Happy New Year to our fellow CPTMs! And, to all of you who make learning a priority, whether you are in the learning field, or just want to improve yourself each day. The new year is a perfect time to commit to bettering yourself and what better way to do that than to learn something new!
Technology is a great way to continue to learn by taking an online class, finding learning modules online you can read at your leisure or connecting with people via the internet and learning through conversation. Technology can also be a great way to maintain your training program.
We took the Certified Professional Training Management course back in June and are still using things we learned and discussing relevant points with clients and consultants. One thing we learned (and agree wholeheartedly) is that technology offers a huge benefit to the learning process.
How do you choose the best learning technology for your organization? It can be a daunting process because there is so much that technology can do. The size of your company, the amount of people needing to be trained, their locations, the level of IT support you have, the timeline and budget of your project all come in to play.
Do you need a full Learning Management System (LMS) with integrated and reactive e-learnings? Or, do you just need a way to track attendance in classes taught by a contract instructor? Both are valid needs and technology can help you manage them and any projects that fall within the entire spectrum in between those two options.
The 3 biggest factors in choosing your learning technology are:
Your Business:
Large and small companies may have different needs. Do you have remote employees? Many offices? Or, are you in one location and everyone is onsite? These are factors that will contribute to the scope of your technology needs. Also keep in mind your company culture. Is it acceptable to take time away from your job to train? Or will things need to be done off-hours? Think about what technology the employees have access to; if you have a labor intensive business, not all employees may have access to a computer.
Your Training Organization:
Before making a decision, you’ll need to know what resources you have available. Tight budgets and limited staff will make a difference, and in this case, technology can really help. Automating tasks can increase efficiency and actually decrease costs, and a good LMS can eliminate a lot of extra work with administrative tasks all in one place.
Your Learners:
Making sure you know what your learners needs to know is big. And, how they need to learn it. Is it hands-on training that internal Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can create and teach? If so, technology can help that process along. It can also help with the timeline of how fast people need to learn and how quickly they must ramp up by tracking those things in a customized LMS system. If it’s external experts you need, and live classes, technology can also help keep track of who is attending, how much information they are retaining and how well the training was received via survey tools within your LMS.
Technology is definitely a good thing, but you have to use it properly and know how to select what’s best for you. Take into account your main priorities to select the best method: you, your learners and your business.
If you’ve just jumped in on Lesson 6, read more about the other lessons we’ve learned here:
-L&D thoughts
-Have a thought on our blog post? Please comment below, we love to start new discussions!