American Express training expert offers suggestions for success

Citation

(2010), "American Express training expert offers suggestions for success", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 42 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2010.03742gab.005

American Express training expert offers suggestions for success

Article Type: Notes and news From: Industrial and Commercial Training, Volume 42, Issue 7

Check the appetite for e-learning in your organization before going ahead with any scheme, Samantha Hansford, American Express training and development manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, advised people attending a so-called “inspiration day” organized by blended-learning specialist Redtray.

She continued: “There are many different types of e-learning, from rapid-build to bespoke options. Understand what these really are by viewing demonstrations and reviewing them to experience what the learner will experience.

“Depending on your project scope, consider the sustainability of the solution. Identify opportunities for long-term use of e-learning and make them suitable for future projects. Be careful with the content and language that is used.”

She also advised organizations to have a “kick-off” day, pulling together all content and learning experts plus the organization’s external e-learning specialist to shape the content and create a structure with which everyone is familiar. “During this meeting, be sure to determine roles, responsibilities and key milestones and timelines,” she continued.

“Have knowledge experts on board and available. Do not underestimate the time involved for the content sign-off stages. E-learning requires several stages of sign-off which must have involvement from all parties.

“Understand the design process of e-learning versus traditional learning: e-learning is built differently, so timelines need to be adjusted considerably. When designing classroom training, I would often get the content right and then work on the look and feel. It took me a while to understand that the look and feel plus content are worked on simultaneously for e-learning.

“Select trusted ‘end-users’ who can support the design phase, to find out what will engage them and most importantly, what won’t engage them.

“Recognize the learner experience versus cost. Realize that it may be worth paying more for e-learning that engages the user and gives a more visually stimulating experience. Also be aware that costs can run away, so defining look and feel upfront is important.”

Finally, she advised: “Be sure to incorporate a monitoring and reporting tool. By choosing a reporting tool as part of our solution, we were able to report back to the business on utilization, pass marks and evaluation scores. This was invaluable. One of our key challenges in the past had been uptake, and having this information provided our team leaders with greater visibility.”

Bob Woodland, Redtray chairman and chief executive, commented: “It was fantastic to have such a great turn out to our first inspiration day and it was a privilege to hear client success stories and the challenges they had overcome. It is our role to foster knowledge sharing and to provide an opportunity for senior-level managers to network and learn from one another’s experiences. This is the best way forward in terms of improving industry best practice and also a great way to support our clients in the roles they perform.”