Content creation is very important if you want your elearning course to be successful. The core of your content will obviously be dependent on the curriculum that you are following. However, the manner by which you will deliver this content will depend on your target audience.
There are many categories by which you can differentiate your target audience. You can classify them based on their profession, social class, religion, etc. Most of these will affect both the core content and your manner of delivery. However, if you classify your audience based on their age, you can have the same core content but you need to have different delivery methods.
For instance, teaching personal finance to both children and adults will involve the same concepts. But given the difference in age, the delivery of these concepts will have to be based on the age bracket that will be accessing your elearning course. That means the content creation for your personal finance course should be based on whether it will be accessed by kids or adults.
But how can you differentiate the creation of the content that is intended for kids and adults? Here are some tips that you can use.
Language (tone)
First of all, let us start with the language that you will use. We do not mean the English language. We mean the tone of the content. When you are creating content for kids, you need to use a very casual tone to your text. Not only that, you need to use simple terms too. For adults, a casual tone is also encouraged but you can use more complicated terms – as long as you can explain it.
Relevance
All elearning courses have to be relevant. Otherwise, no one will really take the time to learn your course. But if you are working on the content creation for varying ages, you need to be sensitive about what is important to your audience. Going back to the personal finance course, you can address retirement concerns for the adult version. But when you are creating the content for the elearning course for kids, you need to think of something else to make it relevant to them. You can discuss how it can help them save up for a toy that they want to buy. Or if your target audience are high school students, you can make the course relevant by connecting it to college expenses.
Aesthetics
Consider the aesthetics of your elearning course too. Content creation is not just about text. For the elearning course for kids, you need to use brighter colors, fun fonts, and a lot of images. Anything that is big, and colourful will keep their attention. Adult learners will also benefit from these but do not overdo it. You might think the course is not serious.
Activities
You need to carefully select the activities that you will use in your elearning course. The more playful and fun it is, the more appealing it is for kids. For adults, you want to make sure that the activities will challenge them and also encourage self exploration of the topic. You do not want to spoon feed them so you need to push them to explore the topic on their own through research, open forums, etc. For kids, the content creation can revolve around games. If you can successfully inject it with the core content of the course, then a game is the best way to teach kids about anything.
Length
An ideal elearning course should be concise yet filled with relevant information. For adults and kids, a short course is an advantage but for different reasons. For adults, they are usually busy with the many responsibilities that they have in their personal lives. That is why you need to keep the course short. For kids, they have a short attention span. These varying reasons will give you an idea how you will tackle content creation. For instance, you want to use lesser text and possibly use videos instead in your adult elearning content. For kids, you want to use more games and storytelling to get your content across.
Creating a course for a diverse audience is actually very challenging. But once you zero in on the specific qualities of your learners, it should be easier to approach your strategy in shaping your content delivery. For kids, you need to realize that the specific age of the child will affect your delivery methods. A course for kids between 3-5 years old is different from those who are aged 6 years onwards. Their cognitive development varies. You need to consider this carefully before you can complete your plan for content creation.
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