Once upon a time, eLearning was the exciting new frontier of education. It promised flexibility, scalability, and creativity — learning without boundaries. From the early 2000s onward, organisations embraced digital training as the modern solution to professional development. But as with many revolutions, what began as innovation has, in many cases, devolved into automation — a tick-box exercise prioritising compliance over comprehension, and convenience over craft.
The Early Days: Digital PowerPoints and Online Quizzes
The first generation of eLearning was little more than a digital extension of the classroom. PowerPoint slides became “modules,” narrated by an instructor or paired with a few knowledge checks. Learners clicked Next until the end, where a simple multiple-choice quiz confirmed “completion.”
It wasn’t glamorous, but it was groundbreaking. For the first time, organisations could train large, dispersed teams without classrooms or travel costs. Learning management systems (LMSs) emerged, and the corporate world took notice.
The Golden Age: The Instructional Designer’s Craft
As technology evolved, so did expectations. The best eLearning moved beyond static slides and quizzes into immersive, interactive experiences. Instructional designers — a professional field that blossomed during this era — combined psychology, pedagogy, and multimedia design to create courses that taught, not just told.
Scenario-based learning, branching pathways, simulations, gamification, and storytelling transformed eLearning into a true art form. Learners could experiment, fail safely, and see the real-world consequences of decisions — all within a digital space. The learning experience was carefully designed, not merely assembled.
We had come a long way from the days of the emergency procedures folder at reception — that dusty binder staff were expected to read and then sign the acknowledgement sheet. eLearning was meant to revolutionise that kind of training. But now, ironically, we see courses that are not much more than a digital version of the same. A static image map, a multitude of dot points, and an LMS to track that it has been read. eLearning should emulate the best learning experiences — but that is not the trend.
The Decline: Compliance and Convenience
As budgets tightened and technology became more accessible, a shift began. The rise of rapid authoring tools like Articulate Storyline, Captivate, and eventually Articulate RISE promised that anyone could create eLearning — no instructional designer required.
And that was both true and tragic.
Where once content was designed to engage the learner, it’s now too often designed to satisfy the auditor. Organisations value completion rates over competence, and content volume over learning outcomes.
The modern eLearning landscape has been flooded with sleek, scroll-based modules — endless walls of text punctuated by stock photos, accordion tabs, and token knowledge checks. Built quickly by well-meaning administrators, often with little to no instructional design background, these modules are easy to produce but rarely effective.
Articulate RISE, for all its elegance and efficiency, has become emblematic of this decline. It prioritises aesthetics over engagement, efficiency over exploration. What once was interactive and learner-centred has become passive and information-heavy. It’s not learning — it’s digital reading.
While it is evident that Articulate is in the process of developing RISE to include more customisation and interaction, the damage caused by the flood of poorly designed, scrolling-content courses is here to stay for a while. Organisations are now complaining that they have too many eLearns — and that they’re not effective.
But how long will it take to convince these same organisations that the poor ROI isn’t because of eLearning itself, but because of cheap, poorly designed eLearning?
So cheap that they made too many.
The old adage rings true: “Crap in, crap out.”
The Human Cost: From Learning to Compliance
The shift from quality to quantity has real consequences. Employees tune out. Learning fatigue grows. Courses become an obligation, not an opportunity. The craft of instructional design — understanding how people learn, what motivates them, and how to measure true understanding — is being replaced by a “just copy and paste it” culture.
And ironically, in the age of artificial intelligence, the problem has only deepened. AI makes content creation faster than ever, but faster doesn’t mean better. It means more of the same — recycled information dressed in corporate branding, disconnected from the learner’s reality.
The Future: Rediscovering the “Learning” in eLearning
eLearning doesn’t have to stay on this downward slope. The same tools that cheapened it can also be harnessed to elevate it — if used with intention. AI can support instructional designers, not replace them. Templates can accelerate production without erasing creativity. But that requires organisations to once again value learning as a craft, not a checkbox.
The future of eLearning depends on returning to its roots: the learner. Not the LMS, not the compliance deadline, not the template — the human being at the other end of the screen.
If we can remember that, eLearning can rise again.
