Successive approximation, rapid prototyping, agile methods—they all call for iterative development. With each iteration you take a product out to the learners and gather new input into your designs. Does this completely mess with everything we’ve learned about the ADDIE model? How do you know when to stop iterating? How do you convince your project sponsors to go along? Is this just an excuse for releasing shoddy work?

Building eLearning isn’t just about design and development. Each eLearning course or module you develop is essentially a project. Project management can be a daunting task, from goal definition to the post-mortem review. However, proper management of eLearning projects can have more of an impact on success than even design and development.

Most organizations focus on the quality of the eLearning they develop, but have you ever considered the quality of the workflows used to create that eLearning? We always face the challenge of doing more faster but with fewer resources. As such it is critical that an organization’s eLearning-development workflows are organized and efficient. Many organizations resist the need for more organization under the reasoning that the process is time-consuming; the opposite is actually true.

Modern eLearning courses are technology solutions developed and implemented using many of the same techniques and tools that software developers use. Both share similar challenges: subject matter experts to navigate, aggressive deadlines to manage, assorted files and assets to organize, and an integrated approach to delivery, accounting for various hosting and browsing systems plus ongoing user support.