What’s in Your E-Learning Pre-Flight Checklist

What’s in Your E-Learning Pre-Flight Checklist

Published at Tue, 10 Oct 2017 07:40:20 +0000
This isn’t a comprehensive list, but it is a good start. What would you add to your checklist? Share your ideas in the comments.
On a recent flight, I watched the flight crew undergo a pre-flight checklist. This is a set. While viewing them I wondered what we would consider being part of an checklist. So I jotted a few quick notes in my Rocketbook (my most recent gadget).

• Information vs Performance.  I like to place courses in one of two buckets: performance or information. Have people learn and do something different or new and courses try to change behaviors. Classes are more about awareness of certification. , helps me know which sort of resources to commit to it.
• What are the objectives of the Program? Some goals are to change performance or teach new skills. And some goals are more like awareness and certification. Knowing the objectives can help you determine the appropriate metrics to evaluate success.
• Who is the final approver of the project? This is one of the first questions I ask. It’s important to know who the is. You’ll work before launching someone higher up in the food chain gets involved and then right on a path and wishes to make changes. Find out who this individual is before you get too involved in the project and make sure you keep them in the loop throughout. And first and foremost, be sure that you get approval. As David likes to say, “When things go right, the managers take credit. But when things go wrong, it’s all on the trainers.” I’ve worked for bigger organizations with large projects and rarely did we get a budget to build the courses. I was always told I was the budget. It’s a good idea to initiate the conversation about having a budget. Maybe you start small and say you need $500-$1000. It’s a good idea if you don’t want the money.
• What expectations does the client have? This goes back up to understanding the sort of course which is being commissioned and determining the aims. Many times, the client has a default position that their goals or issues are solved by training. This isn’t a good starting point. It’s important to do some performance consulting to better understand the customer’s needs and if training will help. Clear expectations are set by doing that.
• What expectations do the learners have? Let’s face it, the bulk of most e-learning courses are compliance training or annual updates with little influence on the person’s day-to-day responsibilities. For many, the expectations are low. We can’t always control the content and client objectives, but you can find things we can do to make the experience better and more interactive.
• What do you know about the audience? Ideally, the program is designed at a real-world context. To do that requires an understanding of the viewer’s real world.
• What resources are available? The most important resource   is access to the subject matter experts. Resources are the numerous assets required to construct courses, technology, media, as well as present content. Of course, with services like Content Library, some of that is mitigated and not as big of a problem as in the past. If you define clear objectives it is possible to define metrics to ascertain whether they have been met. Thus one part of the evaluation is having measurable objectives. The other part is knowing you’ll gather and process them. That’s not as easy and likely why most organizations do not bother assessing their training properly.
• What’s the execution plan? Once the program is loaded into the learning management system, what is next? How can the learners know there’s a path for them to take? How do managers know? What marketing strategies do you have for the class launch?
• Does it have to be mobile? Modern e-learning courses work on mobile devices. However, there are some factors when it comes to mobile and how the program is constructed by you. Ideally, you use something like Rise where all of the design factors are already made. If you use Storyline, you’ll want to consider the interface and how things are laid out and how they work on the displays.