The Beauty Of Custom eLearning Solutions
Custom eLearning content covers everything from bite-sized custom eLearning animations to complex global learning programmes involving thousands of people. However, still in 2024, the phrase "custom eLearning content" can feel like jargon to some. For organisations that haven't ever encountered this way of developing learning, it may feel daunting or too time-consuming compared to ever-reliable off-the-shelf content. In reality, it's all about understanding what might work for you and your colleagues according to your needs, objectives and budgets.
So, What Is Custom eLearning Content?
The beauty of completely custom eLearning solutions is that they can be anything you want them to be for your organisation and employees. This could include:
- Learning content that is built specifically to reach your objectives and goals
- Learning content that is created with a specific audience or audience subset in mind
- Learning content tailored for independent learning and personalised employee journeys
- Learning content that has been designed to reflect your organisation's brand and tone of voice
- Learning content that has been created to tackle a specific change or challenge in the business, e.g., a merger or a change in company structure
- All the above
As Part Of A Wider Programme
Depending on the needs of your organisation, you may also develop a wider custom eLearning development programme to tackle a bigger learning challenge. Content alone will rarely deliver on the promise of developing a new skill. Learners need strategically designed experiences to develop new skills and behaviour.
Your programme might include live events, tasks, knowledge-based resources, teamwork, mentors, and that all-important content, in a strategically designed experience. In these instances, while it might be possible to find an off-the-shelf course that covers the topics you need, it could end up feeling at odds with the rest of the training experience. Taking a custom content approach gives you the flexibility of creating something perfectly matched to the rest of your programme of learning.
So, What Problems Can Custom eLearning Content Solve?
The word "custom" speaks for itself here. By adopting customised learning, your organisation can create a completely tailored learning experience for its employees.
There may be many reasons why it's useful for your organisation to adopt this approach. Your learning might need to be rolled out in a specific way; maybe the learning involves some very niche training, or maybe you want to create something that really suits the personality of your organisation and your brand.
The benefits include:
Something Unique
Building eLearning from scratch gives you the chance to create a truly unique experience built around your objectives and those of your learners. The approach you take, the content, the format, look and feel is all developed specific to your objectives and needs.
Built For Your Audience
You may have specific needs based on your learners and how they access content, e.g., if they are not in a typical office or are on the go. A custom development approach makes it easier to take this into account and design learning for where your people are going to consume it.
Inclusivity
Maybe you are a global business with learners who speak different languages, or you want to ensure your courses meet certain accessibility standards. Sure, there are off-the-shelf courses that can be translated, but with custom learning content, you can design your learning with all of this in mind from the start.
As Part Of A Wider Programme
You can create a very versatile experience. For example, your training could include a diverse set of modalities—microlearning, animation, games, etc., all built for your unique business, culture and needs.
Brand-Led
You can create consistency across your wider organisation and your brand. Your courses can be built to reflect your brand; everything from tone of voice through to colour palette and artistic style. You can even create a very specific set of design standards for exactly how you want your eLearning to look—including not only your brand guidelines but specifics around things such as use of animation, video or navigation.
Our Final Thoughts
There is always a place for off-the-shelf content, and there are many reasons why you might stick to that approach for some of your training needs. However, it's also exciting to explore the opportunities that custom eLearning development can bring to your organisation and your learners.
Originally published at kineo.com.
