In current scenario, custom eLearning is a crucial part of any corporate training. The objective of this training is to boost employees’ critical skills, develop new skills, career development, increase engagement, and build a strong corporate culture.
Instead of relying on a one-size-fits-all approach, custom e-learning training is based on solid instructional design principles focussed on learner-centric requirements and feature specific activities and assessments that cater to specific learning needs of the learner and, as well aligned with the objectives of the organization.
While there are many off-the-shelf courses available however to be truly effective, corporate learning must include custom courses, specific to the organization’s needs. Aligning the training strategy with the company’s unique requirements will facilitate more engagement of the employees, as it is specific to their needs, and hence will significantly improve their job performance.
Tips to create custom eLearning training for employees
Here are some simple tips on designing custom e-learning solutions that will develop engaging, creative, and high quality learner-centric e-learning solutions training programs:
Determine the Training Needs and Learning Outcomes:
Getting clarity on the learning outcomes will help in creating the right online course aligned with the needs of stakeholders. To develop an effective e-learning course, a kick-off meeting with the stakeholders should be conducted to discuss the impact it should have on the learners’ workplace productivity and skills. It is important to determine what learners actually need to learn.
Hence, a detailed training need analysis will help to find ways to ascertain the knowledge gap of the employees based on organizational goals.
Understand Your Learners and Set Clear Learning Goals:
On one hand, understanding learners will help to choose the right content and instructional strategy for the course and on the other hand determining the learning goals will set clear expectations of what the learners should do at the end of a learning activity.
Producing meaningful and measurable learning goals will help stay focussed on the right path and would facilitate the creation of a course that fills performance gaps, while taking into consideration any limitations that might need to overcome.
Framing the Instructional Design and Content (ID) Strategy:
Major components for a custom elearning training of an ID strategy are the content, workplace environment, and learners’ existing knowledge level. To create an effective learning module, using the various media elements such as audio, video, and animations, infographics, quizzes, and games add another important component to the ID strategy which contributes to making the course engaging and interactive.
Based on the performance-based learning objectives attained, identify the content that will best meet the objectives and pick the right set of components to come up with the right ID strategy.
Keep it Simple Yet Effective:
Remember, less is more! It is important to not go overbroad with content, animations, interactions, and overload the brain. Using the various components in small doses enhances the user experience rather than making the material extraneous and boring.
To make the corporate training effective for the employees, it should provide knowledge useful for everyday work in an easy and interesting way. Customizing the training offers implementation of a variety of strategies for boosting engagement and retention, such as simulations of work-related scenarios, awarding badges for achievements/completing the training.
With customized learning, employees do not have to waste time on pre-built courses, which cover an extensive range of topics that are irrelevant to them. This custom approach presents definitive information based on the learning needs and organizational requirements. Hence, a good custom-built e-learning course provides better control over the knowledge and skill sets you want to share with your learners to boost their learning, thereby enabling the employees to perform better.
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