How to take care of eLearning content

In the eLearning sector it is really difficult to create completely new educational content, since, on the web, you can find everything on every subject. The point is which material to choose and how to organize it in the best way. That's why when we talk about curating eLearning content we refer to how to use existing resources, organize them in a logical way and adapt them to the needs of their target with the multimedia format in which they prefer to learn.

1. What does content curation mean and what is used for?

First of all, let's see what is the definition of content curation. In eLearning it means searching for resources from articles, podcasts, videos, ebooks, tutorials and other material, that the network offers and that are useful for your online course. This content must be analyzed, organized in simple modules and constantly kept updated. There are several advantages for using network resources in your online course:

• The trainer has a list of sources or multimedia bibliography to use to outline the content of online training;
• Students have a list of resources to use to learn more about the topics covered in online training or a summary from which they can choose what to learn in the format they prefer;
• The trainer saves time and money because rather than writing contents from scratch from he/she can adapt those already developed by experts and authoritative sources.

2. How to select the content of an online course

In order to get the most from the care of the contents, the trainer should pay close attention to the material he or she selects. First you must select only reliable material. There are free online courses by universities, free apps that can be integrated for tutorials, ebooks written by industry experts. Once you have set the criteria to look for sources, you can use different techniques to select the material online:

• Semantic method: a search is carried out with keywords on the topic of interest and the most relevant eLearning contents are selected;
• Collaborative and social method: collaborative sites or social media are used to understand what users think about a particular topic or course;
• Direct method: if you have already done an online training course, you can analyze the reports to see which parts of the course have to be improved or ask your students directly what they would like to learn more about.

3. How to organize eLearning content

Content curator searches can lead to an infinite number of useful resources, even when the filters of authority and relevance for users are applied. However, there are techniques that allow you to organize eLearning content in the best way. From the list of online resources, select only the most relevant links for your target. These must be organized by topic or form and offered to the student in the form of an infographic or a summary from which he/she can directly access what he/she wants to learn. For each link in the summary the student should know the duration of the module and the type of file used (video, audio, written text) so he/she can choose how to learn.

4. How to best use content curation in eLearning

To select the best resources for an online course you must always keep in mind the needs and preferences of the students. Some people prefer to watch a video while others like to read a text to better fix what they have learned. The material, then, must always be updated and linked to real life with case studies and current examples. This is why the content editor must frequently review links and sources.
The task of an eLearning content editor is to select the training material for their students, keep it updated, organize it in short easy-to-use forms and give them the opportunity to choose how to view the material: text, video, game ...