Multiple advantages of developing a learning portal

To achieve effectiveness in the learning organizations it is quite important to move further than just managing training delivery and controlling the cost of learning activities. As technology is becoming a huge part of the learning experience it’s vital to achieve a high rate of LMS adoption – and that requires a user-centered learning portal or website, that creates learning 2.0 destinations that fits the interest of specific learner segments.

When implementing an LMS, most training managers say their most important objective is to deploy and measure training and increase user return visits. On the other hand, in reality, most LMSs are too cumbersome for the typical learner. The best solution is delivering information in the flavor, format and context that appeal to younger audiences for whom training is often designed. This can be done by developing a learning portal that acts as a front end to your LMS, offering the relevance, immediacy and usability of a Web 2.0 website.

Apart from increasing user friendliness, learning portals tender other advantages. Portal technology means reduced support load on your IT staff, and decreased cost of ownership for the business.

A portal provides multiple advantages for multiple users of the system. It improves the user interface of the system at the front end, while providing administrators maintain a high degree of control at the backend. Though the goal is not to provide everyone with all information, it is to make the right information more accessible, when and where it’s needed. Even for a centralized learning system, it’s imperative to adopt a role-based approach to user access. This allows for capabilities such as informal learning, thus fulfilling the objectives of the organizations and the training managers.

In recent discussions with leading CLOs and Training Directors, Expertus asked, ‘What are the top learning challenges when you don’t have a learning system portal?’ The answers ranged from poor usability, inefficient search capability, unfriendly user interface, slow registrations, and sporadic customer training (check for the case for customer training portal development), to expensive and unnecessary customizations.

One important frequent response was the need for learning organizations to cater to new modes of learning delivery and informal or corporate social learning.

To learn more about this concept and to learn 6 ways to unlock the value of your learning technology, download the white paper.

If you need advice on how to increase the training efficiency of your learning organization, feel free to contact me.

Effective training administration

First of all, we can probably all agree that decentralized training administration is inefficient.

It becomes a problem when there are multiple administrators in multiple groups completing the same tasks or transactions, but doing it in multiple ways. Various groups within an organization have differences in their processes and procedures, such as registration needs or course description details. But often these variations are driven by lack of bandwidth or minimal training.

Take as an example the process of uploading courses to an LMS. If an organization has various people doing this, it’s common to see different administrators using different course-naming schemes and course descriptions.

So, centralization of learning support and learning operations management is critical, which goes without saying.

On the flipside, it’s not a good idea to develop inflexible processes that don’t adapt to the needs of your customers, the business units. Be careful about trying to eliminate customized support that they’ve grown accustomed to. Dissatisfaction quickly rises when executives feel their needs and interests are not heard, considered, and acted upon.

Establishing a decentralized approach to customer training support is that business units have enough control over employee learning and can tailor all aspects of learning to the specific needs of their employees.  Long term, you get ever closer to the elusive goal of aligning learning with business objectives.

To learn more about the concept of Centralized Services and Decentralized Processes, download the white paper.

For more information on this topic and the nine ways to trim operational expense, please download the recent webinar or read our white paper, Eliminate Waste and Reap the Rewards: Nine Ways to Trim Operational Expenses to Fund Strategic Learning, both available at http://www.trainingefficiency.com/.

If your organization wants to increase the training efficiency in terms of your learning technology or training processes, contact us.

For more information log on to www.expertus.com

www.trainingefficiency.com

Centralize Services, Not Processes – Another way to trim the cost of your training programs

Another way to trim the cost of your training programs is to centralize your training support, but not your processes.

Let me explain.

First of all, we can probably all agree that decentralized administration is inefficient.

It becomes a problem when there are multiple administrators in multiple groups completing the same tasks or transactions, but doing it in multiple ways. Various groups within an organization have differences in their processes and procedures, such as registration requirements or course description details. But often these differences are driven by lack of bandwidth or minimal training.

Take as an example the process of uploading courses to an LMS. If an organization has various people doing this, it’s common to see different administrators using different course-naming schemes and course descriptions. The result is that it’s difficult for users to find courses, for managers to assign courses to their employees, and for anyone to get reliable reports out of the system. This becomes a serious hindrance to good reporting, auto-enrollment and competency management. The resulting issues can be very costly, both in the short and long term.

So, centralization of learning support is critical, which goes without saying.

On the flipside, it’s not a good idea to develop inflexible processes that don’t adapt to the needs of your customers, the business units. Be careful about trying to eliminate customized support that they’ve grown accustomed to. Dissatisfaction quickly rises when executives feel their needs and interests are not heard, considered, and acted upon.

Establishing a decentralized approach to customer learning support is that business units have adequate control over employee learning and can tailor all aspects of learning to the specific needs of their employees.  Long term, you get ever closer to the elusive goal of aligning learning with business objectives.

To learn more about the concept of Centralized Services and Decentralized Processes, download the white paper.

For more information on this topic and the nine ways to trim operational expense, please download the recent webinar or read our white paper, Eliminate Waste and Reap the Rewards: Nine Ways to Trim Operational Expenses to Fund Strategic Learning, both available at http://www.trainingefficiency.com/.

If your organization wants to increase the efficiency of your learning technology or training processes, contact us.

For more information log on to www.expertus.com

www.trainingefficiency.com