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Join our Ignite Instructional Design & eLearning Program

If you are new to the digital learning industry or if you want to advance your current learning & education role and become an eLearning instructional designer, this program is for you.

  • Man sitting with legs crossed, wearing dress shoes and striped socks, holding a tablet displaying various colorful charts and graphs.

    ARCS Model of Motivational Design

    This is a motivational design process that includes a synthesis of motivational concepts and theories clustered into four categories: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and satisfaction. This resource will help you determine appropriate motivational activities for each of the four categories.

  • Open planner with handwritten notes and a hand writing with a white pen, computer keyboard, and part of a laptop on a white desk.

    Bloom's taxonomy - Affective Domain

    The affective domain includes how we deal with things emotionally. This resource focuses on verbs that describe feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations, and attitudes. The five major categories are listed from the simplest behavior to the most complex.

  • A young baseball player in a white uniform and black cap pitches on a baseball field.

    Bloom's taxonomy - Psychomotor Domain

    The psychomotor domain includes physical movement, coordination, and use of the motor-skill areas. This resource focuses on verbs that describe speed, precision, distance, procedures, or techniques in execution. The seven major categories are listed from the simplest behavior to the most complex.

  • Bronze-colored sculpture of a man sitting on a block with his chin resting on his hand against a white brick wall background.

    Bloom’s Taxonomy - Cognitive Domain

    The cognitive domain includes knowledge and the development of intellectual skills. This resource focuses on the recall or recognition of specific facts, and procedural patterns The six major categories are listed from the simplest behavior to the most complex.

  • A young woman with curly hair and glasses, sitting by a window, reading a book titled 'Create and Destroy' and holding a pencil.

    Conducting Needs Analysis Workbook

    This workbook provides six steps you need to follow to conduct an effective needs analysis and the questions that would help you conduct a needs analysis.

  • Two women working together on a project using sticky notes on a glass wall in a modern office.

    Course content mindmap for SMEs

    This mindmap will help you organize the course content you obtain from your SMEs.

  • A woman wearing glasses and a blue headscarf teaches a group of children sitting on the floor, with a chart displaying social media icons.

    Creating a Lesson Plan Using Gagne's Nine Events

    This template will help you create a detailed plan for designing your learning solution based on Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction.

  • Desk with color swatches, paint samples, tablet with design sketches, a laptop, and other tools used for graphic and interior design.

    Design Document

    This template will help you document course structure, navigation, and design as well as the audio and visual elements to be used. It is proof that key stakeholders agree with the vision of the eLearning course.

  • Person participating in a video conference call on a tablet with multiple smiling people visible on the screen

    eLearning Requirement Checklist for 508 Compliance

    This checklist should be used to verify whether your eLearning course meets the accessibility requirements.

  • Woman with curly hair smiling and talking while using a laptop on a blue sofa in a cozy room with wooden walls and a television.

    eLearning Standards and Style Guide - Template

    This template provides guidance on the components to include to ensure course consistency. This template includes style choices such as fonts, headings, and even image placements for the screen.

  • Broken smartphone with cracked screen displaying the text 'ERROR 404' on a white background.

    Error Log Template

    This template helps you monitor any issues that arise in your project and ensure that they are resolved by their target date.

  • A classroom scene with students sitting at desks, and one student standing with a backpack and notebooks.

    Gagne Methods

    This resource helps you identify application methods for each instructional event.

  • Two women looking at a laptop screen in an office, with other people working at desks in the background.

    Gagne's Theory of Instruction

    This resource explains Gagne's Theory of Instruction.

  • An open notebook with handwritten notes, sketches, and diagrams, with a wooden pencil resting on it.

    History of Instructional Design

    This document provides an overview of where the instructional design originated and how it evolved.

  • A classroom with five students sitting at desks, smiling and attentive, with colorful lockers in the background.

    Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

    This chart outlines the nine types of intelligence and learners' preferences in each category.

  • Woman in business attire participating in a video call on her laptop in a modern, well-lit conference room with wooden tables, white chairs, and a whiteboard with sketches.

    Implementation Phase

    This checklist is a tool that will ensure you will not miss anything during your implementation phase.

  • A Canon camera lens, a notebook with lined paper, a pen, and a few sheets of paper on a wooden table.

    Instructional Design and ELearning Glossary

    This glossary lists major instructional design terms and their definitions.

  • A person gesturing with hands during a meeting, seated at a wooden table with a laptop, notebook, and smartphone, with another person in the background in an office setting.

    Is eLearning the Right Option

    This checklist helps you determine if eLearning is the appropriate solution for the course you need to create.

  • A woman with long reddish hair making a payment at a salon reception counter, while a smiling staff member with long brown hair assists her, in a spacious, well-lit salon.

    Mind Map for Small and Mid-size Enterprise

    This template should be used to organize course information including lesson content, modules, and organisation.

  • Child using a tablet with colorful blocks on the screen, surrounded by educational toys and large foam dice on a white surface.

    Planning Your Learning Game

    This template will help you plan and organize your learning game.

  • Four young men in a modern office, three seated on a blue sofa with laptops, one standing and speaking near a large whiteboard with sticky notes and papers, in front of a brick wall and glass window.

    Project Kickoff Meeting with SMEs

    The template will help you answer the question you need to ask your SMEs to successfully kick off your project.

  • A close-up of a person's arm giving a thumbs-up gesture against a plain white background.

    Quality Assurance Checklist

    This resource focuses on questions every instructional designer should ask to ensure the quality of their eLearning course.

  • Two people discussing a project using sticky notes on a glass wall.

    Revised Bloom's Taxonomy.

    This resource focuses on the revised Bloom's taxonomy and how to use each level effectively.

  • People collaborating on a website or app design, working with sketches, wireframes, colored sticky notes, and a laptop on a white table.

    Sections of the Design Document

    This chart covers the sections instructional designers need to include in the Design Document and the information each section should cover.

  • Two people standing in front of a wall with multiple photographs and graphic designs displayed, including logos and images related to tennis and sports.

    Storyboarding Template No. 1

    This template helps you organize your screens and provide your stakeholders and subject matter experts with a preview of how the course will flow and how the content will be presented.

  • Two men discussing a project in an office, reviewing colorful sticky notes on a whiteboard, with documents and notes attached to the board.

    Storyboarding Template No. 2

    This template helps you organise your screens and provide your stakeholders and subject matter experts with a preview of how the course will flow and how the content will be presented.

  • Three women standing in front of a wall with papers and charts, one woman with red hair pointing at a paper on the wall, another woman with dark hair holding a notebook and pen taking notes.

    Storyboarding Template No. 3

    This template helps you organise your screens and provide your stakeholders and subject matter experts with a preview of how the course will flow and how the content will be presented.

  • Group of five diverse young adults having a discussion in a modern office lounge with white walls, yellow chairs, and a bookshelf.

    Storyboarding Template No. 4

    This template helps you organise your screens and provide your stakeholders and subject matter experts with a preview of how the course will flow and how the content will be presented.

  • A person writing notes on a planner sheet with a pink sticky note. There is a laptop, a set of pink earbuds, and a highlighter on the white desk.

    What Type of Job Aid Should You Choose.

    This template helps you determine the appropriate job aid based on the type of task you want your learners to perform.

  • A young man wearing headphones sitting at a table, looking serious and focused at a silver MacBook laptop in a cafe or coffee shop.

    Which eLearning Theory to Choose

    This resource provides an overview and main focus of each learning theory.

Join our Ignite Instructional Design & eLearning Program

If you are new to the digital learning industry or if you want to advance your current learning & education role and become an eLearning instructional designer, this program is for you.

Must Have Tools

Disclosure: Some of the products, services or resources below contain affiliate links or offering. This is no additional cost to you, but I may be rewarded a small commission or incentive for the referral. For example, Padlet offers me one Padlet for every three friends that I can referred.

Free Music for e-Learning Courses

  • Logo of Internet Archive featuring a stylized black and white icon of a classical building with columns, next to the text 'Internet Archive'

    Archive's audio and MP3 library

    Archive's audio and MP3 library is audio and mp3 library, which contains over two hundred thousand free digital recordings ranging from alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music uploaded by our users. Many of these audios and MP3s are available for free download.

  • FMA logo with white letters on an orange background.

    Free Music Archive

    Free Music Archive is an archive of public domain and Creative Commons licensed songs managed with a

    curatorial approach.

  • Audiofarm logo with stylized icon and text

    Audio Farm

    Audiofarm is the social network for audio. Audiofarm is the best and easiest way to find new and interesting music and audio from around the world.

  • Audionauti logo with stylized text and swooping design

    AudionautiX

    AudionautiX is a free online music collection that you can use for non-commercial and commercial purposes as long as you provide credit "Music from - audionautix.com" or give a link to the audionatiX website.

  • Text reading "Brainy Betty" on a blue background

    BrainyBetty

    BrainyBetty is a website full of free sound clips and music for presentations.

  • Logo with the words 'cc mixter' on a black background, featuring a copyright symbol inside a circle before the text.

    ccMixter

    ccMixter is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want.

  • Text overlay reading 'DANOSONGS ROYALTY FREE MUSIC' on a dark background.

    DanoSongs

    DanoSongs is a site where you can find original music as free MP3 downloads. You can listen to the songs online or download the tracks. It is also legal to use the music royalty-free in your video, game, film, presentation, slideshow, or website.

  • Jamendo logo with a pink hexagon and the word 'Jamendo' in pink text.

    Jamendo

    Jamendo is the #1 platform for free music. The site allows users to download and listen to albums, and also to

    discover and share new artists. It is completely free and legal.

  • Logo of Kompoz with a green musical note icon and black text.

    Kompoz

    Kompoz is an online community that allows collaboration between artists from all over the world. Artists post their clips on the website where anyone can download and use them for their own productions.

  • Logo for MUS OPEN with stylized text

    Musopen

    Musopen is a non-profit organization focused on improving access and exposure to music by creating free resources and educational materials. Musopen provides recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions.

  • Logo for PacDV free sound effects, featuring a speaker icon and text

    PacDV

    PacDV is free music that you can use in your video, audio, or multimedia productions. Clips are available as mp3s and are organized by mood and

    emotion.

  • Logo for Partners in Rhyme promoting royalty-free music and sound effects.

    Partners in Rhyme

    Partners in Rhyme is a huge catalog of royalty-free music libraries for you to download and start using right away in your commercial projects.

  • A glowing purple Earth surrounded by a ring of purple light with the words 'Purple Planet Music' above it, set against a black background.

    Purple Planet

    Purple Planet is a free collection of royalty-free music available for download. Music can be used free of charge for web-based projects in exchange for a link to the Purple Planet website.

  • Padlet

Project Management Tool

  • OpenWorkbench

    OpenWorkbench

    OpenWorkbench is a desktop application for project management and scheduling in which you can define a work breakdown structure, set dependencies and resource constraints, assign resources to tasks, auto-schedule, and then monitor progress.

  • Evernote

    Evernote

    Evernote is a suite of software and services designed for note-taking and archiving.

  • Asana

    Asana

    Asana is a free shared task list for your team. The place to plan, organize, and stay in sync.

  • Freedcamp

    Freedcamp

    Freedcamp is a free project management software designed to manage multiple project tasks. Project managers gain full control of their project, where they can track workers’ time spent on a project, set deadlines, create a to-do list, and share important documents and information. It features a state-of-the-art communications system, from where all users can see which tasks have been assigned to them without the need to be signed into the system.

  • Collabtive

    Collabtive

    Collabtive is a web-based project management software intended for small to medium-sized businesses and freelancers.

  • ClockingIT

    ClockingIT

    ClockingIT is a free hosted application, keeping track of all your tasks and the time you spend on them.

  • Redmine

    Redmine

    Redmine is a flexible project management web application. Written using the Ruby on Rails framework, it is cross-platform and cross-database.

Assessment and Testmakers

  • FlipSnack

    Hot Potatoes

    Hot Potatoes is a suite that includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering, and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is freeware, and you may use it for any purpose or project you like.

  • ClassMarker

    ClassMarker

    ClassMarker is an easy-to-use, customizable online test maker for business, training & educational assessment with tests and quizzes graded instantly.

  • Easy Test Maker logo with a blue checkmark inside a blue square.

    Easy TestMaker

    Easy TestMaker is an online test generator that makes it easy for you to perfectly format multiple question types, print alternate versions, and publish to the web for online tests! The tool lets you create multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, short answer and true/false questions, add instructions and divide your test into multiple sections.

  • Quandary

    Quandary

    Quandary is an application for creating Web-based Action Mazes or interactive case- studies where the user is presented with a situation, and a number of choices as to a course of action to deal with it. On choosing one of the options, the resulting situation is then presented, again with a set of options. Action mazes can be used for many purposes, including problem-solving, diagnosis, procedural training, and surveys/questionnaires.

  • QuizSlides

    QuizSlides

    QuizSlides is a website that lets you create stylish, interactive online tests.

 

Meet the Trainers

Marina Arshavskiy and Vanessa Trower have been in the field of instructional design and eLearning for over a decade and have worked with large global organisations and government agencies.

As we were working with our clients, we realised that many professionals are tasked with creating online courses but they don't always have the knowledge and skills needed to develop effective instructionally-sound digital courses.

Both of us were frequently approached by others asking for coaching and assistance with the design and development of online training solutions. When the number of inquiries exceeded what we could possibly handle, we decided to create a complete Instructional Design for ELearning program for those who are new to the digital learning industry and those who want to advance their current learning and education role and become eLearning instructional designers. This is when our collaboration originated!

Vanessa is the owner of Nexperk. She holds a Bachelor of Business, Human Resources Development, Facilitation Accreditation in Situational Leadership II with Blanchard International Australia, Certificate IV Training and Assessment, Australian Short Film Director and several Instructional Design courses. She served as the Australian Training & Development Institute Divisional Council President and is a multi-award-winning Learning Professional in Australia and the Asia Pacific. Vanessa is a 2021 finalist in the Empowered Woman Leadership Awards with the Leadership Institute.

Marina is the owner of Your ELearning World. She holds a Master's degree in Instructional Systems Design from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Marina is also Kirkpatrick's Bronze Level certified Training Evaluation professional. She is a multi-award-winning instructional designer. Recently, Marina received the "Top 100 Leaders in Education" award for significant contributions towards the field of education at GFEL. Marina has been working with top corporations and government agencies both in the United States and abroad. Her work has been featured in T&D magazine, ELearning Industry, Training Magazine, California Management Review, HR.com, SHRM, and more. She is the author of the Instructional Design for ELearning book.

If you are want to learn how to design measurable digital experiences from professionals who have already built a successful career in digital education, we cannot wait to see you inside our Instructional Design for ELearning program.