Stakeholders Involved In Converting ILT To eLearning
In the past, L&D teams were focused on building effective classroom training programs. However, now the focus has shifted to online training that uses various formats, Instructional and Visual Design strategies to deliver an engaging learning experience. Let’s assume your business case to convert an ILT program to eLearning has been approved, and you’re all set to get started with eLearning development. Though that’s a milestone achieved in the quest for ILT to eLearning conversion, your responsibility doesn’t end there.
It does not matter whether you convert ILT to eLearning in-house or get it done through your eLearning partner. In either case, there are a couple of stakeholders whose involvement is crucial to the success of your ILT to eLearning conversion. Who are these stakeholders, and how do you ensure they are involved?
1. Senior Management
One of the main reasons to involve senior managers in the process of converting ILT to eLearning is that they are actively involved in setting the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). They know what skills and deliverables are required for your business. Ideally, you should involve a stakeholder from senior management even before starting the business case for ILT to eLearning conversion. Here’s how a stakeholder from the senior management can help:
Provide A Clear Link
A stakeholder from the senior management can ensure the learning outcome is clearly tied to a business objective. They can explain how a particular learning objective is critical to the business and why.
Influence Other Leaders
Senior management team members can act as influencers who get other leaders on board to champion the cause of eLearning. They can explain the business impact expected from the training initiative of converting an ILT program to eLearning.
Procure Resources
If you’re facing problems procuring resources, in terms of people or budget, a stakeholder in this role should certainly be able to help you with it. (This is done prior to the approval of the business case.)
Communicate The eLearning Initiative
Senior management team members can create a positive buzz on the initiative of converting ILT to eLearning. Employees would definitely want to hear about organizational training changes from the leaders, and this could also improve the receptivity of employees toward eLearning courses.
Just like your budgeting committee, senior managers would love to know the Return On Investment (ROI) offered by the conversion of ILT to eLearning. So, don’t forget to showcase your ROI analysis to stakeholders in this category.
2. Instructors
When you’re converting an ILT program to eLearning, the involvement of instructors who used to conduct the classroom training is very essential. Now, you can expect some resistance from this group of stakeholders because they might feel threatened when you plan to convert ILT programs to eLearning. Here’s how involving instructors as stakeholders can help:
Make eLearning Effective
With their years of experience, instructors know where exactly employees might face a problem understanding content and substantiate it with real-life examples or additional explanation to help learners grasp the content. Capturing this information and including it in the eLearning course can make eLearning effective.
Advice On The Training Strategy
At times, it may not make sense to convert an entire ILT program to eLearning. Let’s say you are introducing a new technology used in healthcare programs. You might want to convert part of the classroom training to eLearning, opting for a blended learning program. While eLearning can introduce the technology to healthcare workers, the classroom can be used to field questions learners might have about the new technology. Value the instructor’s opinion, and try to understand how they feel about converting the classroom training.
Instructors would be familiar with the nuances of delivering the training in the classroom. So don’t forget to leverage that experience while converting ILT to eLearning.
3. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
SMEs are important stakeholders in ILT to eLearning conversion, as they have the knowledge you need. Often, SMEs double up as instructors and are in charge of delivering classroom training. There are also instances where the SME is also qualified in Instructional Design and is in charge of converting the classroom training to eLearning. Here’s how leveraging the SME as a stakeholder in the conversion helps:
Provide The Right Content
SMEs can provide the right content to develop the eLearning program. Get their approval on the course outline so that changes don’t crop up at a later stage. SMEs can also help you plug content gaps if any.
Validate The Course
After you develop the eLearning course, run it past your SME, and get them to check the accuracy of the content. When you’re dealing with technical content, SMEs know best. You could also get them to provide you with images that could be used in the course.
Remember that constant communication with the SME is key when it comes to converting ILT to eLearning successfully. Implement the feedback provided by the SMEs. As far as content in eLearning is concerned, SMEs have the last word.
4. Line Managers
Line managers know if employees are equipped with the right skills to meet the demands of their current job. They are also aware of the skills that might be required in the future. Line managers as stakeholders in your project to convert ILT to eLearning can contribute in the following ways:
Offer Insight Into Job Requirements
Line managers can give you an insight into what’s expected from employees on the job. Online training can be designed to impart the skills required for the job.
Market eLearning Courses
Line managers can promote eLearning in their team. According to the 2019 Workplace Learning Report from LinkedIn [1], 75% of employees would complete an eLearning course suggested or assigned by their managers.
Assess Learners Post-Training
Line managers can assess if online training has helped improve employee performance on the job.
Involving line managers as stakeholders in ILT to eLearning conversion can help you with ways to increase learner engagement in the course. It is essential to convince line managers on the value offered by converting ILT to eLearning as they can influence learners to accept and complete the online course.
5. Project Managers
Project Managers can take charge of the entire process of transitioning from classroom training to eLearning. As stakeholders, this is how they can contribute:
Coordinating The ILT To eLearning Conversion
The Project Manager can coordinate with team members working on the eLearning course to track the completion of the project as per schedule. They may need to liaise with an internal team or with the Project Manager representing the eLearning vendor to ensure course completion.
Single Point Of Contact
They can act as the single point of contact for an eLearning vendor and work to ensure that SMEs meet the review timelines.
A Project Manager is a key stakeholder who can define the scope and budget of the conversion and ensure the timeline and quality of ILT to eLearning conversion meets the standards expected by the company. So, this is a stakeholder you would want to keep in the loop while converting ILT to eLearning.
6. IT Team
If you’re implementing eLearning for the first time by converting an ILT program to eLearning, it would be better to involve the IT team. They would be aware of the challenges expected in course deployment. Here’s how they can help with ILT to eLearning conversion:
Provide Advice On Technology
While converting ILT to eLearning, let’s assume you want a collaborative learning experience where employees are encouraged to ask questions and share more information on the topic, facilitating an online discussion. But does the current LMS in your organization support collaborative learning? The IT team in your organization can provide the right advice. While this is just one example, there can be multiple instances where you need clarity on the IT infrastructure that’s in place.
Assist In Choosing An Authoring Tool
The authoring tool you choose for eLearning development needs to support easy publishing on an LMS. It will have to be SCORM or xAPI compliant so that it supports tracking of eLearning or mobile learning courses. Involving the IT team while selecting an authoring tool can minimize support and integration issues on the LMS.
It’s always a good idea to involve the IT team as stakeholders in the ILT to eLearning conversion project, for the smooth deployment of eLearning courses.
7. Learners
The success of your project that involves converting ILT to eLearning depends on how engaged your learners are. Learners can be involved as stakeholders in the following ways:
Pilot Test The eLearning Course
Before you roll out the eLearning course to all learners, identify a pilot group of learners who can test the online training program and provide feedback.
Act As eLearning Advocates
This group of employees involved in pilot testing the eLearning course can also act as eLearning advocates who promote eLearning among their peers.
When you’re testing the waters by converting ILT to eLearning, it’s a good idea to involve learners as stakeholders. They can provide valuable insights into the working and effectiveness of the eLearning course.
While it may not be practically possible to involve every stakeholder mentioned in this article to an equal extent, you could try to focus your efforts to include stakeholders who would make the maximum impact on your ILT to eLearning conversion project. When you identify the right stakeholders and take steps to actively communicate with them, you can be assured of a successful conversion project that improves ROI, which is what your ultimate goal would be by opting to convert ILT to eLearning.
References:
[1] 3rd Annual: 2019 Workplace Learning Report - Why 2019 is the breakout year for the talent developer (https://learning.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/amp/learning-solutions/images/workplace-learning-report-2019/pdf/workplace-learning-report-2019.pdf)