YOUR CUSTOM COURSEWARE VENDOR

In a webpage entitled, “Custom e-learning Solutions,” we find the following opening paragraph:

Learning, according to any pedagogue, can be very effective when it is customized to the learner’s needs. If the learner is a factory worker or a corporate employee, then the factory or the office become his areas of learning and this learning should then be integrated in his daily work hours and should match the organization’s work processes.

Regardless of that statement, for most of the training initiatives within your organization, knowledgeably designed and produced generic courseware will meet your needs. The costs will be much more reasonable and the results will be equally effective — provided the generic solution you choose is both video-based and embedded with optional word-for-word audio.

However, you will occasionally require specialized custom programming designed to address items that are specific to your organization’s procedures, policies or specific equipment.

What should you look for?

To begin, you should select a producing organization that has a long track record of creating similar multiple-media training programs for their customers. And, they should be able to demonstrate samples of such programming for your analysis.

Secondly, you are looking for a custom vendor that specializes in adult education – an organization that realizes what it takes to motivate and train adults in their own simulated environment. Above all, a vendor that realizes that media training (rooted in full motion video and optional word-for-word audio) is essential to 40% of the American workforce who do not read above a 4th Grade level.

You’re also looking for a vendor that is fully capable of determining training needs and how best to address them — a vendor thoroughly steeped in responsible task and skills analyses. In short, a producer that knows when to call in subject matter experts for specific expertise in a particular area, and how to gather the necessary information — presenting it clearly and logically to the learners.

Your vendor-of-choice should be able to demonstrate that they understand the importance of remediation, so that the learning can be completed successfully. That vendor should also understand training as a just-in-time resource that can be used efficiently whenever and wherever — after the initial instruction has taken place.

Plus, if you pick the right custom courseware producer you should, then, be able to cut your workers time-in-classroom by 50-70% which, of course, gives you a relatively quick ROI on your custom courseware investment.

Off-the-shelf programs will work well for most of your training needs — but, custom programs are sometimes essential for certain proprietary projects.