What Does eLearning Success Mean to You?

Every organization has its own unique training challenges, whether it’s looking to improve consistency across a training program, searching for ways to better engage learners, or even selling courseware to a global marketplace. Whatever your challenge, a good Learning Management System can help you achieve your goals, but before you can become successful, you must define what success means to you.

Common Training Challenges

Sure, all training challenges are unique, but if we want to talk about success, we need to first establish some common stumbling blocks. Maybe these won't completely capture your particular situation, but I bet you can identify with one of the following:

You have a geographically dispersed audience, and it's hard to gather everyone into one place for training - scheduling and costs are prohibitive for in-depth training, and the training they are receiving varies in quality and content, depending on where it is taught, and by whom.

Your organization needs a workforce that is compliant with various regulations and could face penalties if they aren't trained to a certain standard. Organizing and scheduling this training across your workforce is more than a full-time job - it's a headache waiting to happen.

You have a solid training program that is a valuable resource to employees. You think you could turn this into an alternate revenue stream, but have no idea where to begin. Uhhh, Google?

These are some of the most common challenges we hear about, and the good news is that the right LMS can provide a great solution to all of them. Let's dig a little deeper and see what success might mean in each situation.

Take Your Training Anywhere, Anytime

With the advent of technology it's more and more common to find yourself with a workforce that's spread around the country, if not the world or who simply works remotely. Gathering everyone in one place for training is cost-prohibitive, and while you could create training materials and send them out, what guarantee do you have that the course us actually being delivered as intended?

Why not harness that technology for your own benefit, and use an LMS to deploy your training? Success in this case means not only a huge reduction in training costs as instructor, infrastructure and travel expenses disappear from your budget, but also a streamlined program that can be scaled up or down to suit as many or as few learners as necessary.

When you take your training online and invest in eLearning, you can easily reach a geographically dispersed audience - all they need is a device connected to the internet. Ensure your training has consistent messaging and branding, control any potential translations, and relax! Sit back knowing that your training is being delivered your way - all you need to do now is use your LMS to track when and where your learners are partaking in the various learning activities that are assigned to them.

Keep Regulators (and Learners!) Happy

If you're in charge of making sure your workforce stays compliant with government or industry regulations, you're well-aware of the Herculean effort it can be to stay compliant, both with evolving training and expiry dates.

What does success look like here? First, an LMS can be your administrators' best friend, automating training reminders and flagging learning items when certifications are about to expire. Onboarding new employees? No need to wait for the next training course to come around on the calendar, with eLearning, you have the ability to train wherever, whenever works best. And, as we've already discussed, eLearning is a great way to ensure all your training has the same consistent message - a regulator's dream!

Think eLearning isn't right for you, since you need to include both traditional learning methods and face-to-face demonstrations? The best LMSs can help you deliver blended and competency-based learning programs that include all sorts of different knowledge transfer types. Choose an LMS that can deliver both and it can truly take your training to the next level, allowing you to centralize and track various learning methods, as well as introduce a consistent evaluation method.

Make That Money!

eCommerce is a great way to introduce an additional revenue stream when you already have strong courseware. Even if your training solely exists as in-classroom material, the right LMS vendor can help you develop what you have into eLearning that can be sold to interested parties.

What might success look like in this situation? In the learning development stage, this would be a final product that is engaging and interactive, featuring the best of eLearning, such as gamification, microlearning, high interactivity and social media compatibility. At the selling stage, this would mean an attractive and easy-to-use course catalogue, branded to your organization.

Of course, only you can determine what sort of return you want on these sales, and the targets that mean success to you, but your LMS vendor can help you price your courseware at the right level. The most important thing? Creating the best courseware and selling it through a professional course catalogue. Ensure these elements are in place, and you'll find success.

Conclusion

So, how will you measure success? We've taken a look at three common training challenges to give you a general idea not only of what an LMS can do for you, but what a successful implementation of the right LMS can mean for your organization. Whatever your training challenge, and however you decide you will measure what success means, choosing the right LMS can get you where you want to be.