organisation


Work in progress


45% completion – why? Vaughan Waller I


am often asked to provide learner progress reports and because there are, more often than not, always plenty of ‘not started’ or ‘incomplete’ learners in the list, I always feel


for the learning manager. Buying or creating the course in the first place required investment in time and money but the fact that few have completed it appears to have little or nothing to do with the instructional design, the types of media used or whether it does or does not have an assessment. It is simply that learners often cannot summon up the enthusiasm to start or, in a lot of cases, complete it. Is it that they really are too busy or is it that the case for the learning in the first place, mandatory or not, has just not been made to them? The case for going to see a film at the cinema is easy by comparison. It is likely (unless the film is a turkey) that the film will be entertaining, it will be a good night out anyway and even though you may have to drive some distance and spend a lot of money, you would seldom argue against it. Now try and make the case for doing a module of e-learning on a new process that is being implemented. To start with, not everyone will have been consulted on its creation but all of you will have to learn it nonetheless. It will not be entertaining although the content vendor did its best with the PowerPoint deck we sent them. It will take you less than an hour and there will be a multiple choice assessment at the end which you have to pass at 80% or better. The great thing about it is that you will be able to sit at your desk and do it there, just by logging into the learning management system using this link. Is it any wonder that learners would prefer


Studies have shown that we all much prefer to hear what bad things we will avoid if we do something, rather than hear the good things that might come our way if we do the same thing


a visit to the dentist rather than completing the e-learning module? So we should always make a case to learners for them to complete courses of this type otherwise we are forever destined to have the disheartening ‘partially completed’ messages throughout our progress reports. After all, we have to make the case for so many things nowadays, so why not make the case for doing an e-learning course? Here are a few tips on how to make it perhaps look a little more interesting after all. Most of these come from sales techniques so you probably have heard them or used them yourselves before. Edit as required.


Keeping them keen Start by making some notes to yourself. If you were in the learners’ shoes, what would sell it to you? What would your ‘buying vision’ be here? What would be that phrase that would make you think, yes that does sound important, so I’d better put aside some time for that.


But you can go even further with this if you


attempt to put in the minds of the learner that if they do not complete the course they will be ‘unsafe’ or maybe feel in some slight way ‘uncomfortable’. You could suggest that this new process was brought about because the company was losing orders


We are not talking about pulling wool over learners’ eyes here – just using a bit of polite persuasion to make it look less like just another e-learning course


e.learning age february 2014


with the old one, which had produced complaining customers and if we had stuck with the old process it may have been the end for some of the product lines. The situation was unsustainable so the course really is necessary.


Then you could mention that everyone connected with this new process will be doing the course and, in fact, everyone will need to do the course in order for it to work effectively. The process will only be as good as the person who hasn’t completed it and you wouldn’t want to be that person, would you? And back this up by saying that this new process, implemented effectively and only if used correctly by all, will save 20% in terms of time, so everyone will be just a bit less pushed in the future.


Never say that if learners complete the course


they will have gained new skills or new knowledge since most people are wary of promises like that. Studies have shown that we all much prefer to hear what bad things we will avoid if we do something, rather than hear the good things that might come our way if we do the same thing. So in the example above you would say that learners completing the course would avoid the necessity of having to call the help desk when they get stuck or having to look it all up on the intranet – that is definitely worth avoiding, surely? We are not talking about pulling wool over learners’ eyes here – just using a bit of polite persuasion to make it look less like just another e-learning course.


Vaughan Waller is a regular contributor to e.learning age


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