We like to be productive. So we create keyboard shortcuts. We make lists. We stick Post-it notes and set up reminders. We don’t want to overlook details or stray away from standards. So we stick to rules, create guidelines, and follow templates. Worksheets, templates, cheat sheets, checklists, and the like are nifty productivity tools. These help us keep our wits about us and our energies from being scattered in the midst of a flurry of activity and create flawless products without working long hours, plodding through multiple rounds of rework, and overshooting deadlines.

Discover the “AJA” insights behind learning impact evaluations. After so much time and effort spent creating an eLearning course, one of the most critical steps following its creation is evaluation. Determining how well the course is performing and where it can be optimized is key to have a greater impact. It used to be enough to evaluate the course’s success through efficiency (course completion) and ROI (saved time and money in the development process). However, this traditional method is limited as it reveals very little about what is going on between the course and its learner. Our times allow for different methods of evaluation. In this post, we invite companies to consider going beyond ROI-only based metrics to LEARNING & PERFORMANCE based insights.

If you’re new to eLearning, then understanding and following instructional design best practices from the beginning is crucial to your success. The eLearning niche is vast, and you will find numerous theories, models, and resources that have worked for different experts. Leave them for later. Begin with the basic, most widely used models that eLearning designers acknowledge and use to structure and plan their training: ADDIE Model Merrill’s Principles of Instruction Gagne’s Nine Events of Instructions Bloom’s Taxonomy Note: This overview doesn't intend to evaluate the models. Each framework has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the choice of which to use will depend on which model works best for you, your company, and your learners. Also before start learning about these models, here are some very practical and clear points to show your boss and help your team understand the 'why' of good instructional design and give it the respect it deserves. How Do I Get My Company to Take Instructional Design Seriously?

Your team has invested some long hours into creating an eLearning course to help your employees address a specific process or learn a new subject. Perfect! The work has been done, the time and money have been invested. You’ve launched your course...and crickets. Nothing happens. No one is taking your course. As the weeks pass, your team realizes that a lot of time and money has gone to waste. You can avoid this kind of drama with the right preparation and execution. Preparing for a launch can dramatically increase the success of the launch and overall engagement with your course.

“Plenty” is a problem. According to findings from the High-Impact Learning Organization study by Bersin by Deloitte, employees find it most difficult to learn, NOT because there isn’t enough content, but because there is TOO MUCH of it, and they cannot find what is valuable. Enter content curation. Many future-focused organizations have adopted content curation as one of their L&D strategies. It is time you did too! Content curation delivers your learners from the hassle, pain, and frustration of trying to wade through a sea of content to find what they need and what is relevant to their wants. The learning journey becomes smooth, and learners are more motivated to learn.

The art of training is knowing how and where to provide the right information to those who are in need of it. That said, this requires the right content, the correct delivery method, and the appropriate audience. Aligning all these components requires doing an in-depth analysis before even firing up your authoring tool. Don’t create training for training’s sake! As a rule of thumb, before building your next eLearning course, incorporate the analysis phase to full circle the development process. We know it may seem unnecessary, we know that your time is limited, and it appears to be a little complicated, but you're wrong! Brushing off the detailed reasons behind the “WHY” of your training may result in a myriad of mistakes. Among the worse, it can lead to significant amount of money and time wasted in creating an eLearning course that looks awesome, but that it isn’t relevant for the intended audience. Continue to review essential points and questions that will be instrumental in the analysis phase for optimal results.

Customers are the lifeblood of any business. Naturally, then, it makes sense to do everything you can to obtain new customers and retain the existing ones. What better way to do this than help them get the most value out of your organization’s product or service? Providing customer training is an excellent way to do just that, by enhancing their use and enjoyment of the products you offer. When studies were conducted back in 2012, researchers at Brandon Hall found that over half of all organizations were offering training for their customers and business partners. They noted that it was a powerful customer retention and development tactic, and one that you should seriously consider implementing in your organization if you haven’t already.

The expectations of today’s learner have changed, and corporations must keep pace with those expectations to keep employees happy and attract new talent. But that’s not the only thing driving change in the corporate training landscape. Employers have finally recognized that an organization with a strong learning culture, one that is aligned with business strategies and goals, will outperform its competition. Few would argue that Learning and Development is now more critical than ever to any corporation’s long-term success. This awareness has spurred a number of improvements to the corporate training landscape. Interesting read: 10 Statistics on Corporate Training and What They Mean for Your Company’s Future Several factors have contributed to the evolution of corporate training and the increasingly central role of learning within companies. In this article, we'll go over some trends L&D professionals can’t ignore anymore.