5 reasons for your company to ask for customized eLearning courseware

When talking about eLearning, it is common to see companies using general courseware chosen from a catalogue, which is of course cheaper and ready-to-use but can also have many issues: in this article we will explain five reasons why your company should ask for customized courseware and how could benefit from it. 

 

WHAT IS THE COURSEWARE 

The term “Courseware” is a combination of the words “Course” and “Software” and was coined to describe training materials used on the computer. With the spread of eLearning, courseware’s meaning has grown to indicate the whole course and all resources and materials used in the course itself by instructors and students

In particular when referring to Internet based training, it is distributed through a Learning Management System and can comprehend many different formats, especially videos (like SCORM content), audios (like podcasts), images, presentations and written documents (articles, books, etc.). 

 

COURSEWARE FROM FACE-TO-FACE TO ELEARNING

Traditionally, corporate training has been delivered face-to-face by specialised instructors who adjusted the courseware according to the company needs

When moving to eLearning, though, many providers have started to offer premade courses in a catalogue, for companies to choose from. This solution seems to be preferable when the budget is quite tight, since it allows eLearning at a lower price. Another advantage of choosing premade materials is the possibility of having it immediately ready-to-use, without having to be involved in (and having to wait for) the design process at all. 

 

WHY TO CHOOSE CUSTOMIZED COURSEWARE FOR ELEARNING

On the other hand, making use of general courseware could have some disadvantages, and therefore it can be worthy for a company to invest in the design of customized courses, both on a content and on a look-and-feel level. Here’s the five reasons why we have selected. 

  • ONBOARDING

The first reason for choosing tailor made courseware is related to onboarding, namely the acquisition of new employees in the company. When joining a company, the employee is usually inserted into a training program to learn all about processes and procedures. If the courseware he has to use is branded with the company logo and colors, he can feel more welcomed and part of the team and start his journey in the company on the right foot. 

  • EFFECTIVENESS

On another level, having personalized training can help to achieve learning goals more easily. This is because general courses are built basing on general needs and objectives to reach, but can be quite out of scope for the specific class. On the contrary, the process of building customized courseware is based on instructional design and takes into account the specific knowledge and competences of students, in order to design the perfect path to help them to achieve all learning objectives. This can avoid wasting time with topics already known and focus on elements that need to be acquired. 

  • ENGAGEMENT

In addition to being more effective, tailor made courseware appears to be also more engaging for students, and therefore makes them more motivated and involved in the training process. This happens because the material is measured specifically on the learning needs of students, which makes it more interesting for them to study since it is perceived as useful

  • TURNOVER

Together with the benefits related to onboarding, using branded courseware can help to drop the turnover rate, since it tends to link the employee to the company, at least on a training level. As corporate training is an important part of an employee’s growth, this seems to be a crucial factor to keep people motivated to stay in the company for a longer time. 

  • EMPLOYER BRANDING

Last but not least, one final advantage for a company that chooses to have customized courseware can be connected to employer branding, namely the reputation of the company itself as an employer. Of course there are many factors that can influence the perception of a company in the labor market, but if we consider offering valuable training a plus, then companies that can provide to their employees customized eLearning courses instead of the general ones from a catalogue seem to have an edge over others. This means being able to attract new talents and, in the long run, become more competitive not only as an employer, but also as a service or product provider

 

Eventually, each company needs to choose the most suitable solution to meet its requirements: some kinds of training do not need to be customized to be effective (even if they could still be more effective if tailored), while some other cannot be generalized at all. As usual, the most important thing is to make informed choices

Do you want to know more about customized eLearning courseware design? Visit our dedicated page!  

 

 

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