Simple outline of how to kick-off and manage an elearning project.

1. eLearning Development: A How-To Primer
Starting an eLearning Program
Once the decision has been made to develop elearning, the question is, now what? If your
organization is planning to develop eLearning internally, or will be contracting with an eLearning
vendor, this decision can seem daunting. However, if you understand the foundation from which
eLearning is designed, you’ll be on your way to planning a successful project.
This article outlines what considerations need to be made when beginning a custom eLearning
project. It will be helpful if the project is developed internally, or if working with a development
partner.
The first step is to identify the criteria for a successful custom eLearning project. This includes:
1) Creating a clear definition of project goals
2) Determining project size and scope
3) Identifying budgetary requirements
4) Setting a delivery date
5) Confirming availability of suitable and sufficient resources
6) Ensuring an IT infrastructure that can support eLearning
7) Targeting learners’ needs
8) A defined evaluation process for post program delivery
Additionally, it is helpful to have the following variables firmly in place in order to “set the
stage” for success:
9) Early support and belief in the project from senior management
10) Support and commitment from stakeholders
You may have other success factors that are specific to your organization. After you’ve identified
what constitutes success for you, then you need to begin to get the support and “buy-in” from
all required players.
After it’s been decided to go ahead with an elearning program, the project team needs to be
identified, including who has what role – project owner, key stakeholders, instructional
designer, project manager, graphic artist and technical support. The project team, led by either
the project manager or instructional designer, identifies project goals, followed by requirements
identification and documentation. These steps, and the assurance that all areas of the
organization are included in this early phase, will impact how well the project progresses, and its
ultimate success.
Project Kick-off
A project kick-off meeting is the official start of a project. At this meeting a project schedule is
created. To create a realistic development schedule, work backwards from the required delivery
date of when the training program must be “live”. This establishes the length of the
development process, ensuring all steps will be completed.
Ruth Kustoff, Principal
rkustoff@knowledgeadvantage.biz

2. Other discussion and decision reached during the kick-off include:
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The project size and scope
Determination of clear expectations of the final deliverable
Onboarding and bringing up-to-speed project stakeholders
Addressing known risk factors
Following the kick-off meeting, the high-level design phase begins, followed by the identified
QA, review and approval processes. At this point, the project is well on its way.
Phases of eLearning Development
There are five major phases in eLearning development, with a follow-up evaluation phase. Listed
below is each phase, including sub tasks:
1. Planning
a. Project requirements identification and collection
b. Project schedule and milestones
c. High-level content design
i. Develop hierarchy of content with learning objectives
ii. Subject matter review and stakeholder approval
d. Script development
i. Create full text of course content
ii. Subject matter review and stakeholder approval
e. Assessment of technical infrastructure and program needs
2. Design
a. Storyboard development
i. Graphic and animation design
ii. Subject matter review and stakeholder approval
3. Development
i. Course development in authoring environment
4. Quality Assurance and testing
5. Delivery and deployment
6. Evaluation
The Project Manager
It is important to have an experienced custom eLearning project manager leading the
development process to oversee the project and its players. There are two distinct teams the
project manager oversees in slightly different ways: the client team, and the development team.
The business team includes:
• the project owner / sponsor,
• the subject matter expert(s),
• key stakeholders, and
• external team members (i.e. communications and legal) for review and approval
Ruth Kustoff, Principal
rkustoff@knowledgeadvantage.biz

3. The development team includes:
• instructional designers,
• graphic artists,
• developers,
• editors,
• testers and
• QA reviewers.
In managing both teams, one key factor is to ensure ongoing, open, two-way communication
among team members, and between individual team members and the project manager. Also,
when scheduling tasks and creating deliverable milestones, it’s important for the project
manager to talk with each team member (such as the instructional designer, and graphic artist
as well as the subject matter expert, and client reviewers) to gain their buy-in around the
schedule to be sure the timeframe is realistic.
Summary
Creating an elearning course is an iterative process. On the development side, it requires many
different skill sets to complete each of the tasks, and on the review and implementation side,
there are many players who must approve and signoff at various milestone points of the project.
To keep projects moving forward without anything falling through the cracks, it’s helpful to be
aware of some common challenges during eLearning development.
1. Project scope creep.
2. Inaccessible subject matter experts.
3. Missed review deadlines by senior management.
4. Additional reviews by previously unidentified stakeholders.
5. Technical infrastructure not supportive of program and delivery.
Having an awareness of these potential issues can help mitigate them before they compromise
the project’s development process and timeline, and ultimately its success. There are steps and
processes that can be put in place at the start of a project to ensure these issues are managed
effectively.
Ruth Kustoff, Principal
rkustoff@knowledgeadvantage.biz