Driving Success with Rapid E-Learning
Rapid Advantages
The fact that rapid e-learning can improve an organisation’s ability to train staff effectively is becoming well known. The wave of rapid e-learning has been driven by the promise of three major improvements:
- A much shorter time to market - key for product launches and other activities with short lead times.
- A significant reduction in cost, as courses are now produced in-house and take less time.
- The Subject Matter Expert can be the direct source of knowledge without having consultants or developers as intermediaries. Knowledge sharing through e-learning then becomes much more efficient.
These major improvements allow the organisation to leverage e-learning for a variety of purposes, not just saving it for flagship courses. This allows us to unlock the potential of e-learning as a cost effective, high impact and rapid method of training.
It does not just “happen”
Even though the benefits that come from rapid e-learning are substantial, like any new technology, it needs to be implemented properly to deliver results. Sprinkling a variety of tools into the organisation does not necessary deliver the results you are looking for. A couple of enthusiasts might adopt the new technology and you could have external consultants using it; undoubtedly, small pieces of content would be created. However considering the vast transformation rapid e-learning can deliver to a company, this potential is not realised by focusing only on easy to use tools.
Generally this situation occurs because tools are not enough, and SME´s are already very busy with their daily tasks and don’t have bandwidth for additional requests. This lack of commitment is often the result of prioritising, as e-learning projects is not perceived to be important and therefore slip down the priority list.
Solution: Projects
To ensure the delivery of rapid e-learning, it is essential to make sure content is developed and delivered as part of planned activities for the company. This is important as it ensures resources are allocated and key stakeholders wooed, ultimately engraining e-learning as part of the process across the entire organisation.
To achieve this type of transformation, it is key to realise that even though each piece of content takes a short time to create, the process from planning to publishing still involves several people in the organisation from SME to stakeholders and internal review departments such as marketing and legal.
To ensure these resources are allocated and dedicated on a timely bases, rapid e-learning initiatives should be broken up into small projects. Each project should have a deadline, a project manager and a plan to ensure they meet the business objectives they are designed to solve.
If you are interested in exploring this subject more fully, you can download our whitepaper on the topic “Tips for Project Management of Rapid e-learning” here.