Identify business challenges

• No stakeholder buy-in. Involve key stakeholders early on in the process, and educate them on the benefits of blended learning for the business.

• No desire to change. Prove the ROI, show examples, provide market and competitor analysis. Take a fragmented approach – start with a pilot, so you’re not changing the business model too drastically. Have a plan to revert if it doesn’t work, and share it with stakeholders up front.

• Lack of skills or resources. Don’t be afraid to use freelancers or agencies who specialize in the skills that are missing in-house. For example, a graphic designer or a copywriter. There’s an upfront cost here, but it’s not an ongoing cost and it will ultimately save you time. There are plenty of online resources to help training providers make the transition (like this!), and a lot of TMS and LMS tools do most of the work for you. Check out our software section for more info on this.

• Not sure where to start. Start small – take one existing course and brainstorm it internally to see how it could be adapted to for eLearning. Take one piece of content, such as a study guide, and transform it to an eLearning module (written content could become a podcast or an on-demand video followed by a knowledge-testing quiz). Pilot it, collect feedback both internally and from your customers, and re-calibrate.

Identify business ROI

• Cost vs Benefit. Increasing business profitability is the most important objective for your company and it’s how you’ll get your stakeholders across the line. Collect detailed financial information about your company’s costs to run a training program and set some hard, but realistic, targets up front to increase existing ROI. If you don’t already have a way of measuring cost vs benefit that you can extend to blended learning we recommend using the standard formula of:  ROI (percentage) = ((Monetary benefits – Training costs)/Training Costs) x 100. 

• Decreased cost and time. The assumption is that the introduction of blended learning will, over time, decrease the cost and time spent delivering a course. This is because traditional classroom-based training is both cost-heavy (venue, travel, food, instructor accommodation) , and time-heavy (time spent by an instructor to deliver a classroom course, including travel and set-up). A key thing to note here is that it will decrease over time – initially there will be some costs for new software and resource to transition courses to an eLearning model, and this needs to be factored in.

• Scale trajectory. Scalability is one of the biggest benefits of eLearning – removing the restrictions of class sizes, and introducing the possibility for global expansion. There needs to be some work done upfront to determine the trajectory of enrollments that you will measure success against. Look at your existing class enrollment numbers per location, and calculate how much that is expected to grow with expansion into new markets. 

• Measure training effectiveness. The Kirkpatrick Model has been used by training providers since 1959 to evaluate the success of training programs, based on learner outcomes. Here are the 4 levels of the Kirkpatrick model, and how to apply them.
  – Reaction. This is focused on measuring engagement, to understand how well your training was received and what can be improved in future. Conduct a simple post-course survey to understand how engaged your learners were.
  – Learning. Measure what your learners have and haven’t learned, and how they’ll apply their learnings in future. With blended learning you can easily set pre-course surveys to determine learning objectives and knowledge, and then post-course quizzes and surveys to determine what they have learned.
  – Behavior. This measure helps you to understand if people are applying their training after completing a course. Follow-up self-assessment surveys could be sent to attendees weeks or months after course completion, to evaluate if and how they are implementing what they have learned.
  – Results. This looks at the impact the training has had on the learner’s company, if it is a corporate training program. Some positive outcomes include increased productivity, higher employee morale, and increased sales. Workplace observations, interviews or surveys can be used for evaluating these objectives.

Determine your requirements

• Staff training. Train existing staff on technical aspects, such as webinar delivery, online assessments and chat forums. CIPD offers training delivery courses, including a short course on How to Create and Run Successful Webinars.

• Creating content. Whether you’re transitioning existing content to a new format or creating new eLearning content, consider whether you’ll up skill existing in-house staff to create and manage eLearning content, or whether you’ll need a graphic design agency or freelance copywriter to fill skills gaps. 

• Technical equipment. What technical equipment is needed – do you need to invest in good quality laptops, headsets/microphones for instructors? Do they need additional lighting? Is broadband speed sufficient for webinar delivery?

• Software. What new software is needed? Such as a powerful all-in-one training management system like Arlo to manage registrations, communications, reporting and more, as well as help you create, deliver and sell blended and elearning.