Content Delivery Best Practices

Overview

Absorb LMS is able to deliver content to Learners through a variety of content delivery methods.  As an Admin, you are able to choose between offering an Online Course, a Curriculum, an Instructor Led Course, or a Course Bundle to your Learners. This article will summarize each content delivery method. 

Tips

If you are unsure of which content delivery method to use, use the following questions to define the learning objectives and the learner experience you wish to offer: 

  • Is the information I need Learners to understand complicated?  Does the information span many topics or do the Learners need to only learn a few simple, related concepts?
  • Will Learners need more than one learning opportunity to comprehend the material?
  • Will Learners require both face to face learning and online learning to truly grasp this training?
  • Do I need Learners to have great flexibility as they work through the learning? (For example, do I want Learners to have choices on the material they will review to gain a completion?)
  • Do I want Learners to see all their learning grouped in their catalog?

Use Case

If you plan to create a Basic Fire Safety class, this simple topic can work as an Online Course.  But, if you intend to review a variety of safety topics, you may want to create a series of separate ILC's or Online Courses for each topic.  To enhance the user experience and make it easier for Learners to locate, track and complete your series of safety courses, you may want to create a safety Curriculum to deliver these courses.


Content Delivery Methods

Online Course

An Online Course consists of Learning Objects separated into chapters and lessons.  

Online Course

In an Online Course, you are able to use a variety of Learning Objects, such as PDF's, Videos, Assessments, Surveys, SCORM files, and more to make up content for your Learners.

Note: You can add Online Courses to a Curriculum or Course Bundle. 

For example, if you need to provide an overview of three (3) new basic features in your HR system with a simple lesson or two for each feature, you could create one Online Course called "New Features." To add, you can set the pace progress by requiring that the Learner completes all lessons in order (Feature 1, Feature 2 & Feature 3). Then, you can add an Assessment to test the Learners knowledge prior to completion. 

You can learn more about the configuration of an Online Course here


Instructor Led Course

An Instructor Lead Course (ILC) is a live training session where registration is managed through the LMS. To add, an ILC can be used to deliver content on a single topic, or content that addresses related topics from existing content.

Instructor Led Course

An Instructor Led Course is a live training which can have one session per topic, or sessions with multiple occurrences. Although you can make an ILC session with multiple occurrences, each of these occurrences must take place in the same venue, and have the same course title listed.  If your course is complex and requires each occurrence to consist of a different topic (and title, venue or instructor), you will need to set them up as separate ILC courses.

For example, if you were offering one class called Introduction to Leadership that introduced new managers to an overview on leadership models, this could be delivered through an ILC even with multiple occurrences if each one addressed the same topic (leadership models) and was offered in the same room and with the same instructor.  But if you offered a 10 session course for new leaders on 10 different topics, with different titles and venues, you will want to create them as 10 distinct ILC courses and deliver them either individually or through a Curriculum.

Note: An easy way to link multiple ILCs is to add them to a Curriculum. 

If you want to include online material or PDFs as part of an ILC, you can do so by adding a Resource.  A Resource can include digital materials such as weblinks, PDFs, etc. But, if you need to view that these online materials were completed, you will need to create an Online Course to deliver these materials as a Resource cannot be not marked as complete. To link the ILC and Online Course as one catalog option for the Learner, you will need to add them to a Curriculum. 

You can learn more about the configuration of an Instructor Led Course here. 


Curriculum 

A Curriculum is a versatile learning path that guides Learners through a selection of Courses.

Curriculum 

If you have created several ILC's or Online Courses and would like Learners to view these courses as one learning path, then consider using a Curriculum.  By using a Curriculum, the Learners will be able to navigate to the Curriculum directly through their My Courses page. A Curriculum offers Learners a way to easily navigate and track progress of the individual course requirements. Just as an Online Course has chapters and lessons, Curriculum's offer groups for courses that can configured to pace Learners. By enabling the pace progress toggle, you will force completion of each group before starting the next one.  Within each course group, you can also choose to require completion of all courses in the group, or only a certain number of them. It is even possible to make entire course groups optional by setting the requirement to 0 courses. 

For example, if the Admin decides to create a New Employee Program, they can encompass a HR Training Online Course in one group, and then Role Specific Training Online Courses in another group. Then, they can pace progress the Curriculum so that each Learner must take the mandatory HR Training Online Course before moving to the Role Specific Training group. From here, they can set the pace progress minimum course requirement to one (1), and the Learner will only need to take the one Role Specific Online Course pertaining to their job role prior to completing the Curriculum.   

When using a Curriculum, badges, leaderboard points, competencies, and credits can be awarded upon completion of each individual course as well as upon the completion of the Curriculum. This can help engage the Learners and encourage completion of the program.  

You can learn more about the configuration of a Curriculum here


Course Bundle 

A Course Bundle is a way to deliver multiple courses in a single enrollment. 

Course Bundle

A Course Bundle is a way to deliver multiple courses in a single enrollment, making it easy to enroll Learners into a large number of courses at once.  Unlike a Curriculum, learners will not be able to see the Course Bundle grouping after enrollment as they will appear as separate courses. Because of this, a Course Bundle serves as a good way to mass enroll Learners into multiple courses that do not necessarily connect on the same topic. You may want to use a Course Bundle when you wish to  enroll Learners in a selection of courses that do not need to be viewed or tracked as a single unit. 

For example, if an Admin has created several new ILC and Online Courses that range from compliance courses, to skills training for a specific department, you can deliver these trainings all at once to the department using a Course Bundle.  By creating a Course Bundle ,  you not only reduce the work needed to enroll in multiple courses, but you can also reduce the emails that the team would receive as the  Course Bundle email overrides all Course enrollment emails.   

You can learn more about the configuration of a Course Bundle here

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