Your organisation may be in the process of making the exciting leap into eLearning. All the courses that you are delivering in the classroom or face-to-face, can now be delivered to all your learners online. It is a no-brainer.
But now what?!?! What does this mean? How is this done? Where to start? Here at Quay Group, we get asked questions like this all the time, and we are here to help you answer them.
It seems a daunting task, but an elephant is eaten one (coordinated) bite at a time.
Develop a strategy
Unfortunately, there is no magic wand to wave and, Shazam, you have an online curriculum. It is going to require that you build a strategy for your online learning initiative and equally important, this needs to form part of your business strategy. You cannot treat it like the poor stepchild. Give it the attention it deserves.
Choose a place for your eLearning to be deployed
As classroom training has a specific venue that you choose to suit the needs of your training, eLearning courses also need a venue. A place where your courses are presented and which the learners have access to. This venue is known as an online platform or a Learning Management System (LMS). There are different LMS options, all with various features and functions. Depending on your organisations training needs, which should be outlined in your strategy, it would be advisable to choose an LMS that suits the needs and budget of your organisation.
Convert your courses for eLearning
When starting with eLearning you may be thinking that some of your courses will not work as an online course as it contains practical elements. Well, the good news is that there are great ways to make this kind of course material available online by making use of multi-media such as videos, live webinars and chatrooms. Another way to bring this course content across is to follow a blended learning approach – this means that part of your course material is presented via eLearning and some of it is done in a classroom or onsite.
Before you decide on whether your course can be completely online or blended, it is highly recommended that you plan out your course. This is done by creating an “instructional design plan (IDP)”. We will chat about this in another article.
Do it yourself vs partner with a professional
With the latest challenges and constraints placed on businesses, the temptation might exist to try and convert your classroom training to a remotely accessible format yourself. Although not impossible to do, guard heavily against reducing your once valuable content into an unengaging set of emailed PowerPoint slides or a poor-quality cell phone video.
The right professional partner should be able to overcome your unique challenges, such as budget constraints, and offer you the best possible solution regardless. They are after all the experts in their field and should have several solutions at the ready. We here at Quay Group can offer these solutions without compromising quality or the learner experience.
