March 15, 2019
Why Most Corporate eLearning Courses Fail to Procure Results
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March 15, 2019
Why Most Corporate eLearning Courses Fail to Procure Results
(1)

Many organizations are switching from traditional classroom training to eLearning as a means of employee learning and development every day, ever since eLearning began to gather popularity as a better L&D methodology among the corporate world. However, even after this transition, many organizations found that they were still unable to procure the results they expected from this new ‘wonder’ methodology they had heard about. This led to many corporate organizations writing eLearning off as a fad, or just a trend that wasn’t here to stay. This also resulted in many organizations switching or transitioning back to traditional training methods. So, what caused this? If eLearning is really as effective as advertised, why do a lot of corporate eLearning courses fail? We’ll discuss just the same in this article.

Well, first off, eLearning isn’t some ‘cure-all’ or ‘magic-bullet’ that will miraculously solve all your L&D problems. It is a methodology, albeit a more advanced one than other L&D methodologies, but one that still requires meticulous planning and proper implementation. The primary cause of the failure of many a corporate eLearning courses is perhaps a very high expectation without the proper knowledge of what eLearning can or cannot do for an organization’s L&D program. Secondly, jumping into eLearning with both feet without knowing its correct implementation will always lead to failure. Having said that, this is true of any new thing one undertakes for the first time. Proper research is necessary. With proper research, organizations can easily overcome many obstacles that come between the success of an eLearning program and fulfill employee development expectations. The following are certain problems that hinder the success of corporate eLearning courses, and how they can be overcome.

  1. Uninteresting and flat content

eLearning is supposed to engaging, interactive and visually-appealing. The more an eLearning course engages a learner, the higher the chances of the learner retaining the information presented in the course. eLearning courses fail when they are largely text-based, without any engaging or appealing content such as images, audio, videos, quizzes, stories and interactivities. Make sure these are included in your courses if you want them to be a success.

  1. Outdated Technology

eLearning is a dynamic field and tech gets outdated really fast. New tools, gadgets and software pop up every year or so, and it is very important to stay up-to-date to ensure that your method of delivering eLearning courses to your learners (employees) is the best there is. To stay updated about eLearning technologies, one must read articles and blogs in addition to attending eLearning events like seminars, conferences and the like.

  1. The ‘One-Size-Fits-All’ Approach

An organization consists of employees/learners from different age groups and generations. All of these age groups or generations have different preferences, goals, backgrounds, traits, needs, as well as different amounts of computer skill. For example, while younger generations are usually more tech-savvy, older generations are lesser so. It’s obvious that such a varied group of learners cannot and should not be given the same eLearning course to complete. Courses should be built for different age groups keeping in mind their traits.

  1. Using Inexperienced Instructional Designers

Sometimes organizations hire subject-matter experts (SMEs) to design eLearning courses that have no prior knowledge of how much effort it actually takes to design an efficient eLearning course. There are various considerations to be made like how to curate content, which model to use, which learning theory to apply, how to deliver the course to the learner and many others. These can only be done by an experienced instructional designer who has undertaken a number of such projects. Be sure to hire such an expert, and make them coordinate with an SME.

  1. Trying to cut down costs

No organization wants to pay more for something they could have for less. This is acceptable. But, one should make sure not to compromise with quality while trying to cut down costs. An efficient eLearning program will likely cost more than what you have in mind, but that does not mean you cannot save some money here and there. However, be sure to have an in-depth knowledge of eLearning before you try to whittle down your eLearning courses, so that you don’t cut down on something that results in the failure of your course. It’d be a shame if you waste your entire budget to save a few bucks.

CBLPro is an eLearning solutions provider that wishes to usher organizations into a new age of eLearning. We aspire to do that using state-of-the-art technology as well as avant-garde expertise amalgamated with tried, tested and true methodologies. If you wish to be a part of the future, feel free to connect with us.

1 Comment
2019-03-19 15:50:24
2019-03-19 15:50:24

As usual it is really a lack of long-term vision in many companies, combined with the sometimes low level of cheap eLearning developers wasting time on useless courses.

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