Staying competitive in the marketplace requires strategic investments in key areas, such as human resources. However, off-the-shelf training content is often generic and fails to engage employees. Furthermore, such one-size-fits-all programs don’t move them from knowledge acquisition to impactful application.
Therefore, ongoing employee training programs should be tailored to fit your company’s goals, culture, and brand. These custom eLearning solutions boost your employees’ morale, skills, and productivity, generating the necessary online training ROI (return on investment). Let’s discuss the basics of effective eLearning program development and how such programs generate business impact.

What Makes Custom eLearning Effective?

Custom eLearning solutions for your workforce generate significant impact. That’s because it is tailored to fit your company’s unique culture and systems, while yielding measurable improvements and goal achievements.
These personalized eLearning courses feature role-specific modules for employees at all levels of your organization. Also, employee training programs are self-paced, giving each staff member control over how and when they access and learn the content. Furthermore, these solutions are often presented in microlearning format or bite-sized chunks of information that can be covered in five to ten minutes. Customized eLearning modules are also optimized for easy on-demand access across multiple devices, which facilitates just-in-time learning.

Instructional Design Methodologies
The leading instructional design methodologies include:

ADDIE
ADDIE stands for Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate. This is an iterative framework that creates training content in five distinct phases:
Analyze: Examine the target audience’s characteristics, needs, learning styles, and training context. Also, account for knowledge/skills gaps and performance goals.
Design: Define the learning objectives, select the best instructional strategies, and plan the learning experience. Also, design the assessments, select media, and create course outlines.
Develop: Create the custom eLearning materials (training manuals, online modules, and other resources). It includes writing the content, creating the interactive activities, and developing assessment tools.
Implement: Deliver the eLearning content to the target audience. Schedule training sessions and launch the employee training programs.
Evaluate: Assess the learning outcomes and get feedback from training participants. Such info helps you make the required changes to optimize the training program and learning experience.
ADDIE is best used for well-defined projects, roles, and processes.

SAM
SAM (or Successive Approximations Model) is an agile and iterative instructional design framework, focusing on quick prototyping and ongoing feedback. It creates functional prototypes (or simplified preliminary versions of the modules) early in the content development process and changes them rapidly based on learners’ and stakeholders’ feedback.
SAM has three primary stages:
Preparation: Gather info on the project, learners’ needs, performance gaps, resource constraints, and learning goals.
Interactive Design and Development: Build prototypes, gather feedback, and based on the feedback, make rapid adjustments to them.
Implementation and Evaluation: Launch the custom eLearning solutions and measure their effectiveness.
SAM is a flexible alternative to ADDIE and is best utilized in projects where requirements constantly evolve and there’s a need for quick development

AGILE
AGILE (Align, Get set, Iterate and implement, Leverage, and Evaluate) was introduced by Conrad Gottfredson. This design framework aligns learning objectives with your company’s strategic goals and prepares the development team and resources. It also iteratively develops and implements employee training programs, as it uses users’ and stakeholders’ feedback to optimize the learning experience. AGILE continuously evaluates the effectiveness of custom eLearning solutions.
 
This approach is best used in highly collaborative settings and where the content must adapt to changing training requirements.

IPractical Case: Building an Onboarding Module
Our client EPEVER, a global energy technology provider, needed a multilingual course to educate its internal teams and customers about its latest product. We developed a digital product training module leveraging microlearning, responsive product simulations, and scenario-based walkthroughs. The module achieved a 40% reduction in post-launch support queries, faster ramp-up in their partners’ sales channels, and streamlined international product onboarding. This module is still being used to onboard new employees, certify partners across many markets, and showcase the product value to customers.

Content Development: Tools of the Trade
Custom eLearning solutions leverage the best in technology. Here are some content development tools to explore:

Authoring Tools
These include:

• Articulate Storyline is suitable for complex interactions within scenario-based learning.
• Adobe Captivate is often used for responsive design applications and simulations.

Delivery Platforms
The top delivery platforms are:

• Moodle is an open-source platform supporting customized modules, resources, and interactive activities for employee training programs.
• Custom LMS is a platform purpose-built to support your organization’s training requirements

Multimedia Elements

These elements enhance the learning experience. Content development that utilizes animations, voiceovers, and gamified assessments increases learner engagement and understanding while catering to different learning styles. Interactive and custom eLearning solutions are more impactful and accessible to a broader target audience, leading to better learning outcomes and achievement of organizational goals.

ROI Measurement and Business Impact

Measuring online training ROI helps determine training effectiveness. Thorough pre-/post-training assessments capture the growth in employee competency. Some indicators include time-to-competency (or the time taken for the employee to acquire the knowledge and skills to perform their job role) and cost-per-learner. A cost-benefit analysis proves the value of such training programs and how they drive company growth and market competitiveness.

Case: A Logistics Client’s ROI Story

It’s difficult for customers to track the logistical components (warehousing, freight forwarding, and customs). Our team at TrainIKU created a digital learning experience for DL Logistics’ prospective customers. It used visual, short modules, and creative storytelling to explain our client’s core services and answer frequently asked questions. This custom eLearning program improved customer understanding and onboarding. Now DL Logistics has fewer support tickets, less in-person sales involvement, better conversion rates, and shortened sales cycles. Furthermore, it’s a reusable asset for employee training.

Maximize Online Training ROI with Custom eLearning Solutions

When done right, custom eLearning solutions offer measurable returns for business operations and profitability. TrainIKU offers a comprehensive suite of services to help you develop unique training modules for staff at all levels, stakeholders, and customers. If you want measurable ROI from your employee training and faster knowledge adoption, TrainIKU can help.