Are you responsible for creating online courses and learning materials for your organization?

Designing eLearning courses for other people, such as managers and colleagues, can be tricky. You no doubt want to make sure that you’re creating content that addresses the needs of your learners, as well as the business. But often, eLearning professionals are pressured to produce content under tight deadlines, with very little briefing.

While this might seem to be time-saving and productive, it actually holds little benefit for both learners and the organization. Because when creating an eLearning course for employees, you want to know that you’re meeting their learning objectives and delivering effective, engaging training materials. And this takes time. Rushing your online course design will only result in lower quality content that’s no good to your users or organizational goals.

So what can you do about handling this situation? Well, next time someone approaches you with a training request, you need to stop and ask yourself one important question – why. This one simple word can help create better alignment between the business needs of your organization and the training content you develop for your learners.

Kevin M. Yates, Learning and Development Measurement Expert, uses a great analogy to explore the frustrations faced by many eLearning professionals when dealing with the way training requests are delivered.

“There are times where the discussion between the L&D team and the business sounds like placing a fast-food order for training, Yates says, likening the process to ordering “a classroom training from the lite menu with a side order of video-conference” or “a couple of WebEx programs to go.”

Approaching learning content in this generic, out-of-the-box way fails to consider the specific needs of your audience, or even your audience themselves. We’ve talked before about taking a cookie cutter approach to learning and how it’s never the best way to educate students or staff. That’s why you need to deliver customized training solutions that are tailor-made for your staff.

To do this, Paul Rosevear suggests using the The 5 Whys questioning technique, pioneered by Taiichi Ohno and made famous by Toyota. This technique encourages employees to ask “why?” at least five times in succession, to drill down to the root of any problem.

As Rosevear says, “blindly fulfilling training often invites a far simpler conundrum: the training that’s been requested might not even be solving the right problem.”

In contrast, asking why helps you to determine the issue or problem that needs to be solved. Once you’ve established this, you can move on to determining how to solve it through your eLearning materials.

Rosevear uses this dialogue between a VP and eLearning professional to illustrate this point, and the process of the 5 Whys questioning technique.

As you can see, the questions asked by the eLearning professional help to uncover the team's true issue, along with the learning objective that needs to be achieved. He can then go ahead and create an online course that will successfully address and meet this learning objective.

Imagine, on the other hand, that he had walked away from the VP immediately after the initial briefing. It's likely that he would have created eLearning materials around collaboration, right? By asking questions, and drilling down to the crux of the issue, our eLearning professional is able to design far more targeted and effective materials around the topic of critical feedback. He's able to help the Product team function better, leading to more positive results for the team, their VP, the organization and its customers or clients!

Try out the 5 Whys technique next time you're asked to design an eLearning course. You'll soon find this questioning technique become more natural to you, as you become more accustomed to looking at the big picture.

You might also like to check out our handy eLearning course design checklist, to help you design online courses that your audience will love.

For more in-depth discussion of online course design, look closer at what makes a good online course design, in terms of the fascinating science behind the design process.

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One question to ask before creating an online course

One of the best ways to separate the wheat from the chaff, the average Joe from the learner supreme, is the good old quiz.

The nature of the eLearning platform can restrict the avenues that teachers can use to judge a student’s learning as student and teacher aren’t physically in the same space. But learning quizzes provide a means around that.

They’re an integral part of a course and an absolutely vital tool to score the abilities of the student, helping to chart whether they’ve been paying attention.

Problem is, is that they’re not the easiest assessments to write. However, with the helpful tips you’re about to read, and a little bit of practice under your belt, you’ll be firing out online learning quizzes in no time!

Online courses shouldn’t be full of fluff; your students are usually professionals who are short on time and expect to learn the essential pieces of whichever jigsaw you’re teaching. Your course should be kept clean and to the point, so make sure your quiz questions are too.

Don’t waste time asking irrelevant questions about bits and pieces outside of the central points of your course. If you’re asking questions on unimportant topics then the answers probably don’t matter anyway.

Give students a fair crack of the whip by sticking to the topics and learning objectives that have been fundamental to the course.


And like your course, your quiz should offer variety too. Include scenario-based questions, multiple choice, written responses and any more you can think of to provide an even-handed route to assess a learner’s ability.

You could incorporate video into your quiz too, as a way to reflect the medium’s heavy use in most eLearning courses.

However you decide to structure your questions, just make sure to offer a variety so students can show their true learned knowledge.


Keep questions short, sweet and crystal clear

Quizzes are really not the time for the quiz master to show off their writing chops.

To be as fair as possible to students taking your quiz, it’s important to word your questions in a concise, clear manner. If a student doesn’t understand the question then they’re certainly not going to be able to answer it properly.

Use easily understood wording, keep questions short and don’t give to provide too many details to cushion a question. If one of your questions can’t be asked within a sentence, then maybe it’d be better asked as a scenario-based question.


Your students must be challenged. Asking a range of questions forces them to think on their feet, draw nuggets of information and generally feel as though they’re being tested.

Certainly, the aim of a course quiz isn’t to be so hard that students feel inadequate, but a quiz requires students are thoroughly tested.


As most of your students are taking your courses for work-related reasons, it makes sense to include questions that reflect the reality of their working lives. After all, this is where they’re going to be putting their new found knowledge into practice.


Once students have sat the quiz and results have been given, you need to offer some feedback about what they did well on, what they struggled with, and in which areas they should be looking to brush up on their skills.

Regardless of how a student fared, and even if they came top of the class, look for ways to suggest where they could improve their knowledge or performance in some areas. Likewise, if a student has done badly you should attempt to look for positives to encourage them with.

There’s your lot. Some tips and suggestions to help write a well-rounded and useful online learning quiz.

Remember that the quiz should encourage students in their learning and push them to do better. It should be put together in a way that brings everything the course has covered together to be tested, in a practical way.

Though it is a gauge through which to test the learning of students, a quiz shouldn’t be a stick to beat them with. Make sure it’s fair but challenging and you’ll be fine. Good luck!

How to write good online learning quizzes

You might have heard of people such as Pat Flynn, Derek Halpern, Jeff Walker, Ramit Sethi and Lewis Howes, all entrepreneurs who are crushing it with their online businesses. They earn millions by selling online products and are the true rockstars in the the marketing world.

How cool would it be to sell your online courses from your home office, generating an income that allows you to be financially independent and live the life that Tim Ferriss showed us in his book “The 4 hour Work Week”? Pretty cool, right?

But is this even possible for us, as normal individuals who want to leave their 9-5 jobs? Who are just starting out and never attended any marketing or business class? Who don't have millions of followers or have $100 000s to spend for ads?

The answer is YES! But as everything in life there is no shortcut and it takes dedication, patience and a willingness to walk a terrain that nobody from your family and friends might have ever walked before.

I am a self taught photographer selling online products such as ebooks, coaching and an online course teaching people how to get started in the concert photography world. I started totally from scratch with no followers, no money to spend for ads and no plan at all.

3 years later and I am rushing towards a 6 figure business, I built a loyal following with an email list of 6000+ subscribers from 100+ countries and 10,000 of followers on my social media channels. I generated a unique hashtag on Instagram which is used almost 100 000 times, I am publishing an online magazine and recently started my own podcast.

In the last years I read literally every book about online marketing, invested into workshops, attended seminars, got a mentor and talked hundreds of hours to other people in this field. I wanted to find a “success formula” that I can use to build my own dream business.

“The Product first” vs. “The Audience first” approach

By trial and error I found out that there are 2 ways on how to build a success online business: The “Product first” approach and the “Audience first” approach. Let me explain in more detail.

This is the approach where you build your online product first and than you´re searching for your clients. However this approach has some serious drawbacks.

Imagine, you got the masterplan. It´s simple, right? Build a course, go online, share it on your social media channels and wait until the money pours in.
Sorry, but you’ll be more than disappointed, because I can guarantee you that nobody will buy your $200-$500 product only because you´re a nice pal.

How do you know if people are interested in your course?

Do people trust you if they have never heard of you?

Can you reach thousands of targeted people through your social media channels?

You see, that there are quite a few challenges right form the start. However there is a solution to all of them: paid advertisement.

With paid ads (most likely Facebook ads) you`ll be able to reach millions of targeted people who might be interested in your products. This sounds awesome in the beginning, but you’ll have to experiment and test to find what works.

In terms to find your target audience you need to know:

And here lies the main problem for me as a small business owner. Unless you have $1000s to spend for ads this approach won´t work. Normally the big marketing stars spend $100,000 - 1 million per month(!) for FB ads. It´s all about driving enough traffic to your site and hopefully get out more benefit than your ads spend is.

Another drawback is that you´re totally dependent on platforms such as Facebook. Facebook is known for changing their algorithms quite often and I have heard stories where your acquired lead jumped from $1 to $10 over night. Ouch.

Even though I have seen some of my friends being successful with this approach, i wouldn´t recommend to go this route when you´re starting your business.

I first heard of this approach from Derek Halpern (Socialtriggers,com, read my success story here). It´s a beautiful yet simple idea which goes like “build an audience first, than sell your products to them”. This was an eye opener for me. Sure, people who know and trust you will become more likely customers, right? Would you rather buy from a friend or a stranger online you have never heard of before (the Product first approach)?

So, I started to build my audience from scratch and the next 3 factors should help you to grow your own community of raving fans.

1. Choose a topic you're passionate about

Do you have a hobby or passion for a specific topic? Is it knitting, painting or cooking? If you start brainstorming you`ll immediately recognise what you're passionate about the most. Sometimes people say „I like relaxing on the couch on Sundays, or I like watching TV in the evening.’ I am not talking about these kind of activities,
Your hobby should be something where you can teach other people what you have achieved over the period of time.

Need some inspirations, which fit perfectly for starting your online business: Photography. Dating. Business. Relationships. Personal Finance. Social skills. Software training. Social media. Marketing. Cooking. Health. Writing. Web Design. Productivity. Networking. Careers. Coding. Music. Photography. Yoga. Fitness. Food.

I read about this phenomenon in the book "Give & Take" from the author Adam Grant. In his book he describes two different kind of people: Takers and Givers.

Takers have a distinct signature: they like to get more than they give. They putting their own interests ahead of others’ need. Takers believe that the world is a competitive, dog-eat-dog place. They feel that to succeed, they need to be better than others.

Givers on the other hand are people who give more than they get. Givers are other-focused and paying more attention to what other people need from them.

Grant concluded in his book that Givers are the ones who profit the most when they find a balance to benefit from their generosity for themselves.

It's no surprise that all the online marketing superstars give most of their content for free in form of blogs, youtube videos or ebooks. Ramit Sethi states on his homage that he is giving away 98% of his content for free and sell his premium products only to those who are willing to pay high prices for it.

Engaging with your followers and let them know you´re there for them is the most important point. Nobody wants to reach out to an expert for help and never get an answer- If you commit to start an online business you need to treat your followers like kings.

Do whatever it takes to help them and make your connection a great experience.

Engaging with your followers can start with a simple Facebook group. Add interested people to the group and start a conversation. Not only do you build trust, but you´ll also learn what they´re struggling with the most. I get emails from people all around the world asking for help. I collected hundreds of questions which served as blueprint for my own online course without ever guessing which topic I should talk about.

Depending on which platform your future clients are also on, try Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest to build your audience there.

Let's build your community of raving fans

It has never been easier to build an online business, where you can reach your raving fans with one click. It always gives my goosebumps when sending out an email to my followers and watch thousands of people reading my latest blog post or listening to my podcast. This will not only give you an energy boost but also show you what your audience is interested in and what they want more of.

The “audience first” strategy is not a „get-my-money-fast“ approach, but it will let you grow organically and sell your products to a profit.

Why do you think everyone who is a successful online entrepreneur has a huge email list? Simply, because building a community first is a proven strategy that works.

Hopefully this article gives you the motivation and help you to start your own online business.

If I can build a worldwide brand without any marketing or business degree you definitely can do it too.

If you want take your sales to the next level and get more tips on how to start selling more courses online, download my free ebook on 4 must-have tools for building your own online community.

Matthias Hombauer is a self taught Rockstar Photographer, Author and Entrepreneur. He built a worldwide community of raving fans with his online project "How to Become A Rockstar Photographer" where he helps people to live their dream as concert photographers. In addition he teaches online marketing and how to build an awesome brand for small business owners. 

The best hidden secrets to selling online courses

Most companies are made up of employees of various ages, with staff members of different generations working together in the one organization. As an employer or manager, you most likely have a number of Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials across your teams, bringing positive benefits to your organization through different levels of experience, knowledge and diversity.

As beneficial as this is for your company, a multi-generational workforce can sometimes make learning and development programs a little tricky, due to differences in learning styles and technological abilities. While younger team members might prefer high-tech, independent training methods, older staff may need something more traditional and trainer-lead.

So, when it comes to employee training, how do you make sure your learning materials are engaging and effective for all staff – of all ages?

The answer can be found in eLearning – an effective training solution that meets the needs of learners from all generations.

With online learning, you’ll find you can give employees the flexibility, autonomy, customization and engagement they want and need – regardless of age. eLearning courses can be designed to perfectly fit your target audience, allowing you to tailor online courses specifically to your business and workforce. This means you can create the exact courses you need for your staff, whether it’s for onboarding, professional development or compliance testing.

Let’s look at how you can use eLearning courses to successfully train staff of different generations.

eLearning for Millennials – mobile and tech Savvy

The youngest generation to be part of today's workforce, Millennials have been raised with technology and social media as a part of everyday life. Widely experienced in using technology and all form of digital devices, these workers are tech savvy and looking for fast, on-the-go learning.

Millennials expect technology to be an integral part of learning and need to know exactly what they’re going to get out of a training program. For these younger workers, traditional classroom training methods are at risk of leaving them feeling disengaged, distracted, or just plain bored. So how do you make sure Millennial employees are engaging with training materials?

Jeffrey Roth, Vice President of Marketing for Interactyx, points out that distractions such as “social networking sites and gaming apps can be integrated into the learning plan to motivate and connect with learners on a level that they’re more familiar with.” Look for eLearning platforms that allow you to include social learning features into your online courses such as social media channels, instant messaging (IM) and gamification.

When learning, Millennials in particular like to form connections, share ideas and interact with other people in the workplace. These forms of social interaction play a large role in training and are known as the social learning methodology. By encouraging social learning in your eLearning course, Millennial team members will be able to create and share content with workmates, helping them to connect with the materials and one another.

For Millennial staff members, you’ll also want to make sure your training program is available on-the-go. eLearning will allow individuals to access course materials through mobile-friendly apps and devices, making learning more flexible and convenient for users.

eLearning for Gen X – flexibility and autonomy 

Between Millennials and Boomers, we have Generation X – born between 1965 and 1980.

When writing about How to Target the Right Generation in eLearning, Sean Stoker believes that many Gen Xers were “forced to grow up rather quickly and to some extent learn to take care of themselves. For these reasons… this generation is full of independent thinkers, wanting to do things their own way.”

This means Gen X workers thrive when given the freedom to learn independently and at their own pace. In fact, many Gen Xers prefer flexible, autonomous work life and are very successful when working remotely or from home.

eLearning offers this generation flexible learning options that are self-lead and self-governed. Online courses can be accessed at a time and place that’s convenient for the Gen X learner, while allowing them to plan out their study and monitor their own progress.

eLearning for Baby Boomers – intuitive and easy to navigate

A large sector of today's workforce, being middle-aged or older, are from the 1946 to 1964 Baby Boomer generation. It’s unwise to assume that this generation is averse to technology, as many Boomers are very tech savvy. However, unlike Millennials, they haven’t grown up with these devices playing a large role in everyday life, so there is still a different mindset when it comes to learning.

Older workers will embrace eLearning when the online materials are intuitive, user-friendly and easy to navigate. Make sure your course can be navigated easily, without frustration. A good learning management system or eLearning platform will allow you to create custom content, specific to your audience and their training needs. Read through our article on what makes a good online course, for helpful tips on all aspects of eLearning design.

For example, for these employees, you may want to consider making your default font a few points larger. For users who experience age-related problems with their eyes, the option to make text larger on screen can mean a world of difference. However, as Stoker says, “while making these considerations, it’s important to not make the learner feel old. Today’s seniors are more sharp and active than ever before, so it pays not to pander."

As you can see, eLearning allows you to easily tweak and tailor your training materials to perfectly suit your learning audience – whatever age they may be. By following these guidelines, you can provide each employee with the tools and environment they need to succeed in training. As a result, you can expect to see more skilled, productive and connected employees, helping your organization to achieve its business goals. 

eLearning – an effective training solution for all generations

Want a sure-fire way to ensure students are fully involved in your course? Make it into a game!

Gamification. That’s the name given to the application of game-design to non-traditional gaming areas. Simply put, it’s the way that educators are reusing techniques that promote continued engagement between player and game, in educational arenas rather than video games.

This sounds complex but it really isn’t. Gamification of your online course can be as uncomplicated as rewarding learners based on how well they accomplish desired tasks, or as far-reaching as actually designing and making a video game yourself.

In this article, we’ll offer some tips and advice on how to use gamification to improve the participation in your eLearning classroom.

One common thread that all good games share is that their rules are straight-forward, logical, and easy to follow. Another common thread of all good games is that the way you play the game is set out from the first roll of the dice, or click of the mouse.

It’s important for your learners to understand how they can earn points and merit through their participation in the course; if they don’t then they’ll be confused and quickly turn away. And this is easy enough to do. Before the start of any course, offer a quick introduction to the points-based process, how they can earn achievements and the awards on offer when each achievement is accomplished.

Games with really complicated rules are never fun to play – make yours simple and accessible.

Remember that though the introduction of gamification into your course is intended to make the learning process more entertaining and immersive, your intention is still to teach that outcome. Among the fun and frolics of gamification, this core need can sometimes be forgotten.

The most effective method to reach this desired learning outcome is to reward good behaviors and punish mistakes.

An example of this is that students could earn points for correctly remembering the last lesson’s takeaway. And points should mean prizes. They could unlock special badges to add to their resume or another small but inviting offer.

Punishments should not be excessive, but students should not be allowed to pass a stage of the course until they have satisfied learning criteria. Perhaps they could be given a certain amount of “lives” and they must return to the start of the stage if they run out.

The point is this: reward the exhibiting of desired learning outcomes. This way, students will both enjoy and learn.

Everyone enjoys heightening the stakes, making things a little more interesting. Use colleague’s natural competitiveness to your advantage – they’ll learn more and have fun doing it.

One way to do this is to create a mini league and award points based on results in the course each student is taking. The leagues can be split between department, course subject, or simply a group of friends who want some friendly competition.

It’s important for participants to know the criteria before they embark, so give them a rundown of how they’ll earn points and what the rewards and consequences will be for those who finish top and bottom.

Always remember to keep students learning objectives in mind so that no one strays off the path, but with a well-constructed league, your students should be chomping at the bit to earn some points and beat their colleagues!

Like video games, your course can offer a variety of skills, badges or honors to constantly promote the search for more knowledge (and points) for the effort of the student’s endeavors.

These badges can be given out at specific intervals, after student’s exhibit and carry out a desired learning outcome. So if, for example, you’ve been teaching a stage on licensing and permit compliance, then the students can sit a quiz or small exam to show their understanding of the knowledge acquired. If they do well then they’re given the “Compliance Rock Star” badge.

There are many ways to implement this for whichever course is being taught, but the important point is that the students who have completed sections of the course well are identified through these badges, skills or honors. This way, students can be proud of what they have done.

And if you wanted to really make it worth their while, students could receive real-life bonuses for every badge they receive. Maybe an extra day of paid vacation, or vouchers for a local restaurant. Make sure their hard work is rewarded.

For any gamer worth their salt, the progress tracker is a vital tool in easily seeing their personal progress in-game. Best sellers like Call of Duty use the progress tracker as a way of encouraging players to continue playing and achieving the goals that they work towards. And so can you. With a visual reminded, learners can see how close they are to unlocking that next badge, or acquiring those precious points!

The progress tracker is easy enough to include in your course and can be used in two ways. Firstly, each stage of the course can have a small progress “live” progress bar so that learners can see their points racking up as they progress. This can be as simple as an empty bar that fills as points are collected. Once the bar is full, bang, you win a badge!

The second use is for a macro impression of the course, used to give students a general impression of where they are in the course and how much is still left to do. Here you can offer the badges that will give real-life awards.

The intention of the tracker is to encourage students to continue learning. Make sure the work is worth their while!

Video is the primary tool of learning and communication when it comes to eLearning these days. Of course, most courses do offer supplementary study books, audio, and reference sheets, but frequently the main driving force of an online course is video!

That’s why the ability to properly structure your videos is such an important concern. Your videos will be where students can see, as well as hear, what it is that they are trying to understand. Visual clues are vital for all types of learners.

In this article, we’ll offer some tips on structuring the video content of your course to make sure it is as engaging and effective as possible. If you’d like more tips about using technology for learning, then you can check them out here.

It’s important that your video lessons demonstrate the learning objectives that you are making. Rather than simply telling students, you need to show them too.

Demonstration through visual means is an important part of the learning process.

There are many ways to do this. Demonstrate what you’re trying to communicate through real-life examples that students can relate to well. Characters, stories, and life lessons are also entertaining ways to illustrate a learning objective, while analogies are vital and offer another perspective for understanding.

While simply telling some students a topic will be enough for them to grasp the point, this won’t be true for all. Ensure that as many students as possible can comprehend your lesson by demonstrating your learning objectives through a variety of means.

One of the best ways to demonstrate a learning objective is through the use of fictional stories. Characters that are relatable, stories that reference real-life and clear resolutions are all attractive to learners.

The classic story arc is perfectly set up to explain a learning objective. Its conflict – climax – resolution template offers the eLearning teacher a great way to represent what it is you’re trying to address. The conflict sets out the dilemma facing learners at work, the climax explains the realistic problem that the student may face, and the resolution shows the positive changes that result from the implementation of the course objectives.

Personification through stories is an extremely effective way to teach a lesson. There are reasons that stories – from Greek tragedy to morality play – have been a successful tool for teaching for thousands of years.

Thanks to shortening attention spans and easy access to the constant sources of stimulation available on the internet, being both concise and engaging in the structure of your videos make the difference between students watching it or not. Put simply, if a student gets bored they’ll go elsewhere.

Not only will sharp, direct videos decrease the likelihood of students drifting off, but small snippets of information more effectively plants itself in memory. While everyone loves learning, the amount of information that you include in your videos should not be overwhelming. For this reason, you should include key points, and always offer a recap and “takeaway” advice at each video lesson.

As videos are usually the main component of eLearning courses, they need to work to incorporate the other resources within the course package. Rather than a flat, one-dimensional learning experience, offer your students a rich learning environment by referencing other resources in your course pack.

Structuring your videos to refer to and include the course’s other resources will promote interactivity and engagement in the course. For example, the video can pose a question and then request that the student refers to their course study book to complete a task. Or students can be asked to refer to tables or charts that the video touches upon, for a fuller picture.

In promoting the use of your extra resources, the course is far more involving and exciting than when one learning resource is used. If students are more involved then they will learn and thus your course is far more likely to succeed in teaching its learning objectives.

The use of music that tugs at the heartstrings or images that bring a tear to the eye are great ways to really involve students in the videos they are watching.

Emotion heightens attention and through using a little dramatic license, students will be further engaged in what they are watching. An image that quickens the heartbeat or a piece of music that brings a tear to the eye will always catch the attention of students.  

It is important to remember that images and music selected should be suitable to what is being taught. This is a teaching environment, after all.

But if you use all the tools at your disposal, including music and images, capture the attention and focus of your student group, then learning objectives are likely to be achieved. If students are invested in the course then their performance can only get better.
So there we have it. With videos as the focal point most eLearning courses, it is important that they are structured properly. If you can include some of these tips to refine your videos then student engagement will surely rise, and with it, the success of your course as a whole.

Tips on structuring videos for your course

#1: How do you know if your online learning program is truly effective?

#2: How do you know what you should be measuring to gauge effectiveness?

The only way to be sure is to use a proven framework for evaluating your program. One of the most popular and widely-used learning evaluation models was created by Dr. Don Kirkpatrick almost 70 years ago, and yet it’s still being used today because it’s so effective.

The original Kirkpatrick Model includes four separate levels of evaluation:

These are the four primary areas you should be evaluating every time someone completes one of your courses.

Obviously, we’ve come a long way in terms of technology and systems since the original Kirkpatrick model was created, and this means we now have a NEW model for evaluating learning programs.

The new Kirkpatrick model includes several additions that are  much more appropriate for the learning environment (and the learners) of today’s corporate environment.

For example, in the Level I evaluation of the past, reaction was simply measured according to the level of satisfaction that learners were getting from the training.

Essentially you were asking the learner, “Are you satisfied with the training?” and if they were, you could check that off the list.

However, now we also measure engagement and relevance, both of which add a deeper dimension to the overall learning experience. In a world of “always on” social media and information exchange, engagement and relevancy are essential to maintaining attention.

So if you use the Level I model and you determine that your learners are satisfied, engaged, and the material is perceived as being relevant, then you can move on to the second level of evaluation.

During this level you’re going to be evaluating how much of the intended material has actually been retained and utilized after your learners have gone through the training. Are they actually using what you taught them - or did they simply memorize the information without truly learning to apply it?

To find out, you will break things down into subcategories and evaluate:

You won’t just be testing to see if your learners have retained the knowledge, you’ll also be trying to determine their beliefs and feelings about the material they are going through.

If your learners score highly in those five areas of evaluation then you can confidently move on to the third level of your evaluation process.

At this point you will be monitoring performance to determine how much of the learned material is actually being applied in the workplace.

If your learners love the material but they are not applying it correctly on the job, for example, then you will need to take a close look at your program to find out where things are falling through the cracks so you can fix it.

One of the more interesting additions to the Kirkpatrick model is the inclusion of “required drivers” as an evaluation point. This is where you take a close look at your processes for encouraging and rewarding learners for their behavior.

This is one of the keys to getting the material to actually “stick” and ultimately become utilized by your team in the workplace.

Once you’ve thoroughly evaluated the behavioral aspects of your program, then you can move on to the final level and measure the most important aspect of your program.

This is where you’ll be taking a look at your metrics and determining the overall efficacy of your program.

(Interestingly enough, this is also the critical point where many developers completely drop the ball in the course design.)

What many course developers don’t realize is the fact that your job does not end once the learners have gone through your program – the truth is that right here is where the real learning “golden nuggets” can be found.

After your learners have gone through the program you will want to design follow-up activities and evaluations to continuously reinforce the material and make sure that the learners are using it appropriately.

You might use robust Learning Management Systems or you  might choose to use simple surveys and email follow-ups at this point. What matters is that you’re following up and helping your learners retain and utilize the information continuously over time.

So there you have it - four primary areas to evaluate your online learning program and find out just how effective it truly is. Once you’ve put your program through this framework, you’ll then be able to troubleshoot various aspects of the training and optimize for performance. Do this and you’ll be surprised how much more effective your systems will become.

At the end of the day you’re looking for a return on your  learning investment that you can measure over time. This might be an increase in sales or customer service satisfaction,  or it might be a decrease in employee turnover. Whatever your success metrics are, this model can help you optimize your learning program so you can hit your goals and see a positive return.

I admit to being a baseball fan and therefore I have seen Field of Dreams many times.  Yet I do not believe that, in learning, if you build it (the most elegant learning ecosystem in the world) people will just use it.

User Experience is critical for Digital Learning to succeed.  Creating a great user experience means having the ecosystem built out with the technology to find and access content, curated internal, external, informal and formal content, social networks and groups established.  Do not expect everyone to be attracted to the shiney new tech.  Installing a cool tech solution is step one.  Step two is filling the content and creating the frameworks.  Finally, the big third step is communicating and marketing the solution.

Developing and maintaining a solid marketing and communication program builds excitement and ultimately the usage of the new solution.  And that communication as well as the implementation starts at the top, with leaders and SMEs.  Leadership buy in and endorsements are critical.  If you sign up leaders to help market, or, even better, produce content, their teams will take the time to follow.

In the case of Digital Learning, have leaders propose articles, do short videos and support topics.  Easy to say, not easy to implement when your leaders are already busy.

Leaders are driving and producing.  It can be hard to grab their attention and to get them to sponsor, endorse or participate in programs.  Nevertheless, they are essential.  If participants see their manager or their manager 2 or 3 layers up involved, they will be much more likely to join in.  It can be the biggest single factor in a program’s success.  So, how do you engage leaders?

First and foremost, make it easy for them.  Create a list of your expectations and describe what is involved in each area.  For example, if you want a senior leader to create a video for the program, have the logistics set up.  Can they use a phone or do you need a studio?  Who will write the script? What is the time commitment?  And, of course, what is in it for them?  Or if you want them to speak at a face-to-face event, you need to book them far in advance and work with their admin/chief of staff.  Who will create the slides?  Come to the leader with the Why, the What and the How.

There are lots of great ways that even a CEO can help.  Create the posts, set up the videos, set up a schedule.  Involving leaders can also keep the program business focused.

Depending on the size of your organization, chances are that you have a marketing team, perhaps a corporate communications team and/or a Culture and Engagement team.  Their input on messaging within your company is important.  They typically have a cycle of messages, a brand and often a tool.  Talk about the cadence and focus of internal communications.  Get your programs added to the schedule.  If you have a learning portal or experience network, show them how your tools can help get their message to employees.

Developing a communications plan requires many hands and elements.  It requires you to think like a marketer.   Most companies say “everyone is in sales.”  In this case, creating a successful learning program requires everyone to be in Marketing.

It may seem obvious, but I am surprised how often “pilots” or beta versions of learning programs are delivered without being complete or thought out, especially with new technology.

I was involved in a large corporate rollout of a great technology to over 60,000 users.  The vendor suggested a two-stage rollout plan that would take 3 months to engage.  Stage one was to engage Subject Matter Experts to populate the database.  Those 5,000 SMEs were already identified, we only need to communicate, enroll them and follow up.  However, leadership was anxious to get started to prove the investment.  As a result, we did one big push and announcement to all 60,000 potential participants.  There was no SME content, no leaders and no reason to use the tool.  The best participation at the end of the year was 12,000.  We dropped the program and the investment as well as the effort was lost.

In the If You Build it context, that means that you should launch with content, personalization and social networks established from day one, as well as an ongoing communications plan.

Build marketing, set up and roll out into your plans.  Think like a marketer and build engagement.

Becky Willis has a mix of executive leadership in sales and marketing and deep learning strategy and development experience. Known for strategic and innovative solutions, Becky is an organizational leader who thinks about learning with a business mindset.

Today, Becky is a co-founder of WilLearn Consulting, where she focuses on helping companies, plan, design and develop high performance learning.

Think like a marketer and build engagement with your learning program

If you’re working in the eLearning industry, you’re no doubt familiar with the term SCORM. You probably know that SCORM stands for ‘Sharable Content Object Reference Model’ and that certain systems can be ‘SCORM compliant’.

But do you really understand the way in which the SCORM model works? And how it impacts the potential of your company’s learning and development program?

Today we’ll look closer at SCORM – why it was developed, how SCORM files make online course development easier and why this technical standard is so important for eLearning.

SCORM was first released in early 2000, 16 years ago, and according to Des V. Anderson, CTO at LearnUpon, is “the most commonly used content standard in eLearning… [working] to standardize learning content between the industry’s many developers and vendors.”

What does this mean? Essentially, the SCORM model determines how online learning content and Learning Management Systems communicate with each other. It simplifies how online learning content works with different platforms and tools.

When departments work autonomously, developing their own eLearning courses and delivering them via the LMS of their choice, it can lead to problems with content duplication and information all over the place. With SCORM, a set of technical standards was developed to improve interoperability between eLearning products.

How Does SCORM Make Online Course Development Easier?

We look at SCORM – why it was developed, how SCORM files make online course development easier and why this technical standard is important for eLearning