four Steps To Plan A Studying Platform Proof Of Idea
Plan your new learning platform in four steps
In our previous article, we explained the steps to becoming a Proof of Concept (POC) and the challenges you face when purchasing and implementing a new learning platform. With this in mind, you can plan your POC. This contains:
- Choosing your focus (target use cases)
- set goals
- Define success criteria
- Draw a timeline and milestones
eBook release
Don’t just create your business case for a learning platform. Prove it!
Build a successful business case for learning platforms and improve your buying and implementation process.
1. Choose your focus (target use cases)
The first step is to choose your focus by identifying 1 to 3 target use cases. The choice of your focus is primarily based on the questions: “What problem are you trying to solve?” Or “What opportunity would you like to seize?” This is your justification for suggesting buying a learning platform in the first place.
Let’s look at four common use cases that you might want to focus on.
1. Virtual onboarding
Many companies are finding that they need a virtual onboarding program. Hiring new employees in our mostly home based environment (WFH) presents unique challenges to the onboarding process, including:
- Assessment of skills before hiring
- Certification or licensing
- New attitude orientation of guidelines, processes and culture
- Initial and ongoing compliance and regulation training, sexual harassment and diversity training, security training, advanced training credits, recertification and qualification training
Effective onboarding also includes sharing your corporate culture and values with new employees. If your focus is on virtual onboarding, you may be interested in learning platforms that, in addition to the ability to deliver and track the completion of the required training modules, also provide immersive content such as a welcome video or a virtual office tour.
2. Transition from a live classroom to a virtual meeting
Across the industry, we are seeing a forced transition from classroom training to face-to-face or online virtual digital learning. Former classroom trainers are now becoming online learning facilitators, going through the process of converting classroom learning materials into online materials and finding new ways to engage learners and assess competencies. One important functionality to look for in this case is the ability for learners to upload evidence of demonstrated skills.
3. Retain top talent
Many organizations implement a learning platform as part of an initiative to recruit and retain top talent by providing opportunities for professional development and individual growth. You may already have a system in place to deliver mandatory compliance, regulatory, and security training. However, with this system it may not be possible to include opportunities for self-directed learning to pursue individual professional interests.
In that case, you should look for a learning experience platform that includes a standard course library for developing, continuing education, retraining, or cross-training soft skills. Another consideration concerns learning communities and the exchange of knowledge between learners. For some employees, sharing knowledge and promoting the learning, growth, and performance of other employees in the learning community can be a source of satisfaction and motivation.
4. Implementation of a new learning paradigm
Do you have to change the learning paradigm? Perhaps your focus is on the transition from teacher-led, binder-based or interactive Flash-based training to video-based mobile learning. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’ll want to validate the process of creating, delivering, and experiencing video-based training on the learning platform you choose.
2. Specify the goals
The next step is to set goals for each of your goal use cases. As an example, let’s look at possible goals for each of the four use cases described above.
1. Virtual onboarding
How do you create a meaningful and effective experience to bring new employees into your company when everyone is working from home? This is a question many organizations are asking. If this is your use case, your onboarding virtual POC can include the following specific objectives:
- Post a welcome video on an onboarding learning path supported by the learning platform
- Providing a virtual office tour.
Alternatively, or in addition to this, you may have a safety training use case (just keep in mind that you want to focus on a maximum of one to three use cases per team). The goals for this use case could be:
- Adding a fire safety course to the learning platform
- Enrollment of learners in the course
- Let the learners complete the training
Don’t forget to consider where you are getting this training from. The fire safety course can be created by you, licensed or part of the standard course library of the learning platform you are working with. Registering users can be a manual process, an automated process, or a batch upload. If you want to track the user completion of the training, consider the ability to report on individual users and all users. Taking these details into account as you think through it can help you define your specific goals.
2. Retain top talent
If you want to increase employee satisfaction and decrease sales in your company, your use case might be to keep top talent. Part of your strategy for doing this could be to give employees opportunities for self-directed learning, professional development, and individual growth. Goals for your talent retention use case include:
- Demonstrate the ability of learners to browse and search the learning platform’s built-in course library
- Demonstrate the learner’s ability to mark courses as favorites or enroll themselves
- Track and monitor the topics and skills your employees are most interested in
- Demonstrate automated email notifications and learner reminders
3. Implementation of a new learning paradigm
If your organization has a long history of teacher-led, binder-based, or interactive Flash-based training, you may want to turn that into video-based learning that can take place on a desktop or mobile device. Your use case would be video-based training, and your goals could be:
- Upload a 5-minute training video
- Add interactive display guidance so that the learner can better follow and engage with the video
- Demonstrate the learner’s ability to upload their own picture or video to demonstrate their ability to complete the skills taught
- As a facilitator or coach, review the learner’s completed viewing guide and submit evidence
Aside from these typical examples, your company may have other needs, such as: For example, automating customer training, improving sales activation, or personalizing compliance training to better identify skills gaps. A trusted vendor can help you determine a solution.
3. Define success criteria
Now that you’ve established your focus by identifying key use cases and goals, the next step is to define the success criteria. Your definition of success, which is also your exit criterion for these use cases in the POC, could be as simple as “Successful demonstration of all goals on the learning platform”. Other ways of defining success may include certain criteria, for example:
- “Employees can search for courses of interest and enroll for them.”
- “Customer service representatives can provide detailed information about the functionality of the new function X.”
- “Sales reps are successfully demonstrating Feature X, including 3 key value statements and a prompt to give the prospect an answer about how they might feel using this feature in their organization.”
One of the factors that make the Rockstar Learning Proof-of-Concept ™ approach so powerful is that you can demonstrate real value by showing how the digital learning platform solves a fundamental problem for your business. The last example above demonstrates this value by providing product training to your sales reps and using the digital learning platform to facilitate coaching and connect the value to actual customer needs during product feature demos.
4. Layout your timeline and milestones
The final step in planning your proof of concept is to define milestones with start dates, end dates and a schedule of your planned goals for each milestone. For each of the stakeholders participating in the POC, goals should be set in each milestone. We recommend that you have no more than 4 milestones and that each milestone last no longer than one to two weeks.
More insider secrets for planning your proof of concept
Are you looking for tips to carry out your proof of concept and create a successful business case? Download the eBook. Don’t just create your business case for a learning platform. Prove it! Learn more about the implementation of a proofing concept and the buy-in of stakeholders.
Rockstar learning platform
ELearning Brothers’ Rockstar Learning Platform is a powerful, yet easy-to-use solution that helps you effectively meet your needs today and grow and innovate in the future. Expect an easy-to-use, flexible solution at an affordable price.
