Today’s training challenges have disrupted traditional training methodologies. Rapid e-Learning development meets these challenges head-on.
At the time of writing I have just finished reading an interesting article by Christine Bell, Senior Training Adviser at Eversheds, titled, ‘A Day in the life of a training manager’. Training managers have a lot to contend with these days; tight budgets, high expectations to do “more with less”, a deficit of reliable and qualified trainers, high employee turnover, the need to roll out training quicker, on-time training of a global workforce that requires translations and localization, mobile learners who demand training on their devices, remote workers who must be updated on the latest policies, compliance requirements, or even information on new products that have been rolled out… the list is endless.
My heart goes out to today’s training managers who have so much to struggle with! Through this blog I hope to bring to their awareness a solution that we are passionate about. It’s called rapid e-Learning development.
What is Rapid E-learning Development?
Rapid eLearning development is exactly what its name suggests: a method of developing online learning (e-Learning) courses, rapidly. This method of developing e-Learning courseware is the training manager’s solution to his or her training challenges. Here are 4 reasons why we love rapid e-Learning development.
1. Rapid Development Lives Up to Its Name
True to its name, it is rapid. In a world where knowledge is constantly evolving, keeping employees updated on the most current knowledge can be a challenge. There are several types of changes that occur in an organizational setting; and, if these changes concern the workforce and could have a direct or an indirect impact on productivity, the workforce must be updated ASAP. This knowledge could be related to the company (new policies, or a message from the board of directors); it could be related to information that must go out to sales representatives, immediately (new product features, new updates on existing products); or it could be concerning new compliance requirements by regulatory bodies (international labor laws, compliance with OSHA). Whatever the change, only an agile system can roll out these many updates, consistently, on an ongoing basis.
Again, because knowledge changes constantly, updates must be made as quickly as they happen. For updates that are developed as fast as they need to be rolled out, the solution is rapid e-Learning development.
2. Rapid E-learning Development for Mobile Learners
When I say ‘mobile’ learners, I mean learners who frequently work on the go. The only way that these workers can stay up to date with training is if they have the option to access training from wherever they are. (An example of this would be a service technician who needs to access sales training on the go). Luckily, the versatile mobile device comes to the rescue; but creating mobile-compliant courses can be time-consuming, especially when courses must be made to be compliant with multiple devices. With rapid e-Learning development, courses can be quickly developed using HTML5, allowing for not only multi-device compatibility, but multi-browser compatibility as well.
It’s true that one can argue that the continuous technological advancements of mobile devices can cause compatibility issues. The beauty of rapid e-Learning tools is that they are continuously updated to keep up with the latest technology. With rapid e-learning, another training challenge bites the dust.
3. Rapid E-learning Development Reuses and Repurposes Existing Content
Creating content from scratch is time-consuming, expensive, and the bane of corporate training. It also means that any other form of training content that an organization might possess cannot be used again. Rather than creating courses from scratch, rapid e-Learning development makes use of a company’s existing training content – boring PPTs, manuals, and even an instructor’s notes. This content can be repurposed to fit the training needs of an online course, and any content gaps that might exist can be quickly filled.
It is also possible to store reusable learning objects such as the company’s logo, color scheme, videos, voice files, or even chunks of a course, in a repository, to use across courses. This is a huge advantage, as it saves organizations time and money that would otherwise be unnecessarily used to recreate this content. In this way, updating content is just as.
4. Rapid E-learning Development Makes Use of Rapid Authoring Tools
The magic behind rapid e-Learning development lies in the tools that make it all possible. Unlike traditional e-Learning tools, rapid e-Learning tools’ built-in features make them easy to work with. Some of these features include those that make it easy to add games, scenarios, or simulations. Progress tracking features and user-accessibility features can be enabled, and a library of responsive page layouts, graphics and animations, customizable GUIs, and basic interactivities accessed – with ease. Rapid authoring tools also don’t require users to have any previous technical understanding or knowledge of a coding language. With rapid e-learning, it is the instructional experts, not the developers, who are behind the success of these courses.
It is apparent that rapid e-Learning development can take care of today’s glaring training requirements. These training requirements are looked upon as challenges by every other type of training methodology; with rapid e-Learning development, these challenges look like child’s play. And that is why we love rapid e-Learning development.
