How People-Centered Is The eLearning Industry?
The chance to learn is the number one reason why people join new companies… but it’s also the main reason they leave (Fosway, Revolutionising the Learning Experience, 2018). It’s pretty clear that offering genuinely useful learning experiences is vital.
Whilst learning teams set out with the best intentions, research suggests that:
- Only 1% of employees say they’re involved in the design of their workplace learning
- Only 5% of L&D teams collect feedback from their users
- Just 2% of these teams, actually use this data to inform their content
Towards Maturity, 2018 Benchmark Report.
It’s not all doom and gloom, there are some L&D teams that are doing it right. Top L&D leaders are involving learners and using data to improve and shape their eLearning. These teams are reporting a 300% increase in business productivity, performance, and profitability (Towards Maturity, 2018 Benchmark Report).
These results may seem out of reach, but the reality is that there are some simple things that you can put in place to get a whole lot closer and really make a difference with your eLearning.
The 6 Pillars Of People-Centered eLearning
Elucidat’s learning consultants have analyzed data from millions of learners across hundreds of live projects, collated insight from global industry experts, and pooled their experience to discover 6 key pillars that underpin the most successful learning projects.
Get the 25-point checklist for people-centered eLearning.
1. Define ROI
If you focus on delivering the most helpful learning experiences, you will see the ROI you need. This may not be as clear-cut as an in-out financial equation, you’ll need to consider what’s most relevant for your organization and the objectives of your particular project. ROI can materialize in a range of ways, from employee retention to increased productivity. Read more demonstrating ROI in the most relevant way for your organization.
2. Meet Clear Goals
Are you clear on the objective of your eLearning? Your content needs to have a defined goal that you should measure performance against. If you don’t have an objective for your eLearning, how will you know if you’ve been successful?
3. Measure
The effectiveness of your eLearning should be continuously measured against your objective, and if something’s not working, you should change it to maximize performance. A project isn’t finished once it’s been shared; use data to gain insight into what can be improved and make refinements accordingly. Here are 10 learning analytics you could (and should) be tracking.
4. Personalize
Before you create your content, do your research. Make sure that you fully understand your user’s needs and preferences. Every user is unique, so design learning that’s adaptable and makes your user feel valued.
5. Respect Time
Remember that people lead busy lives, they have workloads to manage and are constantly bombarded with digital content. Consider how to produce learning experiences that fit with this reality and are genuinely a worthwhile use of time.
It’s important not to measure the performance of your learning on total time spent. Instead, look at the impact on behavior and whether or not the learning objective has been met. Read more about the eLearning attention span.
6. Make It Widely Available
Everyone is different and the way that learning is accessed and absorbed can vary greatly. To accommodate for this, make your content available on a range of devices, with screen readers or through keyboard interaction. Don’t isolate parts of your audience and lose their engagement because they can’t access the learning.
Shockingly, Bersin by Deloitte found that 70% of people access learning on mobile devices but less than 20% of workplace learning is truly mobile-optimized.
How People-Centered Is Your Approach To eLearning?
If you’re not sure whether you’re really putting your people at the heart of your content, download this free checklist to help you analyze and improve your strategy.
