Make eLearning click

Madhuri Dubey

COMPANIES are investing heavily in adopting technology as a means to stay ahead of competition. Now the next meaningful question is, how are they using technology? One of the ways is to leverage this investment in providing training to employees. Consequently, several tech-savvy companies are going in for eLearning initiatives to provide quality training at reduced costs.

Thanks to the increasing acceptance of eLearning, today we need not grapple with questions such as ``can learning happen through computers?'' Rather, issues that demand our attention relate to successful implementation of an eLearning initiative in a corporate learning situation.

However, a point of caution here: is it enough for companies to identify their training needs and select a suitable eLearning vendor to provide the solution and deploy it on the network? Absolutely not! Choosing an appropriate eLearning solution or even having it custom-built does not ensure that the project gets implemented successfully. It is important to involve key decision-makers in order to gain and maintain support for the eLearning project throughout the organisation.

For this purpose, a clearly-articulated statement of vision and a detailed, step-by-step implementation plan are the minimum prerequisites. The following issues need to be addressed while planning for an eLearning initiative at any organisation:

Business impact

``What is in it for us?'' This would be the first question from the management when they hear about the proposed eLearning initiative. Getting approval from the top becomes easier if we are able to justify the investment by linking it with organisational goals such as better performance, quicker and higher returns. This can be done by articulating the vision of the proposed initiative and analysing it in terms of costs and benefits such as customer satisfaction, enhanced revenue and cost reduction.

The next important factor that facilitates successful implementation emerges from the readiness of employees to take ownership of their learning. When the content is directly related to work requirements, employees feel motivated to learn and improve their performance by successfully applying the knowledge and skills, thus enhancing the efficiency of the work processes.

Collaborative approach

The next step is establishing a relationship with all the stakeholders in the eLearning initiative. They include: The training manager, design team, Information Systems (IS) personnel, end-users and subject experts. By seeking advice from them, we get to know their perceptions on the proposed initiative. This helps in encountering resistance to change and dispelling scepticism about the effectiveness of eLearning.

For instance, let us consider the role of a training manager in the wake of making training available from the desktops of the employees. Apparently this person finds his/her job invaded by technology and resists any move towards converting traditional training into eLearning. He/she needs to be told that eLearning is only a complement to traditional methods of training; it does not aim at substituting it or making his or her role redundant. Thus, winning the trust of each stakeholder helps in arriving at a common understanding on the eLearning initiative.

Design strategy

Effective design strategy takes care of several issues such as the readiness to go in for eLearning, assessment of learner needs, performance gap analysis, objectives of training and an appropriate assessment scheme. To begin with, we need to sort out issues such as the Internet, intranet, bandwidth and other communication infrastructure and resources available for delivery of learning.

This is followed by evolving a design strategy that specifies the objectives of learning and uses effective multimedia to develop the learning modules with meaningful interactivity and intuitive navigation. The design should be customised to the learning needs and take into consideration the target-user profile. It would certainly be beneficial to have a prototype built and tested as a pilot before extending eLearning to a wider audience.

Customised learning

Buying an eLearning solution that is available in the market is one way of fulfilling the learning needs of the organisation. However, as with any off-the-shelf product, it may not be able to address the specific learning needs that are typical to your organisation.

For instance, if a company wants to train its employees in using PowerPoint in making sales presentations to clients, it makes little sense if they buy an eLearning product that trains them to use PowerPoint in making generic presentations. Think of the time and effort that gets wasted in learning all the possibilities of this tool in order to be able to make sales presentations. Perhaps a customised learning programme that trains the employees specifically in making sales presentations is a better alternative as it can offer relevant learning when it is required most. Also, customisation of content can provide examples and illustrations from their own workplace that makes the employees identify with the learning environment.

So, are you ready for eLearning? This is the next question to ask. If the issues discussed so far have been addressed and a suitable plan has been worked out, you can go ahead and implement your initiative. In case this hasn't been done, avoid taking hasty decisions since collaboration and team effort are the only mantra behind all successful eLearning projects.

(The author is Associate, Corporate Communications, LearningByte International, and may be reached at madhurid@learningbyte.com)