5 key tips to successfully implement e-learning

The shift towards digital learning is becoming inevitable. The convenience and cost-saving of learning taking place ‘on demand’ at the learner's own desk or home is the biggest driver. There is likely an element of online learning already taking place within your organisation – quite possibly done by individuals using their initiative because of the growing wealth of content that exists on the Internet.

Whilst there are obvious benefits to utilising e-learning, often when you apply a universal policy to harness this there becomes resentment to what is seen as a change to “the way things are done around here”. So how do you overcome these views and successfully launch an online learning initiative?

Here are some tips for ideas that have proved successful when we have launched e-learning with clients:

Get buy-in from above.

This works on two levels – senior management and line managers. We have seen projects where someone high up in an organisation has acted as the project sponsor and communicated the importance of completing modules. By launching like this, everyone knew that it was something that was supported in the board room and was necessary to complete.

Making users aware that their line manager is able to monitor completion and educating the managers on how to do so encourages discussion and completion rates are always higher when people are aware their progress is visible.

Think ‘Does it help the learners or does it help the company’?

Consideration of the content is important. If it helps the company (ie it’s a compliance subject that ticks a box) then learners will be less motivated to complete it. If it helps them to do their job better then naturally they will be more inclined to take a look.

It may be the compliance subjects are core to the learning you aim to put in place, but launching with such topics may not help with getting the curiosity factor of your learning.

Set aside time and resources to make it easy for people to complete their learning

There is often a discussion about whether e-learning should take place on work time or the employee’s time. Our advice would be to set aside some time in the working week for the activity to take place. If someone was due to attend an internal training day then it would be unlikely that this would take place on a weekend, so you’re already placing importance on learning and governing that it should take place during working hours. Online learning should be no different (although it would probably take less time to complete). Agree a time for the learning to take place.

The other discussion is about where e-learning should be completed. In an office environment then most employees would choose to do this at their desks on their own PCs or laptops. If you have colleagues who don’t have access to a PC then it may be worth setting one up so that all staff have someone to access it. This was recently the case with an organisation with warehouse staff who needed to complete a Health & Safety module.

Think about your learners and eliminate the physical boundaries that may prevent them from becoming issues.

Ensure the content is entirely relevant

Getting back to the content again. Take the time to review all of the content you are offering to your learners and make sure it addresses their learning needs. If they are field-based then content aimed at those in an office or retail store will have less relevance and so you’ll get higher abandon rates.

It is becoming increasingly easier to create bespoke content that can address the specific needs of your organisation and by doing so you will ensure that the content is geared towards your learners.

Ask for feedback and suggestions for future uses

Launching digital learning is the first step towards a more comprehensive online offering. Therefore it’s important to give learners the opportunity to give their views on the experience and identify what they liked and didn’t like. This will be essential in shaping future content and shaping its format.

If e-learning is well received then learners will start to consider other activities that may be able to shift from classroom to digital delivery. “Could we use this for….” becomes a powerful thought and creating a project map that incorporates these suggestions gets people involved and engaging in the process.

How can we help?

At Maguire Training, not only do we offer classroom-based courses and programmes, but we are also proud to offer a versatile and intuitive suite of over 190 eLearning modules on our website, which covers a range of topics. Including our Why Teams Succeed or Fail Online Training Course, where delegates experienced and new will learn the professionalism of leading teams with success. 

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Phone:  0333 5777 144

Email:  info@maguiretraining.co.uk

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