That should have worked! What went wrong? The strategy, the design, development or maybe the implementation? The success of eLearning often depends on all those factors. However, hours of discussions, idea sharing, the brain racking that goes behind concept design and the effort behind development could all be in vain if the implementation strategy and process fails or goes wrong at some point.
Failure of eLearning at any stage results in loss- both time and money. eLearning professionals hence, should pay equal attention to implementation strategy too along with project planning and design. Here are some tips to make eLearning implementation successful.
Tip1# Planning
Any process is as good as the planning. Goes without saying project management has a huge role in this. The planning stage is where the goals, expectations etc. are set. The key to make it successful is by involving all the key stakeholders, and aligning everything around the primary objective, plan, and assigning roles and responsibilities accordingly. Successful planning and successful implementation hinges on 3 aspects:
- Well-defined define goals and objectives
- Clarity about the in and out of the scope
- Proper and Reasonable Budget Estimate
Tip2# Stakeholder Buy-in
Very often the key stakeholders only take care of the funding, however this makes implementation a bit tough considering that they aren’t really aware of the benefits that the project offers. For an implementation to be successful, the stakeholders should understand that the eLearning venture will provide the company with a new competitive advantage and that it will greatly influence the client interactions, product quality and performance too. This can only happen when the stakeholders are involved from the early stages of planning.
Tip3# Change Management
Introducing something new in the organization means disrupting the normal functions to a certain extent. The implementation in such cases can only be as successful as the change management, that includes prepping the organization for such a change emotionally and in terms of infrastructure too. Communication, internal promotion all have great roles to play here. However, the ideal things to have would be:
- A clear training plan with time for knowledge transfer
- Open communication with the users/learners as the project progresses
- Proper analysis about the organizational readiness
- A clear understanding of organizational goals
- Clarity about the impact of the project on different departments.
Tip4# Testing
Lack of thorough testing may not be the biggest flaw, but a common error. However, one that would cost the implementation strategy in terms of time and money. For the implementation to be successful the eLearning should be tested well for functionality, integrability with LMSs, device compatibility and usability too.
The process that starts from planning till testing rests in the core of any successful implementation. Considering it as an independent step would make the process tougher and error-prone. Hence, even the implementation strategy should be considered while planning any eLearning project to ensure that it becomes a success.
Are you struggling with eLearning implementation? We might just be able to help you. Just drop a message at info@www.knowzies.com.
