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How to Effectively Analyse your eLearning Course Audience

 

A solid understanding of who your audience is makes a big difference to an eLearning course. Without this knowledge, it is difficult for eLearning Designers to know how to tailor their approach to create the best possible user experience.

Related article: Tailoring Your Learning Content To Your Audience

In order to analyse your eLearning audience effectively, a few factors to keep in mind are:

• What the learner objective is 
• What the learner hopes to gain from the training? 
• How many people need it
• For what purpose the learner is consuming the eLearning

 Having this information will make it easier to determine which type of content to include and which content to prioritise. 

GuyKat Top Tip!

When a course is being rolled out to a larger audience, it is wise to ensure that it is easily accessible. For instance, microlearning could be used.

Your audience's previous background is another important factor to consider. What is their previous level of knowledge and learning ability? For learners who are already familiar with the content or specific jargon, you should avoid creating content that is too simplistic. Additionally, if their learning abilities are lower, make sure that the learner can comprehend the content and that it is not too challenging. Your ability to identify their needs will help you build an eLearning course they will benefit from.

Read more: Selecting The Right eLearning Format For Your Content

Knowing how the learner is going to access the eLearning course is also highly important. Consider their internet access and the type of device they will likely be using to access the course. Being mindful of limitations this may introduce will have a significant impact on the success of the eLearning. Additionally, it is important to determine if the typical target learner is proficient with the technology.  If not, the design may need to be more basic.

Final Thoughts

To put it simply, when you properly understand your audience, you are more likely to deliver the most appropriate solution. Never skip the step of analysing the audience before beginning a project.

Need help with your Learning & Development? Book a call with a member of our team below.

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by Hannah

Less Is More: Organising & Reducing Content To Make It Digestible

Living in the digital age, with answers at our fingertips, means we are all becoming more impatient. Social media platforms consumed ‘on-the-go’, like TikTok, showing 15-second videos, are on the rise. Consequently, attention spans are decreasing.  So what can we do about it? 

Create content with the learner’s perspective in mind. Impatient people want you to get to the point quickly. When you look at a big chunk of text, do you fully absorb all the information? Or do you need it broken down into key points? 

Why is less more?

Often, visual assets (pictures, diagrams, animations, etc.) are quicker to understand than text-heavy explanations. This helps learners draw out the key points of the content, which makes it more memorable. The author’s challenge is identifying the key takeaway points to focus on. Once this has been established, a learning plan can be generated that addresses the who, what, when, where, why, and how. 

The design phase comes after the learning plan. This is where the storyboarding of ideas comes to life, and a prototype is created. After this, once the content has been decided, the course can be developed. Learners don't want to skim text to see what they need to remember. Visual assets summarise content into bitesize, easy to process chunks. Adding graphics, choosing core colours, and deciding on fonts has a huge impact on how engaging the content is. Ensuring that one sentence sums up the key points in bold, and backing up any key messages with visuals is crucial in drawing a learner’s attention.

Mark Twain's quote, "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead," hints that it is  easier to write a lot of words quickly than to be succinct. For a learning designer, the time investment required to write succinctly is always worth it.

 

Read more: 10 Ways To Make Your eLearning More Engaging

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by Hannah

A checklist for selecting the right eLearning partner

To shortlist potential eLearning partners, it's important to identify your needs and goals. Here are initial questions to ask:

• What are your expectations and goals for the eLearning content? What are you trying to achieve?
• What are your timeframes and budget?
• Do you have a preference for specific tools or technology? Will you be using your own Learning Platform?

You need to determine what parts of the process you wish to outsource. Do you already have an Instructional Designer, Developer, Project Manager and Quality Checker? How about a Translation Specialist, Narrator and Graphic Designer? Do you need a mix-and-match of the above, or do you want a full turn-key solution? Different agencies/vendors have different strengths in different areas. Be clear about which areas you need help with.

Once you have determined your needs and completed your research, you can evaluate your shortlist based on the below criteria:

Approach and Values

A partner should be much more than just a supplier. Partnerships encourage an open dialogue. Good partners understand your requirements and offer challenges and suggestions. A supplier would simply do what you ask, whereas a partner would be confident to advise that what you're asking for isn't what you really need and suggest alternatives. They will give transparent guidance on price, scope and content ideas. Consider whether you would trust them with confidential or sensitive information and ask how they've dealt with similar projects in the past. You want to work with people you feel you trust.

Quality Experience

The amount of experience an eLearning company has is important, but experience doesn't necessarily equate to quality. You can assess this via social media, blogs and client testimonials. eLearning companies sometimes post their work online, but many projects are confidential so take a look at the industries they work within. Ask yourself these questions: Are their clients reputable? Have they worked on similar projects to yours in the past? Can you request to see a demo?

eLearning content creation is an unregulated industry. Anyone can access authoring software and declare themselves an expert developer. Be wary. Make sure you do this basic due diligence to ensure the candidate agency is credible.

Project Management Processes

An eLearning company's approach toward project management and communication is integral when deciding if they're the right partner. It's worth asking: Will there be a single point of contact and are they likely to remain the same throughout? Are they able to ramp up resources if necessary? What is their quality checking processes? How many rounds of feedback are factored in? Do they prioritise after-sales care and technical support?

The best partners will be able to adapt and tailor their approach project-by-project and flex their processes to suit the individual client.

Learning Platform Capability

Once your content is developed, you'll need a system to host the eLearning (i.e. a Learning Platform). If you do not have your own, you'll need to find the right platform for you. Some of the best eLearning companies will have everything you need in one place. GuyKat is proud partners of Docebo, which means alongside our eLearning expertise we can help with implementation, outsourced administration and design, User Experience and User Interface. We also have an internal software team that can build whole new functionality from scratch. To think through the long term ambition for your content strategy, and check if your current platform is a good fit for that ambition, use our Capability Maturity Model.

Final Thoughts

A long-lasting relationship with the right eLearning partner will be the most efficient and effective way to deliver engaging content. At GuyKat, all of our partnerships go beyond providing outsourcing support. Alongside the above criteria, the right eLearning partner will truly care about your goals and learning needs.

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by Website Admin

Upskilling vs Reskilling: Understanding differences and similarities

Like most industries, L&D professionals have a habit of using industry jargon. Jargon can exclude bright people from being able to make valid contributions to a debate. At GuyKat, we want to be inclusive. We’re on a mission to bust the jargon. Last week we demystified the words 'asynchronous' and 'synchronous'. This week we're ready to do the same with ‘upskilling’ and ‘reskilling’...

What is upskilling?

In short, upskilling is learning fresh skills to meet the demand for new expertise. For companies, it’s a way to teach workers what they need to do their work to the best of their abilities. For employees, it’s a way to further their career path. 

One example of successful upskilling is PwC, which created a ‘digital fitness’ program to teach its employees a broad range of technical skills, from programming to data analysis. To do this, the company combined several tools—apps, quizzes, podcasts, and gamification. The goal was to encourage a growth mindset and nurture competencies that will contribute back to the team.

What is reskilling?

While upskilling aims to train workers to do their current jobs better, reskilling teaches skills for employees to embark on new positions within the company. Often, the new skills are related to the ones the worker had before, but it’s not unusual for a person to dive into an entirely different niche. 

One example is Scandinavian Airlines. Lockdown and travel restrictions hit the airline industry especially hard, endangering hundreds of thousands of jobs worldwide. In this context, Scandinavian Airlines positioned hundreds of workers with basic medical training in the Swedish healthcare sector by offering a three-and-a-half training course.

Both upskilling and reskilling have their advantages based on the goals of the company and the employee.

Benefits of upskilling

Attracting better talent

Top talent cares about gaining more knowledge and experience. So, companies that invest in training and upskilling will attract applicants with a growth mindset. 

Improving motivation and loyalty

Employees take note when businesses invest in training, making them feel the company is committed to their growth. In turn, this boosts morale and improves performance.

Promoting stability

Ensuring that all team members have the skills to protect teams when one employee leaves, as it’ll make it easier for a new person to take over the role.

Benefits of reskilling

Reduces hiring and onboarding costs 

It may take up to 50 days and over $4,000 to hire a new employee. Reskilling an employee to perform a different role within the company cuts down on these costs and it decreases the time the person will need to adapt to the new team.

Keeping talent

Providing workers with options to gain new skills and explore different paths within the company is a sure way to retain talent that would otherwise leave the company. 

Retaining company knowledge

By retaining talent, companies not just ensure employees feel valued. It also guarantees the resources the company invested in nurturing a high-performing employee by teaching them that knowledge will continue to yield results. 

Upskilling vs Reskilling: Which One To Choose?

Both are valuable training approaches, and choosing one over the other will depend on the goals and needs of the company and the employees. 

There are several ways to teach new skills in a business setting, but three stand out:

Based on learning objectives

It refers to more structured, formal training programs like online or on-site courses or degrees. It allows employers to set up more easily quantifiable goals and clear timelines. In turn, this makes it easier for management to evaluate the results and investment of the program.

Based on learning experience

Experiential learning is another way to train employees in a more informal, practical, and hands-on approach. The goal is to create an immersive experience that will help employees to learn by doing, applying their skills in realistic scenarios.

Often, learners can use a broad range of tools—from Virtual Reality and simulations, games, projects, and peer collaboration.

Blended learning

Many skills require a combination of learning journeys, using structures programs, and practical experience to cement new skills. For example, online programs can be project-based or use games, apps, VR, or peer coaching to reinforce theory learned during class.

Why are reskilling and upskilling so important now?

In January 2020, the World Economic Forum estimated that 54% of all employees will need to be reskilled by 2022 to meet the demand for new jobs disrupted by technology.

For companies, this means massive gaps in knowledge and skills they’ll need to cover to continue operating with the same levels of productivity and efficiency. 

Another significant change the pandemic has caused is the increased number of resignations across middle-career workers and management in sectors like healthcare and tech. Offering training and mobility can be a determining factor in retaining talent.

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by Rugile

Asynchronous Learning vs Synchronous Learning

You will often hear the terms ‘synchronous’, ‘asynchronous’ and ‘blended’ learning used by L&D professionals. These terms sound complex. They’re really not. Let’s demystify them...

What is synchronous learning?

This type of learning takes place with real people in real-time (hence ‘synchronous’). Participants are required to be present – think Zoom webinars, live lectures and video conferences. It allows participants to learn from each other's expertise and perspectives while benefiting from dialogue with the instructor. With a predetermined agenda and time frame, multiple learners can interact in a set place and time. 

What is asynchronous learning?

Asynchronous learning takes place on the learner's own time, allowing them to learn at their own pace. To ensure participation, there is usually a set deadline to complete any tasks or evaluations. The asynchronous experience can be facilitated through online courses, independent work, or individual projects. Learners are given more control over the extent and time they participate in a course, which makes it ideal for self-directed learners. 

Pros and cons of synchronous learning

Synchronous learning has several benefits:

• Foster a sense of community and encourage peer-to-peer collaboration and personal interaction to help knowledge retention.
• Allows participants to practice new skills in real-time.
• Provides a platform for a feedback loop, from both other learners and instructors.
• Clarifying any enquiries on the spot to help learn better through supportive instruction.

However, there are also some limitations to synchronous learning, such as:

• Difficulty keeping to a shared time, due to busy schedules or other commitments, and end up missing out on important modules.
• The instructor adheres to a common pace, which may not be ideal for slower learners.
• Online sessions can run the risk of technical difficulties. (e.g. spotty internet connection, website crash)

Pros and cons of asynchronous learning

The benefits of asynchronous learning are:

• Provides a great opportunity for those who prefer to learn on their own time with little contact from the instructor.
• Ideal for busy employees who don't have time to attend live sessions.
• Allows for more time for self-reflection and going through the material multiple times.
• Accessible anywhere and anytime, in spite of different time zones or location.

There are also some disadvantages, like:

• Difficult for those who lack self-motivation.
• Lack of feedback and acknowledgement can be an issue for dependent learners.
• No real-time feedback.

Blended learning

Blended learning combines both online and offline learning deliveries, ultimately reaping the benefits of asynchronous and synchronous learning in one experience. Also known as a hybrid learning model, it allows instructors to take into account the personal learning styles and circumstances of each employee to suit their needs. Modules and courses take place both online and offline, asynchronously and synchronously, to create a myriad of instruction that is both engaging and accessible. One prime example that showcases the benefits of this combined approach is when participants are given online course supplies, allowing them to study it beforehand and discuss the material in person.

Final Thoughts

This all correlates with previous thoughts we’ve shared about when to use live instructor-led training and when to use eLearning modules. We just didn’t use fancy language! 

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by Rugile

Benefits of Starting Your Company's Learning Journey with an Agency

According to research by the Open University, 91% of UK businesses are struggling to find workers with the right skills. So, it’s a no-brainer that strengthening your current employees' skills is the best way to mitigate the lack of strong candidates.

There are many options you can take to address this, this post focuses on working with an outside agency. Agencies have access to resources that individual freelancers and small businesses don’t.

What Are The Benefits of Choosing an eLearning Agency?

1. A good learning agency will have everything you need in one place - learning management systems (LMS), content creation, user experience experts, and professional services. You can access the deep expertise of the whole team across every area. By contrast, if you use contractors/freelancers, they tend to either have deep expertise in one particular niche, else be a ‘jack of all trades, master of none'.  
2. Agencies have ‘been there, done that’ with countless other organisations, many likely similar to you. You gain the benefit of their hard-earned experience and avoid your internal team wasting time reinventing wheels.
3. The best agencies are aware of the newest and most effective eLearning and self-paced learning options. Instructional design is a professional skill. You can’t just take a subject matter expert from your organisation and expect them to play this role. Partnering them with a trained instructional designer from an agency will make a huge difference to the quality of the learning you produce.
4. Working with technology can be hard. There is a learning curve to gain these skills and then an overhead in maintaining them. Having internal resource putting effort into this will be at the expense of time spent on detailed content. Content is king. Work with a good agency and you can concentrate on the content, and let the agency worry about the technology.
5. A great agency will think bigger than the current project. They will support your L&D in building a strategy to use technology to create a great learning culture.

Choosing the right agency is a challenge in itself. At GuyKat we have helped organisations all over the world enjoy these benefits. We’re particularly proud of our work to partner with clients on point number 5 and help them mature their digital learning capability.

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by Rugile

10 Ways to Make Your eLearning More Engaging

The best eLearning engages your learners and makes the complex seem simple. It connects your audience with the content and adds excitement to the learning experience. To help you achieve this, here are a handful of eLearning tips from our eLearning team. 

Use creative design 

It’s essential to use visuals that help to communicate the subject matter and accommodate the learning journey - overcrowded graphics and images can undermine the experience. 

Having a bold colour pallet is an eLearning tip that can also make a difference. Colours can also be used to attract your learner’s attention to key information, represent your branding, or categorise the content. 

People are drawn to beauty. No matter how serious the subject, the overall experience of a course can always be enhanced by good aesthetic design.

Use multimedia

If you only plan to use graphics and text, you could just share a PowerPoint. Instead, bring your eLearning content to life using multimedia, such as videos, animations or audio. By keeping it relevant and striking the right balance, you can deepen your learner’s experience and understanding of the content. 

Make it interactive 

Interactivity demands engagement from learners. Done well, it can make the learning experience immersive.

Different interactions can encourage your learners to discover and deepen their understanding. For example, buttons can reveal new information, while interactive scenarios can build an understanding of real-life applications. 

The best interactive eLearning is similar to the old 'Choose-your-own-adventure' books*. Every learner will take their own path from start to finish, receive tailored feedback as they progress, but all finish up with the required knowledge at the end.

*Think 'Black mirror: Bandersnatch' if you're of the Netflix generation.

Test your learners

Quizzing and gamification elements can check your learner’s understanding. Providing solid feedback and self-assessment will allow your learners to be active participants. Understanding their strengths and areas for improvement will inform their development. The user interface is as important as the content in getting your learners to explore. Put thought into it.

Related content: Read more about enhancing your learning culture with gamification and rewards.

Encourage your learners to explore

Allow your learners to take the lead and navigate the content. Ensure that the structure of your content flows intuitively and allows them to explore. While you may wish to craft a specific journey, your navigation should not block your learners or hold them back. 

Related content: Read more about increasing your learning engagement.

Create a narrative

The best way to engage your learners is to tell a story, rather than simply present information. To learn effectively, your learners need to personally connect with your content and be led on a journey. This is best achieved through skilled writing during the storyboarding phase of a project. 

Shout about the benefit to the learner, not your 'learning objectives'

It’s much easier to motivate your learners if they believe the course will benefit them. The course designer needs to be clear on the learning objectives but these are not the same as learner benefits. Identify the learning objectives when creating the storyboard. Everything in the storyboard should help deliver these objectives. But do not list these at the start of the course. It can often turn off the learner. Instead, you should frame the 'What's in it for me?' question to motivate them.

So, don't say "During this course, you will learn the detail of the latest law on data protection, you will learn how it applies to a specific subgroup of our clients and you will learn some changes to how we enter data on the system to ensure compliance." Rather say, "There have been some recent changes in data protection law. There's a real risk that any of us could accidentally do something that could bring the whole company down. We're going to tell you what you need to know and do to make sure that person isn't you!". Now, the learner is listening.

GuyKat Tip: We encourage our clients to outline their learning objectives in their storyboards, either written explicitly in the script or considered as a thread throughout. This is because it’s vital that every element of the storyboard supports your learners in achieving their goals.

Keep it bite-sized 

If appropriate, you should try to create eLearning that is bite-sized and has an overarching objective. Smaller chunks of information will be easier for your learners to digest and retain. By focusing clearly on the essential information, you’re more likely to hold your learner’s attention. 

Read more: Less Is More: Organising And Reducing Content To Make It Digestible

Know your learners

Above all, your content must be tailored to your specific learners. Different audiences have different needs. For example, a younger audience may respond well to bold graphics and gamification. You need to get to know your learners and create content that is intuitive to their specific needs and is written with the right 'voice'.

Be concise 

Make it easy for your learners by presenting information in a clear and simple way. Long or unrelated content can be confusing and distract from key messages.

GuyKat Tip: These tips are especially valuable if you’re making new learning content, using authoring tools such as Articulate Storyline or Adobe Captivate. If the content is vital to your business, you may want to engage professional help rather than building the content yourself.

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by Rugile

A Guide to Custom Front-End Development in Docebo

It’s often assumed that good eLearning content is the key to high engagement. But, this doesn’t matter if you can’t find what you’re looking for. At GuyKat, we know that optimising the learner’s journey is just as essential. We design Docebo platforms that encourage learners to immerse themselves in your learning experience and easily discover your courses. 

Here’s how we do it. 

The User

To optimise the user experience (UX) and get the most out of your content, understanding your user is our first step.

We visualise where you want your learner to go and what you want them to achieve. To fully understand your user journey, we design sitemaps that display where the user can go on each page. After defining this user flow, we create a wireframe to design each page. 

This process enables us, and our clients, to refine the user journey and visualise how we can achieve the learner’s goals. 

The Design

We design platforms that represent your branding and bring your users back for more. A user interface (UI) should be aesthetic and authentic, facilitating your UX. 

By collaborating with our clients, we refine our designs and create the best UI. We incorporate our client’s branding and build on their design visions. Next, we leverage the latest tools to provide mockups of the design that we will build. 

The Build

To bring our vision to life, we build the design in your platform and implement the desired features - don’t worry, we keep it hidden from any live users. 

The build is tested to ensure a smooth experience for your target learners. At this stage, we encourage our client’s feedback and a soft launch. This involves a small group of test users (not involved in the project) interacting with the platform and us gathering feedback. This gives us insight from a real learner’s perspective. 

Related Content: Building a custom Docebo landing page enhances your UX. 

Bespoke Software Builds

We also offer bespoke software builds for pages, to enhance the learner’s experience. We utilise Docebo’s powerful API to present data in an optimal way - this can be anything from progress bars to course completion graphs. 

Learn more about our System Integration and API Development.

We work efficiently to design an intuitive and engaging platform for your users. By stretching the limits of CSS and Docebo’s API, we bring our client's visions to life and innovate their learning experiences. If you’re looking for high engagement with your eLearning, optimising your learning platform and delivering high-quality content will get you there.

Related Content: How to keep learners coming back to the system.

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by Website Admin