3 Recommendations for Making your Content Stand Out

Last month, our team conducted a focused research study with 10 Learning & Development (L&D) Managers and Learners within the business from across the globe. We interviewed a diverse group of people from enterprise to small business companies to better understand what factors influence their decision when selecting content and what they consider “high quality”.

Check out what we learned about both L&D Managers and individual Learners, and how it might help make your content stand out:

1.      Provide interactive and engaging content

This is L&D Managers’ and Learners’  #1 requirement when selecting a course*

“Interactivity helps engagement as well. They tend to be the courses that we go for because it almost forces the individual to do the course properly ‘cause if it's unmoderated course the concern is that you're paying all this money and the candidate's just clicking next through the slides to get the course done. But if there's interactivity … then it allows the individual to take in the information more.”
~ L&D manager

2.      Ensure titles and images** are specific to each course

Both Managers and Learners suggested these are key indicators of relevance and quality

“He looked maybe less friendly, like a less interesting person. For me watching (software training) it’s gonna be drudgery and then I look at that guy's picture and I'm like, oh, there's the image of drudgery. Whereas if I saw like a young [person] on there, I would think, or maybe even if he were just smiling, okay, that's gonna be more tolerable.” 
~ Learner 

For more information, check out our detailed recommendations on creating great course images!

3.      Communicate the expertise of the presenter

Both Managers and Learners noted they see this as an indicator of credibility

“I will probably look at people’s reviews from other sources and social media, like Reddit… if someone published a book about something and has good reviews, then I know that person will probably give a pro course (and) if they’re like industry experts or people whose name I recognize.”  
~ Learner 

*Note that in this article the term ‘course’ is used interchangeably to indicate any type of online learning object in the Go1 environment, including Videos, Interactives, Audio and Document types – as well as Course-types.

**Authors Note: The way learners process images are subject to bias and individual taste. Administrators who curate content for others also prioritize inclusivity for their large and diverse cohort of learners, looking for signifiers that represent diversity and avoid stereotypes or marginalization of any group.