Custom Training and eLearning Blog

Developing In-House or Seeking an External eLearning Service Provider

Aruna Vayuvegula — Fri, 25 May 2012 09:11:15 +0000

What is the fundamental objective of instructional design? Instructional design involves understanding the learning objectives of the course and chalking a strategy that helps learners meet those objectives. It involves analyzing learners, content & course objectives, designing and developing the course in a format that best suits the needs of learners and evaluating its effectiveness.

Rapid authoring tools make it easier to develop eLearning courses

Now, in the pre-rapid authoring tools days, you might have had to outsource the eLearning design and development to an external vendor. They would take into account the available content & resources and design a customized course to cater to your specific requirements. This obviously involved a huge amount of costs not to speak of the endless back and forth meetings to approve and finalize the content. However, with the advent of rapid authoring tools, suddenly it seems a lot easier to develop an eLearning course. It is just a matter of converting PowerPoint presentations into eLearning courses using one of the rapid authoring tools. Is it really the case?

No one tool meets all the designing needs

Rapid authoring tools provide you with new tools to design and develop your eLearning courses. However, you must remember that each of the available tools have certain capabilities. If you are an organization looking to develop your own eLearning courses, you need to really be careful before choosing an authoring tool that will meet your present and future training requirements. Each of the tools are ideal for certain tasks – for example articulate is best for converting PowerPoint slides into eLearning courses, Captivate is known to be useful for capturing screen simulations and Lectora allows a great deal of customizations. These are some of the popular tools today. Articulate has come up with another version called Storyline which, according to the initial reports, provides powerful yet simple options not to speak of its compatibility with mobile devices. There are innumerable other tools flooding the market and tomorrow, more powerful tools might occupy prominent position in the market shelf space.

The best option

Typically, if an organization has already invested in an authoring tool, they tend to use the same tool for all their eLearning courses. However, the best option is to choose the right tool based on the requirement of the course. If you outsource your design and development needs to an external eLearning service provider, you do not have to bother about choosing the right tool or making do with an existing tool. The eLearning service provider will analyze your content and choose the best tool that is suitable for the learning requirements. You will be free of licenses and renewals of the tools and can focus on your core L&D function. The tools should not dictate your content; the tools are only a means to achieve your learning goals and that is the way it should be.

Why Organizations Cannot Ignore mLearning?

Aruna Vayuvegula — Thu, 24 May 2012 07:11:35 +0000

There is a lot of talk about mobile learning or mLearning. Within a relatively short span of time, it seems to be widely discussed topic in the online forums and discussions. Is it a passing fad as is the case with any new technology or is it actually relevant particularly in the training and learning context? Let us see some of the factors that have contributed to the growth of mLearning in recent times.

Growth of mobile technologies: Over the last decade, information technology including the mobile technologies has grown exponentially. This has transformed the way we do business or conduct our personal lives. Employees today consider smartphones to be an integral part of their jobs. They are increasingly expected to use their Smartphones for work-related purposes such as sending emails, texting messages, making conference calls and so on. What used to be a voice exchange device has tranformed to being much more. Using it for training purposes is only the next logical step.

Changed learner preferences: The younger generation has practically grown using these digital devices. They take to these gadgets is just like fish takes to water. They already use these devices for informal learning and therefore using it “formally” in a learning context is but a natural progression. The need to communicate to learners in the medium that they prefer also has popularized the concept of mLearning.

Increasingly mobile workforce: Organizations have expanded globally and their workforce is spread across the globe. Certain employees such as sales or service personnel are increasingly handling larger territories necessitating being away from their workplace for long durations. In such situations, capitalizing on the opportunities provided by mobile technologies for training and learning purposes seems logical as it gives them the freedom to learn or get trained on the move.

Technological changes have greatly influenced the way we seek information and learn. Greater mobility among workforce across different geographical areas also propelled the concept of capitalizing mobile technologies for training. As a result, smartphones and other mobile devices are being increasingly explored as additional tools for training.

Making Trainings Productive and Purposeful

Aruna Vayuvegula — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:41:26 +0000

The objective of any training program is to transfer new knowledge to learners. Learners expect to apply the knowledge gained to do their jobs better. However, various researches conducted show that training programs fail to guide employees to transfer the knowledge or skills gained to their jobs. How can this be changed? An integrated learning management system can be used to involve the participants before, during and after any training program – ILT or eLearning.

Pre training

Employees need to be involved much before an employee takes the training program. Based on the learning objectives of the course, an action sheet can be created and uploaded on to the learning management system. This document serves as an individual reference guide to the learner and clearly states the learning objectives of a particular training program along with specific information about job tasks where employees are expected to apply the knowledge they obtain from the training. This document should serve as a reference point before, during and after the eLearning program.

During training

During the training program, participants can keep track of their progress with reference to this online document. The learner or the manager can check the tasks that have been completed. Learners know what they have achieved and what needs to be completed at every stage of the learning program. They may also be given tasks to be performed on the job in consultation and involvement of their immediate supervisor and their progress tracked through the LMS. The training program can be considered as complete only after learners successfully complete the tasks listed in the action sheet.

Post training

It is very important for employees to interact and collaborate with other trainees taking the same course. This helps them learn from each other by applying the knowledge gained from the training program to their individual situations and sharing the same with the group. This greatly enhances their learning. In fact, Bob Mosher, creator of ning community called “Performance Support at the moment of need” has exclusive online groups for those who attended ASTD training programs or Learn Now 2011 conference. Such groups can be formed much before the training program actually begins and members can continue to have online discussions even after the program ends. Imagine the learning value it provides to the group who has attended such training program. The learning never stops; it is an on-going process!

Trainings would be effective if they are designed to provide a comprehensive learning support and guidance before the program, during the program and after the program. This can be done with the help of a robust learning management system to monitor, manage and reiterate training requirements.

Developing Online Product Knowledge Training for Sales People

Aruna Vayuvegula — Tue, 22 May 2012 09:45:20 +0000

Sales people are the mediators between an organization and its customers. Customers have a need and the products of the organization are meant to satisfy that need. It is the sales people who will have to understand the need and convey the value proposition of the product to prospective customers. Therefore, product knowledge training for sales people assumes significance.

How can product knowledge training be made more relevant and purposeful to sales people? To ensure that product knowledge training is successful for sales people it needs to fulfill two objectives:

Sales personnel should have a thorough understanding of the product
Develop product selling skills of the sales team

Here are some of the ideas that help design effective product knowledge training for sales people.

What benefits do the products provide customers?

It is really not required for sales people to have in-depth product knowledge. It is difficult for sales team to keep pace with detailed products’ knowledge, especially when products in the product line are increasing. However, what is extremely important for them is to identify customers’ needs and know which of their products best meet those needs. Using the context that is familiar to the sales person, scenario-based content can be developed that is bound to have better retention for sales people.

Product features in comparison to those of competitors

It is important for sales people to understand how their products fare with respect to those of the competition. Customers today are very demanding. They have access to information that was not easily available earlier. They tend to do preliminary research about competing products even before their first meeting with a sales representative. Therefore, sales personnel need to be prepared with an array of answers to questions that might be posed by customers. Good product knowledge training will address this issue and show the sales force how they can win over competition.

Market and industry knowledge as a part of product training

Selling cannot be done in isolation. You need to be sensitive to varied market forces and the buyer behavior that tend to influence sales. In this context, product knowledge training will need to provide a brief overview about the industry trends with respect to the company’s products. If your products are bound by any industry regulations, sales personnel need to be educated about the same. This way they will be better prepared to answer customer queries.

The bottom line is that you need to equip your sales team with information that will help them sell. Product knowledge training for sales people is not about providing product knowledge but it is about enabling sales people to use the product knowledge to sell, win over customers and increase their sales. It is about providing just-in-time knowledge that is made available to the sales team right from the time they plan their sales-call.

Scenario Based Learning that Made an Impact

Aruna Vayuvegula — Mon, 21 May 2012 09:36:34 +0000

Developing eLearning courses for policy training or soft skills training has its own set of challenges. One of our clients wanted us to develop an eLearning course that explains company’s policies with respect to employees’ rights and responsibilities in cases of harassment. The course was supposed to explain possible actions employees can take when subjected to any form of harassment.

Client requirement:

The source content provided by the client was a policy manual with complicated legal terminology. It was necessary to simplify the content so that employees understood company policies and rules accurately. The fine line between harassment and inappropriate conduct needed careful explanation. A straight forward do’s and don’ts method or text heavy content would not be very effective in this case. Hence, we decided to use scenario based learning.

Strategy adopted:

In order to make the course effective, we took key points that the client wanted us to include in the course and created several scenarios. We used characters representing employees at different levels across the organization. We weaved stories around each of the characters, created a situation and urged the learner to decide if the behaviour constituted workplace harassment. Learners interacted with the course at the end of every scenario by answering to a question. Every response had an explanation as to why the answer was right or why the answer that the learner gave was wrong.

Client response:

The response we got from our client was positive. The client shared that previously employees either were disinterested or bored taking such courses. However, the response to this particular course was an exception. Employees were more receptive to taking the course and had better understanding of their rights and obligations about harassment at workplace. Encouraged by the positive response, the client requested us to translate the course in three additional languages for the benefit of their employees overseas.

Scenario based learning is an effective strategy that we can adopt when the course content is dry and text heavy.

Role of eLearning in Manufacturing Processes Training

Aruna Vayuvegula — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:22:26 +0000

If there is one sector that needs training the most, it is the manufacturing sector. Technicians, production workers, engineers and managers who are involved in various manufacturing processes need to be trained for one purpose or another to help them do their jobs proficiently. eLearning can help cater to the training needs of organizations in the manufacturing sector.

An eLearning program can be very effective when you want to provide training on the production process. We can use animations and graphics so that learners understand the principles and procedures involved during the production process clearly. You can explain the steps involved sequentially one after the other so that learners have time to assimilate the information at each stage.

You invest huge amounts of money on your equipment. The safety of the equipment and employees operating it are of paramount importance. It is not sufficient if you teach your employees how to operate the equipment. You also need to provide training on safety precautions, guidelines for handling the equipment and routine maintenance procedures. While employees get an idea during on the job training sessions, it is extremely important to have reinforcement training for them on these aspects and eLearning could be the best medium to do it.

Other areas, where eLearning could help, are quality control training, computer aided manufacturing training, supply chain management or logistics training. If you are a part of the manufacturing industry, do share information about how your organization is meeting training requirements through eLearning. Additionally, if you think some of the training programs that are currently delivered in the traditional instructor-led format could be effective if delivered through eLearning, do share your thoughts.

Translating and Localizing eLearning Courses

Aruna Vayuvegula — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:08:07 +0000

Companies operating in more than one country often have to factor for the cultural and linguistic differences of individuals they deal with. They need to translate and localize marketing or communication collaterals to suit the target audience. The same is true with eLearning courses as well. A course meant for the American employees may not be appropriate for their workforce who is located in say Malaysia or Japan. There are many reasons for it. Some of them are as follows:

Cultural differences: When you have employees spread across different countries, you know you are dealing with people from different cultural backgrounds. You need to consider these cultural sensibilities while designing courses – be it the choice of language or images used. For example, if you have an image of a young CEO in the American version of the course, it may not be appropriate in certain countries where the average age of a CEO is 50+. For maximum impact, the image will have to be changed appropriately as required for this other audience.

Contextual & legal differences: Suppose you are creating a course about a manufacturing process that needs to be deployed across manufacturing plants located in different countries. You may have a segment that talks about safety procedures and the safety requirements as per the laws applicable to that country in a module. In such instances, you will have to customize the courses to include local laws and regulations. Only then will it be relevant to the target group of learners.

Differences in formats: Units and measurements vary from one country to another such as pounds or kilograms. Similarly, the format in which date is written and read differs. References to terms will have to be localized so that there is no ambiguity in comprehension for learners. Localization assumes significance in this context.

Linguistic differences: Certain terms are referred to differently in different places. It may be gas in America, but people in Europe know it as petrol. Similarly, there may be other differences in terms of language usage, slang and inappropriate or taboo words and these factors need to be considered while localizing eLearning courses.

Therefore, translation and localization becomes necessary for all forms of communication, including eLearning courses. What are the practices you adopt to ensure that all your eLearning courses go through a stringent localization process before being used in regions other than where it has been originally developed? Do share your experiences.

Organizational Approaches to mLearning

Aruna Vayuvegula — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:29:02 +0000

Your organization intends to implement mLearning soon and probably the question that is foremost on your mind is: What is the approach that you can adopt? As a part of your mLearning strategy, you need to decide on the approach that is best suited for implementing mobile learning in your organization. Basically, there are three approaches towards mobile learning. You can choose the best option based on the context and learning objective.

Push Learning:

Push learning essentially refers to the approach where content or information is “pushed” to the learners. Here, learners have little choice in terms of the content they receive. In the context of mLearning however, it has special significance – particularly when essential and relevant information needs to reach target learners real-time. For example, if a competitor has launched a new product, this information will need to be shared with the sales force quickly so that they can tweak their sales pitch accordingly. A quick tutorial on how to realign the sales pitch could also form a part of the package.

Performance Support or Pull Learning:

Pull learning refers to having information made available either on online portals or intranets for learners. They can retrieve such information when required. It is more need-based where you access knowledge when required. For example, if a service engineer wants to quickly refer to a checklist before assembling a product, he can go online using his Smartphone or iPad and access the checklist that is documented, along with the product installation guide.

Collaborative Learning:

Organizations may not have a defined mLearning policy or strategy. However, collaborative learning does take place on an informal basis thanks to social media sites such as LinkedIn. Sites such as LinkedIn or even company intranets offer groups and forums where professionals can collaborate and share their professional experiences. Organizations can also create groups and forums for their employees. Such groups become an online venue where employees can collaborate and interact with each other and share knowledge and learn collectively. Access to such forums through mobile devices makes it easy for employees to participate, debate and discuss issues.

The best approach towards mLearning for your organization depends on the objectives you wish to fulfill. Is it meant to help in knowledge-sharing or is it meant to provide a means to access information when required. Alternatively, is it simply a collaborative platform for social learning? Choose the best approach, based on the needs of the learners and their learning objectives.

Learning and Development Strategy that Meets Employee Aspirations

Aruna Vayuvegula — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:33:27 +0000

Sage Open recently published an article by Jerry P Haenisch titled, “Factors Affecting the Productivity of Government Workers“. It is interesting that a significant percentage of the respondents (35.5%) attributed poor supervision and management as the factors that limit their ability to perform productively.

What it means, is that employees are looking for guidance and direction from their supervisors; who perhaps are not trained for the purpose. These findings are as much applicable to the private sector as to the public sector. The report emphasizes the need for formal training programs to enhance the skills and knowledge of the workforce.

While summarizing on the findings, the author recommends, “Organizations are well advised to attend to development of effective supervisors through both formal and on-the-job training. Enhancement of front-line supervisory effectiveness can be a critical first initiative toward productivity improvement in any organization.” (Ref: Report of Sage Open)

Training front-line supervisors and managers who are located in different states is not easy. More so, if it needs to be done in-house through traditional Instructor-led programs. However, due to tight budgets and increasing costs for instructor-led programs, online training options are being explored as a viable alternative. In fact, organizations such as the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) have successfully utilized online training wherever possible to train their employees.

What do you think this means to an L&D manager or an HR manager responsible for training employees? How can they realign and formulate a Learning and Development Strategy that takes into account these recent findings? Faced with reduced budgets, how can they continue to provide valuable training to their workforce? Do share your thoughts and experiences.

Factors Affecting Employee Performance – Training Options

Aruna Vayuvegula — Mon, 14 May 2012 06:38:33 +0000

Faced with decreasing performance levels of employees, some questions that are likely to occupy a manager’s mind would be – What training can I give them to increase their productivity and performance? How can I motivate them so that they perform to the best of their abilities?

However, before deciding on a training program, the manager needs to identify the factors that affect the productivity and performance of employees. Unless you know the causes, you will not be able to find the solutions. The causes for dwindling productivity of employees could be any of the following factors:

Skills & knowledge: If employees do not have the necessary capability, skill or knowledge to do the job, their performance suffers.

Clarity about role: Employees need to know their responsibilities and have a clear understanding about what they need to accomplish at the end of the day. Ambiguity about roles could be another reason for a drop in their performance.

Work environment and culture: Unhealthy work environment is another factor that affects performance of employees. A positive workplace culture boosts employee morale, creates a work environment that is enjoyable and contributes to increased productivity.

Employee attitude: If employees do not have the enthusiasm to work and are disinterested in the job, it would have an impact on their performance.

Right tools and resources: You need to have right tools, equipment and resources in order to perform well. Absence of these resources also could contribute to a dip in performance level.

Once the manager identifies the reasons for reduced productivity in his organization, he can take corrective action. In cases where productivity suffers due to lack of right tools and resources, he will have to consider upgrading his set up.

Training will be an option when it has been firmly established that inadequate knowledge or skill set is impairing employees’ performance. In such a scenario, employees need to upgrade their skills or knowledge using either traditional instructor-led programs, blended learning or eLearning. eLearning programs have a quick development time and can be launched across the organization within a short duration. They can be customized to suit the specific requirements of their employees. eLearning courses also offer employees the flexibility to upgrade their knowledge and skills at a time that is convenient to them.

However, it is important to identify the factors that are affecting the performance of employees before choosing the best training options.