Your eLearning Platform Is Missing One Piece: Great Content
Undeniably, you need a great eLearning platform to empower your team to learn. They need an easy, simple way to access their training content. But platform alone does not effective learning make. Even if you have a user-friendly LMS, if you fill it with dull, long-winded content, the user-friendly platform is moot; bad content kills the entire experience. Effective training isn’t a matter of platform versus content. For your training to actually get results, you need a great platform and great content.
Marrying a Great Platform and Great Content
Combining a great platform with great content is genius no matter what industry or application you’re talking. Just ask Apple. Apple disrupted the music industry when it unveiled the iTunes digital jukebox and the iPod in 2001. Though portable MP3 players had been around since the mid-1990s, they left people wanting with their “crap” user experience. With Apple, consumers now had a simpler, easier way to access content. The number of iPods sold through 2002? 600,000. Apple didn’t stop there. In April 2003, the iTunes store launched. And with this marriage of platform and content, results soared. The number of iPods sold through 2003? 2 million.
Companies who’ve taken a Steve Jobs-ian approach to their training can attest to the power a platform-content marriage packs; for example, one of our clients improved customer response times and customer satisfaction, plus experienced double-digital sales growth with the one-two punch of great training content and a user-friendly eLearning platform.
How to Achieve Content Greatness
Engaging training content lives by 3 tenants; it’s conversational, contextual, and to the point.
Conversational
In the words of The Beatles, act naturally. Ditch the jargon and don’t talk down to people. Use human speak to connect with learners. Embrace and poke fun at your culture and its quirks. Rid all training of antiseptic voiceover that’s reminiscent of the teacher from Peanuts. This mix of conversational tone, smart humor, and authentic delivery keeps learners tuned in.
Contextual
It’s tempting to build content for one group, like an inbound call center, and reuse it for another group, like a direct sales force, to gain efficiencies. But context matters. If a learner doesn’t know how their training relates to the day-to-day realities of their job, they’ll struggle to apply and use it.
Concise
Verbosity serves no purpose other than creating noise and distracting the learner. We’re not paid by word, so get to the point. Keep eLearnings in short chunks that are no more than 10 to 15 minutes long. De-clutter those ILT slides and use succinct phrases and sentences. Be tight and focused in your training and help the learner stay focused on learning. Content or eLearning platform? eLearning platform or content? It’s not an either-or. For training to be engaging and effective, an easy-to-use learning platform must deliver human-friendly content that’s conversational, contextual, and to the point.
