"We don't have time to create a mandatory e-learning course."
We often hear that comment from customers.
When your to-do list is already a mile long, finding the time to brainstorm ideas, structure lessons, and build a course can feel impossible.
But the good news is, you don't have to do it alone.
By following this 5-step guide, you'll go from scattered ideas to a polished, professional course that meets your training goals, fast.
Before we dive in, you have two paths forward with XtraMile:
- Use what you already have. If your company has existing documentation, XtraMile's AI can turn it into a structured course in minutes.
- Start fresh. If you're starting without any content, this guide will walk you through creating and distributing an effective course.
Let’s look at how to create a course from scratch step by step.
Start with a plan
You've probably heard "failing to plan is planning to fail."
That's especially true for mandatory training. Courses like compliance or onboarding aren't just boxes to check. They keep your business running and your employees informed.
Without a clear plan, things go wrong:
- Employees find training irrelevant or confusing
- Key knowledge gaps go unaddressed
- Your team wastes time fixing problems they could have prevented with preparation
Planning doesn't have to take hours.
With clear goals and structured steps, you’ll set yourself up for success.
How to build your own e-learning course in 5 easy steps
Let's break this down into five simple steps that will take you from initial idea to finished course in minutes.
Step 1: Choose a topic
The first step in creating any e-learning course is deciding what it’s about.
This might sound simple, but it’s often where teams get stuck. Mandatory training covers a wide range of topics, and within each topic, there are more sub-topics. So it can be hard to know where to focus.
Start by asking yourself these questions:
- What training is required for compliance or legal reasons?
- What gaps in knowledge are holding employees back?
- What’s the one thing employees frequently ask about or struggle with?
Pick one to focus on first.
Step 2: Define the goal
Every good e-learning course has a clear purpose.
After choosing a topic, the next step is to ask yourself: What’s the ONE thing employees need to remember?
Defining this goal makes everything else easier. It keeps your course focused and helps employees understand exactly what’s expected.
Examples of goals
- For onboarding: “Understand the company’s core values and policies.”
- For health and safety: “Educating employees on workplace safety procedures”
- For sustainability policies: “Understand the company’s sustainability goals and how to contribute.”
Sometimes, it’s hard to pinpoint the main goal because there’s so much you want to include.
That’s where a tool like ChatGPT can help.
For example:
The result?
ChatGPT fills in the template for you:
Pick one goal. Save the others for future courses.
Use this prompt to find the course goal:
- Copy the full prompt into ChatGPT or your AI tool of choice.
- {Insert Your Topic} from Step 1.
- Run the prompt and let the AI generate goal options
For our example, we'll focus on: "Teach Proper Use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)."
Now let’s enter the title and course description into XtraMile to start the creation of your course:
Step 3: Break the goal into lessons
Once you’ve defined the one thing employees need to know, the next step is to break it down into smaller, actionable lessons.
Think of these as the building blocks that will guide employees toward the main goal.
If you’re not sure which lessons to include, let’s ask ChatGPT for help.
For example:
Here is the result:
You see the main lessons on the left and sub-lessons on the right. By breaking them up like this, you create a clear structure that makes the content easy to follow.
Let’s put the main lessons into our PPE course in XtraMile:
See how easy that was?
Copy this ChatGPT Prompt for Lessons
Break down this training goal: {Goal}. Show 3 main lessons. Include 4 sub-lessons each. Format as a table.
Remember that the prompt only gives you a starting point. Feel free to add more lessons and/ or take some away.
Step 4: Create the content for the lessons
Now that you have the lessons, we need to create the course content.
For example:
Here is a sample of the output:
Use this ChatGPT Prompt to create lesson content
Expand the sub-lessons under {number of main lesson}into full course content.
For each sub-lesson, use the sub-lesson name as the headline.
Include an introduction sentence and 3 key points.
Use short, clear sentences in a friendly tone.
Now let’s put the content into XtraMile:
When you start creating the course from scratch, you will come to a page that is blank.
Copy/ paste the text that ChatGPT gave you into the text field.
Once you’ve put in the text, you can use XtraMile AI to improve it. Shorten the text, extend, or change the style. That is all up to you.
You can also use XtraMile AI to help create pictures, or upload your own from our picture library.
Continue creating the rest of the modules using ChatGPT's text as your foundation, then enhance it with XtraMile AI.
Step 5: Getting your course to your team
Creating a course is only half the job.
The real challenge lies in making sure employees complete it, remember what they learned, and put it into practice.
After creating a PPE course, you now need to consider:
- Who needs to take it?
- When should they complete it?
- What if they forget?
- How do you track who's done it?
- What about new employees who join later?
Without the right tools, managing this becomes a full-time job.
HR teams spend hours manually assigning courses, sending reminders, and generating reports. Managers lose track of their team's progress. And training that should improve safety ends up creating administrative headaches instead.
This is where XtraMile's automation makes a real difference.
How XtraMile handles distribution
Most Learning Management Systems (LMS) just give you a place to store your course. But getting employees to actually complete it is usually left up to you.
Let's see how XtraMile's learning platform handles the entire process, using our PPE course as an example:
1. Smart assignments
We need to assign the course to every employee who needs training on that topic.
Without automation, you'd spend hours going through staff lists, marking who needs the training. Plus, every time you hire someone new, you'd have to remember to assign it to them too.
XtraMile removes this burden by automatically:
- Assigning the course to relevant departments/ employees
- Enrolling new hires in the courses automatically
- Updating assignments when employees change roles
With assignments handled automatically, you can focus on tracking who's completed the training.
2. Keeping track
Now that employees are taking the course, you need to know who's finished and who hasn't.
Traditionally, this means pulling reports, updating spreadsheets, and hoping nothing slips through the cracks.
XtraMile gives managers and HR teams clear visibility with:
- Real-time completion reports
- Alerts about overdue training
- Department-specific progress updates
- Clear visibility of certification status
Once you can see who's behind on training, the next challenge is getting them to complete it.
3. Automated follow-up
The last thing you want is for employees to miss critical training because they forgot about it. But sending reminders manually takes hours and often gets pushed aside when you're busy.
XtraMile takes care of this automatically:
- Sends targeted reminders to employees who haven't started
- Alerts managers about team members falling behind
- Generates completion certificates automatically
- Creates compliance reports when you need them
With all these automations working together, your training runs smoothly while you focus on other priorities.
What this means in practice
Think about your latest training challenge.
Maybe it's getting new hires up to speed, rolling out compliance updates, or introducing new procedures. Without the right system, you're stuck in an endless cycle – creating content, manually assigning courses, sending reminders, generating reports.
When a new employee joins, the cycle starts again. You add them to your tracking sheet, send them training materials, and hope they complete everything on time.
Meanwhile, their manager asks for updates, compliance deadlines loom, and other projects pile up.
It doesn't have to be this way.
With XtraMile, the moment someone joins, employees are automatically enrolled in relevant courses. They get friendly reminders until they finish. Their manager sees their progress without asking.
When they complete the training, their certificate is generated automatically and their records update.
Ready to put this into action?
Creating effective training isn't about working harder. It's about having the right tools and approach.
Start by planning thoughtfully. Create content that actually teaches what your team needs to know. Then let automation handle the rest - from delivery to completion tracking.
Want to see how it works?
Book a demo and we'll show you how to turn your training from a manual burden into an automatic success.