Course Navigation Instructions: To Include or Not to Include, That Is the Question

Community member Katherine Rowood recently started a discussion that most of us can relate to: is it necessary to include course navigation instructions at the beginning of every e-learning course? Our community members weighed in with some pretty good arguments, but as with many aspects of the Instructional Design world, there is no clear right or wrong answer. Nevertheless, I think their answers may help you make an educated decision about the best option for your course and target audience. Here’s a summary of the four primary themes grouped below by opinion:

Include Instructions at the Beginning

• Call out the navigation buttons at the very start of the course, when they first appear. If the rest of the navigation buttons are always in the same location and same function, I don’t think you need to point them out again. Nicole Legault ...