First published in Polish by Sławomir Łais

Various types of content - texts, illustrations, graphics - form a significant part of digital educational products.  And as it is true about education, they should be clear, understandable and engaging at the same time. What should we do to make sure that our content is of good quality, serves its function and does not contain errors?

These were the topics of a conversation we had as part of the Digital Learning Drive initiative with Tomasz Kuc, an expert on graphic design and making things simple. This article is a summary of the interview. 

EDITING

An interesting fact that we learnt during the conversation was that a growing number of organisations takes part in the plain language initiative (Polish: Deklaracja Prostego Języka), which aims to make communications of offices or companies simple and comprehensible to everyone. There are many areas, where customer experience is the key success factor, and certainly using an obscure language does not make things easier.

Such an approach seems obvious to educators, after all, it is difficult to imagine teaching others using a sophisticated language.

Yet, for educators who mainly use spoken language, formulating written texts can be a challenge, as in this case you lack certain means of expression, to mention intonation, and it is relatively easy to produce a written work that is not digestible for readers.

Therefore, the first step to quality educational content is thorough editing of the text. It is recommended to:

• abridge it and remove unnecessary embellishments;
• make it simple, avoid complex sentences, and difficult words;
• give the text a structure (divide it into meaningful paragraphs, chapters) - the flatter the structure, the better;
• highlight key content.

Yet, you do not always have time or money to hire a professional editor. In such cases, asking a colleague or client (or a family member) to read the text will allow identifying incomprehensible parts of it and improve it.

Any part of the text that is not informative disturbs its understanding.

Taking a look at the jasnopis.pl online tool is recommended.

WE ARE NOT MACHINES

Generally speaking, learners are not machines. Therefore, it is worth remembering that communication intended for a human being, apart from the pure transmission of information, serves various functions - e.g. emotional, making remembering easier, etc. That is why we use metaphors, comparisons and adjectives.

It is important to work on it consciously and not overdo it. In this area, we have several approaches that are worth knowing, such as sticky ideas (by the Heath brothers) or different storytelling techniques.

As Albert Einstein put it, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler”. 

THE ACCURACY OF TEXT

Errors can be glaring and can effectively distract the reader's attention from the content, effectively weakening the author's authority at the same time. If a coach enters a room and makes a grammar mistake the moment s/he starts speaking, s/he has to work hard to regain their authority. Things get even more complicated in digital education because errors can be easily reproduced and the readers cannot see the author, so it is harder for him/her to make up for anything.

Publishers have tried and tested it many times, because in their case, overlooking an error can result in high costs of destroying the whole edition of a publication. It is advisable to follow their example and adopt a proofreading routine. Proofreading is the process of careful reading of a text, preferably by someone who is not familiar with it, to identify spelling, punctuation and stylistic errors. In the ideal world, this would be a professional proof-reader, but a non-professional can help, too.

So it is good to have your text proofread, especially if it is going to be recorded and reproduced. Remember to use an auto-correct feature in your text editor, but not unquestioningly, as you can end up with the Baltic See in your text, for example.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Educational content is often illustrated. However, the quality of the illustrations is variable. What rules should be adopted to make sure that the result looks professional?

It is worth to:

• adopt a uniform illustration style and stick to it consistently;
• consciously manage the white space and refrain from inserting illustrations in any free space;
• when using stock photos, avoid cliché stock images that are often repeated (use the images.google.com tool); 
• use diagrams and illustrations to explain more complex concepts;
• consider using infographics and charts, where possible;
• Make sure that the graphic design (colours, icons, user interface elements) serves a purpose.

When talking about digital products, the design system is often mentioned. This phrase stands for the adoption of a common graphic layout for the whole project, which makes the final product visually coherent, clear and intuitive to use.

If you produce content for large companies, one of the design requirements can be compliance with CVI (Corporate Visual Identity) - i.e. the colours and graphic design rules followed by the client.

HOW TO GET THE PICTURE OF IT ALL?

It is worth realising that the cost structure in digital education is slightly different from the traditional approach. In the former, costs do not have to be so closely linked to the provision of the service.

This is why it is worth investing in the development of quality templates, which will be used for many products. Content templates also allow better control over the authors of the texts, because they make them use certain measures and, for example, promote conciseness.

Digital products are more easily scalable than analogue ones (especially static and asynchronous ones). Selling the same content to many customers usually costs a fraction of the amount required for the preparation of the product. That is why it's worth making sure that it is carefully designed.

The second thing you should be aware of is the fact that you can divide tasks among the training organisation's team members. Several functions, such as editorial support, proofreading, and providing help with organising a webinar, can be performed by a colleague who has some free time. With time, you can train some staff members to perform different tasks.

One way or another, it is important to take care of the quality of the content, because, as they say, nothing dies on the Internet and you would rather have your content make you proud and attract new customers, don’t you.

The entire Digital Learning Drive recording on this topic is available (in Polish) on the YouTube channel of the Digital Creators Foundation: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCreg3eyhCM8wrbAguDQaowA.

Sławomir Łais – educator, designer of educational applications, author of many publications and the practitioner.pl blog, keynote speaker at conferences. President of OSI CompuTrain, co-creator of the Learning Battle Cards method and tools. Coach, consultant in the use of modern technologies in teaching. Member of the Digital Creators Foundation Board. EPALE Ambassador.