Before designing my first online course, I pictured learners sitting in front of their computers, sighing heavily. Although I believed that online courses could be more convenient for learners, I had to wonder whether they would miss some of the fun activities that take place in the traditional classroom. Would learners form bonds online? How could participants develop a sense of camaraderie when they couldn't pass each other silly looks when I made a mistake? Most important, where were the doughnuts, and how could I develop peole's trust without them? Well, I couldn’t give them doughnuts, but I could look for a theme that would make the class a little more fun and interesting.

I admit it. I like themes. I give theme parties. I decorate the rooms in my home with themes, such as the vintage kitchen that I’m currently working on. I’ve also used themes to liven up my traditional classroom sessions. Remember when "surfing the net" was the phrase du jour? Well, you should have seen the surfing props I used to add fun to an introductory Internet course. For example, I put cheap sunglasses at every workstation and asked the learners to wear them when they wanted to ask questions—incognito. So when I started to venture into the world of e-learning, I decided to use themes to tie concepts together and guide learners through the course.

It was tough to come up with a fun theme for my first online course on workplace harassment. In fact, it seemed inappropriate. Sorting through the issues that constituted a hostile work environment and quid pro quo felt like fitting together the pieces of a puzzle. Voila! There it was: The theme and title of the course became "Solving the Puzzle of Workplace Harassment."

In another example, I used a construction theme for an online guide on contract management. Theme images pointed to different sections of the guide, which I referred to as plans and blueprints. I tied construction analogies such as well-built and a good foundation to contract writing guidelines. The contract managers were excited about the theme and had more suggestions for adding jackhammer or wrecking ball images and sounds.

Develop your own themes

How can you produce themes for your online courses?

Generate ideas. Brainstorm! If you don't consider yourself the creative type, ask fellow trainers or subject matter experts for input. For example, I asked the learners for ideas before developing the contract management course. I asked them to brainstorm some concepts that they thought related to the challenges of managing government contracts. Although I didn’t use such suggestions as mazes, puzzles, wrestling, pain, or maps, it was a fun exercise that led to the construction theme.

Look for variety. Choose a theme that has an array of metaphors, analogies, and language to help you organize concepts. At first, mazes appeared to be a good possibility for the contract training guide, but under closer inspection I realized that it really had just one basic scheme. The construction theme, however, offered an assortment of concepts that could relate to building an effective contract, including various tools, stages of construction, and blueprints. Also, be sure to select themes that won't seem dated too quickly. The latest movie or dance craze might make a fun theme, but could become a detractor when no one cares about the Macarena or Mission Impossible anymore.

Use language to weave concepts throughout the program. Themes can help developers streamline writing and content organization. For instance, after writing the introduction to the Contracts Construction Guide, the format and writing style became clear. Here's an excerpt:

The words tools, planning, and foundation can be used as headers or content buckets. Course sections can use the foundation of a well-constructed house metaphor when covering the importance of solid information and core issues.

Add images. Finding appropriate images is an important part of choosing a theme, so look early in the process. For example, there were plenty of construction images but few maze images available on free stock-graphic Websites.

Once you decide on a theme, the number of related graphics you find will inspire you. But beware: Developers untrained in graphic design tend to overuse images, so ask for advice from a designer and test your images, layout, and format with users before launching a class. Be sure to use images that enhance the learning rather than detract from it. Use animated images sparingly and don’t add them to pages that require the learner to do a lot of reading. Fortunately, learners gave favorable evaluations of the colorful pages, puzzles, and graphics in the workplace harassment course.

Here are some potential themes to get you started.

• Team sports. A sports theme such as baseball works well for teambuilding, leadership, or other soft skills courses. Coaches can be your online experts. Running the bases can take the learner through the content. Runs, hits, and errors can describe effective and ineffective ways to manage teams.

• Road maps. Nearly any topic can use a map theme. You can use rest stops to identify learning breaks. A sports car or a station wagon can indicate whether the learner is taking a fast track overview or a thorough, step-by-step route through the materials. You can also incorporate common road signs to lead the learners through the course. Also, images of road signs are plentiful on free graphic Websites.

• Music. A music theme can go several different ways. For example, navigation can be structured as a jukebox image and song titles that relate to course content can be used as links. When I developed a leadership guide, I used Go Your Own Way to link to our section on a personal action planning and With a Little help From My Friends for the section on enabling others to act. Be sure to use songs that you think the majority of your audience will know.

• Detectives. Give the learner a case to solve. Set up the scenario and have them follow clues or perform research to learn the concepts that you're trying to convey. In the workplace harassment course, you could have a report of sexual harassment. Ask the learner to interview the involved parties to learn the terms and correct process for filing a complaint.

Trainers and instructional designers understand that relating new concepts (course content) to known concepts (themes) helps people learn more quickly. So have fun with themes and discover their advantages for inspiring learners and enlivening and organizing content.

Debbie Vogel is an e-learning developer in Raleigh, North Carolina, debv@nc.rr.com.