A few eLamb employees are getting married in the Summer and with the wedding bells and honeymoons approaching we have seen a reduction of crisps, chocolates and fizzy drinks around the office in an effort to lose a few pounds before the big day.
You might be asking yourself ‘what does dieting have to do with eLearning’ – well, not much BUT the choices made in choosing an eLearning provider and implementing an LMS system mirror that required in losing a few pounds!
Let’s look at the challenges of both
Never a Good Time
I’ll start the diet on Monday, oh wait… we’re out on Friday, I’ll leave it a week.
There’s never an ideal time to introduce eLearning or swap providers, but if your current training or eLearning strategy isn’t working or is not cost effective for you, then you need to start your new eLearning diet as soon as possible.
There’s never an ideal time, however, with your designated account manager at eLamb, we can ensure your new LMS system is set up and running in the background, ready for an effortless switch.
Picking a Diet
When choosing your LMS and custom eLearning provider your choice is endless – how do you pick a partner that’s right for you and will help you reach your training goals?
We suggest you make a list of your learning objectives for the next 3-5 years, once you have realised where you need to get to its time to review your prospective partners and their offering.
Is their LMS system user-friendly, do they have off the shelf eLearning content, can they create bespoke eLearning modules, is the pricing sustainable, are they flexible and attentive?
When picking your eLearning partner be sure they can take you on that 3-5 year journey.
Eating Too Much
Don’t try to bite off more than you can chew when introducing eLearning to your company.
A lot of companies make the mistake of going from no eLearning to too much eLearning too soon. To get the best results in terms of learner experience and learner “buy in” introduce it to a section of the company first or only cover a few topics to start with.
The length of each course is also important, one of the first questions we ask is “How long do you want the course to last?” Many say 45 minutes (sometimes longer).
Does that seem like you’re feeding your employees too much at once? In 2015 a study of 2,000 Canadians found the average attention span is as low as 8 seconds – that’s less time than a Goldfish.
Now whilst we wouldn’t suggest creating an eLearning course as short as that, we do suggest courses last no longer than 30 minutes with 20 minutes being ideal. Much like dieting, if you break up your portions into bite sized chunks and eat them throughout the day you will fill fuller for longer and appreciate your food.
Repetitive Eating
The diet is boring, I have to eat the same food again and again.
One of the challenging parts of eLearning is keeping your content fresh, after all nobody wants to digest the same meal every day of the week. At eLamb, we specialise in creating seriously fun and engaging eLearning that encompasses games similar to Deal or No Deal, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Blockbusters.
By gamifying your eLearning your employees can keep learning the same course content again and again but making it feel different every time. It can also lead to creating a competitive nature among your employees as they try to achieve the highest score.
If perhaps this is a step too far right now, why not create an eLearning module that is layered with informal questions that interchange each time the course is taken, ensuring that no experience is the same.
The Cost
eLearning can either be labelled as a cost to the business or seen as an investment – much like a diet, changing your natural habits and ordering new, expensive, fresh food is a cost but ultimately it’s an investment into a better, more efficient and healthy you.
If you have the right partner, who can provide your ideal LMS solution with off the shelf and bespoke eLearning content and modules then the results generated will justify your investment – eLearning at its best will make you more efficient and significantly reduce the cost and time spent across the entire employee lifecycle from onboarding to promotion. eLearning allows you to identify training needs, provide relevant learning courses and ensure that all employees match your required standards.
If you’d like to discuss an eLearning diet plan with one of our personal trainers, get in touch
