Implementing eLearning Into Your Association? Here Are The Fundamentals (Part 3 of 3)
Welcome to the third and final part of our three-part blog series of Implementing eLearning Into Your Association. We have looked beyond LMS features through the eyes of an instructional designer by considering three fundamental questions that will inform and shape the decision-making around choosing an LMS.
We have asked two of the three core questions before choosing your LMS and implementing eLearning for an association. These questions help to outline your members’ learning journey so you can lead them down the funnel in the learning direction you want them to go. So far, we’ve answered these two questions:
Now, for our third and final question: “What will you do if they don’t?”
In a different era of education, you could hear teachers across the country far and wide say the infamous phrase, “I taught it; they didn’t learn it.” Since those days, educators have learned that putting the responsibility for learning on the learner, rather than the instructor, is simply unhelpful and unrealistic.
When applying the “I taught it, they didn’t learn it,” mindset, the instructor becomes dissociated from the results of their learning program. This mindset helps no one; webinar attendance goes down, tests get failed, skills aren’t acquired, professional development requirements aren’t met and ultimately, your association wastes thousands of dollars on development. Meanwhile, the instructor/content developer says, “I taught it (developed it), they just didn’t learn it,” followed by excuses like, “Well, the learners are just … too busy, not engaged, not willing, not educated enough, too educated, not willing to spend…” and on and on.
But let’s be honest, if your learner does not learn, it’s not the learners’ fault. The responsibility for learning falls directly on the educator’s materials, instructional strategy or the system (like the learning management system) the educator uses to give learners access to the material.
Great teachers meet their students in their place of need. They experiment by adjusting content, instructional methods, and evaluating results after every change to see if they can improve their results.
Meeting Your Association Learners In Their Space Of Need
Let’s take a look at a different mindset: “How will I meet my association learners’ needs when they don’t learn or achieve the outcome I desire.” If a learner doesn’t achieve your desired result, consider helping them by:
- Letting them take the program again
- Giving them access to a coach or subject matter expert
- Giving them the opportunity to provide access to a different teaching methodology (in-person classes, flip cards, etc.)
- Connecting them with a networking group of those that have been successful in the learning
As you can see, how you plan to tackle the concern of “learners not learning” will be critical in the choice of your learning management system.
Consider the possibilities of:
- Limit the attempts at test-taking and then reissue a test at a later date or after the material has been reviewed again
- Develop 1:1 or small group coaching calls
- Provide a variety of instructional methods including – video, microlearning, flipped classrooms, interactive eLearning
And remember, you can charge for each one of the items above. In particular, coaching seems to be a high dollar, high-value proposition for your subject matter experts, your learners, the industry and the association.
In other words, just the idea of coaching is a win-win for everyone. When you have a learning management system that makes accessing coaching easy, seamless and automated, it can be a powerful game-changing tool for everyone involved. The goal of the LMS will be to start creating credibility for the association, increasing relationships between members, improving member education, and ultimately providing a new high-dollar revenue source for your association.
As we wrap this series up, consider how these three questions will affect your choice of learning management system:
What do you want your learner to know?
- What are your learning objectives?
- What instructional methods will you use to teach those learning objectives? For example, will you use on-demand webinars, virtual or hybrid conferences, interactive eLearning, animated video, PDFs, ongoing small group study, flipped classroom, or microlearning?
- Questions to ask:
- Are the instructional approaches you have now and hope to deliver in the future available in the learning management system?
- How can we automatically and seamlessly capture revenue when learners access our material?
How will you know if they know it?
- How will you evaluate if the learner learned the material?
- For example, will you use quizzes, matching, essays, assignments, surveys, video capture or a proctored test?
- Questions to ask:
- Are those evaluation strategies available in the learning management system? How do you access reporting and what does the reporting on the evaluation strategies look like?
- How can we automatically and seamlessly capture revenue when a student accesses evaluation material?
What will you do if they don’t?
- How will you meet the learner in their area of need when they don’t learn the material or skill?
- For example: allowing them to take the course material again, provide access to coaching, or access to a different teaching methodology
- Questions to ask:
- What will you do if the learner needs additional help? Is the learning management system flexible enough to allow for coaching, access to different types of material or your desired approach?
- How can we automatically and seamlessly capture revenue when learners need extra help?
How This All Impacts Your LMS Choice For Your Association
The importance of asking these questions when choosing cannot be understated. Sure, functionalities in the system of choice might be on the top of your mind, but by asking these questions ahead of time, you unravel greater opportunities to maximize your non-dues revenue.
In a nutshell, all three stages of the learning journey are opportunities to be drivers of engagement, credibility and revenue for your association, so make sure your choice of an LMS is an informed one that considers the learners’ journey.
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
About the author:
As the Vice President of Learning Strategy and Design, 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.
