Tips for eLearning Specialists

Approximate reading time: 5m 5s

The noise around talent and talent management, performance management, and human capital management grew from a whisper three years ago to a steady murmur in 2012 and a rising roar in 2013 and 2014. Is this important for eLearning specialists (e-learning, eLearning)? How does it affect our work?

You have probably noticed that administrators these days are paying attention to the so-called “Big Data” and the predictive analytics that can be applied to it. Specialists who perform quantitative analyses provide strategic guidance for companies based on big data. This has a major impact on the thinking and decision-making criteria of the best business leaders. For learning and development professionals, it is extremely important to understand how data drives human capital management and to position learning and development in the business environment.

In this article, I will review these developments. I will also propose 7 key practices that will show the difference between success and failure. I believe that learning and development professionals and their managers should soon begin to apply these practices. Over the next few months, Learning Solutions Magazine will begin publishing additional articles that will delve deeper into human capital management and its impact on eLearning (e-learning, eLearning).

Data analysis, automation, and integration

While financial measures, traditionally understood as return on investment, are still of great importance, decision-making increasingly takes into account data predictability rather than the impact of investments on performance and outcomes (including decisions affecting investments in learning and development). Learning and development professionals do not necessarily need to be able to perform quantitative analyses, but it is important to understand the mindset and be able to collect and use performance data to support learning and development initiatives. It is also important to orient our thinking toward how we define, create, and lead these initiatives.

These changes are driven by disruptive technologies and by the challenges associated with leading a workforce made up of different age groups. The technologies include not only predictive analytics, but also increased automation and integration of key business functions and processes, including human resources.

Human resources automation began with payroll software, but it is now starting to affect other processes with strategic implications, such as workforce recruitment and its management (including workforce planning, onboarding, and succession). Human resources functions are also becoming more integrated, although this trend is far from universal across companies and applies more to large companies than to small ones.

In the field of learning, we have added Experience API (xAPI) specifications to our technologies to complement the previous SCORM standard. SCORM provided the means to document the completion of formal in-company training and courses, and to integrate information about them into companies’ learning management systems. xAPI specifications provide a way to document the entire learning experience of employees, whether formal or informal, internal or external to the company, and store it in a learning records repository. At this stage, unfortunately, in most companies there is little or no integration of these systems with other human resources-related functions and processes.

Why does this matter? It matters because human resources and learning and development systems generate huge amounts of data. Properly integrated and analyzed, this data can provide strategic information and business insights of exceptional importance to senior management — for those who make decisions about where to invest their resources, including capital resources.

It is very difficult to understand where we are headed, why traditional training is disappearing, and how the ways we think about learning are changing and must change. But we need to understand.

The learning ecosystem (and performance)

The first step is to think about how our understanding of what works has evolved. Research, mainly in neuroscience, provides us with valuable new information about how learning takes place. We understand that learning is not about isolated events in companies. Our framework for learning and development must include more than formal instruction or job-specific training. Our success criteria must go beyond “completion” and test scores (Level 2 according to Kirkpatrick’s training effectiveness evaluation model).

Now, as a result of advanced research in neurobiology, we better understand the ways in which learning happens in the context of life and work. Learning takes place outside the classroom. It happens with the help of peers, as well as managers and trainers.

My colleague David Kelly wrote in a recent blog post, “In the modern digital world, every individual is surrounded by a network of sources of knowledge. It is an environment in which every source leads to another, creating a comprehensive structure in which the entire learning process takes place. The learning ecosystem is a combination of technologies and resources that help learners in the learning process.” I would add that this combination of technologies and resources is exactly what we should care about.

Formal training and performance strategy

Everything said so far is only an introduction to the larger issue of human capital management. In most cases, companies have not even begun the transition to human capital management. Most of them do not even collect data for strategic purposes or business research. Most companies have not even fully integrated the systems for this.

But we should not wait to start positioning learning and development

The greatest change is required from learning business professionals, who must begin to think strategically rather than tactically. Thinking and acting strategically means connecting what we do with organizational outcomes that matter to our superiors and leadership. It also means adapting what we do and the way we do it to the new technologies available to us so that we can benefit from using them. Building on what we learn from research and with the help of technology, we present 7 things we can do to create an ecosystem that will keep pace with developments in human capital management.

Social learning comes first

Develop your own strategy for using social and collaborative learning practices and use them whenever appropriate (remember that they may be relevant more often than you expect). We know that social and collaborative learning is highly effective. Through it, people learn most of what they need to know about their work, and the best part is that it will cost you almost nothing to include it in your learning ecosystem.

Performance support

Create a performance support strategy for when it is needed (delivered on mobile devices, embedded in systems and software, and working alongside formal and informal learning in your learning ecosystem). This is another low-cost element in your learning and performance system.

Use appropriate external courses

You can use external courses (that is, ones developed by outside companies). Look for courses whose content is related to your field and that offer various e-learning resources, and match the course to the appropriate individual. These courses will complement the capabilities of individual company employees and contribute to their development. Consider such courses before moving on to creating company-specific ones.

Create official company courses only when there is a need for them

Carefully examine the case and the need for in-company training. It is extremely important that you can show why company training is more suitable and more useful than the options listed above. This is the most expensive element of your learning ecosystem.

Do research before using traditional methods

Use experience, testing, and repetition as part of your learning model. Pay attention to research and apply the results to your situation. There are many urban myths and ancient ideas embedded in many eLearning models. They must be removed if they do not withstand your critical reassessment.

Match the learning experience to the achieved results

• Connect learning to achieved results. This requires integrating your online learning system and tracking achieved results. Your managers will want to know why you expect to measure progress. Prepare a preliminary evaluation plan. 
• Teach management how to develop good employees
• Develop your managers’ ability to use learning resources and performance management systems appropriately. Training alone is never enough. You need the competent, proactive support of your leaders.

So what now?

Counting the participants and how many of them completed the course means nothing to decision-makers. People who have some knowledge, can pass a test, or know the “right answer” do not give the company what it needs.

Develop your learning ecosystem to meet your company’s needs: employees who can perform their duties. Supporting your company’s learning strategy and linking it to talent management efforts will deliver the desired result.