Congratulations, you’re in charge of the e-Learning program at your company! What will you do now? Implementing e-Learning in an organization can be a complex and political process.
To ensure success, I suggest considering five basic questions before you begin: What does e-Learning success look like at your company? Where does e-Learning fit in your company’s overall training program? Which course should you start with? How can you engage learners? And how can you measure the success of your program?
I’ll explore each question in turn, along with tools and techniques that will make your e-Learning program successful.
What does e-Learning success look like at your company?
Imagine it’s five years in the future. The president of your company has called you in for a party to celebrate the wild success of your e-Learning program. Everybody involved keeps talking about how the program has exceeded their expectations. As you enter the room, you realize that everyone who cares about any aspect of the e-Learning program at your company is indeed there. Look around. Who do you see?
The first step in developing a successful e-Learning program is to define what success looks like for your company — and that begins with understanding all the stakeholders. Make a list of everyone who cares about the results of your e-Learning program, and what each one values with regard to the program.
- For subject matter experts, the program is successful if the information in the courses is accurate and complete. They want the program to present their content expertise in the best possible way, and they want learners to understand it in its entirety.
- The Information Technology (IT) executive, on the other hand, is typically most concerned with how well the program works from the technology point of view. Do the courses run on every computer without problems, or does the program increase the number of calls to the Help desk?
- To the Marketing executive, it is important that use of the company logo follows corporate standards, and that the words and phrases used to present product information are consistent with the company's marketing guidelines.
- The Human Resources executive wants to be able to easily track who has taken which courses, and the test scores and completion dates.
- Managers want a program from which their employees really learn, and a program that effects positive change in behavior, preferably without taking employees away from their work for too long. And learners want relevant, interesting, up-to-date courses that teach them exactly what they need to know in order to achieve their goals.
Create your unique list. Be specific, and as complete as possible. This list will provide you with valuable insight into the various stakeholders, and guide your conversations as you solicit their support.
Where does e-Learning fit in your company’s overall training program?
Once you have identified what success will look like, it’s time to turn your attention to the program itself. How can e-Learning enhance your overall training program?
Create a chart that lists every topic you currently address with training of any kind. Identify the current training method, evaluate the importance of the training to company success, and assess the level of satisfaction with the current method or course. This will help you to determine which training areas are ripe for e-Learning.
For example, if new-product sales training is critical to your company’s success, but the current method of training in a classroom setting is unsatisfactory because 40% of your sales agents travel to the main office only twice each year, you might consider developing this course early in your program. A course on employee benefits, currently communicated adequately through an annual e-mail and a page on your corporate intranet, may be a lower priority.
The chart will also indicate the gaps in your current training program. What kinds of training could you provide if you had the time and resources? Add these topics to your chart, making sure to note the importance of each to the company and the stakeholders you associate with them.
Once you have a complete list, identify the needs you can meet through documentation. Do you really need a course on the phone system, or would a printed page posted next to each handset suffice? Is it vital that employees be able to recite product specs from memory, or could you post such reference material on an intranet, Google Docs, or a shared drive, where employees can view them as needed? Managers often request training when documentation or signage would serve the purpose just as well, and with less effort and expense.
Most organizations opt to retain some classroom training. Perhaps e-Learning covers the basics of each topic, and let instructors deliver the advanced or specialized courses in person, or in courses with relatively few learners. Sometimes the subject matter is the deciding factor. I wouldn’t want to be a passenger in an airplane flown by a pilot whose only prior flight experience was online training (no matter how realistic the virtual reality simulator). The key is to blend your e-Learning, classroom, and other formal training methods in ways that work for your situation. Identify the courses for which face-to-face training is really the best method, and then consider whether you might teach pieces of those courses online.
Even within e-Learning, you have options. Good, ready-made courses on many general topics are available at a low per-user price. Look for courses on popular office software products, office skills development, and health and wellness. Some vendors provide customization of generic courses to make them specific to your organization. In some industries, professional organizations have online courses available on topics of interest to members.
