I think we need to acknowledge that our content delivery mechanisms could do a much better job of matching our brand values and creating a learning experience that anyone would wish to repeat.
When it comes to e-learning content, I think we know how important it is that courses conform with the wider company brand and are 'on message' with marketing and internal communications. At Mohive, we often recommend three central activities to help to keep a piece of rapid e-learning 'on brand':
- 1. Engage learners with relevant interactive content
- 2. Design skins that match the look and feel of the brand
- 3. Involve marketing in the review processes
Lost in the LMS?
But once content is complete we often drop it into a corporate Learning Management System where, I fear, a lot of subject matter experts' good work, effort and investment gets lost. The interface design of some of the large LMSs leaves a lot to be desired. All-too-often it takes multiple clicks to find a course, and even then the content is surrounded by a profusion of buttons and gizmos intended to enhance the learning experience, but which simply distract the learner instead.
The interface design of some of the large LMSs leaves a lot to be desired. All-too-often it takes multiple clicks to find a course. The reason for this lack of focus on good design is that an LMS is often part of larger PLMS system. The LMS is primarily there to track scores and deliver reports to HR – meaning that it is more of a transaction system than a website focused on learner experience.
The learner experience
It's almost as if the needs of learners have been forgotten in the implementation of many large Performance Management Systems. At the same time, most employees are using the web more and more for private activities, and if there is one thing that good Web 2.0 applications have in common, it's a focus on user experience and engaging design.
Facebook, Flickr, YouTube et al make you want to use them. They constantly refine their interfaces to simplify navigation, and make popular features accessible with fewer clicks. And at the same time they make finding out what else is on offer, and trying out new features, a pleasurable experience.
One thing that good Web 2.0 applications have in common is a focus on user experience and engaging design. Maybe it's time to put the 'learner experience' to the front of the L&D agenda. Time to think less of scoring and bookkeeping and more about making using an LMS a positive experience.
Signs of change
Fortunately, change is in the air. More and more organisations are realising that, even in a business enterprise, people need to be seduced a little - learners to be engaged and encouraged.
Long term, I think we may see organisations looking at Google Apps as a learning platform (even if that doesn't necessarily spell out great design), and Sharepoint portals becoming learning portals as well, with SCORM tracking replaced by basic web analytics for much of the content.
Shorter term, there are exciting developments on the portal front. Within the CrossKnowledge Group, learner experience is a key factor in delivering great learning results. So it will soon be possible to bolt CK portals on top of a corporate LMS, to give customers the best of both worlds: reporting and transactions from the LMS, combined with a great learning experience delivered via the content portal.
Elsewhere, one of our partners, Kineo, has been doing great work creating a user-centred portal/LMS using Moodle for our joint customer, Tesco. Tesco has implemented the Kineo-developed solution to deliver its Academy Online, and uses Mohive to create compelling e-learning content.
by Lars Unneberg for Mohive.
