I’m sure you’ve been in the position you have completed some hideous eLearning that has been poorly put together, completely missing the training need and has been incredibly boring!
I’m unfortunate to have seen quite a few of these, as I have been approached by many clients asking for advice on how they can get their staff to buy-in and improve engagement rates.
The answer is simple, view your team as a new customer or prospect. If you wouldn’t put something in front of your new prospect then don’t put it in front of your staff.
With that being said, when done correctly, eLearning can be a great way to give you an edge above your competition, improve employee attention and over a period of time is very cost effective.
Therefore, how do you go about providing fantastic bespoke digital learning to your people?
Here are 5 tips to get you started.
1. Who will design your digital learning?
In the fullness of time this might be something you want to take in house and recruit for an eLearning developer, however I would strongly suggest that you use an established eLearning company to get you started and make sure they have a background in Learning and development.
The reason I say this is it would be easy and very cost effective to employ a designer for example that has little or no experience of learning, meaning they basically will be making a more aesthetically pleasing session of the learning that was put out to your employers in the first place.
By working with a company with L&D experience, they will be able to help you re-work your content so that it meets your staffs demands by making suggestions on how to plan the digital learning journey. It could be that you need to slice the learning down, include more interaction or go from a completely different angle to make the core skills more fun and engaging to learn.
2. Look at examples of content
When making your decision who to outsource your learning to, the first thing you should see is a portfolio of their work and also what ROI the learning has resulted in. For example, Skillshub were part of producing eLearning as a blended learning approach for parent company MTD Training and won 2 prestige awards. It also gives you an indication of what your digital learning could be made up of and look like.
3. Be upfront about your budget
The great thing with online learning is that it can be the full works or a scaled down version that will still hit the spot. What are your expectations for the eLearning project and what are you willing to spend?
Most bespoke eLearning companies are happy to work with their clients to personalise a package that will work for them. For example, it could be that some of your goals could be covered in an off the shelf course they have produced, that they can integrate into an eLearning session for you so it can still be tailored to your training needs and brand. This reduces the costs from starting to build a course from scratch.
4. Software and resources
What is included when the eLearning project is finished? Do you get access to the eLearning templates so that these can be customised by yourselves when any information becomes out of date? This is an ideal option for companies that want to implement eLearning but do not have a member of the team with the right skillset to be able to create from it from the ground up. Would there be any training and hand over support involved? It’s worth asking the question.
5. Learning Platform
What will happen with the content once it has been completed? Do you have an eLearning platform such as an LMS in place already? Will it be suitable to roll out the content in a way that is best to get your staff engaged? Does the company that’s making the eLearning for you have an LXP in place to support you if you’re started from scratch? It’s great having a high quality bespoke eLearning solution, but if you have an outdated and clunky LMS system, you may want to take a step back and see if it’s time to upgrade your system too.
Skillshub LXP has some great features to support bespoke eLearning, including advanced software to support all different types of learning through its learning journey interfaced platform.
In summary, although many organisations do opt for off the shelf content, bespoke eLearning does have the edge being fully customisable and company specific.
Your company can address any training needs and provide employees with personal learning pathways based on what they need to know in their job.
By following the five-step approach, it gives you the opportunity to choose the right digital content development company for your requirements. Check out our bespoke eLearning page to see how we can assist you.
Bespoke eLearning does come with an upfront cost, but the legacy benefits it will have for your organisation will be there for years to come. Hence it will give you a competitive advantage by offering a very targeted solution that hits the mark every time as opposed to an off the shelf product that is 60% effective and relevant.
If you’re ready to level up your L&D strategy with the help of an eLearning company, get in touch with us today!
Jenny
Jenny Verman – Head of Digital Learning
