Common Sense: Getting Real With Online Training

Being realistic about any technology adoption is s good way to avoid conflict and disappointment. And learning technology is no exception. So what can we expect?

Let’s assume you are considering adopting a robust, versatile training platform such as FlexTraining. And you have the usual constraints - a reasonable but not infinite budget, a fairly aggressive schedule, and some limitations on how much staff and management time is available to make it happen.

What can you expect? What’s realistic, and what’s not? Here are my views, based on 25 years of consulting, project management, and supplying training solutions to a very diverse market.

What’s Realistic

Install and configure a customer-hosted learning platform, choosing the appropriate options and settings, in a week. 

As LMS’s like FlexTraining get faster, simpler, and easier to configure, the time required gets shorter.

Set up a cloud-based learning system in 2-3 days. 

With an installation step, you can cut your setup task down considerably.

Author a course once and distribute it to different audiences across the enterprise at different times. 

This is a core feature of FlexTraining, for example. It’s called “scheduling” and it saves a lot of work. 

Author one course and use it as a baseline for other courses via a built-in Course Copy feature. 

Again, it’s built-in and it takes just a few clicks gets it done.

Divide the enterprise into business units, each with its unique training catalog and management reporting. 

Create user-defined “walls” between organizational units, geography, product lines, etc. Keep courses and progress tracking private, and only available to authorized users.

Complete annual compliance training and testing using a variety of laptops, tablets, and desktop devices. 

The new standard is called “responsive” and it means that screens, images, and videos scale to fit the display device. You should expect this of any modern training delivery platform. 

Operate a cloud-based enterprise training solution for less than $2 per user per month. 

And with a solution like FlexTraining, that’s for unlimited courses. The larger the enterprise, the lower the per-learner cost.

Retain control of your data in case of possible unseen future needs that may require new technology.  

No one knows what the future may hold. If you need to migrate your data somewhere else, naturally you will need access to to it. 

What’s Not Realistic

You cannot expect to...

Succeed without strong, visible, executive support in all the business units of the enterprise. 

This applies to all enterprise system projects, from E-Learning to inventory to purchasing to human resources to manufacturing control. 

Spend so much money on outside services that no one from your company has to do anything at all. 

Your internal team will be needed for subject matter expertise, even if a supplier builds your courses. Add in a fair amount of general oversight and at least some supervision. 

Buy the absolute cheapest authoring and delivery tools and have a successful outcome. 

There is a reason the stuff at Walmart is cheap. A training platform is not a commodity. Bargain-basement training platforms are likely to leave an unhappy trail of disappointed users and management. 

Beat your supplier up, take every nickel off the negotiating table, and have a good ongoing relationship. 

Every LMS vendor needs to make SOME profit, to stay in business. Be a good customer and your technology supplier will be a good provider. Like all relationships, it’s a two-way street.

Continue doing the same thing over and over and expect different results.  

We have all heard this one before, but we still see it often.

See www.flextraining.com/ for options and strategies.