From snail-mail correspondence courses to comprehensive digital training, distance learning
has come a long way and has now reached its prime as eLearning.
Today, it’s no longer a novelty but a booming industry.
According to statistics from Ambient Insight, the global eLearning market will continue
to grow by 5% yearly, and in time will replace offline formats.
eLearning continues to gain ground in the corporate sector.
Businesses implement it to develop their staff, streamline their processes, and extend their
reach.
So what is eLearning in a real-world context and why is it so attractive?
Let’s have a look.
Happy learnsday everyone!
My name is Polina and today is another great day to learn something new.
So let’s get started!
The term eLearning was coined by US learning guru Elliott Masie in November 1999, when
he delivered his speech at the TechLearn Conference: “eLearning is the use of network technology
to design, deliver, select, administer, and extend learning.”
In 2000, eLearning was revolutionized as a technology with the release of OLAT, the first
open-source learning management system.
That year also saw the release of the first version of SCORM, a standard that enables
users to package content and distribute it within an LMS.
In the early 2000s, mobile devices became more and more prevalent and took the form
of smartphones and tablets.
They were no longer used just to make calls: people watched videos, read books, and played
games on their phones.
That prompted cellular companies to improve mobile connectivity, a race that continues
to this day.
Mobile devices are now a popular choice to access eLearning, both for businesses and
general education.
Benefits of eLearning for Businesses Today, many companies, from large enterprises
to small startups, use eLearning to manage their employees’ development: upgrade their
qualifications, teach them new skills, or retrain them for new positions.
eLearning is a great boon to businesses because it provides:
Lower training costs With eLearning, you don’t have to spend
a fortune hosting seminars, renting hotel rooms, and covering travel expenses.
You can simply develop an online course and share it with your employees.
Wider сoverage Distance learning has no barriers.
You can train hundreds of employees in dozens of offices across the world in a uniform fashion.
Employees don’t need to spend time attending classroom lectures.
All they need is a digital device and Internet access.
Single knowledge base All the learning material is stored in one
place, i.e., an LMS.
Employees can log in to the LMS at a convenient time from any device, find the course they
need and refresh their memory.
Faster employee development Traditional training can be rather slow because
it depends on the business trainers’ working hours.
An LMS is available anytime, making it possible for your employees to study whenever they
feel like: when commuting, during their lunch break, or at home.
Easy progress tracking Your business trainers don’t need to hold
in-class training and go over every single paper in person.
Most LMSs have analytics, which shows each student’s progress in graphs and reports.
Business adaptability eLearning helps employees keep up with the
company’s rhythm and solve problems in real time.
Need to introduce a new product to the sales team?
Create a course and deliver it instantly to thousands of employees.
Let’s go over some of the cases when eLearning comes in handy.
● Employee Training is the main reason why companies implement eLearning.
Digital courses are more efficient at employee training because they provide an ongoing and
easy-to-use learning solution.
● Compliance Training is mandatory for almost any business.
The goal is to inform new employees about company policies, for example, those involving
safety and personal conduct.
Compliance training is much easier to deliver with an LMS, especially if you need to implement
immediate changes to your policy.
● Employee Involvement.
eLearning engages employees with interactive courses, creative design, and game-like elements.
The latter is specifically aimed at keeping learners’ interest peaked with awards and
ratings.
● New-Hire Retention.
The onboarding process for new staff members can be perplexing, especially if you have
a big company.
You can make things easier by introducing the company and its key figures step-by-step
with digital courses.
This will also free up time for your HR team.
● Client and Partner Development.
With digital courses, you can teach your partners and clients about what you do, be it products
or services.
People like innovation, but are often suspicious about things they don’t know.
Use courses and presentations to explain how your service works and why it’s good.
That will make them feel safe and get them on board quicker.
● Product Promotion.
Brands and retail companies always have new products to present.
You can use eLearning to teach your sales teams about new additions, and help new employees
learn the products quicker.
As a result, you get more sales.
So, how exactly do businesses achieve these goals with eLearning?
At iSpring, we’ve analyzed thousands of client cases and determined that the efficacy
of an eLearning course depends on the content.
The more relevant, engaging, and interactive your course is the higher its efficacy.
There are lots of content types to choose from; below, we’ve listed the main ones
you should consider: Digital Courses
Simple digital courses are often presented as slides with information and media (video,
audio, and pictures).
Modern authoring tools allow you to make the slides more diverse with quizzes, simulations,
and screencasts.
The key here is to make the whole experience memorable and easy to go through.
We recommend using this content ratio: 60% media and 40% text.
Quizzes Just like traditional school tests, digital
quizzes help test how much your employees have learned from a lesson.
Modern authoring tools allow you to create fun and interactive tests, with branching,
audio and video questions, drag-and-drop elements, and more.
Webinars A webinar is an online lecture, often recorded
with a webcam.
The speaker’s desktop serves as a blackboard where they can show slides and videos.
This format has two benefits.
The first is that you can broadcast to thousands of employees at once, and second, your viewers
can ask questions and receive answers in real-time.
Video Courses Video courses make education visually compelling.
This format is fun and can be used for any topic; you just need to choose how you want
to present it.
A video course can be an interactive course with pop-up questions and game elements, or
a simple informative video.
YouTube utilizes this simple and engaging format not only to provide entertainment but
also to educate.
When you watch a cooking show or a tech review, you’re engaging in eLearning.
Screencasts Screen recordings can help you show people
how to operate specific software.
For example, if you need to introduce your employees to a CRM, demonstrate to them how
the software works with a screencast.
Talking-Head Video Simply put, this is a video that involves
a person talking to the camera.
The goal is to engage the listener with a captivating story.
This could be a success story, an interview with an expert, or a product showcase.
eBooks and Articles Many LMSs have catalogues where companies
store books, longreads, case studies, and other articles.
Together, these materials make up a strong knowledge base that employees can access at
any time during their training.
Conversation Simulations Simulations help employees train their skills.
They simulate a possible scenario the learner may encounter at work.
It could be a dialogue with a client in retail or an engine failure simulation at a plant.
The main benefit here is that the learner can complete the task safely in a virtual
environment without risking potential real-world problems.
VR Simulations Perhaps the most effective (and expensive)
form that eLearning takes is VR programs.
They allow the user to become immersed in a virtual experience for safe trial and error.
Here’s how AVIETRA trains their cabin crew: Mailing list
According to a poll we conducted, 60% of businesses use mailing lists; however, this format is
not suited for every solution.
You can teach business correspondence or SEO basics, but you should stay clear of complex
mail lessons.
The disadvantage is that when you use mailout, you lose control.
You can’t track how many people read the mail from top to bottom and what they learned
from it.
Podcasts Podcasts are very convenient.
You can listen to them while jogging or while driving a car instead of listening to the
radio.
Podcasts are often long and therefore need to be catchy and compelling, so the listener
doesn’t fall asleep to the sweet sounds of your informative lullaby.
Now let’s see how you can Launch eLearning in 9 Steps
eLearning implementation will require financing, design, and teamwork.
Full preparation can take from a week to a year, depending on the project’s scale.
Here, we’ve highlighted 9 steps for your eLearning roadmap:
1.
Set goals.
Think about why you want to launch eLearning and what it will help you achieve.
The bigger the goal is, the more complex the implementation strategy.
For example, if you want to train a new sales team, you may settle for product courses and
soft-skills training.
However, if you want to raise the overall qualification level across your entire company,
you will need to prepare individual learning programs for each team.
2.
Choose eLearning tools.
If you have short-term projects or want to implement something simple, like mailouts,
you don’t really need complex tools.
However, if you want to create a developing learning environment, you need to consider
researching eLearning software: an LMS and an authoring tool.
An authoring tool allows you to create eLearning content, like video courses, interactions,
quizzes, and more.
In some cases, the authoring tool is optional because you can buy canned content; for example,
ready-made courses on general topics like workplace safety.
However, if you’re going to teach anything specific, you’ll need to prepare bespoke
content in-house.
Today, there are dozens of authoring tools on the market.
We prepared a handy guide to help you pick one.
It also lists 14 main criteria you should use to help you choose the best eLearning
software.
You will find the link to it in the description.
LMS stands for Learning Management System.
An LMS stores all the information about your company’s training: employees, courses,
assignments, statistics, schedules, etc.
There are at least 35 questions you should ask your LMS vendor.
Again, the link will be in the description.
3.
Step #3 is to prepare a plan.
Write down a plan in stages and allocate a budget for each one: choose an LMS, create
a dedicated team to manage the system (admins, business trainers), and decide whether you
will buy the learning content or develop it yourself.
4.
Create content.
After setting up, start developing educational materials for your employees.
You don’t need anything complex and fancy in the beginning — start simple.
5.
Get your LMS ready.
Once your content is ready, upload it to the LMS and organize it: add folders, combine
courses into learning paths, etc.
Make sure all the courses run and report progress correctly.
6.
Do a test run.
When the system is ready, invite a few employees for a pilot run.
The goal here is to monitor everything and get feedback, so you can refine the training
program before the final launch.
7.
Advertise the launch with a PR campaign.
Your employees need to know about your new learning solution.
A simple corporate mailout will increase the conversion rate by 10%.
8.
Begin training.
Invite your employees to the LMS and assign courses.
This is the beginning of the training process.
After your employees log in, they should see the assigned courses and start viewing them.
9.
Estimate efficiency.
To rate the success of the eLearning, use built-in statistics and gather employee feedback.
Conclusion So, in the end, what is eLearning?
It’s a method of gaining knowledge and skills that is steadily becoming the new standard
in corporate training and education.
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