Supplemental Resources for Designing E-Learning: About Guidelines for E-Learning Programs

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About Guidelines for E-Learning Programs

Manufacturers establish “tolerances” for the products that they manufacture. These tolerances state the requirements that each product must meet.

For example, the actual dimensions of a part must be within a certain percentage and the part must successfully pass certain tests during the manufacturing process.

Manufacturing engineers call these tolerances quality standards.

Designers of online learning programs establish quality standards in much the same way: tolerances for the products we design and develop. Instead of referring to dimensions and manufacturing tests, however, our quality standards refer to:

Style guidelines, customs followed for spelling, capitalization, punctuation, usage, terminology, and typographical arrangements.
Technical standards for authoring, which refer to the hardware and software needed to develop the online course, including specialized software. Authoring standards also identify any industry standards to which the online learning program must conform.
Technical standards for the viewing system, which refer to the software and hardware needed to view the course.
Templates, which codify the authoring guidelines into viewing guidelines into a series of fill-in-the-blank forms (where feasible) so developers do not have to re-enter information that needs to be consistent.
Production specifications, which indicate the instructions for preparing any packaging that goes with CDs and DVDs as well as printed materials that accompany the online learning program.

Note, however, that these "tolerances" only refer to tangible parts of the online learning program that a course design and development team can control: the hardware and software needed to develop and view the courses, and the guidelines affecting the appearance and presentation of text.

Note that these "tolerances" do not affect intangible aspects of the online learning program. More specifically, note that they do not refer to the presentation of content or the extent of learning. These issues are not cut and dry, and assessing them is more complex than is possible with these types of guidelines.