9 Strategies to Incorporate eLearning in a Manufacturing Organization

What’s the one mantra that all L&D professionals from the eLearning industry agree on? Slow and steady wins the race. We mean to say here that any change, big or small, takes its own time to evolve into a full-fledged system. However, things took a different turn when 2020 happened! And until now, nothing has been the same! Organizations, which had full faith in classroom Instructor-Led Training (ILT), took no time in opting for digitalization in training. Yes, currently, the pace of eLearning adoption has changed from ‘slow’ to ‘rapid.’

In fact, According to the 2020 LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report, “The budget for online training has increased by 58%, and organizations are spending significantly less (by 37%) on classroom ILT.” This statistic applies to eLearning in manufacturing and is the topic we will be addressing in this article. So, when it comes to digitally training your employees, especially in the manufacturing industry, your first question might be: “How are you going to make that shift from offline to online classrooms?” “What are the special features to be considered, especially for eLearning in manufacturing?” Worry not! We have you covered!

9 Strategies to Incorporate eLearning in Manufacturing Organizations

Following the COVID-19 crisis, a significant part of the corporate workforce has been working from home. And this applies to the manufacturing domain as well. Leaving the factory floors and onsite tours, employees have been dealing with safety protocols and getting the hang of Zoom or Skype meetings. The manufacturing industry has now realized that whatever the situation, they cannot press the pause button on creating value and up-skilling learners. Yes, you cannot just stop learning corporate till you deal with the problem. And with classroom ILT becoming obsolete (almost), incorporating eLearning in manufacturing has become inevitable. So, where to get started? Let’s begin!

1. Partner with the Right e-Learning Platform (LMS) Provider

Online training in the manufacturing sector comes with specific requirements. Therefore, your LMS for corporate learning provider must be equipped with the proper know-how to guide you through the entire process. We would recommend you check with your potential vendors. Along with the LMS website, will they also provide practical training for your organization’s admins and employees so everyone knows how to use the software?

Will they give any implementation tips? Ask them if they will guide you in internal marketing your L&D program and new LMS features. Also, enquire if they offer self-help materials and handy how-to videos. It would help if you asked your LMS vendor about customer support. Again, how frequently does the LMS provider update their LMS online? And how do they do it? PlayAblo’s answer to all these questions is YES! Additionally, when it comes to elearning in manufacturing, you should probably also consider how you would use your LMS for compliance-based safety training.

2. Check if Your LMS Provider Can Overhaul Your Existing Legacy Content

In the manufacturing domain, eLearning is a fresh concept. Until recently, the industry had been leaning heavily on traditional offline courses. Therefore, it is a no-brainer that your organization will already have a host of training materials in the form of Powerpoint PPTs, PDFs, leaflets, and Word files. However, with the right eLearning in manufacturing vendor, you will not waste your earlier effort. With PlayAblo, you do not need to overhaul your whole training curriculum and start from scratch. You can re-purpose your old content and consolidate it to fit into a mobile-based interface. In short, you can effortlessly convert ppt to a mobile learning management system.

Read More: Your Go-to Guide to Convert PPT to Mobile Learning

3. Go Mobile

A majority of the workforce in organizations consists of millennials today. It is no different for the Manufacturing industry. When it comes to millennials’ learning habits, they usually prefer short, concise courses segmented into micro-chunks. It enables easier absorption and retention of knowledge. Hence, opt for a vendor who possesses the expertise to offer mobile-based eLearning.

M-learning allows social or collaborative learning. Using a different methodology like videos, podcasts, short assessments, and perusing research articles in one unified medium for workplace learning will effectively engage the learners in the desired concepts and skills.

4. Think Live Classes

When you shift from ILT to digital learning, you might think that your existing instructors will go out of a job. Well, eLearning has solved even this issue with the concept of ‘live classrooms.’ If your end goal is to transform your online learning platform into a complete education environment, live video sessions, and interactive virtual classrooms are essential. You will need a platform that can easily integrate software that allows trainers to conduct virtual sessions.

5.Understand Your Organization’s Learning Goals

Before you even kick off the process of searching for an eLearning in manufacturing software, you should first understand your organization’s learning goals and what the strategy is for reaching them. For a manufacturing company, the end objectives differ from other industries. For instance, you should ask your team: how does your learning and development program help your organization reach those goals?

What are the skills needed by your staff to achieve those goals? Have you considered the knowledge requirements, preferences, strengths, and limitations of your employees? What are the best ways to deliver training to your staff — considering your organization’s final objectives. You should also analyze if your learning methods are effective. Finally, settle on your plan for continually improving the learning and development program at your workplace.

6. Discuss the Focus Points

Your overall learning strategy would help if you also concentrated on addressing eLearning in manufacturing’s focal points. For instance, who is your end audience? Will you be training only your employees or the extended enterprise, including contractors, vendors, visitors, suppliers, and customers?

What are the types of training you need to concentrate on? New employee onboarding or compliance training? Do you need to teach your workers to perform their job tasks, job roles, and future job roles? Is it your end goal to create a flexible, agile, adaptable, and innovative workplace culture? Do you want to empower your workers to generate and share the knowledge that generates the change?

It is also necessary to consider the end use of the online components of your training program. Here, you have to take into account two components – your enterprise LMS and any online learning courses you use in addition. You can also think about using your online learning courses along with other training activities to create a blended learning solution.

7. Create a Task Force

Give the following some critical consideration too. Finalize your different fast LMS administrators. Distribute the powers and privileges among them. Next, identify your learning population – employees, extended enterprises, or clients. Will you give your learners the option to upload and share employee-generated learning content? Again, do you want employees to see and complete only formally assigned training? Or do you want them to have access to your entire training library?

8. Consider the Tools

The next critical consideration is to finalize your learning tools. What will your learning management system features include? Do you want to incorporate elements that support mentorship, discussion boards, and other similar collaboration types? Will you embed external learning content via a learning curation platform? What about an LMS that has artificial intelligence to enable the customization of training assignments? Can you make training recommendations for individual employees? Finally, do you wish to select an LMS that comes with compatible mobile apps for mobile learning and mobile performance support?

Ad: PlayAblo’s Enterprise-Grade Micro-Learning platform is for the modern corporate learner. Micro-Learning, along with assessments and gamification features, ensures learning outcome measurement along with sustained engagement.
Find out more and request a custom demo!

It is also necessary to consider the learning content. What categories of training materials would you like to deliver online? Have you thought of online elements that help you assign, notify employees, schedule sessions, grant completion credit, and share reports? Do you want to integrate your LMS with other software applications like HRIS, ERP, CRM, shopping cart, etc.? And, what elearning standard do you need your LMS to be compatible with — SCORM or xAPI?

9. Finalise the Features

The last step is to take a call on your LMS features. Do you want your eLearning platform to be a network-installed, Cloud-based or SaaS-based LMS? Where do you want to deploy your LMS application — on your work network or the cloud? Consider the user interface. An easy interface and user experience are acceptable. A tricky, complicated, non-intuitive one delivers a poor experience. Additionally, it would help if you also kept a lookout for reporting features.

Ad: PlayAblo’s Enterprise-Grade Micro-Learning platform is for the modern corporate learner. Micro-Learning, along with assessments and gamification features, ensures learning outcome measurement along with sustained engagement.
Find out more and request a custom demo!

Conclusion

If you are from the manufacturing domain, you will reap the benefits of detailed research. Take some time and determine what you want your new LMS to do. Finally, settle on the best LMS for your manufacturing training needs.