E-Learning- Which Way Now?

Written By Julian Roberts | Jul 8th, 2008 | | | Category: Julian's Posts

With many businesses now considering E-Learning as part of their training mix, Julian Roberts Managing Director of Safety Media gives guidance on the first steps you need to take.

With the national press reminding us daily of the pressures put on us all by the credit crunch, many of us are looking at ways of reducing costs. Traditionally training budgets are one of the first targets in the cost reduction programme, so how can you reduce costs and still ensure that you are providing a good level of quality training? Part of the answer is to implement an E-Learning system.

E-Learning has been seen by some as the poor relation of one to one training. This is no longer the case. With media rich, highly interactive and involving training available, E-Learning is now a real alternative to the traditional approach. However, before we all jump in feet first, there are a number of steps that should be followed to ensure that you have chosen a system that will fulfil your requirements and will be accepted and embraced by your workforce.

Step 1 - What are you trying to achieve?

The first thing to do is to work out what you want to achieve from E-Learning. There is an obvious cost saving that can be made, but it would be worthwhile looking at your existing training culture and seeing how this can be improved by the implementation of E-Learning. Look at the attendance rate and success of your current training programmes and set some measurable targets for improving this with
E-Learning. Now set a budget that you want to work within to achieve this. By doing this you are building a case to sell E-Learning into the business by showing cost savings combined with training improvements.

Step 2 - Expand your horizons

Who do you want to train and how are you going to train them? This is a very important step that needs to be completed before starting to speak with any sales people. You need to be in a position to be able to give your potential supplier the requirements for your business, rather than be sold features that may be of no benefit to you.

Do you have employees without English as their first language? If so you need a system that is Multi-Lingual capable
Do you have employees without easy access to desktop pc’s or the internet e.g. construction sites or retail outlets? This may require a system that will allow training to be completed on a laptop offline and then uploaded at a later date
Do you still want to run group training sessions? Your requirements should include a classroom training system that integrates with the E-Learning system
Do you want to use only interactive training or combine video training into the mix? The E-Learning system should be able to cope with both types of delivery

Step 3 - Choose your supplier

One of the first things to remember is that you tend to get what you pay for - cheapest isn’t always the best option. If you are looking to integrate an E-Learning system into your business, it should be seen as a long term plan, so the supplier you choose may be with you for quite a while and you don’t want to be stuck with the bargain basement option.

Once you have completed steps 1 and 2 you should have a requirements document which sets out what you want to achieve from your new system and how you want the system to achieve it. Now, set up a steering committee that will help in making the decision - this would usually include members of the IT department, Health and Safety Department, Finance and a Management representative. It is now time for a beauty parade.

When meeting potential suppliers it is important to cover your requirements document and score the supplier on each of the requirements before moving on to any other features of the system that they want to show you. By following this with each supplier you will be able to give an overall score to each supplier for direct comparison later.

Don’t be afraid to ask challenging questions and make them work for your order:

Are you going to partner us when we buy the system or will you just move on to your next sale when we have signed the order form - what is our ongoing support?
Can you give me some existing customers that I can speak with directly about your system (a 1 year old, a 2 year old and a 3 year old customer for a full view of their service)?
Can I have a copy your accounts for the last 3 years (are they financially stable)?
What future plans do you have for the product and for your business - what are my upgrade paths in the future (are you buying into old or obsolete technology)?
If the standard product doesn’t fit, will you bespoke elements of it to suit our business?
Why should I buy from you and not your competitor?

Step 4 - Set a rollout plan

Now that you have chosen your supplier, you need to implement the system and roll it out to your employees. The best way to do this is with a rollout plan.

A rollout plan sets a structure for both rolling out the system and judging the success. This should be agreed by the steering committee and should include targets for judging the success of the project, regular meetings of the steering committee and training from your supplier. A sensible approach is to plan a two stage staggered rollout so that you can learn by any mistakes made in the first rollout.

You will also need to consider how you are going to communicate this new training to your employees. Everyone needs to be made aware of what the training is, where it is available from, when they need to do it by and that it is supported from the top of the organisation.

A good starting point is to concentrate on one course initially within a specified date range e.g. all employees must complete the Fire Safety course by the 15^th August. This could be communicated with an initial email from the CEO or Managing Director, with reminders in the days approaching the deadline and a prize draw for all employees achieving 100% in the test.

E-Learning is a powerful training tool and with good planning can not only reduce costs, but can add huge benefits to your organisation.