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Elearning: innovate or keep it simple? | Part 4: Choosing the deliverables

By Shelly Boyce on January 31, 2017

Elearning tailored to fit

This post is the fourth in a series about innovation in elearning. Customized elearning can offer great value when well-aligned to your learning goals. Read on to learn about the balance between innovation and simplicity.

The answer to learning and training needs is very often elearning. When it’s tailored to your learners, elearning is engaging and versatile. We talk about elearning often here at PT because it’s the most common deliverable we’re asked to create. But is elearning in the classic sense always the best-fit solution?

Today’s organizations face a growing need for rapid development and for content that they can change quickly when necessary. It’s possible that, in some situations, elearning is either not enough or is overkill, both of which waste time and resources. Consider these two examples:

Imagine a set of elearning modules, each of which should focus on one product and teach learners about that product’s features so they can sell the product to customers. Early in the process of creating the elearning course, it becomes clear that an infographic or a series of product fact sheets could provide the same transfer of knowledge. The elearning is fun and interactive, but is it worth its cost?

In the second example, again imagine a set of elearning modules, each of which should focus on one product, but this time the training tool also needs to teach learners how to match product features to customer needs in a sales discussion. In this scenario, the design strategies for the elearning module focus on problem solving in sales scenarios, but the project team is limited by the reach of elearning: they realize this topic would really benefit from a blend of elearning plus real-life application opportunities, user-generated content, and a social platform to capture best practices and examples. Now they face a decision between shoehorning the topic into elearning and expanding the project to deliver the multi-faceted experience that will do the topic justice.

At PT, we work hard to get to know you and your organization’s needs before we start project development. We do that to make sure we deliver your best options without a lot of backtracking or second-guessing. We encourage everyone involved to avoid getting hung up on what the deliverable will be and instead focus on what the deliverable should accomplish.

By thinking about the end goal before we suggest an end product, we make sure you always get what you need. What do you want your learners to do differently after the learning experience? What changes would you like to see happen because of the learning experience? With these answers, we can move forward with a clear target in mind. All this preparation ensures you’re deploying the deliverables that accurately solve the problem that prompted you to explore elearning in the first place.

Innovate or keep it simple? Part 5

 

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