Elearning has been widely spreading during the past years and will continue to do so. Its multiple such as global reach, availability in multiple devices and the fact that it can be either an asynchronous or a synchronous activity has helped this method become popular around the globe.
As in every industry, building and developing a solid eLearning client base is critical for a business. And, in order to do so, it is important to know the clients, listen to the users’ need and interests. “Online learning” opens up a quasi-authentic learning space that is infinitely big (albeit unstructured) and offers unlimited learning materials. However, beside this advantage, companies have to look at consumers on an individual level.
While digital learning offers some advantages, it should not be forgotten that it faces the same challenges as “analogue” or traditional learning. Both cases depend on motivation in order to be successful. Looking at eLearning from the users’ perspective allows companies to establish a connection, to provide an actual solution to the client’s problem and add value in the process, as well as keeping them motivated and eager to keep using the platform.
First of all, it is important to consider who are these clients and consumers, which are the final users: employees, students or even job seekers. But, to have a better understanding of the types of clients and their expectations, the actual questions go beyond this point. Questions regarding their life situation at this point, work situation or the time they can designate for a certain task can provide even a more complete panorama.
Based on this, the clients for eLearning can be identified in six different groups:
1. Traditional students
Traditional students are students that, after finishing high school, entered college. Nowadays, more and more education centers offer eLearning programs. Only in the US, the Babson Survey Research showed that 6.7 million students enrolled in at least one online course. What differentiates traditional students from others is that their expectations are directly oriented to quality of training, high-level certifications and job oriented skills. The information provided needs a high level of engagement and some dynamic material. Also, most traditional students have expectations about rewards.
2. Nontraditional students
Commonly referring to students who have returned to school after some time. They mostly quit their studies for a while due to a full time job, starting a family or financial setbacks.
In this case, eLearning represents the first training method students have, before achieving a diploma. The factors this segment value the most are flexibility, prices and certifications, as well quality of the material.
3. General users
Using a generic training offer is an approach to satisfy the widest range of users. The audience could be a sum of traditional and nontraditional users, talent management, etc. Or they could be consumers just looking to try something new that adjust to their needs and expectations. In this case, the typical expectations for these consumers are easy access and quick to buy, well – ranked, full assistance (24/7) and sometimes also features of social sharing.
4. Employees’ mandatory training
Most jobs require different types of training: the ones directly related to the field and some general training such as legally oriented items to cover, guidelines and style for copywriting, etc.
Even when the users in this case are not volunteers per se, they have to be eager and committed to the learning process due to the need of approval.
The final users are usually not very demanding in terms of quality of the training. However, it is the companies that are busy and concentrating efforts to develop well planned programs, this is with the aim to ensure a high level of training and completions as outcome. In this case, the main focus is a good schedule, broad access and ensure SSO with corporate systems.
5. Talent Management
This type of users are well trained and highly motivated. What moves them is their hunger to increase their knowledge and power of decision: they can choose what fits them best. Even though this is usually a restricted group of people, it is easy to approach to them with a focus on high quality training. They seek for training programs that are aligned with other activities planned for them. This means that the service should provide a perfect integration between talent management and training.
6. Remote users, geographically dispersed
These users are usually accessing from remote spaces that are far from the company headquarters. From expats, to employees that travel often to remote workers, they require a lot of training. For example, in the case of maritime or mining employees, this kind of workers need specific training oriented to their job. They expect their program to focus on one single concept. They usually aim to acquire the information needed and no more.
What is common in all of these users is that, either way they are ‘learners’. They are a customer and a consumer at the same time and even though it is crucial to respond to the different learner preferences, there are some commons expectations: to meet a corporate need, to have a dynamic and even fun process of learning and finally, to feel they have invested their time in something valuable.
An eLearning company should be ready to project scopes change and see a shift in priorities. And, keep in mind at all times that the objective is to provide the best possible customer experience. A way to achieve this through instructional design. In fact, in order to provide the best odds for learners, the company should have content well designed, in an instructionally sound manner. This will lead to the creation of educational experiences that maximize learning and present optimized content through instructionally sound courses with solid learning objectives.
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