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When you’re launching an eLearning course, it’s about more than just building a course with engaging content. That’s certainly important. Whoever creates your course content needs to be sure it is relevant and engaging. But to successfully launch it, you will need the participation, buy-in, and support of many different groups of people. There are many different roles that contribute to a successful eLearning launch. You need people to consume the course content, those to explain it, and those to ensure everyone understands why it’s necessary. You also need people in place to provide guidance when clarity is needed. You’ll find these roles filled by a variety of people throughout your organization. While they may differ in what they do to make a course successful, they’re all nonetheless important. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at four perspectives of people supporting your Learning Management System course launch:
- The Teacher communicates to the Student what they need to know about the content.
- The Student needs to know the course exists, how to complete it, and the content within that course.
- The Guide serves as a troubleshooter for the Student when there are questions the Teacher can’t answer.
- The Storyteller(s) explain how the Student (and the organization, customers, etc.) derive value from 100% course completion.
The Teacher (aka Administrator, Course Trainer, Instructor)
The Teacher is the one to administer your course. Their role is to explain the course content when needed. Their role prior to launch is to understand the concepts illustrated within the course. If they can’t demonstrate some level of mastery, they’ll have a harder time explaining those concepts to those taking the course once it’s launched. During and after the launch, the administrator is there to teach the end-users in a way that optimizes information retention and evaluate learning results with data and analytics. You’ll want them to be equipped with the answers to questions you anticipate the users may ask about the content. If they do their job in being prepared pre-launch, a lot of their work will be done. From there, it’s simply a matter of being able to communicate effectively with the students. That’s not necessarily an easy thing to do, but it gets much easier when you know the content inside and out.
The Student (aka Learner, End User)
The Student is the end user, and a highly important role; launching an eLearning course certainly requires having someone to actually consume the content. Whether it’s for compliance, professional development, or some other reason, your learners need information and you need to give it to them. Before the launch, their role is to register for the course and ensure they can access it. That may require work with your organization or use pre-virtual event resources or checklists to make sure that once the LMS launches, they are an active participant. That means they should engage with the lessons, ask questions when necessary, and take all quizzes or tests upon completion. Following the completion of the course, the end-users aren’t done. This is the best time to continue engaging them. You can ask them for valuable feedback on what elements of the course they found effective. Keep in mind that your most effective partner in fine-tuning your course is someone who has already taken it.
The Guide (aka Support Staff)
Think of your eLearning course in terms of a journey. There comes a time when the learner may need additional assistance the instructor can’t provide. Perhaps they’re having an issue with registration or have an IT issue after launch. That’s where the Guide will step in to show them the way. Your guide comes in the form of your support team.
Their role in an eLearning course launch is to help keep the learners on target. There is a goal in mind - 100% course completion - and your support staff plays a big part in making sure that happens. They’ll need to know questions that may pop up about accessing the course. They’ll need to know what’s needed to confirm completion. When are the important deadlines? What platform should the end-users log in to for access? Before launch, your support team will be largely focused on things like course registration. Once the launch happens, they’ll likely have to focus more on answering logistical questions. Prepare them accordingly and they can help the process go much smoother for the learner.
The Storyteller (aka Marketing, Human Resources)
Finally, having a Storyteller is a critical part of ensuring your larger team understands exactly why you’re doing what you’re doing prior to launch. Your storytellers in this process will be your marketing and human resources departments. From a marketing standpoint, they may be using the course to paint a picture of why your company is a leader in your industry. If you offer professional training or certification, this makes you that much more attractive to customers and/or other businesses to partner with. You can even include your recruiting department here, as they could advertise this to potential candidates as a reason why you’re a great place to work.
Your marketing team is telling your external audience how this training course makes your organization stronger. From a human resources standpoint, they’re telling the story to your internal team members of why this online training is vital or significant. They’re communicating with the learners on why they need to complete this course, whatever that reason may be. They can also connect the learners with the right person if they have a question that needs answering, referring them to the trainer or support team. When your organization can tell an effective and engaging story as to why the training is both important and necessary, it’s going to increase end-user buy-in. They’ll want to complete it faster and more comprehensively, leading to better compliance and mastery of all the concepts contained within. In short, these four roles in your process will interact at various points before, during, and after your launch. Each one plays a role in achieving your desired result: To effectively launch an eLearning course, you’ll need engagement and buy-in from all of these people. But you’ll also need to develop effective course content and deliver it in an engaging way.
For more help on how to do that, partner with experts who have plenty of experience doing so. Contact Knowledge Anywhere today.
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