e-Learning Successful Implementation Keys

By Andrea Cruz
Learning Manager

There are several “key success factors” for e-Learning implementation resulting from proper planning:

  Corporate objective training

  Corporate culture training

  Management or department levels in charge of user training

  Start training with firm leaders

  Easy training access

  Policies and procedures

  Training on competencies and partner personal development

  e-Learning internal marketing

  Follow-up

  Recognition

When purchasing an e-Learning solution, mainly by an organization with no experience in the field, some impact questions emerge in the implementation stage. Definitely, a proper implementation is essential for a successful e-Learning project both at firms using e-Learning for the first time or firms that have implemented it before. One of the most common questions on this topic is, “What should I consider to achieve a successful e-Learning solution implementation?”

Experience and theory come to the same conclusion: implementing e-Learning demands a series of organizational activities and changes that are essential for a suitable e-Learning implementation and use. These activities and changes are considered “key success factors” for e-Learning implementation and are the result of proper planning. This planning is the starting point and the main aspect in the process to adopt this virtual training tool.

Through planning, the team from the e-Learning supplier (generally a Learning Manager) and the organization team analyze the e-Learning strategy within the business environment and determine if a firm overhaul is necessary, propose activities before, during, and after the implementation, and outline contingency plans in case of change resistance resulting from giving up traditional training methods.

Some of the activities we suggest for a successful e-Learning strategy implementation include:

1. Corporate objective training: the implementation should have clear objectives, but they should be aligned with corporate objectives. Otherwise, the e-Learning project could become an isolated effort, and achieving expected results would be impossible. This could even wipe out the project in the early stages

2. Corporate culture training: the organizational culture should be considered because it can be modified as a result of change, and employees could miss benefits and care provided by traditional methods. It is important to keep users posted on the new benefits resulting from e-Learning and develop a contingency plan in case of change resistance.

3. Management or department levels in charge of user training: getting management involved in the training makes it easy to achieve greater employee commitment. Moreover, it is part of an overall planning that if it maintains a good communication with organizational objectives, it will become a more difficult chain to be broken.

4. Start training with firm leaders: (remember that leaders are not necessarily linked to positions but to their personality and characteristics since they are natural leaders followed by their colleagues). Preferably, these leaders should not belong to the training department.

5. Easy training access: occasionally, technological investment is needed to provide the organization with adequate training infrastructure and offer the best access to students.

6. Policies and Procedures: defining project boundaries, guidelines, and scope is related to the definition of policies and procedures used in training development.

7. Training on competencies and partner personal development: using e-Learning training for the benefit of employee competencies and real needs helps the user enjoy the use of a new method,

8. e-Learning internal marketing: depending on the organization, it is necessary to use different ways of marketing the methodology, especially when it is something new. e-Learning marketing helps to create expectations about the training, motivate, and provide information on the topic.

9. Follow-up: Methodology use and acceptance should be evaluated. Moreover, there should be an assessment to determine whether users are transferring the knowledge resulting from the training to their jobs.

10. Recognition: it can be part of the methodology marketing, but it is important for the employee to feel motivated and be recognized as a result of the training. The recognition could be group-based, i.e., departmental, as to create healthy competition within the organization.

These aspects can vary, be deeply analyzed or wiped out according to the organization implementing them, but they are a fundamental guide to successful implementation.