The crew at News University, the e-learning project at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, is often asked, "How can I create a course?" It’s a question that usually follows something more basic: "Do you think e-learning can help journalists?"
We spend lots of time thinking about both questions, and we want to share our ideas. We believe effective e-learning can help journalists do a better job. No doubt about it.
Our concept is simple. If you make the training tightly focused, you’ll help journalists learn. If you make the training engaging, you’ll help them learn. If you deliver training that is relevant, you’ll help them learn and do a better job.
Yes, that sounds good, you say, but how do you do it – create a tightly focused, engaging and relevant e-learning course? Or, put another way, "How can I do it?"
Well, we’re from NewsU and we’re here to help. Let’s look at our approach to courses and what you need to know as you develop e-learning training.
Be flexible; watch the time.
We want courses designed with busy journalists in mind. Most courses will be offered on a flexible schedule, requiring only 
one to two hours to complete, in order to make the most of participants’ valuable time. We know that NewsU participants will dip in and out of courses on their schedule.
Actively involve participants.
Many courses will allow participants to assess their skills as they go and specifically target their training needs. As a course author, you should use quizzes, games and other interactivity to teach. Make the testing fun, however.
And don’t forget to use the answers to further the learning. Don’t just say, "You got it right/wrong." Give students more detail or show them examples.
Training when they need it
Most journalists have specific training needs at specific times in their careers. There’s no "one size fits all" model. That means tailoring courses to meet particular learning objectives. Rather than create a course about writing, for example, we created a course about writing better leads. It focuses on solving a specific challenge some writers have. And it’s engaging. When you are done here, check out NewsU’s "Lead Lab."
The "Language of the Image" course shows you a very flexible course; journalists can decide their own learning path as they explore how to better understand photography.
When you visit these courses, don’t worry about how you would create the high production values of the visuals or the audio. That’s not your job. That’s the role of the NewsU crew. "Language of the Image" started out as a PowerPoint presentation. The "Lead Lab" can trace its origins to a chapter in a textbook.
Even before you click off to explore NewsU’s courses, we strongly recommend spending 8 minutes with a very engaging, very focused and very informative training module about the power of e-learning at NewsU. We call it "E-Learning Rocks." Remember "School House Rocks"? Same great concept; same amount of fun.
Go ahead, click now. When you come back, we'll finish our discussion.
We hope E-Learning Rocks" helps you understand our concepts about the different forms online training will take at NewsU.
There are probably a few more questions, so let’s get to them.
What else do I need to know?
It is important that you have some basic understanding of how people learn. Of course you should have expertise with your subject matter. It helps to teach what you know.
The interesting thing is that most journalists have good instincts when it comes to teaching. Reporting, photographing, creating information graphics and writing about a complex issue is a form of teaching. You lay out the topic, explain the background, show examples and conclude by telling what they just read or heard and how it relates to their world.
To be effective at e-learning, you need to clearly understand WHAT you want to teach and HOW you want to teach. [But you saw all of that in "E-Learning Rocks," so I won’t repeat it here.]
How much experience in Web development should a course author have?
For most courses, authors don’t need advanced technical skills. The NewsU course, "Crafting a Course: Developing E-learning for NewsU," will walk you through the basics of focusing content and applying the elements of effective interactive training. If you want to take this e-learning course to learn more about e-learning [neat, huh?] just send me an e-mail at