Questions To Ask Before Creating Your Next eLearning Course

Build Better Content By Asking Better Questions

Creating effective eLearning isn’t about having the fanciest animation or stuffing in every detail you can find. It starts with asking the right questions before you open your authoring tool. This article will walk you through 25 smart questions across 5 key areas of eLearning design, each explained so you can understand why it matters and how it shapes learner success and business value.

1. Define The Purpose

Before you build anything, ask yourself:

1. What’s the problem we’re trying to solve with this course?
   Every eLearning course should be created to solve a problem, not to share information for the sake of it. Whether it’s closing a skills gap, reducing customer complaints, or improving compliance behavior, you need to be crystal clear on what’s broken before you try to fix it. Otherwise, you risk designing something no one really needs.
2. Is training the right solution or is this a performance issue disguised as a learning need?
   Often, what looks like a training problem is actually a management, process, or motivation issue. If people already know what to do but aren’t doing it, more training won’t help. Asking this question helps you avoid wasting time and money creating courses that won’t solve the real issue.
3. What should learners be able to do differently after completing this course?
   This is your learning outcome in plain English. Forget about vague objectives like “understand” or “be aware of.” You want to define the specific behaviors or actions that learners should adopt. This clarity guides your content, structure, and measurement later on.
4. How will we measure success; what does “good” look like?
   Without a success metric, you won’t know if the course has worked. Are you looking for faster onboarding? A drop in customer complaints? Fewer safety incidents? Define what success means early on, and ensure it’s measurable. This is where the business case for learning lives.
5. Who is asking for this course, and what outcome are they expecting?
   Understanding the requestor’s expectations is essential. Are they looking for awareness, behavior change, or just a compliance tick box? You may also uncover hidden motives (e.g. trying to fix a team culture problem with a training course). Asking this question ensures you’re designing for the right stakeholder outcome not just filling a content gap.

2. Know Your Learners

Design for real people, not generic users.

1. Who are the learners, and what’s their day-to-day reality?
   Context is everything. What’s their job really like? Are they customer-facing? Deskless? Shift-based? Knowing this helps you tailor the format, language, tone, and even when and how they’ll complete the training.
2. What do they already know about this topic?
   You don’t want to patronize or overload. If learners already have a foundation, you can skip the basics. If they’re brand new to the topic, you’ll need to layer it. This helps avoid the “death by content” trap and creates a more respectful, relevant experience.
3. What’s likely to frustrate or bore them during this course?
   If the course feels like a box-ticking exercise, they’ll switch off mentally or literally. Identify what annoys them about previous training experiences. Is it repetition? Slow pacing? Irrelevant examples? Use this insight to improve engagement.
4. How much time can they realistically give to learning?
   We love to imagine learners with free time and quiet focus. But in reality, most are juggling deadlines, distractions, and meetings. Knowing how much time they can actually give helps you determine the right format: short videos, microlearning bursts, or even learning in the flow of work.
5. What motivates them: compliance, career growth, solving a real pain point?
   Different learners are motivated by different things. If it’s compliance, they just want to pass. If it’s career progression, they’re more open to deeper content. If it solves a work frustration, they’ll pay attention. Tap into the why behind their attention span, and your course instantly becomes more relevant.

3. Shape The Content

Once you’ve clarified the purpose and audience, it’s time to craft the message. But not all content deserves to make the cut.

1. What content is truly essential to meet the learning objective?
   This question stops you from creating bloated, overloaded courses. Focus only on the information that directly supports the behavior change or knowledge gap identified earlier. Strip out anything that’s “nice to know” unless it’s absolutely necessary to achieve the desired outcome.
2. What can be trimmed, linked to, or turned into optional resources?
   You don’t need to put everything into the main flow of your course. Supporting information, deeper reading, policies, or case studies can be added as downloadable extras or links. This keeps the core learning journey clean, focused, and more digestible, especially for time-poor learners.
3. What are the top three takeaways learners must remember?
   Every course has a main point or three. You should be able to clearly articulate what learners must walk away remembering or doing differently. These key takeaways become the backbone of your course. Everything else should support them or stay out of the way.
4. Are we telling them something or asking them to do something?
   Information doesn’t stick unless it’s applied. Instead of just explaining processes or sharing knowledge, focus on the actions. What do you want them to practice, attempt, or use? Action-oriented content encourages learning by doing not just reading or watching.
5. Can each module stand on its own, or are we forcing them through in a rigid order?
   Rigid learning pathways often frustrate learners, especially if they already know some of the content. Consider building modular content that allows for flexible access. If your structure forces everyone through the same linear path, it should be because the learning outcome demands it, not because the platform defaults to it.

4. Design For Engagement

Engagement is often misunderstood as entertainment. It’s not about bells and whistles, it’s about making the learning meaningful, interactive, and practical.

1. What real-world scenarios can we build in to make this course more relatable?
   Scenarios bridge the gap between theory and application. They show learners how the topic plays out in the real world, with all its messiness and nuance. If learners can see themselves in the scenario, they’re more likely to pay attention and retain the lesson.
2. Are we making space for reflection, not just consumption?
   Too many courses are designed like conveyor belts: click through, complete, move on. But reflection is what turns information into insight. Use short pauses, prompts, or open-ended questions to get learners thinking about how the content applies to them.
3. What interactive elements add value, not just novelty?
   Interaction should serve a purpose. Drag-and-drops, clickable images, quizzes: they can work, but only if they reinforce learning. Avoid including interactions just for the sake of it. Learners see right through that. Ask: does this interaction deepen understanding or help with application?
4. Are we using media (video, audio, animation) to enhance the message, not distract from it?
   Multimedia should be a tool, not a crutch. Use it when it simplifies a complex idea, adds human warmth, or creates a more memorable experience. Don’t overuse it just to make the course “look modern.” The best media choices support clarity and focus.
5. Have we considered accessibility and mobile usability for all learners?
   An engaging course is one that everyone can engage with. That means ensuring text is readable, interactions are accessible via keyboard, colors are contrast-friendly, and videos include captions. With many learners accessing content on the go, mobile-first design should be the rule, not the exception.

5. Plan For Transfer And Impact

Designing a great course isn’t the end goal. The real test comes after the course ends, when learners return to work. This final section focuses on ensuring that learning leads to action, and that you can prove it made a difference.

1. How will we reinforce the key messages after the course ends?
   People forget most of what they learn within days if it’s not reinforced. Reinforcement can be simple: follow-up emails, quick refreshers, spaced quizzes, or nudges in the workflow. Whatever the method, make sure your key messages don’t die the moment the learner closes the course.
2. What tools, templates, or follow-ups can support application on the job?
   Courses without follow-through are forgettable. Consider providing toolkits, action plans, checklists, conversation guides, anything that makes it easier for learners to apply what they’ve learned. These job aids bridge the gap between theory and real-world performance.
3. Are managers involved in the learning journey or left out entirely?
   Managers are the number one factor in whether learning gets applied. Yet many eLearning rollouts happen in isolation, with no managerial involvement. Ask yourself: Are we equipping managers to support the learning? Are they having follow-up conversations, coaching sessions, or tracking outcomes?
4. How will we gather feedback that matters not just smiley faces?
   Happy sheets are fine, but they don’t tell you if the course worked. Get feedback that matters like whether the learner used the skills, whether they feel more confident, or whether their performance improved. Post-course surveys, interviews, or even short manager check-ins can help you get richer insight.
5. What business outcomes will tell us this course made a real difference?
   You started this process by identifying a problem, now it’s time to define how you’ll prove you solved it. Are complaints down? Are sales up? Are errors reduced? Pick one or two business metrics that will serve as your impact indicators. This will help you close the loop and show that learning was worth the investment.

Final Thoughts: Think Like A Performance Consultant, Not Just A Course Creator

Most average courses are created by jumping straight into storyboards or scripts. The best courses? They’re built by stepping back and asking the right questions first. These 25 questions aren’t just a checklist, they’re a mindset. They challenge assumptions. They help you avoid wasting time, budget, and learner goodwill. They push you to stop creating content and start solving problems.

Before you dive into development, run through these prompts with your stakeholders, your team, and yourself. It’ll sharpen your thinking, elevate your course quality, and most importantly ensure what you build actually works. Because in the end, eLearning isn’t about what learners complete. It’s about what they carry forward.

Skillshub

Skillshub drives real performance. With an engaging content library, a user-friendly platform, and bespoke content options, we help organisations move beyond completions to measurable impact.