As promised, this post offers my perspective on what went wrong with the training scheme scenario I described a couple of weeks ago: (Original post: An elearning cautionary tale I: Our online training scheme).

What went wrong

Fundamentals

The problems started immediately with the MD’s own attitude. On one hand, it’s great that he takes a real interest in the CPD that goes on in his organisation and wants to bring it up to date, but his lack of knowledge about elearning and tendency to be waylaid by shiny toys are obstructive. In addition, both the HR Manager and (especially) Head of Staff Development are themselves in need of CPD about organisational elearning.  Better backgrounds and knowledge would have stopped this situation from happening in the first place. If the MD had asked his HR people to upskill themselves instead of pushing software at them, the foundation could have been put in place to allow updated learning to be implemented properly.

If they felt things needed to change quickly, this would have been the time to bring in an eLearning Specialist or Consultant to provide some immediate support with the whole process of updating their training.

eLearning is not IT

Another fundamental and extremely common error was going to the IT Manager for an opinion about elearning. Some orgs even go so far astray as to class elearning as an IT project, giving more emphasis to the “e” than to the “learning”. From his answers, it’s clear to see that the IT Manager (rightly) concentrates on his area of expertise — the technical aspects of the software and its ability to integrate with the org’s own systems and network. This is important, but it tells nothing about how effective the software will be to deliver the particular training envisioned.

eLearning is not IT, in the same way that dentistry is not drilling equipment and cooking is not pots and pans. These are all tools used for a more varied discipline or activity. IT is a complex and technical subject that infiltrates just about every part of our lives; “elearning” merely calls attention to that fact in relation to traditional ways of learning.

Reactions

These fundamental errors and warning signs put in motion a whole chain of reactions that developed as a somewhat panicky response to the MD’s original whim. The organisation does not seem to have a culture in place allowing managers to disagree with the MD, or else the Head of Staff Development may have been able to talk about the virtues and benefits of their current practice. I’m a firm believer in the “horses for courses” tenet, which advocates finding the best solution for a problem — don’t change just for change’s sake. There was clearly no driving need to force a change, and experiments with using elearning could have developed with deliberation and small-scale piloting.

Lack of skill

The project staff knew they didn’t have the expertise to use the software to full advantage in terms of both creative multimedia skills and dynamic instructional design, and thus could only produce boring text-heavy tutorials.  Where affordable, external contractors with a track record of producing vibrant elearning may have led to the best results, and/or intensive CPD for the project staff, which has the added benefit of giving them valuable skills.

Chaotic rollout

With any major change to working practice, especially anything viewed as mandatory, more consideration needs to be taken for preparing the staff and then for the actual rollout. Instrumental to this is training, even if the software seems “intuitive”. HR should have thought ahead of time about issues of access for travelling or remote staff, and this is where IT should have been consulted to make sure everyone could get onto the system one way or another. Finally, anyone else required to complete the training who is not set up with computing (e.g., cleaners) should have an alternative version to make sure they’re included.

The knee-jerk draconian reaction to employee disatisfaction simply made matters worse, and a betting man would have put money on someone finding a way to circumvent the system.

What started as a simple attempt to bring in some new training ideas turned into a major war between management and staff.

Solutions

Ideally, an eLearning Specialist would have been called in at the first glimmer of an idea to avoid problems from happening, or at least somewhere earlier in the process to do damage limitation.  Even at this late stage, he or she can help with finding ways to get back on track.

The first thing to do is to make sure everyone is able (one way or another) to complete the first of the tutorials which have already gone out and been mandated.  Be gentle and don’t worry about a few cheats. Let this episode fade from memory. Run a traditional workshop with an especially good lunch, end the day a bit early and let people go home, creating goodwill.  Use your best HR techniques to restore a good relationship with the staff. Stop production on the further tutorials and call in the eLearning Specialist, who will help you decide how to rethink the use of elearning in a more organic and successful way. If you’ve already bought software, he or she can make sure you find ways to use it well. If you haven’t he or she will have an opportunity to present a range of options that might suit your needs better.

Did you see other issues or solutions?

Starting a blog is simple if you use a site like Blogger or WordPress.com. You just enter your details and away you go. Or you can have more control over design and plug-ins with a WordPress blog on your own hosted site.  In either case, there are other things to think about, which are best done at the start.

Here are some suggestions…

Sign up for a hosting package

There are plenty of webhosts that offer easy installation of well-known blog engines.  I like Dreamhost, which provides a solid foundation for the start and for future expansion. It also offers a simple “one-click” method for installing a number of popular blogs and other goodies. The cost is about £80/$90 per year.

Install a blog engine

If you’re going the route of hosting your blog on your own webspace, I’d recommend WordPress, which has been around awhile, works well, and has a huge customisation potential through themes and plugins. Read the how-to information, browse the plug-ins and choose a theme.

Browse successful blogs

Don’t just read the posts and comments; cast an analytical eye on the site, paying close attention to everything: the writing, multimedia, pages, graphics, design, links, advertising, navigation, ease of subscription, cross-links to social media, etc. See what works and what doesn’t. Make a note of features you like and those you don’t.

IPR and copyright

It’s all well and good if everything you post on your blog is 100% homegrown from your own brain and skills.  However, it’s likely that you’ll want to pull images, videos, text and other content in from elsewhere on the web.  Make sure you don’t present anyone else’s content as if it were your own. Most things are OK to use as long as you use the expected method (e.g., embedding YouTube videos) or if you provide credits, references, links and/or other information that identifies the original owner. However, if you really can’t tell if it’s OK, do one of these: provide just a link rather than the thing itself, ask for permission and wait for it to come, or leave it alone.

Monetise

If you’re going to mention products for sale on prominent ecommerce sites, sign yourself up for affiliate programmes like Amazon‘s and any others you feel likely to use in the future. Then, always use your unique links to the products to make sure you get your share if anyone does click through and buy the product. There’s also Google Adsense, which places adverts on your blog and gives you a small kickback if anyone clicks on them.

Publish some initial content

Get something published quickly: your bio and photo for the “about me” page and a couple of blog posts. Even if you don’t have much yet, make sure there’s something worthwhile for early visitors to want to come back.

Establish your brand

Sign up with Gravatar for an avatar that will move around the web with you and make sure your comments on other blogs (and your own!) will be recongised. If you’re trying to make a name as an individual, use the same photo you use on your bio page. If a business, use a logo that works well in various sizes.

Comment on blogs

Find the most popular blogs to do with your topic. Subscribe, read and make comments regularly, always including your blog url. Spread yourself around, discuss, engage, make a name. Be nice, but be knowledgable — add value and you’ll get people coming to check out your blog. And don’t neglect replying to comments on your own blog. You’ll get lots of spam, but the real commenters who actually engage with your ideas are very valuable and deserve nurturing.

Publicise

Put your url on all webpages, business cards, letterheads, adverts, email signatures, promotional materials. Make a list of anyone who mentions you online and ask them to include your blog address. Send an announcement about your new blog to anyone relevant.

Use social networking

There are loads of easy ways to interconnect most of the best-known social media and networking accounts, such as Facebook and Twitter. You have a better chance of catching readers by spreading your nets around.   Tweet every new blog post; “follow” appropriate people (many will follow you back); put links to your accounts on your blog (there are also plug-ins to link them automatically); get yourself on various directories like WeFollow; use available apps to publish your blog on other site profiles. Make it easy for people to find you!

Use the tools designed for the job

There are loads of tools designed specifically for bloggers to collect information on readers and also to make it easy for readers to subscribe by newsreader or email to your blog. Most WordPress themes come with RSS feed buttons in place to allow people to subscribe directly, but you may want to consider using Feedburner instead, which collects lots of useful data and allows you to customise how a subscriber will view your feeds when read in email or a newsreader. There’s also Google Analytics for more data and another view.  The more you know about your readers, the more you can put your efforts into the right strategy for satisfying them and for getting new ones. Also make sure your blog is visible to ping and aggregator sites like Technorati and Pingomatic.

Post, post, post.

Post regularly. This may be once a day, once a week, or slightly less often, but try not to let long stretches go by between posts. We all suffer from writer’s block on occasion or find we’re swamped with other things that seem more pressing. Not all your posts need to be groundbreaking or brilliant. There are lots of strategies for writing (or videoing or podcasting), which will depend on what you want to do with your blog, and if you plan to post frequently, you may want to take longer posts and break them up into shorter ones you can post on different days. Or you can use those times you set aside to write to create posts that will be published on specific dates (WordPress does this for you).

There’s lots of good advice out there, so don’t lose heart. As long as you have a reason for you blog — you have something you want to say — you’ll find your voice and a way to make it work. But above all, don’t expect huge numbers of readers to come flocking in overnight. It takes time to build a reputation. Good quality posts published regularly will gain you a loyal readership.

Comments?

Picture this scenario:

The MD of a mid-sized service sector organisation attends a business networking lunch where someone from a learning software company gives a presentation showing an exciting-looking product designed to be up and running quickly and easily. All you need to do is set it up on your server, add some text and pictures and your staff is on the road to better training. The MD takes a brochure back to his HR manager and suggests she have the Staff Development Team look at ways this software might help them expand and improve their training across the organisation.

The Staff Development Team runs mostly face-to-face workshops and doesn’t have much experience with elearning software. Most of the sessions involve flipcharts, presentations, breakout groups, discussion and a catered lunch, which is a fairly pleasant alternative to the usual workday, and the head of Staff Development nas never felt the need to look for new technical solutions. So the IT manager is brought in to provide technical expertise. He explores the software, which has a lot of functionality, seems robust and should be relatively straight-forward to implement. The HR manager OKs the substantial purchase and the Staff Development Team sets about looking for ways to use it.

The software is expensive and impressive, but the Staff Development Team feels a bit out of its depth. The newest member of the team used to work for a big company that had elearning specialists on staff. He’s worried they won’t get the kind of results the MD expects without the help of external contractors, such as elearning specialists, instructional designers, content writers, graphic designers, and so on.

The head of Staff Development thinks this sounds a bit OTT, but she starts to worry that what first looked like a bit of updating and enhancement to their old-fashioned but workable methods may require additional investment. She goes back to the HR manager, who knows the MD won’t cough up any more money and consults with the IT manager about whether his team can fill any gaps. The IT manager assures her that as long as the Staff Development Team can write up and upload the content, his team will make sure the software works. The HR manager is satisfied.

The head of Staff Development takes the brief back to her team and assigns two project officers to work on the project for two months. IT sets up and configures the software and the project officers get to work cutting and pasting the content from workshop notes into the software.

At the end of the two months, the project officers are pleased to have made the deadline. They’ve prepared three tutorials to replace three half-day workshops on Health & Safety, Diversity in the Workplace and Using the Outlook Calendar. All three tutorials consist of blocks of text with the occasional clip art image and a quiz at the end.

They present the tutorials to the Head of Staff Development, who acknowledges the work but secretly feels them to be dull and inferior to the original workshops, which were lively, active and social. However, she also knows that this is the wave of the future – it’s what the MD wants – and she has to move with the times. She also sees that the tutorials will take less time out of the day than the workshops and that the staff may appreciate this.

As it was originally his idea, the MD asks to be shown the tutorials. The IT manager sits in. At first, the MD seems pleased, but as page after page of text blocks go by, he gets bored and asks we they haven’t used some of the whizbang features he saw in the sales presentation: animation, movies, music, etc. They admit they didn’t feel they had the time or expertise to make use of these. The MD asks why someone from the IT team didn’t show them how to use the other features. The IT Manager gets annoyed and says they did, and the project officers admit they know how they work, but just not how to use them. This makes no sense to the MD who sends them away to add some “good stuff”.

The project officers go away wondering whether they should be looking for a new job, but one of them suggests they film the HR manager talking about Diversity and upload that. They also throw in a few more quizzes and pictures.

The MD asks the IT manager what he thinks, and the IT manager says it’s a nice piece of software, so the Staff Development team gets the go-ahead to launch. A memo goes round with instructions how to access the tutorials through the intranet.

At first, the staff are generally curious about the software tutorials and seem pleased not to have so many workshops to attend, but it quickly becomes clear that some of the less computer-literate are having trouble getting started. An emergency meeting is called, and the Staff Development team quickly cobbles together some training sessions for those who need it.

Meanwhile, the project officers get the green light to replace more workshops with tutorials. Another three are prepared in short order.

Those who don’t need the training sessions are first amused about the whole thing, then bored with endless reading on screen, and by the third one, fed up. They also begin to realise that they miss the workshops, with their social component and catered lunches.

When HR notices a groundswell of staff members ignoring the tutorials, they send out a punitive memo stating that they are mandatory: HR is collecting date about who completes them, and anyone who doesn’t may face disciplinary action. The outcome is that someone discovers it’s possible to “fast forward” directly to the quizzes and circulates a cheatsheet with all the answers.

Some of the computer-illiterate staff miss training sessions for legitimate reasons and others still have trouble despite the sessions. Some staff members who travel or work remotely are unable to access the software at all. They become angry that the tutorials may affect their employability even though they continue to perform their own jobs well.

Morale dips and previously content employees grow negative. Things are a mess.

Two questions for you to answer in the comments (my own answers in a later blog post):

1. How can the organisation fix the problem from this point on?
2. What should the organisation have done in the first place to avoid it happening?