Customers are demanding product and skills training. If you aren’t offering training you’re missing out on a big opportunity to help your customers. In this article, Steve Penfold shares five reasons why you should invest in customer training. You’ve got a fantastic product or service and you have a PDF user guide on your website to tell customers how to use it. Job done, right? Maybe that was true once, but not anymore. Increasingly, vendors are offering sophisticated customer training programs to augment their products, services or brand. But why would vendors go to this trouble? Surely if a customer has bought into a product, they’re happy with it, right? Again, this could be a dangerous assumption. Here are five reasons why providing training to your customers is important. 1. Training teaches customers how to use a product Just because you know your product inside and out, and its nuances and logic make perfect sense to you, it’s unwise to assume this will be the case for your customers. And the more sophisticated or complex a product is, the less intuitive it is likely to be. I’m willing to bet you’ve used software and at some point you’ve hit a dead end. You’d obviously done something wrong (or the software let you take a wrong turn), and a cryptic error message popped up asking you to fix the mistake. Maybe you were able to figure it out, or maybe you contacted a support representative who explained where you went wrong. In extreme cases, maybe you switched software vendors! Regardless, it wasted your time and probably had you cursing the product. Providing training can minimize this kind of frustration and time wastage. 2. Training shows customers how to get added value from a product Even if your customers are not running into problems when using your product, are they getting the most from it? Perhaps there are features customers could use that would make their lives easier. Perhaps showing customers an alternative way to use the features they already know would open new opportunities for them. Having untapped potential in your product does no good for you or your customers. The more empowered your customers are, the more likely it is that other potential customers will hear about your product and want it, too. Providing training is a way for customers to extract the maximum value from your offering. 3. Training stops potentially unhappy customers from leaving (reduces churn) Churn, or churn rate, is marketing-speak for the number of customers who leave a vendor, relative to the number who join. If you’ve changed insurer or mobile phone carrier because of dissatisfaction or because a better deal has lured you away, you’re part of those companies’ churn statistics. Customers leaving you is bad. It’s generally accepted that it’s less expensive to maintain existing customers than it is to win new ones. Losing a customer is a double whammy; you’ll lose ongoing revenue from that customer, and it’s unlikely they’ll be directing new customers to you. Relevant training that excites and gives customers the tools and knowledge to do their jobs (or hobbies) better will keep them from churning. 4. Training delights customers and creates advocates If customers who churn are at one end of the spectrum (the bad end), customers who are delighted are at the other end (the good end). And similarly to dissatisfied customers who give you a double whammy, delighted customers can give you a double win! Not only will you continue to get revenue from a satisfied customer, but there’s every chance that customer will actively push other prospects your way. Providing training can help delight customers and drive additional customers to you. Let your existing customers be your best marketing tool! 5. Training provides an opportunity to gain valuable customer feedback to improve product and customer experience Training can give you invaluable insight into how your customers use your products and services. Imagine that you have a library of how-to videos for certain features of your software product. You notice that one video in particular has been viewed 60 percent more than any other. What does this tell you? Perhaps that software feature is confusing and could be improved. Perhaps one of the other videos hasn’t been viewed at all. This could be because the feature is already perfectly clear, but maybe it’s because customers don’t know the feature exists. The ways customers interact with training may not always give definitive insights into what they’re thinking, but it’s an avenue of intelligence to prompt you to ask more questions and improve your offering. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. In conclusion These five reasons for providing training on your products and services show that there are benefits for both you and your customers. In case these haven’t convinced you, here’s one final thought. Think about how your customers would respond if your competitors started offering useful customer training as a value-add. Could that take some of your market share? If you think it would, then you should leverage the information in blogs like this to see how to start to build your training program — because it’s only a matter of time before your competitors will, if they haven’t already. The post Why customer training is important (5 reasons) appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

It’s important to differentiate your training from your competitors’ to maintain a competitive edge and to provide a good value-added service to your customers. Here are some ways to do this while also providing your customers with a superior learning experience: Employ quality designs to make your online training standout and look more professional Use branching or linear scenarios to promote learner-engagement Motivate learners to engage with the content by using gamification Ensure that your content is mobile-ready Develop bite-sized learning opportunities that are flexible and engaging. Below are five successful Software as a Service companies that provide online training as part of their product offering. I’ve taken a look at each of these companies’ online training platforms to evaluate the experiences that they provide to their customers. They all provide user guides, so I will focus on the specific online training options that they offer. 1. HubSpot Academy HubSpot provides web-based marketing tools, specializing in inbound marketing. HubSpot’s learning portal, the HubSpot Academy, provides HubSpot customers with three main learning avenues: Videos: These are grouped logically and are of very high quality. The videos are categorized by topic and have links to additional relevant resources. Projects: These are step-by-step sequences that typically feature around 10 to 12 steps. The projects help learners to set up their HubSpot platform. Text, animations, pro-tips, and videos walk you through the steps. Certification: This consists in about 40 videos and self-check quizzes that are spread over 13 "classes." The certification culminates in an online test that gives you a personalized e-badge when passed. Badges can be displayed on websites, social media sites, email signatures, and more. Why I like it: The training was quite intuitive, but navigating the site caused many browser tabs to open. I soon lost track of what each tab was for. The video player had a slower/faster feature, which is useful for note-takers and ESL learners. Topic-specific forum pages for students seem well-used and monitored. Multiple learning streams allow students to choose how they’d prefer to engage with content. Visit Hubspot Academy 2. Zendesk University Zendesk is a web-based customer-service (or, helpdesk) solution. It enables subscribers to support their customers by building stronger ongoing relationships. Zendesk’s learning environment, Zendesk University, uses the Absorb Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver eLearning and video content to its subscribers. My eLearning experience at Zendesk combined guided tutorials and software simulations using the Zendesk platform. It looked like it was created using Articulate Storyline and it had out-of-the-box functionality. Their site didn’t appear very polished (see my comments in the table below), but customers who pay for titles might have a better experience. They do provide high quality videos. The videos are typically two to three minutes in length, so they are easy to watch. Every video "package" that I registered for, such as the Administrator Essentials, included 15 to 20 videos. Each video had a short but meaningful title and a textual description. However, the LMS search software didn’t cover these descriptions, so it could be hard for you to locate specific videos. Visit Zendesk University Why I like it: The Absorb LMS provides a nice learning experience. Multiple streams, including video and eLearning opportunities, let learners choose how they’d like to learn. The videos come in "packages" of 15-20 videos, and each video is usually two to three minutes in length. This makes it quite easy to view the bits you’re most interested in. 3. AdWords Online Classroom The AdWords Online Classroom is Google’s learning portal. There are two primary learning streams on AdWords: YouTube-hosted videos Online "Follow" guides. The videos are of high quality and are generally between two to six minutes in length, making them easy to watch. The "Follow" guides are step-by-step instructions that use text, animations, and videos to talk you through various tasks. Where appropriate, there are links that take you out to your AdWords account. These links prompt you to further apply what you’ve seen to complete certain tasks. Why I like it: The "Follow" guides had "what do you want to do" threads that individually customized my learning experience. Dozens of "Follow" guides mean hours of free content! The "Follow" guides worked nicely on a smartphone. Since the videos are delivered via YouTube, they worked well too. Visit Adwords Online Classroom 4. Salesforce University Salesforce makes web-based software designed to generate leads, get new customers, and close deals faster. They also help their customers to sell, service, and market smarter. In addition to the certifications and virtual and live events that Salesforce University offers, Salesforce provides free training under its Trailhead banner. Trailhead is a very engaging environment that provides "trails"—or, related modules of content—for you to follow. These "trails" are specific to your role and skill level. Why I like it: Trails can be filtered by role and by experience level to direct individuals to useful content. Modules can be selected independently of a trail for a completely customized experience. Bite-sized learning: each module may take hours to complete, but their sub-units are granular and could probably be done in 10 to 20 minute chunks. Visit Salesforce University 5. Xero U Xero is a modern web-based business accounting platform that handles quoting, invoicing, payroll, inventory, and more. Xero U is Xero’s learning portal. Their videos are well produced, but beautifully produced videos are not necessarily good learning opportunities. Why I like it: The content is categorized nicely by role and by function to help locate meaningful titles. Xero certification counts towards professional CPD hours and could be used as a marketing lever for clients. Webinars have a quiz to gain XU credit points. The site and content played well on a smartphone. Visit Xero U In conclusion Each of these vendors put forward trainings to better serve their customers, and they each have their strengths and weaknesses. You might find it useful to go onto sites like the ones listed here and look at them through your customers’ eyes. What would they find useful? What would frustrate them? Why? Armed with this information, you can begin to plan and build a learning portal that will engage your customers and differentiate your business. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. The post 5 examples of useful customer training appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

In this article, you’ll learn how to use the information gathered in the analysis step to construct your overall learning package. Whether you’re thinking of pure elearning or mixing it up with a blend, this guide can help you consider what might work where. And if you’re still deciding whether to keep face-to-face in the mix, there might be some smart alternatives to consider. Today I’ll provide four examples of blended solutions to four different sets of needs. By blended I mean a learning solution that features more than just one form of learning. These ideas are intended to provide you with inspiration only - remember that your needs will be unique. To construct your fit-for-purpose blend, make sure you’re clear on your needs: The aims of the learning: the actions and outcomes it needs to achieve The needs of your learners: their locations, access to technology, lifestyles, etc. What you have at your disposal: previous learning activities and content; the use of coaches, experts, facilitators Your budget and timeframes: how much are you able or willing to invest, and how quickly do you need a solution up and running? Related: Visit our step one guide to analysis. Let’s look at four examples where you might want to use a blended solution. 1. Product knowledge training An electronics company needs to ensure that its resellers are up to speed on the latest products and their unique selling propositions (USPs). With products coming out regularly, salespeople are issued crib sheets that contain key info, and then face-to-face sessions are run once a quarter. The audience consists of busy, ambitious people who are keen to drive sales but less keen on long workshops. Suggested blend: 5-minute visual elearning tutorials: Use multi-device elearning to deliver visual product knowledge. Mobile job aids: Provide mobile-friendly "quick guides" for on the job support. Product games and quizzes: Tap into competitive nature and create short, fun quizzes and games to test knowledge. Scoreboards: Link games and quizzes to a scoreboard that highlights top scorers for all to see. Weekly ask an expert chats: Use expert’s time for a weekly drop-in Q&A session via a chat room or webinar facility. 5-minute expert demo videos: Have experts create simple walkthrough videos of the product 2. Skills training A company provides certified face-to-face training in financial management skills to organizations around the globe and is looking to offer a lower-cost, online-based package. But it needs to retain the level of quality and assessment rigor; mistakes cost companies. The company is keen to target novice learners who have recently taken up roles in financial accounting. The training includes the use of calculations, spreadsheets, and software, and it has learners work through various financial scenarios, following a process to calculate the right outcome. Suggested blend: Elearning scenario activities: Provide a series of scenario-driven elearning activities that build in complexity. Elearning tutorials: Couple each scenario with tutorial guidance and expert tips. Give learners the ability to switch these off. Elearning simulation assessment: Create an end to end assessment simulation that tests a realistic financial process. Online certification: Upon passing the course, provide an online certificate or badge. Optional marked assignment: Include an assignment that learners upload for marking by experts. Elearning demos: Couple each scenario with demos that show how it’s done. Give learners the ability to switch these off. 3. Leadership/management "soft" skills training An engineering company sees that top engineers need some leadership and communication skills training. However, this top team is spread all over the globe at various plants. While training can be done in English, bringing everyone together in one place is challenging and costly. These top engineers are crucial to the day-to-day running of the plants. Thus, a company that usually runs face-to-face leadership and soft skills training needs an alternative solution. Suggested blend: E-case studies: Provide a series of in-depth elearning case studies. For example, videos or audio of bad, good, and great leadership conversations, moments, and stories. Reflective questions: Ask questions that require close observation and reflection of the cases. Online polls: Include polls where learners can see and learn from others’ views. Virtual classrooms: Use virtual classrooms with webcams to enable small groups to practice. 1:1 phone coaching: Use phone coaching to enable focused discussion and practice with feedback. Do every three months for a year. Multi-device job aids: Provide multi-device job aids and regular reminders to keep learners on track. 4. Compliance training Many organizations require their employees to be compliant in a whole host of areas, such as data protection, health and safety, and anti-money-laundering efforts. Most companies need to show compliance in these areas on a yearly basis, yet they don’t want the training to take long. Legislation can change, so a company that provides off-the-shelf compliance training needs to be able to update it easily. Suggested blend: Effective attention grabbers: Use Elucidat to create hard-hitting attention grabbers. Elearning tutorials Elearning scenarios Online assessment: Use online assessments that can be updated instantly. Summary of content as a refresher: Provide repeat learners with short refresher content and start with the assessment. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. Final thoughts So, four different blends for four different situations. Hopefully, some food for thought to help you construct a solution that works for you, your subject, and your learners’ needs. If you’d like to talk through your training-conversion quandaries, drop us a line. In the next post in this series, we’ll look closely at how to keep social in the mix when moving from face-to-face to online learning. The post Making a move from face-to-face to online training? Second step: Construct a blend appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) has just celebrated the successful launch of their new online training courses. The organization is using Elucidat in combination with other elearning technology to deliver online training to association members, players, coaches, referees, and officials. Elucidat received top marks from the Coaching Commission in January, and FIVB is in the process of rolling out the FIVB Coaches Course Level I to students. How is FIVB using Elucidat? FIVB is using Elucidat to create online courses with interactive elements such as audio guides, graphics, and videos. The added interactivity helps course participants improve their theoretical knowledge of the sport before they attend the onsite training event. FIVB is using Elucidat’s translation feature to create the course in three languages: English, French, and Spanish. By taking a blended learning approach, FIVB is seeking to reduce the training duration from 11 days to five. To keep a social aspect, participants are able to contact their instructors during the online course. This is one step in the right direction for FIVB’s vision of increasing the use of technology within the association. Are you a sporting association looking to implement interactive online training? Contact us to learn how Elucidat can simplify and speed up the time it takes to create and deliver online training. The post Elucidat receives top marks from International Volleyball Federation appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Considering a move from face-to-face to online learning but concerned about losing that personal touch? Social and collaborative learning is not only extremely powerful, but is probably also the way most of us naturally learn in the workplace. In this article, discover 10 ways you can retain the richness of social learning as you make the move to online. The magic of people in learning Well-designed face-to-face learning has some great features going for it: Stories and example sharing: rich sources of learning that tend to stick in people’s minds Observations: people can practice a skill and be observed by peers or an expert, who provide feedback Collaborative learning: where people work together on a task and learn from one another Expert guidance: facilitators who provide knowledge, demos, and feedback Competition: there might be some competitive elements that encourage learning to take place. Whether it’s formal or informal, people often try to perform well in front of peers, especially when given tasks to complete and share with others Informal learning: never underestimate the power of the ‘downtime’ chats and the networking that inevitably take place—these all work toward the learning goals How can you bottle this and bring it into your online offering? Here are five ideas on how you can re-create this magic inside your elearning. 1. Capture stories Play the journalist and record or capture example stories and tips from facilitators, experts, and colleagues that will build up context and expand your students’ learning. Try asking questions to prompt students, such as "What does good look like to you?"; "What advice would you give a new starter?"; and "Can you remember a time when it all went wrong?". Capture these in writing, as audio, or as video. Keep down costs by using something like Skype or your phone. 2. Quote stories and tips directly Build these rich stories, examples, and tips into your elearning in creative ways. E.g. as attention grabbers, feedback to questions, a bank of quick tips, a video wall showing various opinions. Or bring about personal reflection by accompanying these stories and tips with questions. 3. Create case studies or scenarios You may find some gems you can develop into visual or interactive case studies, or branching scenarios where learners can decide what action or response should be taken and drive the narrative. 4. Use interactive polls Enable learners to discover and learn from what their peers think by including social polling, like the Elucidat poll function. Great for grey area content; such as views on leadership skills; body language; sales skills; ethics in the workplace; or myth busting, where you ask people what they think about X, only to surprise them with the real answer. 5. Gamify the experience Use gamification techniques and leaderboards to tap into that competitive nature. Build in fun game play, levels, points, achievements, and shout about successes on a social platform for all involved to see. If you set up teams of learners for collaboration exercises, perhaps there’s an award for the team with the collective highest score in the elearning games? And here are five ideas for how you can create a social environment alongside your elearning, not just within it. Create a blended package by combining your elearning with one or more external social learning methods such as these: 6. Run virtual classroom sessions For facilitated sessions that don’t need a physical classroom, try going virtual. VC technology enables multi-media presentation, discussion, questioning, polls, surveys, interactive whiteboard, and collaborative group work in virtual breakout rooms. 7. Get chatting—formally Set up scheduled (synchronous) online discussions on a given topic, perhaps as follow-up to an introductory elearning topic. Tap into any digital chat channels already being used, or try Skype, Google Hangouts, discussion forums, Yammer, or one of the other many options. Check out #chat2lrn on Twitter for inspiration on facilitating a concise but rich online chat via social media. 8. Enable chatting—informally Provide or tap into an online space where learners can share and talk more freely, at any time (asynchronous). You can encourage people to go here off the back of an elearning topic or two. This could be an LMS, portal, intranet, Facebook, a wiki—be sure to research what’s already being used by your audience before setting up something from scratch. 9. Hold drop-ins Provide an online ask the expert session, either synchronously, as a drop-in Q&A session via a chat room or conference call, or asynchronously, using a forum where past threads can be read at any time. 10. Enable coaching, mentoring, & action learning Just because you’ve taken the classroom out of your learning doesn’t mean learners can’t meet up. Encourage and/or manage the set-up of coaching or mentoring within an organization. Or try action learning, where groups get together, say, monthly, to discuss their challenges in a given area, and together help find solutions. Meetings can be done face-to-face or virtually. You can consider tech like Google Hangouts or Skype, or just the good ol’ fashioned phone. If learners will benefit from observation, e.g. on a mechanical engineering course, sports coaching techniques, or conversation skills, video conferencing or face-to-face work best. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. Final thoughts The key to making the best of social, collaborative, and informal learning techniques for your learning goals is to acknowledge that you’ll need to put some effort into marketing the sessions, encouraging participation, facilitating where required, and driving traffic between the different elements in your blend. This all pays off, of course, when you consider you’ll now have a wide reaching, global learning package that can be rolled out or accessed at any time. For more inspiration, you can see how we used some of these social learning methods alongside elearning in our four example blends. The post Making a move from face-to-face to online training? Third step: Keep it social appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Most employers wouldn’t take on an under-skilled worker, yet many are reluctant to invest in ongoing training for the skilled workers that they have. As workplace technologies and processes evolve, this lack of ongoing training leaves once skilled workers lagging behind. Related: Learn how to implement an effective employee training program How can a business compete with a weaker workforce than its competitors? The short answer is that it’s somewhere between difficult and impossible! Here are five reasons why you should invest in employee training: 1. It’s expensive to lose employees Hiring new employees is never cheap. A recent survey cited by the go2HR Society indicates that 40 percent of employees leave their positions within the first year due to poor training opportunities. Furthermore, the Centre for American Progress reports that replacing an employee can cost 20 percent of the annual salary for employees who make between $30,000 and $50,000 (and up to 213 percent of the annual salary for highly trained executives). Therefore, if staff who receive training are more likely to remain employees and it costs money to replace staff, it simply makes sense to train and develop current employees. 2. Trained employees are more efficient When your employees are able to complete tasks more quickly because they know exactly what to do using the most effective methods, there are two immediate benefits to your business: They complete more tasks in a given period of time, maximizing your return on investment (i.e., the hourly wage you pay employees). Customer satisfaction is likely to be higher when your services are delivered in a timely manner. 3. Trained employees have higher production standards Of course, getting work done quickly loses its impact if it isn’t done properly. Employees who are well trained are more likely to produce higher-quality output the first time around, thereby minimizing mistakes. This creates less wasted time in rework and customers delighted with quality, reliable goods and services. 4. Trained employees will retain and grow your customer base Some of the points we’ve already seen describe how training can directly impact your customers’ satisfaction. And this is very important because customers leaving you is bad. It’s generally accepted that it’s less expensive to maintain existing customers than it is to win new ones. Losing a customer is a double loss; you’ll lose ongoing revenue from that customer, and it’s unlikely that they’ll be directing potential, new customers to you. The opposite is also true. A delighted customer can give you a double win! Not only are they liable to become a return customer, but they are also more likely to refer new customers to you. So, having well-trained staff that results in satisfied customers can save you money, generate revenue, and grow your customer base. 5. Training doesn’t have to be expensive Training’s 2014 Training Industry Report shows that 28.5 percent of training hours were delivered via online or computer based technologies (i.e., no instructor), and 29.1 percent of training hours were delivered via blended learning methods. Modern elearning authoring tools, like Elucidat, enable organizations to create quality elearning and online support aids using in-house subject matter experts without the need for expensive tech support. Leveraging your in-house expertise to create online training elements, face-to-face up-skilling sessions, or even informal Lunch ‘n Learn sessions (i.e., employees bring and eat their lunch while an in-house expert shares some wisdom) are great ways to introduce learning into your organization at minimal cost. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. In conclusion According to a Deloitte report on accelerating workplace change, training budgets increased by 13 percent between 2010 and 2013. It’s not unreasonable to expect this general trend to continue as the pace of technological change increases and the battle to win the customer dollar becomes more competitive. If you accept that a better-trained workforce is likely to be more profitable than a less well-trained one, then doesn’t it make sense to be a business that invests in training rather than one that doesn’t? As the saying goes, "If you think training is expensive, try ignorance." Have you seen or been involved in an innovative workplace training scheme? How did it work and what did employees get out of it? Share your experience in the comments section, below. The post Why employee training is important (5 reasons) appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Do you want to improve your employee training? Or perhaps you want set up a new training program from scratch? In this article we’ll show you the five key things you need to consider to ensure your employee training initiative is a success. Employee training is important in so many ways. It helps with employee retention, keeps employees efficient, and ensures high-quality work. Naturally, training it’s good for employees, and ultimately, it’s good for your profitability and customers. However, it’s important to remember that good training doesn’t just happen. For it to be effective, you must approach it like an learning professional. Here are five things to consider when setting up an employee training program. 1. Establish program goals You need to establish what you will use as a marker of success for your training initiatives. What can’t your employees do now that your training will enable them to do? It’s not sufficient to answer that question with a statement like "We need our employees to know our inventory." That’s far too broad and it would be difficult to gauge the level of success. A better goal would be: "We must enable our employees to troubleshoot product x." Defining a multitude of smaller objectives at this granular level helps in several ways: It forces you to think about what your employees’ needs really are (as opposed to a blanket statement that’s hard to pin down). It begins to reveal what you actually need to tell/show your employees so that they can meet their objectives. It’s easy to evaluate whether each of these small steps has been achieved after training. This could be done by providing employees with a small simulation that has to be completed successfully, getting them to pass an online quiz, or simply by being rewarded with a reduction in customer complaints. It helps you to see a possible program structure; for example, each objective could form one module, or one section within a larger module. It enables you to prioritize which training objectives need to be tackled first; which ones will be easiest or hardest to address; which ones will be most appreciated by your employees; or which ones will have the biggest impact on your business. 2. Choose the right technology There are two main elements of any new online learning initiative that must be carefully considered: The content authoring tool The deployment method The content authoring tool is the software that allows you to create elearning courses that your employees can engage with. There are eight things to ask before deciding on an authoring tool: Is it easy to use? A tool that non-tech-savvy staff can use will allow you to develop more learning titles more quickly. Does it give flexibility and control? You’ll want a product that allows you to easily apply your brand colors and logo to your courses. Can I collaborate with team members within the tool? Reviewer and tester communication is more efficient when it happens asynchronously in the authoring tool itself, rather than through relying on email or other ‘external’ communication methods. Can I create mobile-ready elearning? Mobile learning is important. It’s no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have. Increasing numbers of employees expect to access training via their devices. Is the content easy to maintain and publish? Content that’s incorrect or out of date is no good to employees or your business. You must be able to quickly and easily update content and get it back out where it’s needed. Can I localize content for non-native speaking employees? If multiple languages are necessary for your employees, you’ll need a product that supports this with a minimum of effort. Does it come with pre-built themes and interactions? These speed development times and reduce the need for specialized developers. Can I extract analytic data? Understanding how employees interact with your courses will give you the insight to better meet their (and the business’s) needs. Once you have your online content in place, the next step is to get it to your employees. If you have an intranet, you may be able to create a learning portal and let staff access it from there. A password-protected website could be used in a similar way. These are especially good options for smaller initiatives. A more sophisticated approach would be to use a Learning Management System (LMS). This is specialized software designed to deploy elearning, manage users, and track learning activity. All LMSs do the same basic things, such as creating catalogs of course content and managing access logins. However, systems will differ in how they achieve these basic things and in what extras they provide. Some vendors provide features that may make their LMS a better fit for your business, such as: Having eCommerce functionality Easily allowing you to apply your branding to the LMS and create sub-branded learner portals (perhaps for different regions or employee groups) Providing custom email or ‘push’ notifications to employees when certain events occur; for example, an automatic prompt if someone hasn’t finished a piece of learning in a reasonable time Allowing flexible learner and content grouping features. This could be a facility for creating groups of employees and easily managing them, or building libraries of content titles that are available only to selected employee groups Providing sophisticated activity reporting Having inbuilt gamification mechanisms such as points badges and leaderboards The right LMS for your business will be the one that best matches your and your employees’ needs and workflows. 3. Create useful and engaging learning How well your employees engage with your training will determine how successful it will be. Probably the biggest driver of this will be whether the training is effectively meeting their needs. If staff don’t think that your training is useful to them, it will be difficult to get them to engage. Assuming that your training is addressing a real employee need, there are additional measures you can take to further engage them and give them a more potent learning experience. Here are four examples. Scenario-based learning is a technique that engages employees by giving them an immersive training experience modeled on a real-life scenario, rather than a theoretical knowledge dump. Providing bite-sized learning nuggets (small elearning events that focus on a specific topic and take between 1 and 15 minutes to complete) gives employees a flexible way to access specific information. This can be especially useful for time-poor employees or those in distracting environments. A great example of this is the JJCV Eye Care Practitioners This Johnson & Johnson course contains numerous accredited 10-minute nuggets, each one allowing busy eye care professionals to accumulate Continuing Education and Training (CET) points, which are necessary for their ongoing professional registration. Mobile-friendly elearning events can be especially useful for employees who are on the move, or who don’t have ready access to desktop computers. The Utility Warehouse rolled out training to their 46,000 distributors, over 30% of whom only had access to a mixture of mobile and tablet computers. Gamified learning experiences engage and boost employees’ intrinsic motivation levels through a variety of game mechanics including meaningfully applied points, leaderboards, and badges. Creating the most engaging learning experiences for your employees will enhance their learning experience and keep them motivated. 4. Deliver training to employees at the right time It’s important to provide your training to employees in the ways that will be most useful to them. For example, which of the following models will your employees find most useful? Training that is provided before a product roll-out. If so, how far in advance? Training that is provided on demand, immediately prior to using a product, i.e. Just-In-Time (JIT) Hints or push messages triggered in your software products that point employees to training when the software ‘senses’ that they’re stuck; for example, if the employee is spending a long time on a certain feature or using it incorrectly Employees are either ‘pulled’ to the training (for example, being directed to support pages or training programs) when necessary, or training is ‘pushed’ to them (such as in emails containing hints, tips, or videos) as part of a schedule The correct answer may be any one, or a combination of, these models. The important thing is that the training and access method is convenient for the audience. You may need to pilot some training delivery models or interview a cross-section of employees to decide which models will work best in your environment. 5. Track and improve Training programs aren’t static. The best ones continually evolve and improve. Watching how employees access and interact with your training, and evaluating its effectiveness, helps you decide how to make it better. Consider the following activities: Review online quiz results to see if particular questions are consistently answered incorrectly. If they are, maybe the questions are at fault, or maybe the content is inadequate Measure customer satisfaction to determine if training is having the desired effects Review your support requests to see where training could be created or improved Directly ask employees about their training pain points Findings from this kind of research will point you to where you can direct your next training efforts. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. In conclusion There’s much more to implementing a meaningful employee training program than putting a few PDFs on a website. If done well, you can delight your customers, maximize your profits, and develop your workforce in the process. As you’ve seen here, the best way to achieve a good result is to think carefully about what training you’re going to provide, how you’re going to deliver it, and how you can evaluate it to make future releases even better. The post How to implement an effective employee training program appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Are you frustrated with complex authoring tools that are slow and inefficient? Do you want a fast and simple authoring tool that ALL of your team can use? Elucidat’s authoring tool can simplify your authoring process so you can create engaging, mobile-ready elearning, fast! Don’t believe us? Check out these nine live demo course examples to see what’s possible with Elucidat. Here are 9 live demo course examples that show what is possible with Elucidat’s authoring tool. 1. Can You Spot The Fake Smile? (Challenge Learners) Mini challenge uses a gamified approach to touch on the importance of a genuine smile in customer-facing roles. Visit course example 2. Health And Safety Course (Responsive Images) Elucidat can display images differently, depending on the screen size your learner is using. It also uses a very clever (and responsive!) visual menu to explore different areas of the workplace. Visit course example 3. Are You Doing Your Bit For The Environment? (Branching And Badges) An extract from an environmental awareness course which shows how a visual menu can be used to branch to small scenario questions. This also shows how ‘Badges’ can be used to reward learners for good decision-making. Visit course example 4. What Kind Of Leader Are You? (Branching And Progress Controls) A short scenario-based leadership course built to demonstrate page locking progress controls. Visit course example 5. Cash Register Training Course (Simple Branching) An example training course built to illustrate our branching features, interactions and visual variety using our Blocks theme. Visit course example 6. Are You A Sales Hero? (Bite-Sized Learning) A scenario-based sales module which demonstrates branching features and achievement badges. Visit course example 7. To Share Or Not To Share? (Polls And Graphs) A short social media course built to illustrate how you can use the Elucidat ‘Polling’ feature, a visual drag and drop interaction and also personalize results for your learners using Elucidat variables. Visit course example 8. Understanding Equivalent Fractions (Gamification) This fun (and fully responsive) example teaches fractions in an interesting way. Visit course example 9. Fraud Protection Course (Badges, Polling, And Branching) A compliance training example built to illustrate our new badges, polling and branching features. Visit course example What makes Elucidat an award-winning authoring tool? Elucidat’s award-winning authoring tool (Gold Brandon Hall Award and 2015 UK eLearning Award) helps large companies and training providers streamline eLearning design, production and deployment, enabling them to deliver multi-device eLearning 50% faster. In addition, Elucidat’s simple point and edit functionality empowers all team members (even non-technical ones) to create beautiful eLearning that stands out from the crowd. Interested in learning more? Take the 80 second video tour or sign up for a free 14-day trial. The post 9 live demo courses that show you what’s possible with Elucidat’s authoring tool appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Tesco wanted to move away from face-to-face training and make better use of digital learning inside the business. Instead of relying on a handful of technical instructional designers, Tesco wanted an authoring tool that their entire team could easily use to create elearning. Digital Learning Manager Sam Taylor needed a solution that could deliver learning to colleagues much quicker than before. She also wanted to give colleagues the opportunity to learn on tablet and smartphone devices. "We’ve got people clamoring to use the tool which we never had before. We’ve doubled the amount of people making elearning whilst reducing costs by 50%." - Sam Taylor Sam Taylor chose Elucidat, an award-winning authoring tool (Gold Brandon Hall Award and 2015 UK eLearning Award) that helps large companies and training providers streamline elearning design, production, and deployment, enabling them to deliver multi-device elearning 50% faster. Why Tesco chose Elucidat No need for technically experienced designers. Elucidat has made it easy for trainers to create great looking elearning with two hours of training. Less time to create engaging and robust elearning. Although Elucidat is simple to start, it is also robust for team members who need to design advanced elearning. Compared with other traditional tools, it takes less time to create non-linear learning: branching scenarios and menu screens (read more here). Mobile friendly learning. Elucidat’s responsive design feature seamlessly delivers the organization’s learning on smartphone and tablet devices. Instead of creating two versions of each course (desktop and mobile), the organization uses Elucidat’s responsive slider to build and test mobile friendly learning on desktop and mobile devices. The results Elucidat was given to 37 authors within the organization. Even inexperienced staff could use the tool with two hours of training. Every user was very surprised at how easy it was to use. Over a period of three months, there was a 50% increase in the number of users using Elucidat (not possible with past tools). This significantly helped the organization increase the speed at which it created elearning. Sam Taylor and her team are now creating elearning modules in a couple of days rather than months. The organization is using Elucidat for all types of learning: compliance training, leadership skills training, and diagnostic assessments. What makes Elucidat an award-winning authoring tool? Elucidat’s award-winning authoring tool (Gold Brandon Hall Award and 2015 UK eLearning Award) helps large companies and training providers streamline elearning design, production, and deployment, enabling them to deliver multi-device elearning 50 percent faster. In addition, Elucidat’s simple point and edit functionality empowers all team members (even non-technical ones) to create beautiful elearning that stands out from the crowd. Interested in learning more? Take the 80 second video tour or sign up for a free 14-day trial. The post How a large UK retailer uses Elucidat to create elearning 4x faster appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

If you’re searching for a learning management system (LMS), you face a market that offers almost 700 options to evaluate. Navigating through even a fraction of those LMS’s is a daunting prospect—and only a fraction of the platforms will suit your requirements in the end. It isn’t always easy to recognize those systems quickly. To do so, you need to create a selection process that’s both thorough and manageable. We’ll begin by defining criteria to help you quickly rule out the platforms that won’t work for your needs. This list will help you to focus on the factors you need to compare platforms on the same terms that are the best fit for you. Rule 1: Don’t pay for unwanted features A needlessly complex LMS arrives with many unwanted features you don’t need and won’t use. These features can prove costly, depending on the pricing model the LMS vendor offers. The more unwanted features that are included as standard, the more expensive an LMS is likely to be. Unwanted features can also have a negative impact on user experience, confusing learners and distracting them from achieving key goals. The more complex an LMS is, the longer it will take to train new users. Delays can threaten the continuity of learning programs if a key administrator leaves. Too many unwanted features may also force you to invest in additional training in an attempt to minimize user discomfort. Rule 2: Decide which devices you want to support The demand for mobile learning, or mLearning, as it’s also called, has exploded over the last few years. Today’s learners want to complete courses on all kinds of phone and tablet devices, as well as desktops. To achieve successful outcomes, you need to offer learners the widest range of options you can support. That means making courses available when and where learners want to access them. If you want to offer flexibility, research the range of mobile options that your shortlisted vendors offer. An LMS developed with responsive design will adapt to the range of screen sizes that learners require. If you decide to offer access to your LMS through mobile apps, make sure that the vendor has fully considered all of the implications of mobile functionality. For example, if learners can access content on multiple devices, the LMS must be able to track behavior across each one. Related: How to create engaging mobile learning courses Rule 3: Agree which platforms you will integrate with Integrating existing platforms and systems can help to make your eLearning processes a lot more efficient. If available, features like an application programming interface (API), single-sign-on (SSO) and webhooks allow you to customize an LMS to suit the unique needs of your organization. At LearnUpon, we offer many popular integrations with platforms like Salesforce, Shopify, Google Analytics and LinkedIn, to name a few. Customers also use our API to integrate with third-party apps and create things like gamified leaderboards. LearnUpon’s SSO feature allows learners to access their LMS with the same set of credentials they use for other applications. Furthermore, customers use our webhooks feature to push real-time information from their LMS to related systems. If that functionality interests you, ask vendors about important factors like cost and security. Some will offer integration services for free, while others will incur significant charges. Task a technical team member with researching vendor specs to make sure they follow standard industry protocols. Related: 10 LMS integrations you need for better eLearning Rule 4: Only accept the best customer support The quality of customer support a vendor delivers should play a big part in your decision-making. To fully evaluate support, dig past the vendor’s marketing blurbs and put the service to the test during your trial period. The availability of basic information about its hours and channels of communication will give you a sense of how much the vendor invests in support. Check if public holidays and times outside of standard office hours are covered. Requesting metrics like average response times will help you to compare services between vendors. Also, take the time to assess your own experience, from the point of your initial inquiry to the vendor, and onward. The speed and care with which your questions are handled will indicate the quality of support you can expect to receive if you become a customer. Related: The value of Customer Support to an LMS Rule 5: Understand the value of a pricing model There are many different pricing models in use in the LMS industry. The differences between approaches can make it difficult to compare quotes from multiple vendors. Common approaches to pricing include charging by usage volumes or the required number of "Active" or "Registered Users." Other pricing models are feature based. Depending on your usage needs, different pricing models can return very different costs. Start by mapping out your organization’s projected usage. Later you can plug it into your shortlisted pricing models. If the pricing model you’d like to select is based on user or usage limits, ask what happens if you exceed the limits; automatic lock-outs can cause inconvenience and embarrassment for you and your users. Once you understand the pricing model itself, ask for a full list of additional costs. Charges for things like set-up, installation, training and cancellation aren’t always advertised up front and can radically impact the perception of value. Related: 7 essential questions about LMS pricing Final thoughts These rules are just the start. Your next step should involve thinking about the other essential factors you need to consider to ensure you select the right LMS for your organization. Related: Try all of LearnUpon’s features free for 30 days The post How to select the right LMS: 5 rules to follow appeared first on Elucidat Blog.