Showcasing Learning Design Strategies: Realism, Variation, and Efficiency in eLearning Design

Every fortnight our team runs a short showcase session to share recent projects and explore different approaches to learning design. It’s a space to reflect on what works, test ideas, and keep our practice evolving. This edition highlights how thoughtful eLearning design can bring realism, variation, and efficiency together to create digital learning that feels authentic and engaging.

The Focus: Creating a Consistent and Repeatable eLearning Experience

This showcase explored how to translate complex workshop material into a consistent, scalable eLearning format. The goal was to design a digital experience that complements live facilitation — capturing the same intent, tone, and learning flow in a form learners can revisit anytime. The eLearning needed to mirror the workshop’s depth and authenticity while functioning as a repeatable, standalone learning asset.

The Problem: Designing eLearning for Experienced Learners

Many eLearning modules are built for beginners, offering surface-level explanations and simplified questions. In this case, the audience was already experienced professionals familiar with the fundamentals who needed to extend their capability. The challenge was to create an eLearning experience that respected their prior knowledge, stretched their thinking, and positioned them as practitioners rather than novices.

The Design Strategies: Realism, Variation, and Efficiency in eLearning Design

The team applied three core principles of effective learning experience design: realism, variation, and efficiency, to create a module that feels authentic, cohesive, and achievable within tight delivery windows.

1. Designing for Realism

A consistent narrative voice ran through the module, anchored by a fictional company that acted as a realistic case study. This allowed learners to apply concepts in context rather than in isolation. The inclusion of familiar digital interfaces modelled on real commercial websites helped bridge abstract concepts with tangible practice.

As one co-worker observed:

“Anything that brings examples closer to real life makes it a lot more applicable… it stops the abstraction.”

2. Creating Variation and Flow

To maintain curiosity and momentum, the design mixed interaction types such as hover reveals, click-and-review sequences, and branching knowledge checks. A progress bar kept learners oriented and reinforced completion.

Reflecting on this, one team member noted:

“The range of interactions that you used and how you mixed them up… it felt very much like a little adventure, you never quite knew what was going to come next.”

3. Balancing Efficiency and Visual Interest The visual approach used layered dark backgrounds, full-bleed stock video, and simple pop-ups to add motion and atmosphere without increasing production hours, a key consideration in scalable eLearning development. The stock-video backgrounds were particularly effective in making screens feel dynamic.

As our talented designer explained during the showcase:

“It’s something that’s so easy and simple to do, but it adds a bit more fun into the eLearning.”

Together, these strategies produced a contemporary, efficient, and learner-centred build, proof that great eLearning design doesn’t require complex tools, only clear intent and design discipline.

The Team Reflection: Insights on eLearning Design Practice

Team feedback reinforced the value of designing with experienced learners in mind and showcased the diversity of perspectives within the group.

To begin, several people highlighted the level and challenge of the learning:

“It was really nice to see a piece of eLearning that assumes a level of prior understanding. It’s not for beginners — it actually asks some genuine, knowledge-based questions.”

Others emphasised the importance of realism in learning design:

“Anything that brings examples closer to real life makes it more applicable. It takes the storyboard from bare bones to another level.”

There was also strong appreciation for the interactivity and flow of the module:

“The variety of interactions made it feel fresh. Even when using the same functionality, the layouts and imagery made it feel new.”

Finally, reviewers enjoyed the subtle sense of personality woven through the content:

“The customer personas were hilarious — they had personality, which made me want to read them. That little bit of humour adds insight.”

The discussion also surfaced ideas for future builds, such as experimenting with slider or dial-based interactions to introduce more nuanced, continuum-style activities that allow for degrees of response rather than right-or-wrong answers.

Closing Insight: Making eLearning Design Feel Authentic

This showcase reinforced that effective eLearning design isn’t about adding complexity or novelty - it’s about creating relevance and rhythm. When learning mirrors the real world, builds on expertise, and trusts participants to think, the result is more than a digital course; it’s a credible, human experience.

Partner with Us on Your Next eLearning Project

Our team specialises in learning experience design that combines creativity with efficiency - building scalable, story-driven digital learning that feels real and works in practice. Whether you’re converting workshops into digital modules or developing a new learning program, we can help you design eLearning that connects and performs.

→ Get in touch to explore how we can bring your learning experience to life.