Dealing With A Global Lockdown
The spread of the new virus has created a very different landscape for L&D professionals everywhere. With the workforce of most companies currently working from home, it is a good time to implement some new eLearning strategies. Your L&D plans may have suffered because of this situation, but there are various things you can do in order to improve them and achieve your goals.
What eLearning Strategies To Use When Working From Home
1. Reduce Online Training Costs
When all of your training takes place online, reducing online training costs is very important. That, of course, is not an invitation to cut down the quality of your content. It is all about being smart in your choices and effective in your design. For example, microlearning is a very cost-effective eLearning strategy, regarding both the money invested and time spent, especially when you work from home. You can find more budget-saving advice in 5 Ways To Reduce Online Training Costs.
2. Launch A Mobile Program In Corporate eLearning
This is an excellent opportunity for mobile learning as well. The role that smart devices play throughout the entire lockdown is undeniable. Of course, launching a mobile program right now can be rather challenging, but it can also be a very smart move. In this case, implementation is everything. Understanding both your organization and your market is the key to your success. Be sure to read 8 Steps To Launch A Mobile Program In Corporate eLearning and get tips on how to plan your project.
3. Use Mobile Devices In Blended Learning
Blended learning can be one of the best ways to engage your audience and deliver great results consistently. However, many L&D practitioners either do not use mobile devices at all or they do not use them to their fullest potential. How To Use Mobile Devices In Blended Learning has some very valuable insights into how to deal with both of these issues.
4. Empower Your Employees With Mobile Apps
While we are still on the topic of mobile devices, there is an aspect of it we should mention. Apps can be extremely empowering for your employees. It is the nature of a mobile app to provide ease of access and bring everything literally to one's fingertips. Additionally, apps are much more flexible and on-the-go than other alternatives, even those requiring a mere laptop. Of course, an app has to be designed properly in order to have the above benefits. Mobile Apps For Employee Training: Don't Just Train Your Employees, Empower Them will help you understand what you should expect from an app and how to make the most of it.
5. Add Adaptive Learning To Your Online Training
Adaptive learning is any design that tailors a learning experience to the skills, understanding, and interests of individual learners, rather than blast "one-size-fits-all" training at everyone. This is a must for any online training program that wants to explore the next level of L&D. If you haven't started using adaptive learning yet, or even if you have but you still want to look at the bigger picture, 6 Ways To Add Adaptive Learning To Your Online Training will definitely be of value to you.
6. Use Social Media
Social media in L&D is far from becoming the norm. There is, however, so much untapped potential. This approach has the power to engage the millennials in new and innovative ways. Social Media In Learning And Development: Preparing For The Next Generation Workforce does an excellent job of describing the issue and offering various pointers. There is even advice on how to take some of the most traditional practices and give them a millennial twist.
7. Fix Your Gamification Strategy
Gamification is usually either utterly loved or utterly scorned. It is a subject that harbors many intriguing ideas but has a huge margin of error, mainly during design and implementation. However, these things are fixable if you know what to do. 5 Signs Your Gamification Strategy Isn't Working (And How To Fix It) will help you spot and fix any issues you might have experienced so far.
8. Get Ready To Scale
Scaling up is no small matter. When your entire team works from home, they depend exclusively on your digital learning strategy, so you might need to consider it. Of course, before even attempting that, you will need to have a strategy that works and is free of major issues. Otherwise, these issues will scale up too and drag your entire initiative down. The L&D Disruption Playbook Part 5: How To Scale A Digital Learning Strategy That Works makes an excellent case on how and when to scale.
9. Prepare Your Business Case
Every L&D professional needs to work with people from different backgrounds. Each of these people represents a different challenge, both in terms of goals and communicational style. Usually, people like your organization's stakeholders will have a business-oriented mindset. This is why it is so important to be able to build a business case for your eLearning program, especially now that its importance is magnified. 7 Must-Include Elements In A Business Case For eLearning has everything you need to prepare for that task.
10. Try An LXP
Learning Experience Platforms are a relatively new thing in eLearning. They offer solutions in a way that is hard to replicate and change many well-established practices that one can find in other alternatives. Learning Experience Platforms have a plethora of uses, and one of them is to be used as an onboarding tool. Welcoming a new member to a remote team is not easy, but What's A Learning Experience Platform And How It Enhances Your Employee Onboarding explains the most effective way to do it.
11. Convert Your ILT Content
Instructor-led content is used in more traditional methods of training. However, it is very possible to convert ILT material to suit the needs of your eLearning campaign. This is a very effective move, as you end up repurposing your old content in a fraction of the time and cost. How To Transform Your Training From ILT To eLearning agrees with this and has some very spot-on suggestions.
12. Use More Videos
Videos are very important to online learning and training. Especially during a lockdown, your workforce is more likely to be engaged by this format as it is a very intuitive and guided experience: press play, enjoy the content. Sadly, the simplicity the user experiences is balanced by the complexity of the issues the designer of a video-based eLearning course has to solve. Essential Criteria For Choosing The Right Video-Based Learning Model will help you find the right model for this endeavor so that you can make the most of it.
13. Train Your Sales Team Even When They Work From Home
Your sales team is a very important part of your business model, a part that requires constant training and guidance. An LMS would enable them to continue their training, even on a lockdown. The 6 Must-Have LMS Features For Effective Sales Training will help you choose the right one for you.
14. Create Virtual Learning Experiences
Virtual Instructor-Led Training experiences have been growing a lot in popularity lately. Understanding the demand for them is fairly simple. Designing good VILT experiences, however, is not. No Travel: Now Is The Time To Create Effective Virtual Learning Experiences makes some excellent points on how to do it properly, and you will see value in this even if it is your first time. And if you are an instructor of VILT, make sure to watch the webinar Instructor's Guide To Delivering Virtual Training.
Final Words
Everyone is going through a hard time right now. It is important to try and maintain our clarity and logic and try our absolute best. By using the many options available in the eLearning niche, we can keep the training programs of our organization going or even improving. This means much more than just making sure that a project doesn't fall behind. As L&D professionals, it is our duty to make sure that we convey a message of hope to the people we train. Helping people that work from home learn new skills makes us believe that we have the power to create a better tomorrow, and this message of hope can be the beacon that keeps us going throughout these tough times.
