eLearning is an amazing platform to improve the training methods of an organization, school, or institution. It allows employees or students to absorb the complex concepts and information easily and quickly. The advantages of eLearning are tied up with software solutions that offer the power of visualization. Although organizations and educational institutes try hard to create effective online courses, they sometimes fail to engage their learners.
Adding visual factors to the online courses is one of the best ways to enhance the learning experience. It not only simplifies the learning process but also helps learners to understand the concepts more clearly. However, the biggest question is how do you apply visualization to your learning modules? Quality software solutions and their correct usage can help you to make your learning modules more effective and interesting. Before implementing the power of visualization, you need to have full knowledge of it and its benefits. Let’s discuss.
Defining Visualization
Visualization is the process of representing data, or any other type of eLearning content, visually, to help improve learning by reinforcing cognition. This kind of representation can include many different things such as illustration, images, text, and so on.
To make your eLearning course effective, you can combine visual and textual content together using a learning management system (LMS) software. This combination of content enhances the learners’ interest and helps in knowledge retention. By including solely text or only visuals, on the other hand, your course will not be as effective as the combination of the two.
The power of visualization lies in the fact that the human brain has the potential to identify images and other visuals very quickly. That’s the reason people understand and grasp the information from the visual content easily, rather than reading long lines of text.
Visualization Benefits
1. Improved Long-Term Memory Targeting
Offering visual content is the best way to improve learners long-term memory. It not only makes the content more effective but also easy to understand. Ultimately, people will remember things for a longer period and can refresh their knowledge through its implementation, fulfilling the goal of the eLearning course.
2. Reinforced Learning
Another reason why visual-aided learning is so effective is that most people are visual learners and this style of learning suits them better. In fact, studies show that 65% of people fit into this category which means a huge number of people rely on the visual concept of learning.
3. Knowledge Transfer
With less text and more visual information, learning courses become easier to understand. This helps learners’ to progress much faster and acquire more knowledge from the learning material. In fact, the rate of knowledge transfer and retention is higher through videos compared to the textual information.
The Right Amount of Visualization
Although using visuals in your eLearning material is a fair deal, make sure you put it in the right amount. This is because your eLearning courses will also have auditory learners that prefer listening to lectures and those that prefer reading. That’s the reason it is necessary to create a good balance in between visuals and text.
For example, imagine that you were creating an instructional page that teaches people how to perform certain actions. The best option would be to add images for every step and follow up with a single short sentence where you quickly explain what the image is showing. The text will provide context while the image will explain all the rest.
How to Plan Your Content
To be effective, visuals need to have emotional context with the message that certain learning content is trying to convey. Simply using visuals to make the screen look more appealing is not good enough. Instead, it should be used to give context to the learning intent of the learning course.
An important point in planning visual content is the placement. When you start creating an eLearning course, you might have a tough time figuring out the right place for visual content. In most cases, the general rule is to put it near text lines that are related to it.
This is how you will create order, longevity, and consistency for your learners. This way learners understand where they are within the lesson, how far they’ve come, and what comes next. However, you need to be careful while adding visuals that can only confuse learners and make them think that they are missing something.
Which Software to Use?
In order to create valuable eLearning courses enhanced with visualization methods, you need an adequate LMS. It not only supports visual content, but also comes with a variety of functionalities and features that can help you implement visual aids, edit them, and make them interactive. It provides a better learning experience to the learners by delivering them valuable and visually engaging content.
An LMS is usually cloud-based which means it can be used anywhere, anytime. Learners can now access the courses in their free time or from the comfort of their own space. While course instructors can track the learners’ performance anytime and can also provide them real-time feedback. Moreover, LMS is designed by experienced software developers keeping in mind the necessities of the businesses, educational institutions, and non-profits organizations.
The best part of using LMS is that they support all types of visual content, from images, gifs, infographics, videos, illustrations, and so on. This makes them perfect for utilizing the power of visualization, creating engaging and effective eLearning courses.
LMS Graphical User Interface
One of the most important visualization elements in eLearning is the GUI – graphical user interface. The user interface is the first thing that leaves an impression on learners while using the course. Hence, LMSs allow instructors to customize the user interface according to their requirements and target audience.
Although it might not seem so important, the GUI sets the foundation for visualizing a lesson. The main goal of the GUI is to help get learners engaged and focused. The user interface in eLearning needs to be visible so that users can always find it on the screen when needed.
It needs to be non-intrusive, meaning that it won’t take away their attention and distract them from the learning content. At the same time, it needs to be intuitive and logical so that learners can use it instantly after setting their eyes on it.
The GUI also has navigation buttons, video and audio controls, help buttons, process indicators, and a close button. It is designed to help users navigate through an eLesson and allow them to interact with it whenever they see fit.
Adding Visual Elements With an LMS
As we mentioned, an LMS supports different formats for visual elements meaning that you can basically add anything you need to visualize your course even further. No matter if we are talking about images, slideshows, gifs, infographics, fonts, colors or videos, an LMS allows you to add it to your course.
With most eLearning software, it is as simple as clicking on the import button and choosing the visual that you want to add. Before doing that, you will have to find, or create visual content for your course. After adding elements, you can synchronize them, move them to other places within the project, and edit them if needed.
Additionally, you can test them to see how they perform and functions according to your learner’s perspective. It’s a process that can last a bit and it can be repetitive, but it will pay off as you will know for sure that your course will be effective.
Font and Color Customization
No matter how insignificant they might seem, these two actually carry a lot of value because they can make a great difference. Different colors and fonts can spark emotions within users. it is an important aspect of visualization.
For example, if part of a lesson is closely connected to a certain assignment, you can rely on orange fonts to address learners to pay special attention. This is because orange is considered as the color of mental stimulation, communication, and optimism.
On the other hand, red is the color that is used to highlight something of crucial importance. As you go through your course within an LMS, you can easily change fonts and colors and provide better visualization overall. Modern fonts can provoke attention while those “elegant” variations can make learners relaxed and motivated.
Adding Interactive Content Using an LMS
No matter what kind of course you are creating, a reliable LMS will always give you the option of adding interactive content to your course modules, even if they are video-based.
Some interactive elements that can be added are new buttons, info slides, animations, flash presentations, videos, and more. These elements can be added on strategic locations where there is a need for more visualization and interactivity. For example, supporting text content with animations can make users understand something better or learn from an example.
The Bottom Line
Visualization has become essential for effective eLearning. It’s impossible to engage learners and deliver knowledge effectively without it. Although it has become an essential part of eLearning material, the correct usage of visualization is extremely important. It can either make your learners understand the concepts, or confuse them.
