The 5 key steps to building an eLearning program: Step 1 - Strategy
In my last blog post I gave you an overview of our brand new whitepaper called "A map for implementing or reinventing eLearning successfully."
In the next 5 posts we will dive deeper into each of the 5 key steps. This week it is the turn of the first step: Strategy.
Strategy is such an overused, indeed mostly misused, phrase. We have a strategy for almost everything, from fighting a war to getting a seat on the bus! In most cases what we really mean is tactics.
Strategy is the means by which we link our tactics and plan, in other words what we actually do and the sequence in which we do it, to our organisation's overarching objectives. So its pretty important!
The whitepaper outlines some key questions that must be answered if you are to build a successful eLearning strategy.
- What are the medium and long term strategic goals of the organisation?
- What specific problem are we struggling with that this solution will help us with?
- What happens if we do nothing? What areas of the business will suffer? How much of a priority is this project relative to other issues the business faces?
- What is it about our eLearning plan that specifically reflects these objectives?
- Who is the ultimtate decision maker?
- Who else in the organisation will this person rely upon to advise and guide them?
If you are able to answers these questions you will be well placed to:
- Ensure you align eLearning with the business goals of the organisation.
- Identify what impact that eLearning will have on the business.
- Develop the eLearning vision, mission and policies from a solid base.
- Identify your eLearning champion and ensure the person tasked with driving your eLearning campaign into the business is suitably empowered.
- Build an eLearning team, headed by your champion, who can develop all the separate elements of a winning eLearning design and can monitor its progress.
- Obtain the ongoing support of the management team; such a crucial element of all change projects.
Why don't you download the full whitepaper and read about the next 4 steps in mapping out a successful eLearning project in your organisation? Or you can check back shortly and catch the next instalment in our 5 part series: Designing your eLearning program, or better still, why not subscribe to our blog by completing the short form on the top right of the blog page.