Implementing eLearning Into Your Association? Here Are The Fundamentals (Part 2 of 3)
Welcome back to our three-part blog series where we discuss the fundamentals of implementing eLearning into your association. From an instructional designer’s perspective, there are three important questions to ask before choosing an LMS:
1. What do you want your learner to know?
2. How will you know if they know it?
3. What will you do if they don’t?
In our previous installment of this series, we focused on the first question, “What do you want your association members to learn?”
Now, Question Number Two: How will you know if they know it?
Well, Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation is an excellent place to start. It’s a world-renowned method that helps one evaluate the results of any learning program, assessing both formal and informal training methods and breaks them into the following four levels:
Level 1: Reaction
The degree to which participants find the training favorable, engaging, and relevant to their jobs.
Level 2: Learning
The degree to which participants acquire the intended knowledge, skills, attitude, confidence, and commitment based on their participation in the training.
Level 3: Behavior
The degree to which participants apply what they learned during training when they are back on the job.
Level 4: Results
The degree to which targeted outcomes occur as a result of the training.
At level 1, you are establishing if your members like the eLearning program. Was it easy for the participant to get into it? Did they find the material relevant? These are important parameters that set the tone for your members’ overall learning experience and are usually accomplished through surveying the learner at the end of the experience.
At level 2, you are discovering if there was an outcome that resulted from the learning experience. Did the member learn new content from this? Can they pass a knowledge-based test or can they demonstrate a skill? Most of the time, level 2 evaluation methods are accomplished by having the learners take a test, write an essay or video themselves using or talking through the use of a tool.
Most learning evaluation methodologies stop here. But if we dig deeper we can really see the impact our training programs create.
At level 3, you evaluate whether or not your members’ behavior fundamentally changed. This is where you see real differences in the lives of your learners. For example, you can survey your learners or their supervisors to see how much of their learning has stuck with them over time and how their behavior changed in the short and long term?
At level 4, you see just how effective the eLearning program was. Did your members’ behavior create the outcome you desire such as fewer on-the-job accidents? Getting to this level of evaluation can be tricky. But as an association, you have member organizations who would likely gladly partner with you to do a brief study to determine how your association training impacts their company. And from there you can determine the impact your learning has on an entire industry.
As an example, let’s look at a construction company that instituted a mandatory hard hat policy while on the job site. After the eLearning program, the company can conduct questions of the workers like:
| Questions | Responses from the learner | Evaluation Method | |
| Level 1: Reaction | “Did you attend the training on wearing your hard hat?”
“Did you enjoy it?” “Was it relevant to you?” |
Yes/No | Learner Survey |
| Level 2: Learning | “How often do you need to wear your hard hat when on the job site?” | At all times. If I am inside the construction site. | Multiple Choice Final Exam |
| Level 3: Behavior | How often do you wear your hard hat? | Always, when on the construction site. | Learner survey or
Supervisor survey |
| Level 4: Results | Have there been fewer head injuries? | 10% fewer head injuries since implementing the training | Workplace safety data |
The exciting thing is that, from an instructional design perspective, associations can directly align a particular eLearning program to net the particular result they want to see.
The Importance Of Understanding Metrics With An LMS
When applying the Kirkpatrick method and reviewing the metrics after creating your particular eLearning module, you can:
- Know that members liked it
- Know that it worked
- Know that members learned something
- Know that it changed their behavior
- And ultimately, know that it produces the changes in the industry the association and your members want to see
You might say, well what does this have to do with Learning Management Systems? Well, figuring out the type of data you want to collect will impact the type of learning management system you want.
For example, if it’s just Level 1: Reaction and Level 2: Learning, most Learning Management Systems can do that.
But what if you want to evaluate Level 3: Behavior through regular check-ins to learners that tracks long-term behavior change. Or going one step further to Level 4: Results, you may need a Learning Management System that creates easy-to-use reports that track learners’ progress over time and ties easily to your Association Management System and can easily align to industry or member data. That’s likely a more complex Learning Management System.
In the third and final blogs of this series, we’ll help you answer, “What will you do if they don’t?”, so check back to gain this insight to make the best decision for your association’s LMS.
At Naylor, we’ve been dedicated to maximizing member engagement and increasing non-dues revenue for associations in over 80 industries for more than 50 years. Leveraging LMS to engage your members is proven to boost engagement and drive non-dues revenue. The Path™ Learning Management System is a cloud-based approach to educational content management designed specifically for lecture-based learning applications. Optimized to deliver media content from educational events, Path™ allows you to manage all of your content, such as conference recordings, recorded lectures from live and virtual meetings, and traditional presentations, in an easy-to-use, rapidly-deployed, digital library that enhances learning for worldwide audiences.
To learn more, reach out to our team at Naylor to discover how we can build your LMS – and your association – stronger. Request a Meeting
If you missed part 1 of the series or need a refresher and reminder, please click here!
About the author:
As the Vice President of Learning Strategy and Development, Dan leads his world-class team of instructional design professionals to enable non-profits, associations and businesses build exceptional learning content. Dan became an expert in learning, instructional design and presentation delivery through his over 20 years of experience as an award-winning public education teacher, administrator and entrepreneur. In fact, Dan founded IMPART Learning Solutions, which was acquired by and became a division of Blue Sky eLearn in January of 2020.
Blue Sky eLearn delivers world-class eLearning experiences and virtual events all supported by our award-winning Path LMS™. Unlike other software vendors, who cobble together a myriad of platforms and call them “one solution,” Blue Sky eLearn products and services are supported by the strength of our one, scalable, award-winning learning management system (LMS) – which is laser-focused on delivering engaging eLearning and virtual event experiences that resonate.
