We\u2019ve covered a lot of things here in the TalentLMS blog through the years.<\/p>\n
From “heads up” posts for new releases<\/strong> to detailed breakdowns of the platform\u2019s Instructor Led Training<\/a><\/strong> tools, and from integration guides for hooking your eLearning portal to services like Slack<\/strong> <\/a>and Shopify<\/a><\/strong>, to general advice on starting your own online training business<\/a><\/strong>. You name it, we\u2019ve most likely got it.<\/p>\n As big TV nerds, though, and with Game of Thrones season 6<\/strong> looming upon us, we\u2019ve decided to put together a nice, lean on substance and high on filler, GoT-themed article, as we did last year<\/a><\/strong>, for your reading pleasure. Who knows, maybe this is a new tradition. Read freely, as it contains no spoilers (unless you haven\u2019t seen seasons 1-5 yet<\/em>).<\/p>\n Do you know why Jon Snow would make a perfect eLearning candidate?<\/strong><\/p>\n Because he knows nothing!<\/strong> (buh dum ts)<\/em><\/p>\n A lot of your learners will unfortunately be in this position even after they have completed their course — and some might not be able to complete it at all.<\/p>\n If you mostly rely on lecture or, even worse, wall-of-text style units, with some big test in the end of the course, you won\u2019t be prepared to respond to this at the proper time.<\/p>\n Instead, take advantage of TalentLMS\u2019 testing capabilities<\/strong> and include a few questions or small quizzes at the end of every lesson, so that you can gauge your learners\u2019 comprehension as the course progresses.<\/p>\n This way you can lend a helping hand to struggling learners, suggest that they take some prerequisite courses, or if most of your learners fail the course, adjust your material<\/a><\/strong> so that it is more approachable.<\/p>\n While the whims and desires of the leadership can be as important in the corporate world as in King\u2019s Landing, collaboration with your learners<\/strong>, rather than coercion, is really the key for a successful training program<\/a> in the corporate eLearning world<\/strong>.<\/p>\n For example, even though you feel that your eLearning program is very important, the truth is your learners are also employees that have to cater to numerous daily responsibilities related to pressing business workflows and immovable deadlines.<\/p>\n Instead of fighting them over it, work with them to reach the perfect balance between their daily work and their training regime<\/strong> — spreading a challenging course over a longer time frame, properly scheduling instructor-led training sessions, etc.<\/p>\n Or, you can opt to hammer them with their training duties, and throw hissy fits anytime they don\u2019t completely comply with your whims — kind of like Joffrey<\/em>.<\/p>\n But while they won\u2019t poison you if you go that route, they won\u2019t respect you that much either. We\u2019ve said it before and we\u2019ll say it again: Don\u2019t. Be. Like. Joffrey.<\/strong><\/p>\n While his character is still slowly developing in the series, it\u2019s pretty evident that Bran Stark is going to be a pretty big part of the final battle between the living and the (un)dead.<\/p>\n And all that despite being basically a small boy with no army, and a broken spine to boot.<\/em><\/p>\n His secret? Empathy<\/strong> — being able to get into the minds of other people (and\/or wolves). And while in Game of Thrones this involves some magic, you don\u2019t really need that to use empathy in real-life eLearning.<\/p>\n What you do need is the ability to connect with your learners and to put yourself in their shoes<\/strong>, understanding what they need to get out of your course, what might confuse them, how you can explain things better, etc.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to get it 100% right from the start either — you can always use the insights gained from training the first batch of employees to make your next corporate eLearning program better.<\/p>\n While the various royal houses and fiefdoms might hate each other\u2019s guts, they all slowly begin to realize an important truth: unless they unite, they really stand no chance against the evil zombie armies.<\/p>\n The same can be said for any large corporation — there will always be fiefdoms and turf wars between the various departments, but unless they collaborate with each other, the competitors will eat the company\u2019s lunch in no time.<\/strong><\/p>\n As the head of the training program, you should seek the cooperation and assistance of other department heads. After all, it\u2019s their employees that you\u2019ll be training, so they should also have a say on the whole matter.<\/p>\n Engage branch managers and department heads early on, and keep consulting them while the training program progresses.<\/strong><\/p>\n You\u2019ll need them to tell you what skills their employees are lacking in, you\u2019ll want them to provide you with raw material to be used for creating your training and on-boarding courses, and in general you\u2019ll want to shape your training program upon their needs<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Who doesn\u2019t love Tyrion? He might be small in stature, but he is very good at making use of what he does have — his brains and capability of thinking a few steps ahead of the game.<\/p>\n Wouldn\u2019t Tyrion make a far better king than Joffrey? Or his other nephew\u00a0–\u00a0so unimpressive that I don\u2019t even remember his name (OK, it\u2019s Tommen — but I had to look it up<\/em>).<\/p>\n Likewise, don\u2019t be fooled that you need to be a giant enterprise to have a full-blown corporate eLearning program.<\/strong><\/p>\n Sure, there are enterprise software solutions costing tens thousands of dollars, and there are others that can do the same things (or the 80% that matters to you) for a fraction of the cost.<\/p>\n1) Know what you don\u2019t know<\/h2>\n
2) Don\u2019t be like Joffrey<\/h2>\n
3) Put yourself into the shoes (or souls) of others<\/h2>\n
4) Collaboration is key<\/h2>\n
5) You don\u2019t have to be big to think big<\/h2>\n