6½ Types of eLearning Content You Can Reuse in dominKnow | ONE

We've talked in the past about how content reuse is a big selling point of dominKnow | ONE. It lets you do more with less, saves time and money, and helps you with audience targeting and multimodal learning, among other things.

We're constantly looking for opportunities where you might want to leverage eLearning content repeatedly across your training library, and then we keep looking for ways to make reuse as smart and effective as possible.

Let's look at several different types of eLearning content you can reuse in dominKnow | ONE, how the reuse works, and what it lets you do.  

We'll start with the big one.

#1: Reuse Entire Learning Objects

In dominKnow | ONE, you can reuse entire chunks of eLearning content known as Learning Objects, or LOs. A reusable learning object includes:

• The title/objective (required)
• One or more pages that teach that objective (required)
• Practice exercises for that objective (optional)
• Test questions to assess that specific objective and are part of an overall post-module test (optional)

When you reuse each Learning Object in another project, you can adjust the LO’s settings to control which aspects to display. One project might only use the content pages without the assessment questions, while another project might use the assessment questions without the content pages. You can also, on a project-by-project basis, choose whether to use all the LO’s questions in the post-module assessment or pull random questions from that LO’s pool.

The best part? When you reuse in dominKnow | ONE, we truly mean reuse. In other words, when you update an LO in dominKnow | ONE, all instances of that LO will be updated. Of course, if you want to break that linkage, you can sever a specific instance of reuse, so it becomes unique.  

Each project in dominKnow | ONE needs at least one LO, but to get the most out of your content, we recommend you plan ahead with potential reuse in mind.    

New users tend to default to a backend structure that mirrors the intended learner experience. They either put all of a project’s content into a single LO since they had to with previous tools, or they use the LOs like modules. However, you can break up a project’s eLearning content on the back end in ways that users on the front end won’t see.  

If a set of learning objectives will always need to be reused together, you can save yourself a little trouble by making them a single LO. But if you need to maximize your chances for reuse, then the best practice is to strategically break up a project’s eLearning content so that each Learning Object contains a single learning objective. This way, no matter how you mix and match LOs through reuse, the pool of test questions you draw on for an overall assessment will remain tied to the appropriate content.

#2: Reuse Themes

dominKnow | ONE themes are also reusable. In fact, since themes drive a project’s look and feel, branding, and navigation, they are often the most highly reused items. In dominKnow | ONE, you can build custom themes from scratch or adapt the look and feel of a system theme with options to alter the player experience, navigation options, default page content, end screens, color, font, and other style settings. In short, they’re designed to be highly customizable, providing you with all the tools you need for building eLearning content that reflects your organization's branding.  

Admins can view and manage all customized themes and variants, and it's incredibly simple for authors to apply existing themes to new projects (or transform an existing project by applying a new theme).  

This makes it easy to maintain a consistent look and feel across your materials and update it through reuse, no matter how big your eLearning library is or how many people are involved in its authoring.

#3: Reuse Library Assets

All media, external assets, and resources that you store in dominKnow | ONE's Media Library are reusable, including graphics, video, audio, and linked documents.

In fact, an object's meta data is also reusable; it’s stored and edited centrally with the asset, so you won't have to fill them in for individual projects. Transcripts and closed caption files for video and audio also remain attached. With a nod to reuse and flexibility, descriptions are auto copied into the Alt text field for images. This saves the author from having to create this manually yet enabling them to adjust the screen reader text for specific use cases.

It's also easy to see where an asset has already been reused. Authors can access a list of Projects and Pages for an individual asset via Properties.

#4: Reuse Ancillary References  

If you're dealing with a large eLearning library, you probably use the same citations and glossary terms over and over to back up your primary eLearning content.  

Instead of copying those kinds of resources from project to project, it's much more efficient to manage them as a common pool.

That's why dominKnow | ONE's glossary terms and references have the same reusability features as media assets – you can search for and reuse individual terms or citations across projects, see the number and location of other uses via the properties tab, or generate usage reports if you're an admin.

#5: Reuse Publishing Profiles

A publishing profile is a reusable set of options that affect such aspects as:

• Testing requirements and behavior
• Whether certain content is displayed
• Whether you can search for or interact with content in certain ways
• Navigation locking or auto-resume
• Behavior related to browsers or windows
• SCORM settings
• Which xAPI statements are sent

In dominKnow | ONE, you can save and manage multiple publishing profiles with their own name and description. When you publish a project to an LMS, LRS, or as a web package, you can select and apply one.  

After initial publication, the system remembers which profile is associated with that project for future publications. If the profile is edited, changes will be reflected immediately in previewing projects and in all future publication of all associated projects.

#6: Reuse HTML Widgets

While we do try to anticipate your authoring needs with easy-to-use features and built-in widgets, the ability to add a third-party HTML widget can give you the flexibility to design outside our box.  

We also know that when you have a third-party HTML widget you love, you'll probably want to use it again and again. So, we made that a thing.

You can reuse HTML widgets by uploading them to the Media Library as a zip file with the HTML document and its related assets. These widgets can interact with the project’s content or the course player using our contentAPI.

Once uploaded, the HTML object can be inserted into any number of projects. Usage data can be accessed like any other asset.

Bonus: Share Favorite Claro Layers & Flow Sections

Although it’s not really an example of reuse, our centralized favorites make it easier to replicate key designs throughout your project. We recently added the ability to create a copy of layers in Claro (our fixed-pixel authoring mode) and sections in Flow (our responsive authoring mode).

If you know that a Claro layer or Flow section will be useful again later, you can add it as a "favorite," either for just yourself or for anyone working collaboratively on your current project. That makes it readily available in the Add to Page panel when you need it.  

If you aren't that prescient, you can use the panel's full site search function to locate the Claro layer or Flow section you have in mind.

While many of our reuse options maintain a link for global updating, this principle does NOT apply to reusing Claro layers and Flow sections. This type of reuse is intended to be a static "copy" function.

Still a wicked time-saver!  

Unlock Efficiency with dominKnow | ONE

We design dominKnow | ONE to help you work smart, and our content reuse features play a big role in our mission to save you from unnecessary tedium.  

On the other hand, the reuse features are just the tip of the iceberg in our user-driven design. We also save you unnecessary work with pre-built interactive components, tools for building branching scenarios and software simulations, and much more.

To learn more about dominKnow | ONE’s other features, sign up for a demo from one of our experts or dive in with a free 14-day trial!

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