eLearning content authoring is a process of developing content for your program whether it’s employee training or an online course. Most often than not, authoring tools are used to achieve this goal. It may seem confusing how to go from nothing to a complete eLearning program or course. In this article, we’ve divided the process of eLearning course authoring into five simple steps. At the end of these steps, you will be ready to create your course and get the first round of feedback from your learners. 

eLearning Course Authoring Step By Step

Step #1: Define Your PLPs and LTS

Although it’s not related to directly developing content, your first step to eLearning content authoring is to define your PLPs and your LTS. 

Your PLP is your perfect learner profile. We recommend defining your PLP based on the learners’ biggest challenges. 

The LTS is the journey that your learners take from A to Z. Think of it as a transformation statement, as your learner will transform along the way. This is crucial, as eLearning course authoring can’t be static; your content must be transformative. 

Related Read: How to Identify Your Target Audience for eLearning Program or Online Course?

Step #2: Collect Source Material 

Once you have your PLPs and LTS, it is time to gather source material. If you are the subject matter expert, maybe this source material is already in your head. You can also get source material from books, articles, videos, and other sources. 

Step #3: Write a One-to-Two-Page Outline

Now, you can move on to turning that source material into an outline. For this stage of eLearning course authoring, you want to make an outline that is one or two pages long. Each milestone on the journey from A to Z should be a bullet point. Eventually, each milestone will also have subtopics, but that comes in the next step. 

You may wonder why we suggest making the outline after collecting your source material. It is because you need the source material to help you see how you will fill out the outline. If you made the outline and then looked at the source material, you would likely have to revisit and adjust your outline after. 

Related Read: 

• How to Structure Online Courses to Help Students Get Better Results
• How to Organize Content For Your eLearning Program or Online Course

Step #4: Write a Script 

At this stage, you can turn your outline into a script. This is where you start to flesh out the eLearning content authoring, adding details and subtopics to each milestone. Turn each of those subtopics into a lesson. 

Related Read: Writing Your eLearning Scripts? 5 Important Steps to Take Before You Get Started

Step #5: Add Content to an Authoring Tool

Once you finish the script, all your content is essentially planned. At this point, all you have to do is move the content into your authoring tool to turn it into a course. In many cases, the authoring tool will connect to the LMS, so you can use the same tool to deliver the course to your learners. If your authoring tool and LMS are separate tools, then you first author the course and then import it into your LMS. 

Related Read: 10 Best eLearning Tools & Technologies for Small Business

Conclusion

To start authoring an eLearning course, define your perfect learner profiles and write an LTS. Remember that the LPL mentions your learners’ biggest challenges while the LTS shows their transformation from before the course to after it. From there, you can gather source material and arrange it into an outline. 

Turn your outline into an eLearning script by filling in details, and then use an authoring tool to turn your newly created content into a course. Don’t forget to get feedback from your learners before launching the course.