As rapid eLearning developmenttools have matured over recent decades, companies have a new tool at their disposalfor communicating to their workforce. Do a simple search for “rapid eLearningdevelopment tools” and you’ll have plenty to read.
But, as with any other emergingtechnology, it isn’t clear how those tools should or could be deployed. Thenatural inclination is to replace in-person training, aptly putting the“learning” into eLearning. But this limits the scope of what is possible andwhere rapid eLearning development can serve the business. If your business isusing eLearning development in any capacity today, you have an opportunity tobroaden its use to other areas. If you don’t have any eLearning capabilitiesyet, rest assured that they are not difficult or costly to obtain in today’sworld. In either case, the key is to modify one’s perception of what eLearningis and what its primary purpose should be. Instead of thinking, “What trainingcan we convert to eLearning?” business leaders should be asking themselves, “What’schanging in our company?”
Change management and eLearning
Not every business has a formalchange management practice in place. More often than not, changes occur andsomeone is charged with communicating those changes. As a result, thecommunication suffers. It’s an afterthought; a pesky checkbox in an alreadycomplex project plan. But a change without meaningful communication is a changewithout impact.
Consider your workplace andimagine the types of changes that are happening. System upgrades orreplacements, new corporate policies and procedures, personnel changes,strategic shifts—these happen all the time, and spreading the word is oftenrelegated to email. But when changes like these affect how people will do theirjobs, an email simply will not do.
To effectively communicatechange, one needs to:
- Describe the change—the context and rationale
- Explain the expected outcomes of the change—thegood and the bad
- Reinforce the message
- Verify the outcomes
Technically, email can handle theseitems; but overall, email falls short. Why?
- People’s inboxes are already full. Giving themmore to read is not going to garner support, create enthusiasm, or leave alasting impression.
- Email is static and silent. It simply does notengage the recipients.
- Tracking is limited. You might be able to learnhow many people opened the email, but this doesn’t tell you whether yourmessage was understood, much less retained.
On the other hand, eLearning isperfectly suited to communicate change and to do so with voice, images,interaction, and context. With simple interactions and questioning, an eLearningasset can test viewer understanding of the message. It only takes a fewthoughtful questions or interactions to effectively test knowledge.
So, how do we put this newmedium to work? It’s possible that the pieces are already in place.
Steps along the way
One needs a developer who can notonly use a rapid development tool, but can also organize the content in ameaningful way. Look to those who do training in your business, and you’ll likelyfind this person.
One also needs a means ofdeploying the eLearning assets—ideally a learning management system (LMS) orintranet that provides tracking so that managers can see exactly the degree towhich those concerned receive and understand the message. An existing intranetmay be able to serve this purpose; or, alternately, many LMS providers sellsubscription-based cloud solutions that are quick to get up and running.
The final and most importantstep is to simply bring eLearning into the change management process. Includethe people who will be responsible for communicating the change into theproject plan early and often.
These nuts and bolts are notnew, but why limit their use to the narrow world of training when they canprovide so much value in the greater scope of corporate change?
Suppose your company isupgrading a key system, such as a customer-relationship or order-managementsystem. The change is intended to lower costs, streamline processes, andprovide better data to leadership. Those are the intended benefits, but willthey happen if the user community does not understand the changes or how theyaffect individuals’ roles?
Making it work!
“Having eLearning in our arsenalof things we can provide to our user community is key, especially when changesare complex or span multiple business groups and functions,” says SophiaCampbell, an ITIL process and tools manager and IT training manager atConvergeOne. “People learn in different ways; some prefer a classroom, someprefer written manuals, so giving them an alternative—an interactive, rich-mediaformat that they can view on their own time—increases the likelihood that wewill succeed. Our field has little time to dedicate to training development anddelivery, and eLearning allows us to do the most with the shortest amount oftime and resources.”
To maximize the chances that theintended benefits are realized, create a handful of eLearning assets—five- to10-minute tutorials that each tell a piece of the story. (An experienceddeveloper can put one of these together in a few hours.) Some may be relevantto the whole community, while some may be tailored to specific user groups orroles. If software is changing, eLearning can simulate its actual use,providing both training and understanding at the same time. Each eLearningmodule should contain some simple interaction or questioning to both reinforcethe concepts and also test knowledge. Managers will be able to easily see whohas viewed the pieces and how the information is sinking in. Follow up after afew weeks with an additional short piece to reinforce areas that are fallingshort, or additional information you need to convey. The possibilities forcreativity, messaging, and analysis are endless, depending on the resources youhave and the value you place on communication as a part of change management.
Whatever the specific application, eLearning shouldaccompany change, especially when change leads to new or modified job roles. Whenviewed through the lens of change management, eLearning can be a powerful tool.One only needs to recognize its potential and bring it into the process.
