Designing Digitally
10/18/2018
Employee A: “Hey, how did you like the new cybersecurity course?”
Employee B: “There is a new course on cybersecurity? Where? I am clueless.”
Employee A: “It was launched last Friday. Did you not get an email?”
Employee B: “ Oh, those type of emails go to my spam folder.”
This kind of water cooler conversation is a nightmare for most L&D professionals. As learning designers, you spend a lot of time, effort, and resources to create online learning for employees. But, after you launch the course, you see that the participation is not something to write home about. What a waste of resources, you feel.
But, you can avoid such a situation with proper planning and execution. Here are five tips on how you can optimize the value of your learning and ensure a successful launch for your course.
If you give the learner what they need, they are bound to use it. You may want to conduct an informal survey to determine what your audience wants. Your learners are busy people. If you expect them to take the time to complete your training, you have to provide them something that benefits them. If you can convince them that the course will add value to their life – professional or personal – you have a winner at hand.
Before the launch of a book or a movie, there is a lot of buzz around it. You will see trailers, ads, promotions on social media, and so on. These are all tactics to build up excitement around the launch. You may want to create teasers around your course. A well-designed teaser catches learner attention and also talks about the relevance of the course. Plan a teaser campaign about 15 days before the launch. No need to give out much detail. Just have enough content to make them curious. Highlight the value of the course. You may also consider promotion through newsletters and blog posts too.
Before you launch the course to a larger audience, run it past a small group of people. Form a small group of about 10 people. Make sure you have representation from all relevant departments. It is not easy to please everyone. But, it is wise to be open to suggestions. For all you know, your pilot group may come up with ground-breaking insights. Ask them their opinion about the content, functionalities, relevance, and so on. Ask them if they faced any issues navigating the course. Running a pilot is the best way to find any design mistakes. You may also want to step into the learner’s shoes and take the course.
Your course may be relevant. But, it is not easy to convince the learners about the benefits. If you can rope in key stakeholders of the business to promote the course, then you may find it easier to convince the learners. Share the value of the course with the stakeholders. There is no point in asking them to do a polite lip service. Consider taking them through the course and asking for their opinion. If you can involve them in the production process as SMEs, they may be more invested in the promotion.
Timing is an important influencer. List out moments that you feel your course may be useful to the learners, and leverage the information. For example, a course on the various features of a product will come in handy to a salesperson before meeting a client to sell that product. Highlight the topics in the course and the time it will take to go through it. Micro-modules are a great solution for such a situation. It is important to have built-in bookmarks that save their progress. A learner who has completed half of the course may want to take a break and come back to it later. Bookmarks make it easy for them to start from where they left off.
Opting for elearning for your employees is a great decision. But if you want to get it right and ensure a successful launch, you need to make sure that you have a robust plan to promote the advantages of your online learning course.
At Designing Digitally, Inc. our team of expert instructional designers creates custom elearning specifically designed for your learning objectives. Our courses ensure strong retention of information and provide innovative ways to change learner behaviors.
Get in touch with our team today to ensure a successful launch of your eLearning course!
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