Four steps to building e-learning success: your timeline is tight and your budget even tighter. Here's a plan for researching, testing, and launching an e-learning program under strict time and money constraints

Workforce, May, 2002 by Jason Lewis, Dan Michaluk

As e-learning matures, the quality of courseware is improving, fringe content publishers are vanishing, and design and technical standards are escalating. But even now, there is no one-stop shop for the best e-learning content.

Those responsible for building off-the-shelf e-learning portfolios must choose from an overwhelming number of publishers and can rarely recommend a selection of courses from just one source. To make the best choice, training managers must quickly settle on a small pool of publishers and perform a thorough analysis of each.

The following ideas outline a proven four-step process for building the right e-learning solution under strict time and resource constraints.

Six weeks to do it

Let's say the vice president needs sales-management training for a whole division--right now. Her voice mail says it all: "We're launching our new competency framework under some serious pressure. No time to wait, and our budget is limited. Can you get a developmental program together within the next six weeks without making any major financial commitments? Custom content is out. It's just too expensive and time-consuming in this economic environment."

An off-the-shelf, Web-delivered e-learning portfolio may be the way to go. A collection of online courses from one or more vendors can give you high-quality content and cost-effective Web delivery without excessive development costs. However, in the slowly maturing e-learning industry, there are still many vendors, thousands of courses, and no best-of-breed solutions.

How do you get through the mess? Pick a single vendor and live with its limited course offering? Cherry-pick courses from all of the vendors?

Looking for the right off-the-shelf courseware without a clear plan will cost you time, money, and credibility. Try this four-step method for creating an off-the-shelf e-learning portfolio:

* Identify Selection Criteria and Constraints

* Create a Vendor Shortlist

* Select and Test Courses

* Package and Implement

Before you start

Take the time to determine if an off-the-shelf e-learning portfolio is right for you. If you answer yes to any of the following questions, it may not be the ideal solution.

* Are my learning objectives too specialized for generic content?

* Are there major impediments for more than 10 percent of my users, such as limited access to the Internet?

* Do I have very specific implementation requirements that cannot be met by vendors' standard delivery models?

Once you have decided that an off-the-shelf portfolio is the way to go, make sure that your stakeholders are on board. Talk with your project sponsor and other key constituents to determine the answers to several important questions:

How will the e-learning courses support existing in-class or on-the-job training? Are there ongoing technology initiatives that might affect your recommendation? What resources can you rely on to perform your search and implement the program? Will you have an evaluation team or will you be solely responsible for making judgments? What was the fate of previous e-learning initiatives?

Having these discussions early in the process will raise your credibility, prevent embarrassing oversights down the road, and facilitate implementation.

Step 1: Identify selection criteria and constraints

User profiles are the compass that will guide you through the whole selection process. They can range in complexity from brief descriptions of typical end users to page-long biographies and checklists. Let the depth of your user profiles vary according to need.

Creating powerful user profiles takes a bit of time, research, and imagination. Describe the relevant user characteristics and how the courses will be used. Include "soft" issues relating to usability. How much time do users have available for each learning session? What is their level of education and computer literacy? Will they access courses from home or from work? What distractions will they face?

Also include "hard" issues relating to technology. At the very least, be sure that you know your user's sound card, browser version, monitor size, connection speed, processor speed, and operating system. Consult with the IT department to determine if there are policies prohibiting the installation of plug-ins or software that vendors may require to run certain courses.

On the basis of your user profiles and stakeholder needs, identify objective technical and administrative criteria and constraints. Criteria are self-imposed. For example, "The vendor must offer an e-commerce purchase option that gives users course access within an hour of purchase." On the other hand, constraints are defined by factors beyond your immediate control. For example, "The course must work on a computer with a Pentium 75 MHz processor and 64 MB of RAM." To facilitate the quick elimination of less desirable vendors and courses, phrase each statement objectively. Some examples of criteria and constraints follow:

* The vendor must offer live telephone support during business hours via a toll-free number.