Designing Digitally
08/02/2018
Whenever organizations need to cut their budget, the training department usually faces the axe first. Learning managers are pressured to cut corners while planning their training strategy. But you cannot do away with training completely, right? If you do not train and upskill your workforce, then you are bound to lose your competitive advantage. Your competitors who invest in upskilling their workforce will develop a lead in the industry since it’s the people who drive growth.
A great way to save training cost is to offer elearning in place of traditional learning. This allows you to save money on travel and accommodation of the learners. You will not have to worry about booking a training venue or equipment. You save a huge amount in stationery and get to reduce your carbon footprint, too. Now, that was how you can save training cost with custom e-learning versus traditional learning. But, did you know that there are several ways in which you can reduce your elearning costs too? Here are just a few tips.
The first step is to analyze the training needs of your employees. There is no reason to assume that your employees need to learn everything at once, or that all of your workforce need the same level of training. Your analysis may tell you that certain training is not required immediately. Focus on the urgent ones. If you find that most of the employees already have the basic level skills, skip the basic level and concentrate on taking them to the next phase. Correct analysis can really save money. Once you are sure about what training you need, try and leverage existing content in the form of manuals, powerpoint decks, workbooks, and so on. Instead of creating content from scratch, work with the existing ILT materials.
You need to invest in a good authoring tool. These tools have built-in templates. Make use of the ready-to-use themes and templates. They have been designed keeping the learner experience in mind. Authoring tools save a lot of time in creating courses. You can reduce the production time and reduce your elearning cost.
Performance support tools like job aids are extremely useful. They help you move out content from the formal training agenda. This reduces the seat time of the course but does not eliminate vital information. In fact, performance support tools help your employees learn more effectively since they are available at the point-of-need. Shorter courses involve lesser cost.
Before you start building the course, create a simple design and development process. Outline the important steps that you need to follow during the development process. This saves time and streamlines the process. Imagine the process going haywire and you having to start all over again --such a waste of resources!
Not all courses or topics need to have Level 3 and 4 interactivity. Some can get done with lower levels. You need to curb the temptation of trying to make all your modules snazzy. For all you know, too much interactions can lead to cognitive load at times. The simpler the level of interactivity, the lesser the cost. And, don’t feel that you are compromising on quality. Invest in interactivities where it is really required.
You may feel that developing elearning in-house is cheaper. But if you lack the required tools and expertise, then it will cost you more time and money. Also, if you do not have dedicated resources trained in instructional design principles, the end quality will suffer. You may find that your learners are not finding it effective and skipping the course. So, if you are not confident about creating the modules on your own, the best way is to outsource it to the experts. Choose a vendor with proper credentials and testimonials and you will not regret it.
These are just a few tips on reducing your elearning costs. There are several other ways too. At Designing Digitally, Inc. we create custom eLearning design specifically for your training objectives. Our courses ensure strong retention of information and provide innovative ways to change learner behaviors. We work with your budget in mind.
For a free consultation about making cost-efficient learning solutions, get in touch with our experts today.
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