eLearning Strategy for Corporate
The use of eLearning has exploded over the past decade; especially in the corporate world. The corporate eLearning market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11% between 2020-2024, which amounts to a growing volume of $38.09 billion! eLearning barriers have sprung up just as rapidly, standing in the way of successful digital training solutions.
TheLearning LAB specialists has been in the eLearning business for fifteen years, and witnessed the rise and fall of certain trends within the types of barriers corporations commonly face.
The current approach to Learning & Development (L&D) remains relatively analogue in certain sectors, but everywhere else, eLearning is being praised for its far-reaching benefits.
The many industries which have already adopted it don’t see a way back to traditional learning, as the ability eLearning has to be able to function within a set of constraints, to use minimal resources for maximum output, and to have viability for company-wide implementation are unrivalled.
Despite its exponential growth, eLearning hasn’t reached its full potential yet. As we make our way through this tumultuous year, corporations need to invest, more than ever, in revising their approach towards eLearning.
One of the challenges in revamping the eLearning strategy is to overcome the many barriers that the corporate sector is facing, stopping them from taking full advantage of the digital training methods that are out there.
Your Learners should never, ever be bored!
eLearning Strategy for Corporate
Barriers to eLearning, TheLearning LAB Geneva
Corporate eLearning barriers - what are they?
In contrast to what most corporations think, the majority of eLearning barriers relate to individuals and their preferences and needs. The major problem is that the corporate world spends more time focussing on the technology rather than the individuals involved.
In their desire to compete with other companies, and to do so rapidly, the focus can quickly turn away from the individuals involved in both the development and the learning processes and settle on the technology that eLearning is based on. When an L&D department isn't trained in the proper use of the available technology, and expectations are they will make it work simply because the tools are given to them, things can go quite wrong.
It is the individuals who make up the company who will determine the success of a digital training program. Consequently, the main focus must be the employee and not the technology stack. This seemingly simple fact is often ignored by corporations, which leads to the failure of the learning development program as a whole. What starts as an oversight becomes a tremendous waste of time and resources with no tangible benefits.
Whatever path a corporation may choose to follow, one thing is clear: eLearning won’t be a better solution than traditional forms if there is no proper planning as a foundation.
From our experience, we present to you some of the barriers that the corporate sector faces while designing and implementing digital training programs. Of course, we will also highlight some of the solutions! Are you ready to find out more?
Barriers & solutions
Not enough experience in ensuring engagement
Engagement is crucial, and your eLearning course will not succeed without the ability to boost the Learners' levels of engagement. Nobody likes to listen to someone who is rushing through a set of slides drone on and on about a topic. This style of teaching comes with almost zero user engagement, which may seem obvious, but do you have any idea quite how un-engaging the use of text-based formats are in general?
At the very least, ensure your team steers clear of all uses of text-only formats. Embed information-rich infographics, video-first training sessions, appealing images - and maybe even GIFs - to convey the information you want your Learner to retain. If your L&D department isn’t equipped to handle the required level of production, either upskill them by enrolling them on a dedicated programme or contact a suitable agency.
At TheLearning Lab we present the content of eLearning programs through a strategically curated combination of e.g. interactive audiovisual elements, quizzes, infographics and motion design. This includes, but is not limited to, using gamification and animated content to enhance the user experience.
TheLearning LAB eLearning Development Agency
Poor planning and an incomplete Strategy
The rise of eLearning as a low-cost alternative to in-person training has proven to be a double-edged sword. It costs less money to design and launch an eLearning program. However, this drop in costs and the perceived ‘ease’ of eLearning has resulted in companies not involving in diligent planning before curating the digital training program. The results of this approach are not encouraging.
Often, eLearning courses that have been put into place without expert involvement are unnecessarily long. This wastes the Learner’s time, and the information that is actually relevant gets buried under all the fluff. In addition, we need to acknowledge that today’s workforce is cross-generational; there’s the tech-savvy millennials, we have the frequently not-so-tech-savvy Gen X. This is where eLearning-based development strategies need to evolve.
For instance, if a part of the workforce can’t use an eLearning platform effectively, then there needs to be a plan to handle this. It could be in the form of tutorials explaining how to navigate through the eLearning program, or some form of offline training to introduce Learners to the system.
An over-reliance on eLearning alone
Contrary to what might seem to be the case so far; eLearning is not the answer to every problem.
No matter how strange this statement seems coming from an eLearning agency, it is true. While there is no doubt that eLearning can help cover technical training, soft skills are an area where it easily falters.
By saying soft skills, we refer to things like communication skills, emotional intelligence, and people management, among others. Any digital training program alone cannot impart these essential skills. The key to developing soft skills lies in Blended Learning, which will foster a sense of workplace community within the organisation, bring people together and give ample opportunity to first learn the theory through digital training, and then try their hand at actual, in-person use of the skills in a more traditional, workshop-type session.
Failing to engage in localisation of training
Most organisations consist of a diverse workforce. This is a good thing, as it leads to higher levels of innovation, among a range of other benefits; but diversity comes with its own set of challenges. One of them is the requirement of designing a digital training program that takes into consideration all cultures and norms. In other words, a one-size-fits-all strategy won’t work in this scenario.
Companies need to localise the eLearning training for their workers, which can be done through careful planning and a data-driven approach. Corporations need to analyse their workforce and determine what aspects of the development program needs to be modified to conform to the cultural norms of most (if not all) workers, and exercise proper inclusivity.
Localisation is an often-overlooked part of a corporation’s digital training program, and this is partially because it is difficult to develop a localised training program. However, it is definitely not impossible. One critical way to overcome this difficulty is to seek the assistance of an eLearning agency like The Learning Lab, and have them help you outline the cultural needs your employees abroad may have.
We are not just another eLearning agency on the market; we have been fortunate enough to work with global clients from different part of the world during the past 15 years. This has allowed us to develop a diverse digital training program- one that truly fits the definition of localisation.
The value of the personal development of an employee in a corporate sector cannot be overstated, and we’re always excited to team up with organisations to produce great content.
TheLearning LAB Geneva, corporate eLearning
Do you feel more informed?
We hope that reading this article and learning about a few of the key barriers and challenges that the corporate sector is facing nowadays has been informative. When it comes to implementing an eLearning development program and the ways in which it can go wrong, just note that this list is by no means exhaustive. Here at TheLearning LAB, however, we do detailed target audience analysis and develop our vision of the learner persona before turning our eyes towards eLearning content curation.
There’s no better way to overcome the barriers that stand between your company and successful eLearning than contacting the right agency for the job.