Industry experts forecast that the e-learning market will continue to grow by about 14% each year for the next decade. If they are right, this industry will almost quadruple in size over the next 10 years.

This kind of explosive growth is undeniable evidence of how much value people get out of working with e-learning designer collaborators. At the same time, many people don’t know what to expect when they start partnering with e-learning services.

That can make the design process slower and lead to much more friction than necessary. The good news is that maintaining realistic expectations can help you get the most out of working with your e-learning designer. It can also pave the way for fruitful future collaborations.

Read on to learn all about the most important things to understand when working with an e-learning designer!

Start With Online Learning Goals

Your e-learning services collaborator will have worked with many other clients before. However, that also means they will have learned to adjust their services based on the unique goals of each client. The clearer you are about your digital learning engagement goals, the easier it will be for your designer to know how they can help.

Many people get ready to tell their e-learning designer about their goals. Then, they realize their goals are harder to put into clear words than they think. Before you meet with your e-learning designer, make sure that you can write down your top goals in precise language.

If necessary, you may have to write and rewrite your goals until you feel confident that you have captured what matters most to your project. If possible, it can be even better to provide your e-learning designer with your top goals in order of importance.

Then, when you speak with them, go over why each goal is as important to you as it is. At this point, you can expect your e-learning designer to ask you clarifying questions. As this process proceeds, you will both end up with a shared vision for your e-learning design goals.

Enjoy Your Digital Learning Designer’s Expertise

Keep in mind that your e-learning designer is not your employee. They will also have many other clients to manage. That means you will both need to work around each other’s schedules to figure out how you can coordinate for future meetings.

You might find that you get more out of working with your e-learning designer if you ask them for help right from the beginning. If you are open to it, you might even ask them if they see anything that is missing from your goals or current plans.

You can also pick their brains about their experience working with other clients. You can ask them about what they have seen work well for others.

E-learning designers understand that some clients are attached to their own ideas and not interested in their expertise. However, if you are open to it, you might even want to ask your e-learning designer for a list of best practices you can apply to your own online education design process.

Even if you don’t decide to replace your own ideas about best practices with theirs, having their perspective can help you make savvy decisions. Asking for their opinion can also show that you respect their expertise. That can help you both get off to a good start together.

Once you hear their opinions about best practices, you might even realize that they have some wisdom worth incorporating into your design process.

Organize Your Online Program Team Members

When it comes to creating materials for teaching online, it is important that everyone contributing to the project be able to speak with each other. You can expect your e-learning designer to expect you to have a structure that makes sure that people know who they should speak with about specific concerns.

For that reason, make sure that you know exactly what each of your team members will do while working with your e-learning designer.

It can also help to pick someone who will be the main person your designer should speak with if they have clarifying questions. Make sure that person understands everyone else’s roles. That way, if they don’t know the answer to a question, they will know who should speak with your e-learning designer to answer it.

Introduce Everyone While Designing Online Courses

Once you have this structure in place, it will be important to get everyone talking with each other as soon as possible. This will give people the opportunity to understand the team talents they can depend on during the design process.

Your e-learning designer will expect this kind of information. That way, they can help your design process proceed as efficiently as possible.

Maintain a Dialogue With Your Digital Learning Provider

Once everyone is working on the project, your e-learning designer may expect to have regular meetings with you or someone you appoint. That way, the project will never go too far off the rails before you find out about it.

On top of that, you might want to emphasize to your e-learning designer that they can reach out to you at any time. The faster you can communicate back and forth, the faster your design process will be completed.

Prepare for Potential Roadblocks

With all of this in place, you might think that you can sit back and expect things to go smoothly. However, you should expect problems to arise throughout the design process. As long as you have this expectation, you can make plans to manage roadblocks when they come up.

Consider giving your e-learning designer clear instructions about how they can get help if they are having trouble with any of your team members.

Understand the Details of Working With an E-learning Designer

Not everyone knows what to expect when they prepare to work with an e-learning designer. We hope understanding this process better will help you get more out of collaborating with your e-learning designer. Having clear expectations can also help you pave the way for future success.

To find out more about working with quality digital learning designers, contact us at Octivo at any time!