E-Learning Challenge #61: Top Tips for E-Learning Freelancers

This week’s challenge was an easy one, which is probably why Im able to participate – hooray! Thank you, David!

The Concept

This week, the challenge was to design a poster, infographic, or list to share top tips with e-learning freelancers. As an e-learning freelancer, this challenge seemed right up my alley.

The Method

Well. First, I got a little ahead of myself and mistook it for Instructional Design tips and created a poster related to one of my very favourite quotes from a less than favourite military reviewer (and I say that jokingly…kind of) – “Bullets are too verbose.”; the take away from that comment was to be more concise…which is tricky when you need to include sections of military publications verbatim into your courseware. GAH. That being said, I like to pride myself in being fairly concise within my e-learning projects.

Once I admired my handy work, I realized my mistake and began racking my brain for freelance tips. I thought this would be a lot easier than it was because 1) I’ve been an e-learning freelancer for several years now, 2) I’ve learned a lot about small business in this past year, and 3) I’m writing a book that’s almost related directly to just that. However, my brain was apparently converted into mashed potatoes last night and it took me several hours to come up with something worth recommending to other e-learning freelancers.

The Result

First, I’ll share my Instructional Design tip:

Next up, my top tip for e-learning freelancers:

Scope creep is a very real thing, so you should definitely heed my advice. I would also recommend having an air-tight contract. It’s always nice to go above and beyond for your clients, but you don’t want to give away the farm!