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Keys to a Successful Custom eLearning Development Process
By Rob Stevens, Beeline eLearning Director
In the five years that I've been the eLearning director for a custom eLearning development company, I've spoken to hundreds of people looking to develop eLearning, and made hundreds of presentations demonstrating our capabilities as an eLearning provider. Each person I've spoken with approached eLearning from a unique perspective. Some people are brand-new to eLearning having never developed a course; some have extensive experience at developing courses; some have had good eLearning development experiences and some have had bad development experiences. The information that follows summarizes some of the key questions or issues that need to be addressed for a successful eLearning development project.
There are four key areas to address: What is the goal of the eLearning? What does the “Priority Triangle” look like? What does the client organization bring to the eLearning table? And last but far from least, what qualities should a custom eLearning developer bring to the eLearning table?
What is the goal of eLearning?
The most critical decision that needs to be made -- before the eLearning development process begins -- is the goal of the eLearning. What should learners be able to do once they have completed the eLearning?
While this may seem to be a blinding glimpse of the obvious, this decision gets passed over many times. Many people go into eLearning projects not exactly sure what they want the outcome to be. While this may cause some consternation for eLearning purists, it should be noted that there can be a wide range of appropriate goals for eLearning projects:
- The goal of a course may be to communicate a message to the entire organization.
- The goal may be to efficiently distribute important information such as product specifications or policy and procedure documentation.
- These days there is more and more of a need to fulfill ever-increasing compliance requirements.
- And in some cases, the eLearning may even need to be about skill development or behavior change.
The “goal” decision is so crucial because it will drive the overall scope and instructional direction of the project. There are very different development needs (and costs) for an information oriented project than a skills or behavior oriented project. Whatever the eLearning project goal, it is critical that it be clearly defined and agreed upon.
The Priority Triangle
The second critical area involves what is sometimes known as the project “Priority Triangle.” The three angles of the triangle are represented by:
- How fast? (Time)
- How good? (Quality)
- How much? (Cost)
Once the overall goal of the project has been determined, it is possible to begin establishing these three very interdependent parameters in defining the project scope. There is not a correct sequence to work through these questions; however, in most projects, one of these elements will be more critical. For purposes of this article, we will proceed from time to quality to cost.
Rapid eLearning development has certainly become a buzzword in the industry, and it is rare in today’s business environment speed is NOT critical. In some cases it is to meet a deadline; in other cases, it is to get the information or skills to the learner before they become obsolete.
Establishing the timing on a project has a variety of potential questions that need to be answered:
- When does the project need to be completed?
- What is driving the deadline? Is it real deadline that must be met at all costs? Is it a soft deadline that can slide if need be?
- Is it more a “window of opportunity” situation? In other words, if the project is completed within a reasonable period of time, the result will be relevant and have value. If not, the end result will be useless.
The key impact that the timing decision has is the potential for changes and modifications the eLearning project along the way. The tighter and less flexible the timeline, the less room there is for changes and modifications along the way. With a tighter timeline, development milestones need to be rigidly followed.
The two aspects of the timeline that tend to be the most disruptive are content development and the review/approval process. Content is rarely as organized and final as it seems to be at the initial stages of a project. And time for review and approval is often grossly underestimated in the initial project planning.
In terms of quality, how “good” a course does it need to be? Does this course need to be the equivalent of a top-of-the-line automobile, or will a sub-compact meet the need? This decision must be closely linked to the goal of the course.
There certainly are some requirements that are non-negotiable: the course must be easy to navigate, must be visually appropriate and engaging, and must accurately and understandably present the content, to name a few.
If the goal of the course is to communicate information (with no real skills or behavior change required), and it needs to be developed very quickly and inexpensively, the level of engagement and interactivity can probably be fairly minimal and still meet the overall goal. However, if the goal is skill development or behavior change, the level of engagement and interactivity must be as closely tied as possible to the actual skills that need to be performed on the job. In this case, the course must be engaging, thought-provoking and a higher level of quality. With skill development and behavior change as the goal, lesser quality will likely mean failure to meet the goal.
One of the most common questions during the investigation stages of an eLearning project is, “How much will one hour of eLearning cost me?” The answer…it depends.
- It depends on how developed the content is.
- It depends on which party (client or vendor) will be doing the instructional design.
- It depends on which party will be doing the eLearning design.
- It depends on the specific interactivities that will be needed in the course.
- It depends on the need for custom images, photos, audio, and video.
- It just plain depends.
General levels of eLearning interactivity can provide some sense of the potential cost, but if possible, it is always best to postpone pricing until you have fleshed-out as much detail as possible in terms of project goals, content and roles.
Within any eLearning course, there are four primary places where money is spent:
- Content development/instructional design
- eLearning design & development
- Image/animation/simulation development, and
- Audio/visual production.
Once again, clarity on the goal of the course, as well as time and quality considerations, are critical. Simply stated, there is no need to buy five gallons of orange juice when you only need one.
What does the client organization bring to the eLearning table?
Another key eLearning project consideration is being clear up-front on what your company brings to the table. Three of the most important considerations are your internal development capabilities, the learner demographic, and the technical landscape of the eLearning delivery environment.
In terms of the client’s internal development capabilities:
- Are subject matter expert (SME) resources available? Are they true “experts” in the content and the needs of the learners? Do those SMEs have capacity in their workloads to assist in the development? Is there organizational buy-in to support SME participation?
- Are there internal instructional design resources available? Do those instructional designers have experience developing eLearning?
- Are there internal graphic, animation, and/or simulation development resources available?
- Is there a project management resource available? How responsive will SMEs, stakeholders and others be when review, feedback and approval are needed?
All of these are key roles -- and potential key holes (gaps) -- in the skills required to successfully execute the eLearning development process.
Another area requiring definition is the client’s learner demographic. How comfortable are the learners with software and PC multimedia? How familiar are they with eLearning? How conducive are their work environments to the focus required for learning? How supportive is management to time away from the job to complete eLearning? How many eLearning initiatives are going on in the organization?
Even with the most eLearning receptive and capable learners, there is a limit to the eLearning can be “digested” at any one time? Some of these factors will impact the course design, while others will need to be accounted for in the rollout and ongoing delivery of the eLearning.
Finally, there is the technical environment in which the eLearning is to be delivered. Relevant questions here include:
- How dated are your computers or operation systems? Do you have any audio or video limitations?
- How reliable is your network? Is there incremental network bandwidth available to support eLearning audio and/or video? Are there remote users?
- Will the eLearning be hosted from a Learning Management System (LMS)? What is your LMS provider’s process for integrating custom eLearning?
- Are there other technical considerations to keep in mind during the development of the project?
As early as possible in the development process, it is important to identify any potential technical issues that could negatively impact the learner experience. Most issues can be eliminated prior to a learner ever touching a course. However, the reality of today’s technical landscape is that there WILL be technical issues. Some learner, in some place, using some variation of the same computer footprint, on the same network, is going to have an issue. Make sure there is a plan and process to deal with these issues in advance.
What qualities should a custom eLearning developer bring to the eLearning table?
Once the goal has been established, the Priority Triangle is defined, and the state of the organization is clarified, the client organization is ready to engage with a custom eLearning provider. It is likely that in this definition process, some gaps between internal organizational capabilities and resources and project development needs will be identified. It is these gaps that the custom eLearning provider should fill.
There are four essential attributes of a quality custom eLearning provider:
- Comprehensive partnership capabilities
- Breadth and depth of eLearning experience
- Process efficiencies, and
- An adaptable development approach
The specifics of what is needed in each of these areas will be impacted by the nature of the project. Questions to ask include:
- Does the eLearning provider specialize in one specific aspect of the development process? Or can they engage, or fill a gap, at any point in the process?
- Do they tend to have repeat business with past clients? Can they provide examples when they have filled larger or smaller roles in a project?
- Have they worked with a variety of content and subject matter? Have they worked across a broad range of industries? Can they show you specific demonstrations of their work?
- What is their approach to development? Is it collaborative? Is it iterative?
- What technologies do they leverage to make the process more efficient? Do they have on-line editing capabilities during the development process? After the course is live? Do they have an online review and feedback process?
- Can they accommodate the role(s) that you want to play in the development process? What is their approach to customer service? What is their approach to project management? What is their approach to client collaboration?
The answers to these questions should lead you to strongly believe that the custom eLearning provider is an organization that will blend well with your organization, partner with you to accomplish the goals you have for the course, work with you based on the various dysfunctions of your organization, be flexible with your processes and the requirements, and help you be successful in your organization.
In conclusion, although the four key areas identified in this article are relevant across eLearning projects, there are no “correct” answers to any of the up-front questions that should be addressed to ensure a successful custom eLearning project. Each project within each organization has its own unique set of needs and outcomes. The key is to make decisions against these areas intentional rather than accidental.
