15 October 2007

The Tides are Changing

As part of my research into a white paper I am writing, I decided to have a look around some of the most frequented e-Learning blogs available at the moment. I came across an interesting entry in Helge Scherlund's eLearning news blog regarding a free downloadable version of The eLearning Guild's Handbook of e-Learning Strategy.

Now I am not sure whether any of you will have the time to read the entire PDF so I have picked out some points of interest.

The idea of change management really resonated with me as it seems that change is one of the major reasons that e-Learning strategies are not taken up by companies. The eLearning Guild have summarised a successful implementation structure into the following three categories/phases:

1. Inform – Generate Awareness
Make sure to supply all the answers to common questions that will arise from your staff. Get your message across through the likes of Newsletters, Emails, Presentations, and Webcasts.

2. Involve – Generate Involvement
The best way to change existing behaviours towards learning is to make sure that all team members are involved – especially key players. To do this, The eLearning Guild suggests making their learning personal by displaying the benefits to the individual and offering them first-hand experience in the new learning methods.

3. Integrate – Generate Commitment
The new methods must be recognised as part of the organisation’s culture, by all members of the team.

The eLearning Guild describes change management as, “the combination of processes, activities, and approaches that manage the people of the organization through the transition from the old way of doing things to the new way, from the old way of training to e-Learning.”
To make sure that your new e-Learning strategy will remain a part of your business development, it is imperative that staff are offered support to understand the changes they face. People will change, as long as they see the benefits that the change will have to them personally. Make the strategy about the individual and the new beginning it will bring.

No comments: