It is difficult and overwhelming when planning for something as massive as creating an e-learning university for your company, especially from scratch. Some organizations are unsure of what their specific business needs are and where to even begin, making the experience an overwhelming project to undertake.

As challenging as it is to begin, the rewards of establishing an e-learning university is plenty, from on-demand learning for employees, faster and easier deployment of training, and ability to control and evolve training titles online. And for Learning and Development teams, having an online university in a learning management system also helps with administrative tasks to track learning completion, assessment results, and feedback forms.

It is important to set your goals and objectives use them as your guide while planning and building a sustainable e-learning university for your organization. Here are things to consider during the planning phase for your corporate e-learning university.

A Quick Guide to Building A Corporate e-Learning University

1. Prepare your most in-demand training content or programs

Identifying and prioritizing repetitive and in demand training content or programs enables you to scale and implement them company-wide as soon as possible. Usual training titles that can be prioritized are company policy training or employee orientations, compliance, and other soft skills training.

2. E-Learning Strategy Research

It is important to familiarize yourself and your training team with e-learning terms (such as SCORM, LMS, API), authoring tools, and some best practices related to your industry. You can also start researching on some e-learning platforms to figure out where you can house your e-learning university.

Research will help you narrow down your options, give you a general idea of what’s available and what can be done, and arms you with the knowledge to decide on what’s the best for your e-learning university when the options are laid down in front of you.

3. Content development, design, and video content

It is also worth figuring out which content you want to create for migrating into your e-learning university beforehand. Some of your training content or programs may need to be updated since traditional instructor-led training and e-learning differs in a lot of ways from delivery method and design.

Keep in mind that some training is best delivered through videos, animations, and demonstrations but some are well-received if put into a full course with readings and quizzes, so you need to consider this as well. Take into account your employees’ age range and generational gap (or lack thereof) when deciding on delivery, content design, and user interface of your e-learning platform and modules. It must be intuitive and easy on the eyes for easy navigation and to avoid confusion among your learners.

4. Your chosen learning platform

You will need to research well and compare e-learning platforms that suit your organization’s budget and needs as well. It is worth considering someone who provides flexible support as you start off and more flexible options as you get the hang of the platform.

You also need to consider how much value you really are getting and deprioritize features you do not really need urgently. You can make a list of must-have features and prioritize them over the nice-to-have features. You can always start off basic, then upgrade your platform later to avoid unnecessary confusion among users of the platform.

Since e-learning platforms can get confusing, you can consider getting one with different access levels that ensures that users can see what they only need to see. Admins or other managerial accesses can be set with a more advanced function to see the reports and manage the platform.

5. Managing your learning platform

Managing the platform is an important role as you go along with your e-learning university. You will need to consider a centralized platform to ensure data synchronization and avoid discrepancies on reports. This way it is easier to see what you need and to manage everything in one platform. It is also good to figure out how to manage the e-learning university and delegate it within your team so each will have their own focus and main responsibility.

6. Measuring results

Upon establishing your corporate e-learning university, keep in mind your performance indicators for the undertaking. There are many metrics to consider. Though to help you begin, some of them are:

• Qualitative feedback from employees
• Course completion numbers
• Active users consistently using the platform
• Satisfaction surveys
• Feedback from managers on behavioral change

Measuring results and getting feedback enables you and your team to improve on what was lacking and handle or provide solution to some challenges encountered by your learners and users. These will help you build a better, more stable e-learning university in the long run.

There are a lot to consider when building your organization’s e-learning university. Starting with these foundational factors can guide to come up with a concrete strategy for your e-learning university. With proper research and careful planning, your e-learning university will be up and thriving in no time!

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