Perspectives  Dallas Chapter of ASTD Membership Newsletter  -  August 2006  << Table of Contents <<

Successful E-Learning Implementation

by Bill Brandon

 

Here are a dozen things you can do in order to ensure that your e-Learning initiative launches smoothly and has the support it needs.

 

1. Do your homework. Find the innovators and change agents in your entire organization (not just the Training Department and Human Resources). Identify the business and personal benefits to them that will result from a successful e-Learning implementation. Bring these people on board first. Make them catalysts and ask their help to envision a future that embeds e-Learning into the corporate culture.

2. Be honest and straightforward. Let decision makers and employees alike know that e-Learning is about enhancing learning. It is not a hidden agenda to get rid of the Training Department.

3. Leadership is important. Include informal leadership in the planning. If adopting e-Learning requires modifying a labor contract, include union leadership from the beginning.

4. Do not reinvent the wheel – just modify it to meet your organization’s needs. Get in touch with e-Learning practitioners in other organizations. Adopt their best practices.

5. Educate and inform. Have your training staff help gather data needed to plan implementation and pilot projects.

6. Start small. Start with the most technologically-savvy, motivated staff and learners in order to ensure confidence and mastery from the perspectives of content, technology, and instructional design before implementing an organization-wide program.

7. Invest in professional development. Educate, prepare and train your training staff, your e-Learning development staff, and the learners themselves. This must be an ongoing effort, not a one-shot attempt.

8. Plan to expand. Include continuous evaluation and improvement in your plan, beginning with the pilot project. Include stakeholders in the evaluation.

9. Treat vendors as partners. Vendors can assist in producing course content, defining deliverables, and conducting data collection.

10. Manage change. Success is not an accident. Planning, stakeholder involvement, information-sharing, communication, and ongoing training are not optional activities. They are a vital part of making e-Learning work.

11. Be willing to take risks. Learn from your mistakes!

12. Transformation is not easy. This might become your mantra.

 

NOTE:  Article based on remarks by Tom Watkins, Special Assistant to the President, Wayne State University, “Exploring E-Learning Reforms for Michigan: The new education (R)evolution”, modified to fit more generic circumstances.

 

 

About the Author:  Bill Brandon has been a member of the Dallas Chapter of ASTD since 1979 and is currently the coordinator of the Learning Technology SIG. He is the Editor of Learning Solutions eMagazine (http://www.elearningguild.com). Contact Bill at bbrandon@elearningguild.com .