7 steps to a basic business distance education structure

The board decided to implement online training in your company or you led the project yourself. Now the task is to formulate and deliver a plan. Where to start?

Purchasing the structure that enables online training involves more than one supplier and is a very particular operation. Despite that, it's quite simple. You will quickly understand. Come on?

#1 – Determine the goals

To begin, describe what are the goals of including distance education training in your organization.

Strategic business objectives define where the company should go and are the first source of consultation for the implementation of any project.

Some examples of reasons are:

• Geographically dispersed teams;
• High rate of new hires;
• Lack of data on training results;
• Scattered and undocumented information, etc.

#2 – Definition of distance learning content

Taking into account the objectives defined for the beginning of the project, the time has come to define which contents should be prioritized to start your business distance education.

Engaging employees in online training is a prerequisite for the success of any project. Interactive content is the best option for beginners. Unlike videos, which are difficult to update and version, interactive training can be changed more easily if the content is modified.

#3 - Definition of the form of production

After choosing the content and audience for the first training, it will be easier to decide whether to in-house or outsource the production. To know if your team should develop content or if you should call a specialized company, you need to consider a few factors.

Below you can see the pros and cons of each option:

Outsource the production of LMS content:

Pros:

• More pedagogical, visual, and technological possibilities;
• Less risk and a greater guarantee of functioning of the published training;
• Less workload for your in-house team.

Cons:

• The hiring process can belong;
• The investment will be higher;
• Content development can take a while.

Produce distance learning content internally:

Pros:

• Autonomy in production and maintenance;
• Drastic reduction of training production costs;
• Agility in the production and publication of online training.

Cons:

• Control the expectation! It will be difficult to make complex and very interactive training;
• Conflict with other day-to-day activities of your team;
• Dependency on authoring tool support.
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#4 – Choose the provider to produce the content

The choice of suppliers will depend on your production method. If you intend to internalize the production of content, carrying it out within the company itself, you will need to hire e-Learning authoring tools that assist in production. To define the best authoring tool for you, the requirements we recommend are technology, usability, and service. But, attention, here it is very important that you take into account the experience of the team that you have and that will produce the training using this tool. If you have a less technical team, you may need to hire a company that specializes in eLearning content creation.

When choosing to outsource the development of your eLearning, it is necessary to keep in mind the intangibility of a custom project. So put your expectations on paper before you even start production.

• Your supplier must meet the technical requirements of the project. This is the first filter for your choice.
• Analyze deliverability by asking to access the content previously produced by each potential supplier, such as cases and portfolios.
• To find out how the project progresses and the service provided by each supplier, ask for customer references.

#5 – Hire an LMS platform

The LMS Platform is a fundamental structure for the implementation of an online strategy. Therefore, choosing the right supplier is a crucial task. To help you decide which LMS to adopt, we have listed some important aspects to be evaluated. Are they:

• Technological bases;
• Features and usability.
• Attendance and service.

#6 - Internal disclosure

A successful distance education strategy involves public engagement with the initiative. And this engagement is only possible with good internal communication.

To improve engagement, start with small, very objective training. Thus, your employees will gain pace in learning and in the consumption of online training.

#7 – Monitoring and reporting

We've reached the last step on our list. Now, everything comes in to monitor the development of your employees, collect data, analyze the results and continue the production of training, always prioritizing them according to the strategic objectives of your company.

Would you like to know about this live? Request a Demo. It is totally free, you will be able to observe SuccessFactors operating live, with business scenarios similar to those of your business, and resolve any questions you may have with the advice of a specialized consultant.