What are common training material design mistakes?

Very pertinent points- the principle of chunking, sequencing & filtering holds relevance especially in the age of diminishing attention span where the generation of right stimuli in the target audience holds the ??? to success of an event/ program by using the framework of ; 1. Approach - creating favorable listening based on aspirations 2. Liking - in due consonance with experiences, and 3. Wanting - fulfilling the needs of the audience.

This is probably the biggest learning mistake that anyone can make, and unfortunately it happens all the time. Think about an in-person session that you've attended where the presenter just read from slides. Not considering how poor of a facilitation technique this is, the overload of information will turn your learner's focus from you to the document (since it's not a presentation at this point) you're sharing. I find that if you can keep the majority of your slide (either facilitated live or via eLearning) blank you'll lessen the visual fatigue of your learners without impacting engagement. 30 light slides that you spend no more than a minute on will be far more engaging than five that are filled to the brim with text.

Studies have shown that visuals can enhance comprehension and motivation to learn which can make infographics wonderful tools for conveying information. To effectively convey the desired knowledge, an infographic must be clear, easy to read and not overwhelm the learner with too much information.

This is one that I wish had more conversation around it. If you are delivering an assessment, you need to provide context-specific feedback for either why the answer is wrong or how the answer is right. Also, testing shouldn't be designed to trick a learner. Things like "choose the most correct answer" or having options like "all of the above" will teach your learners how to pass a test, but may not support knowledge transfer in a way that will promote adoption and behaviour change.

Lack of collaboration can be an issue. One of the best judges of the training programme and system are the recipients themselves. When you design in collaboration with everyone involved the outcome is generally fruitful.

Sometimes you have to stop and ask yourself if your content is designed at a level for your understanding, or the audience? Yes, the key principle is to ensure that the objectives are met, however the reality is, the only real objective is to ensure that understanding is demonstrated. A critical mistake is information overload trying to elaborate certain subjects or points, use of complicated words and examples. People relate to real life situations, so what I do now in my content, is keep the text light and use scenarios and real life examples to demonstrate the point. I also use keywords in the content as conversation starters so we breakout into a discussion around the point, instead of the facilitator reading off slides.