Guide to providing e-learning within your organisation
There are several key benefits to implementing e-learning within your organisation. For one thing, you can offer consistent training to your teams and allow them access to training materials anytime, anywhere.
Not only that, but e-learning can be an excellent way for you to cut costs and remove the need to travel outside the workplace for training purposes.
It’s easy to see then, why so many businesses have started to take this approach and provide online learning opportunities for their workforce.
But if you’re new to the world of e-learning or you just need a little guidance when getting started, you’ve come to the right place.
In the guide below, we’re going to take a look at how you can provide e-learning opportunities in your organisation.
Let’s get started.
Consider your company objectives
The first thing you need to do before you can get an effective e-learning strategy in place is to assess the needs and objectives of the business and its workforce.
As part of this process, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your training and development program and why.
This is also an opportunity to assess the skills gap within your teams and determine the learning needs of your employees. You should think about the specific skills, knowledge and behaviours they require, as well as any competency training and legalities you need to check off the list.
Not only that, but it’s important that your e-learning program aligns with the company’s mission, vision and values. With that in mind, you need to think about how you will measure success and ROI.
By taking all of this into account and taking the time to get a plan in place, you can define wider e-learning objectives, goals and outcomes.
Choose the right platform and learning materials
Once you have a better understanding of what you hope to achieve from your e-learning strategy, it’s time to start looking for the right platform.
The good news is, you have lots of options and you can weigh these up to find the most suitable platform and content for your employees. There are platforms out there that offer pre-existing courses, while others offer custom-made content or the ability to upload your own materials.
So, the first thing you should do is consider what you’re going to need in your industry and take a look at what’s available on the market. As you do this, there are some other key aspects you need to think about and these include:
- Quality and relevance of the courses and content
- Accessibility and whether these can be used on and offline
- The features and functionality on offer
- Compatibility and the ability to integrate easily with your existing systems
- Scalability and costs
- Customer service, support and maintenance offered by the provider
Finally, you need to make sure that the e-learning platform you choose offers the right courses and content to ensure you comply with industry standards and regulations.
The last thing you want to do is invest in a platform only to find out it doesn’t have everything you need for your workforce. That is why it is so crucial that you take your time, do some research and find the e-learning platform and tools that are right for your organisation.
Get your employees on board
Once you have chosen which platform you plan to use, it’s time to get your employees on board and gather their feedback.
Start by communicating with them about the new platform, its key benefits and how it will help them with their career development. You should also set out your expectations for them and show them what the new platform will look like and how it will function.
You want to encourage your workforce to participate and learn, and to perform as best they can. That is why it can also be helpful at this stage to ask your employees for their feedback, as well as any concerns they may have about your chosen platform or e-learning in general.
Armed with this information you can address their concerns and make sure everyone on the team is happy moving forward.
Build your e-learning platform
When everyone is on board, you can move on to the next stage – creating your e-learning site. Through your chosen platform you should start creating and pooling your chosen content so that everything you need is accessible in one easy-to-use learning environment.
This could include a variety of existing courses and materials, as well as uploading your own content where required. Plus, this is your chance to set up users and administrative logins.
Provide training and support for employees
To ensure that your employees get the most from these platforms and that they feel confident using them, you need to make sure you implement a training and support scheme as soon as you launch your new program.
This training is designed to equip them with all the skills they need to use the e-learning platform and to engage with the content in the most beneficial way.
The best way to do this is with an introductory guidance session that teaches everyone how to access, use and complete assessments and courses on the platform.
The final thing, you need to make sure that your employees know who to report to if there is a problem and how they can access support or mentoring when using these tools.
Evaluate, assess and improve your e-learning efforts
The final step when providing e-learning within your organisation is to monitor the progress and performance of all employees and keep gathering feedback about their experiences.
You should analyse this data and information and compare this to your business objectives to determine if goals are being met.
Based on the data and results you collect, you can continue to update and improve your e-learning environment and ensure that you’re meeting the needs of your team. This could include offering personalised learning experiences and revising your program based on both company and individual objectives.