Excellence in Learning Solutions

After the recent NZATD Awards, I was asked to explain the criteria for excellence in a learning solution. That is the purpose of this article, and it can be used almost as a checklist for creating learning solutions.

Just before continuing, I want to clarify that an excellent learning solution is not one which is the perfect solution in an ideal world; it is one which meets the business need and delivers the results within the given parameters.

Needs Analysis – Business Level

To be excellent, a learning solution must be clearly linked to strategic objectives. The learning solution must be helping the organisation to achieve its goals and implement its strategies, leading to better organisational performance (whatever that means for the organisation).

The business need could have arisen as a result of a strategic initiative (ie, a new direction, new goal or focus) or the result of the introduction or change of a product, policy or system. Alternatively it could be because of the identification of an area where performance could be improved, perhaps identified through customer satisfaction, error rates, productivity levels or overall business results. It is important that the designers of the learning solution understand what the driver is, so that the solution itself is targeted to meet the business need. If this link isn’t made obvious, the resulting solution is at risk of becoming a piece of purist but off-target learning, or those involve end up making their own decisions about what needs to be included.

To gain further clarity of the strategic link, and to obtain input from stakeholders, key people must be consulted - who these people are will depend on the nature of the project.

It is at about this point where the parameters are identified. In today’s business world, there are always parameters around a project. And remember that an excellent learning solution is not one which is the perfect solution in an ideal world; it is one which meets the business need and delivers the results within the given parameters. In our organisation, we often remind our people that the client doesn’t want a BMW, they want a Corolla (or a mini). What’s the real difference? They both achieve the same actual result in providing transport, one has more bells and whistles and costs a lot more, but the other is still a very sound vehicle. In business today there are not many organisations which need, or want to pay for, the BMW learning solution.


Needs Analysis – Learner
The next aspect of an excellent learning solution is a thorough learner needs analysis. This starts with the identification of all the different roles that will be affected in some way. Each role can be categorized by the expected job performance outcome. For example, for the launch of a new product, some roles may need to promote the product, some may need to answer customer questions about the product, some technically support the product, some process applications for the product, and some may just need to be aware of the introduction of a new product. Knowing the performance outcome required by various roles allows them to be grouped according to similarity, for the creation of targeted and efficient learning solutions.

Each grouping’s performance outcomes will translate into a set of detailed learning objectives. In general, the objectives will be identified through consultation with the project sponsor, representatives of the target audiences, managers of the target audiences, and subject matter experts. The resulting set of learning objectives must be comprehensive as they dictate what content is included, what techniques should be used, and how to evaluate the learning. And later on, it is what guides the learner as to what they need to know and be able to do in order to perform at the required level.

It is this critical element that is so often missing from learning solutions. Without these detailed objectives it is not possible to develop a thorough solution that links back to job performance and back to the business need.

Solution Design

With the performance outcomes and detailed learning objectives set for each audience grouping, the designer of an excellent learning solution will be able to select the most appropriate delivery methods, whilst taking into account the project parameters. Different delivery methods will suit different audiences due to their varied performance outcomes and learning styles, and any additional constraints. Often the solution design for each grouping will include more than one delivery method. Some delivery methods that could be considered are shown in the table.


Group Training

Manager-led
• Round the table
• Briefing

Training-led
• Workshop
• Facilitation
• Experiential or simulation
• Game

Other
• Roadshow
• Event


Individual / Pair / OTJ

Paper-based
• Comprehensive module
• Guiding document
• Checklist learning
• Coaching guide
• Tutorial

On-line Group Training
• Interactive module
• Email facilitation
• Game
• Quiz


Support
• Job tools – checklist, decision tool, pictorial summary, poster, flip, etc)
• Quick reference
• User or reference manual
• Audio
• Video

Regardless of the main type of delivery methods chosen for the solution, we have found that it is well-designed job tools that have the most impact on job performance. These tools are designed to help people perform on the job as quickly and as easily as possible, and are what will help them on a daily basis. The more effort put into making effective and appropriate job tools, the better the end performance.
Instructional Design
There are many theories and models in the field of adult learning, and many elements that feed into an excellent instructional design. However there are just three that I shall elaborate on at this point:

 Presentation
 Key Structural Elements
 Instructional techniques - variety and appropriateness

Presentation and packaging make a difference. Receiving something of value, for example a gold chain, in a brown paper bag devalues the item, whereas if it was presented in a velvet box, its worth seems so much more. The same goes for learning deliverables. I’m not advocating wasting money on expensive wrapping, and there will always be project parameters however a little thought goes a long way to increasing the value in the learners’ minds, increasing the appeal of the deliverables, and increasing the enjoyment of the learner (and all of these points are based on principles of adult learning). So much can be achieved through a thoughtful page design, use of borders, font types and size, shadings, icons or symbols - none of these things need to cost extra money. Presentation also includes style consistency and ensuring that the layout of the deliverables makes it easy to read and follow.

The second component which goes a long way to assisting the instructional design is the structure of the learning deliverable - whether the deliverable is a self-paced module, workshop, or video. In its most basic form, this means starting with the objectives and an introduction setting the context, providing information or demonstration, ensuring interactivity and providing practice or application, and at the end of each section concluding with a summary and review against objectives. Following such a structure for each section or session ensures that the key instructional elements will be included. The method selected for structuring the content segments within the deliverable must also be appropriate - whether it be chronological, process-driven, building blocks, big picture to detail, or most important to least important.

The third component which has a big impact on the quality of instructional design is the variety and appropriateness of instructional techniques. There are hundreds of techniques that could be used, such as analogies or card games or critique or demonstration or simulation or quizzes or case studies or reinterpretation or …… the list goes on. An excellent learning solution incorporates many different types of instructional techniques, and they will be fitting and appropriate for the objective/s in question, the weighting or importance of the objective and the audience.

Delivery / Implementation
An excellent learning solution isn’t complete just because it has been developed. It still needs to be successfully implemented, integrated with other organisational intiatives and evaluated for effectiveness.

Every solution must be piloted on representatives of the target audience before full implementation. This will highlight any improvements that need to be made, and will ensure against costly mistakes such as on-line modules that don’t’ run, sections which are ambiguous or confusing, incorrect assumptions, surprise issues that impact on the solution, or inappropriate or ineffective techniques or exercises.

An excellent solution will also provide for consistency during implementation or delivery, through such things as train the trainer, manager’s briefing sessions, training or coaching guides, and support tools which present the same key messages or information. The solution may also require monitoring and reporting systems.

Evaluation

Lastly, it must be able to be proved that this is a learning solution of excellence. This is the other area that is missing from so many learning solutions, despite the number of articles written on the subject. I have seen learning solutions that look great and appear to be instructionally sound within themselves, but either they’re not evaluated against the performance outcome or objectives, or not evaluated at all. So how can it possibly be known if the purpose has been achieved?

A simple and useful guide to proving the effectiveness of a learning solution is Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation. A quick overview of what is expected in the way of evaluation from an excellent solution is as follows:

 Level 1 – Participant Feedback
This is one or two page feedback sheet which asks for participants’ comments and ratings on their learning experience and ease of learning, materials and tools, training or coaching style, and other related issues. All feedback sheets would be collated and reported as a summary of comments and graphed ratings.

 Level 2 – Competence
Competence checks must be developed to prove the performance outcome and each and every objective, whilst replicating the real performance context as far as possible. In general 100% competence is required, not the traditional percentage pass mark. The effectiveness of the solution can be measured (assuming that the competence assessment is valid) by a summary of what level of competence is achieved overall.

 Level 3 – Performance on the Job
Performance on the job can be measured at an individual or team level. In some situations such as contact centres, these measurements are inbuilt through call monitoring and evaluation, call statistics etc. In other situations, critique or observation forms may need to be created, regular or random work checks can be made, or productivity and error rates can be monitored. Exactly how on the job performance is measured is directly related to what performance outcome was specified, and how that performance can be monitored.

 Level 4 – Business Objectives
More difficult, but most valuable in proving ROI and effectiveness of the solution, is the resulting impact on the business objectives. Often it is hard to isolate the impact of just the learning solution as, if it is supporting a strategic initiative, there will be other initiatives implemented at the same time. Another complication is that sometimes the organisation has not collected the necessary data before the implementation of the solution so there is no benchmark against which to compare the new results. However any factors or business statistics that will be predominantly impacted by the solution provides a good place to start.

Conclusion

So it is not the prettiest, flashiest learning solutions that will be deemed “excellent”. It is those that meet the business need and deliver the results within the given parameters. In order to do that, there are some critical elements in the analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation process that must be considered.

I hope that this article gives you the confidence to know when you have created a solution of excellence. Happy designing!