LMS Implementation: Select A Framework For Designing Your Learning Materials
Not all LMS implementations are created equal, therefore having a strong grasp on your learning framework is crucial.
eLearning professionals and Instructional Designers may be familiar with two common learning methodologies — ADDIE and SAM. Project managers may see parallels to waterfall and agile methodologies.
ADDIE is an acronym for Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate. The idea behind it is that the Instructional Designer or team perfects each stage before moving on to the next. The downside is that it may not be agile enough for an environment where goals have the potential to change.
SAM is an acronym for Successive Approximation Model, which emphasizes continuous iteration. Both of these, though, really depend on involving the expertise of an experienced Instructional Designer, while the modern LMS allows anyone to start developing courses.
At Northpass we’ve developed an alternative five-step methodology that we call The Beginner’s Guide to Creating and Online Training Program. Let’s take a detour into the steps of this framework.
Step 1: Define
Clearly defining your learner personas, your business goals, your engagement strategy, and learning objectives and, finally, how you will measure the success of the initiative, is the best way to ensure the foundation is strong.
In the process of researching these basic practical questions, you will discover what your audience needs to learn. Refine your findings down to a bullet-point list of learning objectives and you will have the foundation you need to build your training program. With the “What” established, now you have to spend some time thinking about the “Who.” Numerous personal factors impact training development for a specific audience. Aside from the learning objectives, these include ideal learning styles, previous knowledge of the subject, the learning environment, and strategies for retention and application.
Step 2: Outline
A key part of every learning methodology is recognizing the importance of a plan. Now it’s time to take the learning objectives and your audience assessment and use them to create a training plan that meets everyone’s needs. At this stage, you’ll clearly lay out your content development approach to ensure everyone on your team is fully versed in the organizational structure, format, and scope of content production.
The specifics of your plan will be contingent on the nature of the project; there are many ways to write a plan and many different aspects you can include. Broadly speaking, however, the plan should explain:
- What the training will be.
- Who will receive the training.
- What timetable will be used.
- What materials will be required.
Planning not only gives your training much-needed structure, but it forces you to think in a tactical way that will increase your impact.
Step 3: Build
With a plan established, you now need training tools. Since most of your training will likely happen online, the most time-consuming aspect of this phase is developing the online courses your learners will use. To develop training content, you need to leverage the features offered by the Learning Management System (LMS) and course authoring tools you’ve purchased. Features such as video integration, quizzes, and analytics are important for online training and should be intuitive and easy to use. Use the necessary tools to properly develop design content, create highly engaging videos, and record audio like a professional.
Step 4: Engage
Now it’s time to make sure your content finds its audience and that they can reap the benefits. Revisit Step 1 to determine the best way to deliver the content to your workers. Depending on your target learners, where they spend most of their time, and the context of the training content, your delivery method may vary.
For example, if you’re onboarding new Sales team members, you may want to embed a link to the courses in the CRM tool used by your account executives. If you’re updating customer-facing employees on feature releases, perhaps sharing the course link in an email or internal chat channel may be more appropriate.
No matter what you choose, be sure to meet your learners where they are to help make the courses easily accessible and highly contextual.
Step 5: Measure
Once you’ve given your target learners access to the courses, collect feedback and track their engagement in the learning experience. Use qualitative and quantitative data to gain insight into the following.
- Is the course easy to navigate?
- Is the course content engagement?
- What about the course can be improved?
- How many learners have accessed the course?
- How are learners scoring on the course assessments?
- How many learners have completed the course?
In addition to focusing on the training metrics, it’s important to determine how this data maps to your business goals. For example, if your goal is to make your customer support reps more knowledgeable and efficient in solving support tickets, you may want to correlate the completion rates to the average number of exchanges required before a ticket is marked as resolved.
By selecting your eLearning methodology early, you’ll get a jump start on getting to know the new LMS you’ve adopted and how to properly conduct an LMS implementation.
