire a professional. Collaborate with them to provide knowledge and exchange ideas to transform it into the best possible script.

Step 5: Choose the video format

At this step, you will select the appropriate video type to match your e-learning style. The type will depend on the topic:

• RecordingThis is a screen recording of all your activities and actions on the device.
• Short videoThese are short videos, lasting only 10-15 seconds. An e-learning lesson will consist of a series of visual videos to convey information.
• ActingSpecific situations will be portrayed by the characters to provide and convey information and increase interaction.
• Video presentationThe content will be delivered by a presenter, who will stand in front of a camera. Alternatively, a video recording of the lecture will be used, presented by the instructor on a black and white board.
• GraphicsThis video format is designed with pre-existing content and incorporates additional effects, graphics, animation, and text.
• Interactive videoThis video format encourages interaction between teacher and learner by providing viewers with choices when a situation arises.

Step 6: Sound

Once you have the script ready, you can proceed to record your voice or narrate the lecture. You can do it yourself or hire a professional voice-over artist to make the lecture more lively and engaging.

But whichever method you choose, you need to keep the following points in mind:

• Recording space: Choose the quietest place possible to record, if you don't have a professional recording studio.
• Microphone: Use a good quality microphone to create high-quality e-learning video lectures. This is extremely important because it determines your ability to convey information effectively; clear sound and voice will help listeners absorb the information more easily. If necessary, you can add a pop filter to help improve sound quality and reduce distracting background noise.
• Prepare your voiceA captivating voice, clear pronunciation, and easy-to-understand audio will contribute to a higher quality and more effective e-learning lecture.

Step 7: Checking and Evaluation

In this final step, everything is almost complete; you just need to carefully check each part and evaluate the overall content and form once they are linked together.

There will be several things to do in this step, specifically including:

• Check the text content, font, font size, images, etc.;
• Ensure that your e-learning video lectures are optimized for all electronic devices, including mobile phones;

You can run a trial of the e-learning course or invite friends and colleagues to participate in testing it so they can provide feedback to improve the content and format of the e-learning course.

Finally, once you've completed everything, simply press the publish button for your video lecture. Depending on your e-learning editor, you can save the content to various platforms such as your computer's hard drive, cloud storage, or YouTube.

In summary, e-learning is a form of online education and training that offers many benefits to individuals and businesses. Therefore, it's advisable to implement and apply this method early to achieve noticeable results. Hopefully, with the information in this article, you have grasped the steps to create effective and engaging e-learning video lectures.