When working on an eLearning project, instructional designers often receive publishing standards from clients that specify how the course should be prepared for their Learning Management System (LMS). In response, our design team creates a guide that documents how the course was published, along with design-related information.
Here are several reasons why creating and sharing such a publishing guide is essential:
Transparency and Clarity
By providing clients with a publishing guide, instructional designers ensure transparency in the development process. Clients gain a clear understanding of how their eLearning course was prepared and published, which promotes trust and reduces potential misunderstandings.
Knowledge Transfer
A publishing guide serves as a valuable knowledge transfer tool. It enables clients to learn about the intricacies of the course’s design and publication, empowering them to make informed decisions in the future, whether it’s for updates or new courses.
Troubleshooting and Maintenance
In the ever-evolving landscape of technology and eLearning platforms, issues can arise over time. With a comprehensive guide, clients have a resource they can refer to when troubleshooting problems or making updates to the course content. This saves time and minimizes disruptions to the learning experience.
Customization and Adaptation
Clients may want to customize or adapt the course for specific audiences or requirements. Having a detailed publishing guide facilitates this process, as it provides insights into how the course was originally designed and published, making customization more efficient and effective.
Future Collaboration
Should clients choose to collaborate with different instructional designers or teams in the future, the publishing guide becomes a valuable reference. It ensures consistency and aligns new team members with the existing course’s design and publishing standards. I can’t tell you the number of times that we work with a client and wish the previous contractor had left one of these behind for us. 😊
Quality Assurance
A publishing guide can serve as a benchmark for quality assurance. Clients can use it to ensure that any modifications or updates to the course adhere to the established standards and best practices, maintaining the quality of the eLearning experience.
To illustrate the concept further, we wanted to share our template of the publishing guide we provide to clients when closing an eLearning project. This template includes sections for technical specifications, design principles, and any client-specific requirements.
By sharing this template, we aim to encourage best practices in eLearning development and enhance collaboration between instructional designers and their clients.
Stay tuned for a video this week on our membership site, where we will explain some of the key components of our publishing guide template and ideas for making it even more useful.