conversion of an ilt into elearning

Converting an ILT to eLearning

Created By: Syed Afzal Hussain

A Typical Classroom…

An eLearning Classroom…

Is there really a so called classroom…

A Brief Re-cap…

Let’s look at some of the popular learning modes:

ILT

WBT

CBT

It is the type of training that is facilitated by an instructor either online or in a classroom and involves interaction between the learners and instructors.

It is anywhere, anytime instruction delivered over the Internet or a corporate intranet to browser-equipped learners.

It is the type of training whose primary means of delivery is a computer and could be delivered via an installed application or, a CD or over the Internet.

Evolution of the Learning Industry…

• The role of teachers nowadays is on the verge of anachronism after centuries of little changes in the learning industry.

• The power of information and communication technologies have increasingly sidelined the people who refer to themselves as teachers.

• Learner-centricity has become the key facet of the learning industry and terms like learning organisations, learning management systems, eLearning have become popular.

"There are two fundamental equalisers in life, the Internet and Education. eLearning eliminates the barriers of time and distance, creating universal, learning-on-demand opportunities for people, companies and countries.“

[John Chambers, Chief Executive Officer, Cisco]

Evolution of the Learning Industry…

• The role of teachers nowadays is on the verge of anachronism after centuries of little changes in the learning industry.

• The power of information and communication technologies have increasingly sidelined the people who refer to themselves as teachers.

• Learner-centricity has become the key facet of the learning industry and terms like learning organisations, learning management systems, eLearning have become popular.

"There are two fundamental equalisers in life, the Internet and Education. eLearning eliminates the barriers of time and distance, creating universal, learning-on-demand opportunities for people, companies and countries.“

[John Chambers, Chief Executive Officer, Cisco]

Anachronism: Someone or something placed in the wrong period in history, or something that belongs to the past rather than the present.

[Source: Cambridge Dictionaries Online (US)]

Who is Jay Cross?

History of eLearning…

Jay Cross has been credited with coining the term eLearning (or e-learning) in 1998.

• eLearning is used professionally for the first time in October 1999, during a CBT systems seminar in Los Angeles.

• It was associated with online learning or virtual learning.• It was meant to qualify a way to learn based on the use of new technologies allowing

access to online, interactive and sometimes personalized training through the Internet or other electronic media.

Who is Jay Cross? Internationally acclaimed speaker and designer of

corporate learning and performance systems CEO and Chief Unlearning Officer at Internet Time Alliance Former CEO of eLearning Forum Founder of Internet Time Group Co-authored “Implementing eLearning” with Lance Dublin

[Source: LinkedIn]

Some Mind-blowing eLearning Statistics…

Let’s look at some powerful eLearning statistics, that could be eye opener to you:

In 2011 77% of American Corporations were using online learning (in 1995 this number was only 4%).

Corporate training alone is a $200 billion industry. eLearning represents $56.2 billion of this. This will grow into a $107 billion market by 2015.

The US and Europe account for over 70% of the global eLearning industry

eLearning is the second most important training method within organizations.

The Asian eLearning market is expected to reach $11.5 billion by 2016.

4,600,00 college students are currently taking at least one of their classes online and by 2014 this number will increase to 18,650,000.

85% of every dollar spent on classroom training is spent delivering it (instructor time, travel, etc).

eLearning is proven to increase knowledge retention by 25% to 60% [Source: http://shiftelearning.com]

What This Training is All About…

The various competencies that will help you attain this goal are:

Identify the business reasons for converting an ILT to eLearning.

Explain the life cycle of the conversion process.

Identify some classroom trainings that are best-suited for eLearning conversion.

The primary goal of this training is to explain the various aspects involved in the process of converting an existing ILT or classroom training into an eLearning.

What You Should Not Expect from This Training…

This training will discuss about ILTs and eLearning from the perspective of converting an ILT into eLearning only. Any other point or concept related to ILT or eLearning may not be a part of this training. So, here are a few points that you should not expect from this training:

Any comparison to identify/argue the better methodology: ILT or eLearning

Differences between, CBT, WBT, Blended learning, etc.

Comparison of the eLearning conversion process with pure eLearning development

Note: The intention of this slide is make the objective of the training more crisp and standalone and to avoid any confusion that might occur during the training delivery process.

ILT to eLearning Conversion: A Scenario…

Medi-Flex is a SAS (software as a service) provider for the clinical trial process.

Pharmaceutical companies hire Medi-Flex to conduct the clinical trial process for any new

drug they want to launch in the market

In the clinical trial process, Medi-Flex facilitates …All the trainings are provided in-house with specific

training schedules.

Pharmaceutical Companies

Medi-Flex

Clinical Trial Process

Hire

Conduct

Medi-Flex

Software TrainingProfessionals

1 2

3 4

ILT to eLearning Conversion: A Scenario…With increasing clientele in Medi-Flex, it became

cumbersome to meet the stipulated training schedule.

However, changing the schedule might affect the overall training cost and the retaining it might led

to loss of potential clients.

Medi-Flex did not want to change the schedule and at the same time want to retain the clients too.

So, Medi-Flex was at a fix to identify a convenient solution that could help solve their training

problem.

Training ScheduleIncreasing Clientele

5 6

7 8

Medi-Flex

Increased Training Cost

Loss of Potential Clients

What to do?

ILT to eLearning Conversion: A Scenario…

Thus, the business needs behind Medi-Flex’s adoption of eLearning are:

Training Cost Training Time Geographical Location

An immediate solution for this problem would be convert the current classroom training into an eLearning and make it available for the clients/vendors who are unable to attend the training as per the

existing schedule. 9

The solution will be a one time investment for Medi-Flex to convert the training into eLearning, which will help them provide the training at any time, anywhere outside their stipulated schedule.

The Solution

ILT Conversion: The Common Business Needs…

In the Medi-Flex scenario, we have identified a few business needs behind conversion of an ILT into eLearning. Let’s now look at the most common business needs for ILT to eLearning conversion:

Costs

Time

Geographical Location

Training Resources

ConsistencyTrainings like product training, employee induction, compliance training, etc. are suitable for eLearning in order to provide same message and same level of understanding to the participant.

eLearning helps reduce travel, facility, and payroll costs as trainers can focus only on teaching courses and topics that need to be taught in person.

eLearning is suitable for trainings those require rapid development, shorter deployment cycles and shorter training sessions.

For organisations operating across different locations, eLearning helps ensure all employees have access to critical training materials and resources.

eLearning is justified for those organisations that are big enough to have training needs but too small to have separate resources for training or a training department.

ILT to eLearning Conversion: Blueprint…

The initial conversion of a classroom training into an eLearning can be considered as the first step of a successful eLearning development. An effective development of eLearning from a classroom training is an ongoing process as illustrated below:

Need Analysis

Design

DevelopmentDeployment

Evaluation

The conversion starts with an in-depth needs analysis, then move to eLearning designing and development, followed by its deployment to the target audience. It concludes with the evaluation of the effectiveness and success of the eLearning, which starts the cycle again.

ILT to eLearning Conversion: Need Analysis…

An effective and informative needs analysis involves identifying several important pieces of information required for the ILT to eLearning conversion. The primary one among them is to identify the business reason to move the specific training content from ILT to an eLearning.

Consider yourself offering a 3-day leadership development session. Now, for your organization, a 3-day out-of-office schedule could be a significant disruption to operations. Therefore, a very good business reason for converting the two days of the training into eLearning could be to minimize the operational disruption by reducing the out-of-office training time from three to one day.

Example:

Apart from the common business needs, click here to know about some more driving forces for ILT to eLearning conversion.


An effective and informative needs analysis involves identifying several important pieces of information required for the ILT to eLearning conversion. The primary one among them is to identify the business reason to move the specific training content from ILT to an eLearning.

Consider yourself offering a 3-day leadership development session. Now, for your organization, a 3-day out-of-office schedule could be a significant disruption to operations. Therefore, a very good business reason for converting the two days of the training into eLearning could be to minimize the operational disruption by reducing the out-of-office training time from three to one day.

Example:

Apart from the common business needs, click here to know about some more driving forces for ILT to eLearning conversion.

Driving Forces 24/7 availability Less number trainers Improved learning tools Lack of classroom space More tech savvy learners Convenience of desktop learning Faster deployment and maintenance Popularity of Internet as a basic working tool


Identifying the business need provides you a better position to state the learning objective of the eLearning.Need analysis is also critical to examine the re-packaging of the content in terms of what should be left in and what should be presented differently. Your need analysis should also cater information around the following questions:

What are the key learning points for the eLearning? How can you ensure that those key points will be

delivered to the learners? What will be the advantages and disadvantages of

offering the content in an eLearning environment? How will you overcome the disadvantages? What do you know about the learners, their skills,

attitude, experience, etc.? Will it be a standalone eLearning or a part of a blended

learning? How will you evaluate the success of the learning? What effect will the eLearning have on the job?

ILT to eLearning Conversion: Design…

Once you are done with your need analysis, you are ready to put the information you gathered during the analysis in the form of a design.However, to make your design effective, you will need two distinct types of expertise:

Instructional DesignSubject Matter

Click each image to learn more.





Subject Matter Expert

Traditionally, Subject Matter Experts (SME) are responsible for preparing most training materials based upon their knowledge and expertise. So, when you plan to convert an existing ILT into an eLearning, it is very critical to have access to your SME.

However, SMEs might not be knowledgeable about adult learning or training techniques and methodologies or have understanding about eLearning. So, the content which is delivered excellently in ILT might not work well in an eLearning environment.

This is where your Instructional Design (ID) comes into play, to extract the content from SME in the desirable way for your eLearning.





Instructional Design

By Instructional Design (ID), we refer to a practice, which is essential to maximize the effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal of your learning instructions and other learning experiences. So, you can think of ID as a process of building effective learning experiences for the intended audience of the training content.

There are instances when organizations opt for conversion software instead of taking ID expertise and apply that software to their ILT content to publish the outcome as eLearning. However, such conversions mostly results in poor learning experiences for the target audience.


In eLearning development, a design is typically known as the Design Document, which is actually the blueprint of the complete eLearning development process.A typical Design Document consists of the following components:

Project Specifications Standard Course/eLearning

Features Design Strategy Technical Specifications Media Standards Project Management

Let’s now look at the components of the Design Document in a bit more detail…

Course Overview

Target Audience

Length

Deliverables

Existing Content Resources

Provides a brief description of the course as well as lists the Objectives identified in the analysis phase.

Provides information of the target audience regarding their age, gender, culture, attitude, beliefs, skills, etc.

Provides the duration of the eLearning.

Provides a list of items, such storyboard, course alpha, and course beta, which will be delivered to the client during the eLearning development.

List of resources from the existing ILT such as PPT slides, PDFs, Instructor Manual, etc. that will be used in the eLearning development.

Design Document: Project Specifications…

A typical Design Document starts with the Project Specifications, which contains information about the following areas:

Design Document: Standard Course Features…

The Standard Course Features section generally contains the following information:

Provide information about the structure of the eLearning course, which will comprise of the learning management system, course materials (modules/topics) and pre- or post assessments and projects, if any.

Provide information about the components that comprise a module of the course. For example, module introductions, topics, activities, in-line assessments, quiz, etc.

Provide information about the user interface of the eLearning course, its components, such as dashboard, menu, help, navigation controls, etc.

Course Components Module Components Interface and Navigation Controls

Design Document: Design Strategy…

The Design Strategy is considered as the core of the Design Document and typically it is the longest section of the Design document. A typical Design Strategy spans across the following information areas.

Treatment and Themes

Instructional Models and

Method

Testing and Evaluation

StrategyInteractions

Click each tab to learn more.



Treatment and ThemesIf you plan to apply a consistent theme or want to use a particular treatment throughout your eLearning, you must identify it clearly and get the necessary approvals early in the design process.

For example, you might plan to start your eLearning by introducing a scenario relevant to the content and move that scenario further along as you move forward in the course. Similarly, you might have a character or a coach introduced at the beginning of the eLearning who will guide the learner through the content.




Method








Method



Instructional MethodThe Design Document must clearly mention the appropriate ID model that you are going to apply to convert the content into eLearning. For example, ADDIE, Gagne’s Nine Events, Keller’s ARCS model, etc.

The Design Document must also clearly mention the agreed-upon instructional methods that you are going to use in the eLearning to provide information to the learner. For example: Presentations Demonstrations Case studies Graphical Illustrations

Voiceover narration Interactions Simulations Blended Learning



InteractionsBased on the resources, time, and budget, your Design Document must specify the interactions to be used in the eLearning. For example:




Method



Types of Interaction Examples

Learner to Content Flash Cards YouTube Videos FAQ

Learner to Instructor Lesson Quiz Project e-mail Conference

Learner to Learner Chat Discussion Forum



Testing and Evaluation StrategyYour Design Document must include the testing and evaluation strategy to assess the course’s success. The testing strategy must outline the following: The levels at which you will be going to

evaluate, e.g. reaction, learning, behavior and results.

The type of assessments, e.g. MCQ, MMCQ, T/F, Drag and Drop, Sequencing, Matching, etc.

The number of questions Feedback strategies, whether plain or

diagnostic Passing score Retake options




Method



Design Document: Technical Specifications…

Technical specifications are important from the perspective of the Development phase of the eLearning cycle. Your Design Document must define the following technical specifications:

Technical Specifications Description

Development Tools Specify the tools you are going to use to develop the eLearning, e.g. Flash, HTML, PhotoShop, Rapid eLearning Tools like Lectora, Articulate, Captivate.

File Naming Conventions Specify how will you going to name the files you will develop at the various stage of the eLearning development.

Though there is no specific scheme, the file names must make sense to the team members, easy to follow, and version specific.

Delivery Hardwar Software

Depending on the end-user, the Design Document must specify the: System requirements Browser requirements Mobile requirements Plug-ins requirements

Data Tracking and Interoperability

The Design Document must specify: Which data of the eLearning will be tracked? How the tracking will be happen? Is there any intention to deploy the eLearning in multiple LMSes? Is there any possibility to migrate the eLearning to a new LMS?

Design Document: Media Standards…

In any eLearning, media elements generally play a large role. Therefore the Design Document must provide a detail convention of the various media types to be included in the eLearning.

Text

Text standards vary depending on the requirement of the clients. Beside agreed upon guidelines or standards some typical text standards that a Design Document may include are: Logical chunking of the

content Using active voice Writing effective and

accurate instructions

Audio

Design Document should also clearly mention standards for voiceover, music or any sound effect used in the eLearning. For example: Will there be audio syncing? Is the eLearning be 508

compliant? Which content element will

be supported by voice over? How music and sound effects

will be used in the eLearning?

What will be the technical requirements?

Visuals

Visual elements are essential to support or re-inforce the on-screen content in an eLearning. A typical eLearning contains two types of visual elements, graphics and video. The Design Document must

specify the standards for static, animated, and interactive graphics.

The video standards are somewhat similar to the audio ones.

Design Document: Project Management…

It is not essential to include Project Management information in the Design Document. However, if you want to provide, then your Design Document must furnish information about the following elements:

Team MembersList of members who will be involved in the eLearning project.

Key DatesA development timeline specifying the deliverables and their delivery dates.

ApprovalsList of items that require approvals at different stages of the development and who will approve them.

Quality AssuranceInformation regarding whether there will be a quality assurance review before the final launch, and if so how it will be done.

ILT to eLearning Conversion: Development…

The development phase of the ILT to eLearning conversion primarily sees the actual development of the elements specified in the design phase. A typical development phase involves:

Storyboarding Asset Creation and Programme Development Prototype/eLearning Development Testing

Click each link to learn more.





Storyboarding

Storyboarding is the 1st stage of the development phase where the IDs use their visualization to represent the content in a templatized manner so that it will become convenient for the graphic designers, programmers and other development roles to do their jobs.

Apart from content, a typical storyboard contains how that content should be used in the eLearning, what will be the visualization for the different slides, instructions for graphic designers, programmers, etc.





Asset Creation and Programme Development

In this stage, the design and the development team (graphic designers, programmers, animators, etc.) creates the course interface, graphic elements, animations, interactivities, as instructed in the storyboard. Depending on the assets and programmes, the design and development team uses various tools like PhotoShop, Flash, HTML, rapid eLearning tools, XML, etc.

The design and development team have to work closely with the IDs to ensure what is agreed upon in the Design Document and visualized in the storyboards is reflected in their works.





Prototype/eLearning Development

This stage involves creating the fully interactive eLearning by integrating the various assets and programmes developed so far.

However, not all organizations prefer creating the fully interactive eLearning at the first go. Some of them choose to create a single working module of the eLearning and focus on making it error free before going for the complete eLearning. This is known as the prototype development.

It is typically decided in the design phase whether the development cycle will involve a prototype or complete eLearning development.





Testing

Once the eLearning is developed, it must go through a series of tests to ensure it is developed as per the design speciation's. A typical eLearning development goes through the following testing procedures:

In-house testing: Involves in-house reviewers to test the eLearning

Alpha testing: Involves the client or a third-party in the testing Beta testing: Involves the client or a third party after alpha

testing fixes are implemented in the eLearning Final testing: Involves a final go through either by the client or

in-house to make the eLearning ready for distribution.

ILT to eLearning Conversion: Deployment…

You can build an excellent eLearning course. However, your work will not have any impact until it is accessed and completed by the target audience. Also, the learning behavior of adults is quite different from the traditional learning behavior. Therefore, your deployment must include the following points in order to provide a complete and successful learning experience:

Explain the business reason the training is important.

Inform the learners how successfully completing the training can help them with their jobs.

Provide clear expectations for completion of the training and provide choices and control to the learners to manage their schedule to complete the course.

Demonstrate respect for the learners in your messaging and expectations.

ILT to eLearning Conversion: Evaluation…

In the final phase of eLearning development, you must evaluate and assess the effectiveness of the eLearning course. It involves referring to the success measures that are set during the need analysis phase. If your eLearning is able to meet the intended impact, you can wonder whether the impact can be improved. If not, you must identify what must be changed.In both the scenarios, you can jump into another round of need analysis and start the process again.

eLearning is popular for its flexibility and ease of revision. Since the content is stored in one place (typically an LMS), for any updates, you jut have to edit and revise the content and publish the updates. Everybody who has access to the course will have immediate access to the updated course.

ILTs That Could Be Effective eLearning: Examples…

Let’s now look at a few examples of classroom training materials that are suitable for eLearning conversion.

On-boarding Safety

Compliance New Product

On-boarding training for new employees can be great content to convert into an eLearning because most of the learning is purely cognitive in nature, e.g. how to access the employee manuals, track your leave balances, send an IT request, etc. can be ideally suitable for eLearning.

Safety trainings usually empower the learners with knowledge of some specific equipment or procedures. eLearning is suitable to deliver such pure cognitive content with an on-going access to the materials to allow learners to print any job aids or written materials they might need to reinforce the learning.

Many compliance training can be great opportunities for eLearning. For example, if you want to provide an ethics training on a new sets of rules and regulations, an eLearning might be a perfect platform for teaching large numbers of employees the basics of the rules and regulations.

Typically, a new product launch requires different employees, especially those interacting with clients and prospects, to have immediate access to accurate information on the product or service. Therefore, eLearning is an excellent solution to provide updates to the employees at their convenience

Thank You !