3 minutes
Here’s how to know if it’s truly good.
These days, doing professional learning online is just a given. Employees expect the chance to expand their job knowledge right at their desks. HR, compliance officers, and department managers like the planning and tracking capabilities online learning makes possible.
But there are a lot of choices out there. What are some ways to know if the online learning system you’ve chosen has gone from just being a “given” to being really “good”? Here are six.
1. The content is relevant, up to date, well-presented and covers all the topics you need. For example, many credit unions use online training to help staff learn what they have to do to meet regulators’ expectations. And regulation is changing all the time. So you need courses that respond to the marketplace and do a good job of teaching team members the latest. And notably, you don’t want just one good course, you want a whole library of good courses.
2. The system is easy to use. This applies both for the learner and for the HR or department manager. Millennials love all things technology—so long as it works well. Administrators want a system they can just click through to see what an individual learner has been doing—as well as get reports on the whole team’s progress.
3. The reporting is not only easy to generate, but also useful and customizable. Some reports—maybe six to eight of them—should be so standard that a single click creates them. But a good system also allows managers to create their own reports by filtering the data. It can be very interesting and useful to see the pathways a learner has taken through a course (did he go right to the exam first?) and also how many times they returned to the system to continue the coursework. Of course, both individual staff members and their managers are interested in their exam results as well.
4. Both reports and courses can be exported. It can be useful to export report data into other software—or into a meeting. And exporting courses makes it possible for people with sight impairments to use alternative methods of learning the course material, such as specially printing them.
5. The system allows you to upload your own content. For example, some organizations like to upload their policies and procedures. You might also want to upload information about a product that’s unique to your credit union, and have that organized into the same learning space.
6. The support for the system is solid. Even the best system will sometimes experience a course hiccup. How well does the support team respond when something does go wrong? In addition to offering a searchable knowledgebase for problem resolution, does the online learning company have knowledgeable and responsive people on call for you?
With the current trends in online learning, if you’re not using online learning you likely will be soon. As this method of learning becomes more and more of a given, use these six considerations to make sure your program is truly good.
Jay H. Bowden is CFO of TRC Interactive, Harrisburg, Pa., which powers CUES Online University.
CUES Online University offers compliance and front-line training—including fraud prevention—at a very low cost. Download the course catalog.
