Capensys

Implementing E-Learning Successfully

2009-12-15T18:40:00.000-08:00

Firms today are using technology more intensively to facilitate the practice of law. IT departments are responsible for a plethora of new applications and the continuous upgrades of existing ones. IT managers are facing more pressure to reduce costs and increase user productivity. This barrage of demands on technology carries with it the formidable need to provide the firm’s users with ongoing, cost-effective education.

Traditionally, classroom training has been the method of teaching users new technology. It is particularly difficult for attorneys to attend such training, due to the all-important billable hour. Web-based e-learning programs have become a key part of training delivery to cater to fluctuating schedules, differing business objectives and a constant influx of new technology.

An e-learning program can provide your firm with training flexibility, accountability and self-sufficiency. Now the question is: How do you successfully implement a Web-based learning program at your firm?

Setting Objectives for E-Learning

When undertaking an e-learning program, consider the current business objectives of your firm. What are the main problems you are intending to solve with e-learning? Determine who will champion online training. Management buy-in at the highest level is essential.

To gain approval for the investment in e-learning technologies, make the business case for e-learning to your management team, outlining at the beginning anticipated improvements and expected outcomes. Completing that step will make it much easier to quantify the results at the project’s completion and at checkpoints along the way. Cost savings, especially when considering outside vendors for training and floor support, is a notable benefit for Web-based training, so keep track of the numbers throughout the process. Record the dollars saved with a blended approach to training (e-learning combined with classroom), reducing the classroom hours while enhancing the learning experience.

E-learning is also a winner for reducing costs for the helpdesk. Ask the helpdesk manager to track reductions in the number of calls he or she receives once the online training system is up and running. By monitoring the results and reporting regularly on the goals and progress of the e-learning project, you can ensure ongoing support from the firm’s management. Solicit feedback from users about the e-learning, and offer them the opportunity to suggest training topics.

Developing an E-Learning Plan

Have a plan! This may seem obvious, but it is a step that is often skipped or done on the fly. Your e-learning plan should be developed and approved by all relevant stakeholders at the firm, including the managing partners, head of the technology committee, HR director, IT personnel and others. The plan sets out the purpose of the program and states explicitly how the outcomes will be measured, evaluated and monitored. A detailed timeline should also be established. As changes are made to the plan and timeline, be sure to notify key people to keep communication flowing.

You need to be ready to prove and broadcast positive business outcomes of the e-learning program. This reinforces the credibility, accountability and visibility of the project and makes it easy to justify expansion of the online university as the need arises.

Assembling Your “E-Team”

Putting together the right team for your firm is essential to the success of Web-based learning projects. These projects are bell curves; once the climb is made, the results are astounding.

E-Learning Project Manager: Select an e-learning project manager champion. This person will be responsible for overseeing and monitoring the e-learning programs, as well as for promoting it internally to the firm. Select someone who is responsible, accountable and popular at the firm. If presented properly by the project manager, e-learning will be perceived as enjoyable and fun. Depending upon each e-learning project, this person may or may not need to be employed full-time. If the position is part-time, be certain management supports the time that is needed.

E-Learning Authors: Since a firm’s software applications have usually been tailored to fit that firm’s needs, most content providers allow the e-learning modules to be customized to match what users actually see on their desktop. State-of-the-art online training vendors generally offer an authoring and customization tool which can be learned and used with relative ease. You may choose to train internal people on the authoring tool or ask the provider to assist with the customization.

In addition to the firm’s trainers, your helpdesk personnel are often ideal candidates to learn the authoring tool, since it is in their best interest to make users as independent as possible. Helpdesk staff can create e-learning modules during their downtime or during weekend and evening hours. They can develop e-learning “nuggets” to address frequently asked questions and show “how-tos.” Helpdesk staff can e-mail online training links to users with content specific to their questions. This way, users become familiar with the online university resources on a regular basis. Eventually users come to rely on the online university as a resource available 24/7 and a proven source of relevant information helpful in their jobs.

Rolling Out Your E-Learning Program

Once you have your objectives, plan and team in place, you can begin to roll out your e-learning program at the firm. The approach you take to introducing the e-learning program is nearly as important as the training content itself. Be direct and organized in your communications, and, ideally, have the firm’s management present the idea to the users, emphasizing that the firm’s attorneys and staff are encouraged or expected to participate fully.

Depending on your organization’s culture, your firm can be extremely creative in marketing the e-learning program to your users. Providing participation incentives, promotions, prizes and CLE/billable hour credits for users goes a long way toward motivating people to complete their e-learning modules.

For staff, create an internal professional development program such as your firm’s “certification” or award credits associated with e-learning achievements. Visibly promote users’ accomplishments. Notify users via e-mail or newsletter when new e-learning or “how-to” modules become available so they will be aware that the content is continually growing. This shows that your department is proactive and productive, and it reinforces people’s faith that the Web-based training is kept fresh and current. Advertise to your clients that your firm uses e-learning to show that you employ state-of-the-art techniques, and consider making your e-learning available to the client’s organization as well.

Getting Results from Web-Based Training

With the right organization and direction behind it, an online training program will have enormous impact on technology education at your firm. You will increase the firm’s overall productivity and relieve the burden on your over-taxed IT and training staff. Last but not least, e-learning programs save the firm money, a benefit which no one can dispute — not even an attorney!

Jennifer A. Cadieux

10 Tips to Make the Most of Captivate 4

2009-11-26T19:54:00.000-08:00

In developing courseware for Capensys, I’ve learned a lot about Captivate. While these tips are for Captivate 4, some also apply to earlier versions of Captivate.

Use the templates. Earlier versions had Project Templates, which set the size of the project, and allow you to store all the elements you might need, like buttons and logos. Captivate 4 also has Design Templates, which allow you to apply a new set of caption types, etc., to an existing project. These work best if you use one style for each item – i.e., all “failure” captions use a specific caption type.

Set the Preferences. While you might expect the defaults for new captures to be set in a template, Lesson 1 of “This is not Word” is that Captivate templates don’t do that. You set defaults in the Preferences instead. Tip – when you have the Preferences set the way you want them, save them. Then import them before you start a project, just to make sure you didn’t inadvertently reset them to the defaults (easy to do).

Rehearse. Like the old joke about getting to Carnegie Hall – “practice, practice.” At Capensys, we go through each topic at least twice, and do an extensive outline for the client to approve before screen captures are taken. It includes notes on screen settings – collapse folders, delete personal or test messages from the Inbox, etc.

Check Capture Settings. In Captivate 4, click the little camera icon in the red capture box and check your settings. If you want Captivate to record interactive events like click boxes and captions, you need to choose “training,” not “demonstration,” which is the default.

Take extra captures. You can hide the slides until you’re sure you don’t need them, then delete them. Or save a “Backup” project with all the extra stuff so you can copy them if you need them.

“Rest of Project.” If you have items like logos that you want to have appear on every slide, put them on slide one, and set them for “rest of project.” You’ll see them on every slide, but you don’t have to put them on each one, and you can change them once and have the change reflected throughout.

Lock items. It’s easy to move items accidentally, but if you lock them, they stay put. You can’t select or move them in the WYSIWYG screen, only in the timeline, where you can unlock them if you need to.

Delete extra items from the Library. If you delete slides (those extra “just in case” screen captures), the background images stay in the Library. Right-click in the Library, “Select Unused Items,” and delete them.

Use mouse-overs. People hate to click through lots of screens to see, for example, the items in a drop-down menu, so use a mouse-over to show them. It’s also great for showing tips and Best Practices.

Rename slides and Library items. This seems like unnecessary work until the first time you need to find, for example, the image that Captivate named “Slide 5 background” and didn’t change the name after you deleted slides 3 and 4. If you called the slide “Inbox” and its corresponding background “Inbox bg” (and audio “Inbox audio,”) finding them is a snap.

Marion Deland

Making the Case for Blended Learning

2009-11-12T07:05:00.000-08:00

For most companies, the first step in implementing blended learning is making the case to management that the initial investment will be worthwhile. Specifically, the people holding the purse strings need to believe that productivity will be improved by the change in knowledge transfer methodology. What matters is not that blended learning can be delivered, but that it can make a difference to the company’s financial outlook.

Overcoming resistance to learning delivered outside the classroom can be tough, especially given the necessity of outsourcing much of the process, from the creation and implementation of a learning management system to the production of content by subject matter experts. Additionally, the resulting learning system needs to meld general knowledge with the company’s culture, which means an expenditure of time and effort by company employees. If you are in the position of having to convince management that blended learning is better than traditional classroom training, it helps to point to documented expert opinion. It’s a lot easier to prove that something has been successful than that it will be successful.

Fortunately, much of the leg work has already been done. Studies abound, many of them in the public domain, showing that blended learning works better than classroom training alone. The numbers reported in these studies can be difficult to interpret for those of us who are not experts in statistics, but the studies’ conclusions are easy to understand.

In “An Assessment of the Effectiveness of e-learning in Corporate Training Programs” (International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol. 3, No . 1, April 2002), Judith Strother of the Florida Institute of Technology reported on the economic benefits of e-learning in some of the country’s largest companies. According to Strother, IBM was able to deliver “five times the learning at one-third the cost of their previous methods.” Ernst & Young “reduced training costs by 35 percent” when they instituted a blended learning system heavily weighted towards web-based versus classroom training. This kind of study is effective in convincing management of the connection between blended learning and an improved bottom line because the subjects of the study are large, well-respected companies whose success is meaningful to corporate managers.

A 2009 study by the U.S. Department of Education, subtitled “A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies,” combines the findings of twelve years of research literature about the effectiveness of online learning. The study states that “students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction.” Given the source of the study, its huge scope, and the fact that it’s so recent (May of 2009), this is a great example of research in the public domain that can be used to back up the argument that blended learning results in better learning, which in turn leads to higher productivity.

Sometimes management is concerned with the potential pitfalls of initiating new methods of knowledge transfer, particularly pitfalls that have a negative impact on projected cost savings. In those situations, studies that analyze potential pitfalls and suggest ways around them can be useful for demonstrating an awareness of, and a plan to circumvent, problems that might impinge on the financial benefits of implementing blended learning. For instance, in 2003 Victor Chang of Cambridge University presented a paper to the United Nations IS World Forum called “The role and effectiveness of e-learning: key issues in an industrial context.” The paper analyzed issues faced by companies adding e-learning to their training systems. Chang analyzed e-learning implementation in several corporate and academic environments, and each analysis includes a section on the lessons learned.

The research has been done, and it’s out there on the internet. As with any large undertaking, the more data you have that predicts a positive result from the implementation of blended learning, the likelier you are to get management buy-in, the first necessary step in the process.

Consuelo Rockliff-Stein