eLearning can be the perfect tool to facilitate the improvement of work processes within an organization, providing standardized, on-demand training for workers through the corporate enterprise, whether across the building or across the world. eLearning can deliver a wide variety of information to employees as needed, such as basic company information for new hires, technical training for new manufacturing equipment or global treasury policies or compliance training procedures that are updated as international regulations change. However, without, careful planning and orchestration, your eLearning initiative can become an eNightmare, causing confusion, cost overruns and discord.

Creating successful eLearning courseware is not as simple as posting training manuals and PowerPoint presentations on the intranet in the hope that employees will log on, review and understand the material. True eLearning programs must emulate traditional classroom learning by logically and effectively presenting course materials to teach specific information while providing tools to evaluate and quantify the student’s understanding.

To be truly effective, the courseware should capture the “instructor element” to provide the user with an opportunity to practice the information with real-life scenarios, similar to a traditional classroom setting. Well-developed courseware should anticipate user questions, provide answers at the appropriate time, and afford ample practice opportunities to reinforce the learning experience. These elements are critical to a successful eLearning program. If you aren’t ready, willing and able to incorporate these, you should outsource or stick with traditional, inflexible training options.

For companies that want to create eLearning courseware, there are critical considerations that should be followed to ensure a successful outcome, whether the development team is working together across the table, or as a virtual team assembled electronically across the globe.

One of the world’s largest software companies turned to eLearning to overcome inconsistencies across its global sales force. The company was seeking to develop courseware to update its sales team with the breadth of information needed to effectively sell its rapidly changing products. The steps taken to develop and roll out their eLearning solution are the same steps that should be followed for a successful in-house deployment.

In this case, we established our methodology for development, which was customized to meet their objectives and timeframes, and made sure that everyone understood the scope of the project up front. We worked closely with their internal team to set clear goals, i.e., what information needed to be taught, to whom and why. We established a budget, discussed the scale of the project and determined the number of courses to be developed and the timeframe for delivery. By focusing our attention on the four key ingredients that we have identified in creating hundreds of successful eLearning programs, we were able to meet their goals quickly and efficiently.

First and foremost, it is imperative that everyone knows and understands the goals of the project, i.e., what information needs to be taught, to whom, and why. Communication challenges and other issues can cause delays and quality issues. Therefore, policies, procedures and technology should be kept as simple as possible, enabling even a geographically disparate development team to work efficiently. Whether eLearning is developed internally or outsourcing, key ingredients must be engaged to create a successful program.

People

Assemble a team of people who posses the background, knowledge and appropriate skill sets to contribute to the team. Once the critical skill sets for the success of the project have been identified, find the individuals who have both the skills and the bandwidth to reliably contribute to the project. Equally important, they must “buy into” the objectives that have been established for the project and work well with the entire team. Some organizations have the luxury of dedicating personnel exclusively to eLearning project, but in most cases, team members also have a full workload to juggle along with the new project assignments. This is why it is important to make sure team members will have the available bandwidth and the personal commitment necessary to meet deadlines.

Methodology

Prior to beginning the development process it is imperative that a set approach be established for communications between the team (instant messaging is an excellent method of facilitating rapid interaction between a geographically disparate team). Establish standardized documents to be used throughout the project including content gathering and storyboard templates. Utilize issue tracking and status reports to save development time and ensure courseware consistency.

Purchasing an off-the-shelf solution is unnecessary and may even jeopardize the project. Each project is unique in its timeframe, contributors and objectives, so a cookie-cutter approach could inherently damage the team’s ability to reach its objectives successfully. Using a project-specific approach that customizes policies and procedures from a methodology “toolbox” for each unique project. It is critical to select structures that will enable the project rather than those that could ultimately become the project.

Procedures

eLearning development is a step-by-step process so setting and meeting deadlines is critical. Missed deadlines can delay the entire project and ultimately undermine its initial success. Understand all of the steps that will be required to create the courseware and to move it live. Confirm the content, scope and sophistication of the delivery (audio, video, automated, interactive, etc.), and how evaluation will be incorporated into the materials. Consider whether proficiency needs to be demonstrated in a specific manner to meet regulatory requirements or mastery of information must be achieved before moving to the next learning module. If so, specific measurement tools will have to be incorporated into the initial program.

Technology

Identify the technologies that will be required to develop the courseware, including content management, status tracking, issue tracking, and version control. Equally important is identifying the technology that will be used on the deployment end which should support, not confound the process. Keep your overlying focus on simplicity when choosing technology solutions to ensure rapid adoption of the underlying systems that your team will rely on during the development process.

It is critical to understand up front how the course material will be accessed, or you may inadvertently be building in a barrier to learning. For instance, will users be working with old laptops via a dial-up line, logging onto a client-server network or connecting from a coffee shop or airport as a wireless road warrior? No matter how exciting and clever your audio or video may be, no learning can take place if your users can’t get the courseware to run properly. Be sure to understand your technological capabilities and limitations early in the eLearning development process. For example, we once were called in to redevelop a substantial eLearning project for a company that had developed their own courseware in house. The reason? At the project’s inception their CIO had insisted that their client-server system had the necessary software to run video clips. At rollout, they found that most users did not have the access they needed to enable this technology. These considerations are crucial in determining the scope of delivery options for creating successful courseware. Take the extra time in advance to ask the right questions and it will save you time (and potential heartache) later on.

As a caveat, exercise caution in considering an expensive authorware/virtual management system for creating and deploying eLearning courseware unless you have a very experienced internal team with expertise in using the software. Theses systems make big promises about the ease of creating eLearning but without the proper level of experience the result is just “Web-ifed” content. A similarly dismal effect can be achieved more cost effectively by simply pasting your content into Microsoft Word and posting that on your company portal.

Simply put, if you want to build world-class eLearning in-house, you must be willing to invest in a world-class team. If you want world-class eLearning without the financial impact, you may want to consider outsourcing. But do your homework up front and be sure to speak with long-term clients about their experiences before you commit to a solution provider. Among the many organizations that claim expertise in eLearning development, there are a handful of excellent custom eLearning development companies that can develop the courses and even provide knowledge transfer in how to keep the materials current after the project is complete.

A well-planned and executed eLearning solution, whether developed in-house or outsourcing, can be a highly effective and efficient way to improve work processes and can provide a distinct competitive advantage for your company. If you invest time upfront to focus careful attention on the people, policies, procedures and technology, your organization can reap the benefits of eLearning.

Source: The Association for Work Process Improvement, February 2005