Are you considering creating an eLearning course for your company? eLearning carries many advantages for employers to disseminate information to their employees, or business owners and entrepreneurs hoping to bring awareness to a product or service.
Online Learning is Cost-Effective
Compared to instructor-led training, eLearning is extremely cost-effective. Investing in the cost of hiring a professional trainer, potentially flying him or her into your office, offering hotel and per diem for food, as well as other miscellaneous travel costs, can quickly add up. Consider that IBM saved $200 million[1] from switching to eLearning.
If your employees are in training over several hours, consider the lost hours of productivity as a financial loss, as well. Each employee’s hourly salary, multiplied by however many hours of training, is your cost.
The Convenience of On-demand Learning
Unlike traditional learning in a classroom, online learning offers the opportunity for someone to learn at the pace at which they are comfortable, in the place where they are most comfortable.
Controls enable a person to pause to jot down a note or go back to hear something again. They can even repeat a module if needed. With in-person, instructor-led, that simply isn’t possible. Although you want to give people enough time to complete the course or courses, a deadline is often helpful for people to create their own timelines for completion.
eLearning also affords individuals the opportunity to complete the modules at home, at work, or in a coffee shop—wherever they are most comfortable.
It’s also ideal for a remote employee who can’t make the trip into the office. Some organizations try to schedule instructor-led training when their remote team is in town for other meetings, but this roadblock is eliminated with an online learning model.
eLearning Keeps People Engaged—and Coming Back for More
eLearning has the advantage of customization—in other words, the experience can be tailored specifically to your organization or your solution. Personalized messaging helps users to stay engaged with the content.
Engagement can stay high when the content is broken into smaller chunks, too.
Microlearning is the concept where a program can consist of shorter modules ranging from one to 10 minutes, making it easy to digest just one, or a few, at a time. In a world where our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, these modules help a person stay focused and offer just enough content to absorb quickly.
Add in the concept of gamification—which is an interactive way to get the learner more involved by adding quizzes, points for completing a module, and more—and you’ve got a winning eLearning program.
Retention along the course of a training program is sometimes challenging. Studies have shown that online learning retention rates[2] are much higher than traditional learning.
Deliver a Consistent Message to Your Audience
We are human, and we make mistakes. A “train the trainer” method may be effective in disseminating information quickly across an organization, but each individual might not interpret the information the same way or communicate it in the way you intended it being communicated. eLearning allows your message to be delivered consistently to your audience.
An eLearning program is more agile, as well. If the message you’ve created simply isn’t resonating, make a change, republish and deploy. eLearning revision costs are a fraction of what it would take to complete another in-person training.
Increased Productivity with eLearning
Ultimately, if you’re an employer, you want your employees to have a positive outcome from the eLearning program. Employee productivity is shown to increase after an eLearning program is implemented[3].
“It has a beneficial impact on their decision-making skills, their ability to function within a team, to solve problems, and to have enhanced interpersonal relations, all of which also contribute to the growth of the organizations for which they work.”
Improved productivity is also easier to measure. Online learning courses afford you a built-in reporting system that will allow you to generate reports that detail quiz results, completion rates, and learner activity, to name a few. When compared to compliance violations or even sales metrics, it can be easier than ever to see the success of your training efforts.
If you’d like to learn more about creating custom courses or an off-the-shelf course that can be customized later, please head over to learningcarton.com or please join me. Be a part of my feedback loop. Comment, subscribe, or if you prefer, email me directly at chris@learningcarton.com
[1] https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/bid/301248/15-facts-and-stats-that-reveal-the-power-of-elearning
[2] Ibid.
[3] https://elearningindustry.com/4-ways-online-training-increases-productivity
