Selecting Courses to Meet Learner Needs

By Ruth Kustoff, Principal, Knowledge Advantage

This is the second post in a series of resources for LINGOs members.

Building on my first post, Getting started: Identify top learning needs and develop a plan, this entry will provide some guidance for member agencies in selecting courses for their learning portals. Many new LINGOs member agencies are overwhelmed with course options as they get started.   LINGOs members have access to a menu of more than 3000 on-line courses from which to choose.  Level 2 and Enterprise Members may select from among these courses to include on their agency portals.  Rather than looking at the courses, it makes sense to start with your organizational learning needs.

First, identify areas within the organization and analyze what skills, knowledge and competencies are needed to complete job functions. For example, does your staff have the skills required in key areas such as project management, leadership, meeting facilitation, and communications?

Then, identify how you will look deeper into learning needs of specific job functions to determine the course offerings best suited to your organization.

Identify your learner

To identify what content or learning programs your organization needs, it’s helpful to know who will complete the learning, what jobs they have, and the specific tasks and responsibilities of the jobs.

This process is a large undertaking. I’ve broken down into steps to help you think about what type of learning is required by various job functions.  As individuals assess their knowledge needs, their answers will give you a better understanding of existing skills and knowledge gaps to identify which LINGOs courses are needed, or what course content may need to be created or acquired separately.

During the LINGOs’ Virtual Coffee Break for June, in which Peter Balvanz from FHI outlined the process his organization used to engage staff, plan, pilot and launch its learning portal, we discussed many of the steps I’ll outline below.  Click here for a link to the recording and here to link to Peter’s guest blog from January.

Define Skill Gaps and Learning Needs

1. Survey managers who supervise others what competencies are needed by staff to do specific job functions. Ask managers to identify where their staff members need additional training.

2. Identify type of training or knowledge needed for specific jobs. For example, does the job require knowledge of, and skills in:

• Specific technical skills: IT Professional Certifications, specific software skills, project management, food security, clinical training techniques;
• Improved personal management skills or knowledge: time management, writing skills, safety and security, stress management;
•  Leadership and management: motivational, leadership, supervisory, coaching, performance management, people management.

3. Survey staff Either everyone in the organization or a pilot group can help to identify their skill requirements by job function and title. In the survey, ask individuals what knowledge and skills are required to meet their job needs and goals. You may also want to ask them, or the IT manager for each country/office about internet access to help you determine whether staff will be able to access more bandwidth-intense courses (such as ones that include video). Click here for a list of technical requirements for LINGOs Catalog courses.

4. Select courses After you have determined the job function competencies and knowledge needs, identify and select a defined number of courses that align to these areas. These courses will help staff in each job function/ individual gain new knowledge or information to carry out their job’s requirements more successfully.

•  With job function competencies identified and aligned to specific content areas and course topics, now you can identify expected learning outcomes. For example, after completing a specific course, a learner (or group with similar job title) will be able to: list functions that can be completed, new skills to be used in what way, or additional knowledge that will positively impact a specific area of the job function.

Course Selection Summary

The LINGOs course library includes courses that are relevant for many job areas across an array of organizations. Once you’ve identified the needs of each job function, and determined skill or knowledge gaps for each job title, you can choose courses focused on those areas. I recommend beginning with a limited number of course offerings, and adding new courses on a regular basis.

Starting small allows your staff to get comfortable with computer based learning and the learning process. It also provides you opportunities to continue to engage with staff and market learning goals, expectations and resources available to them through your new learning program.

In addition to self-paced courses on the LINGOs IntraLearn LMS and through SCORM Dispatch, LINGOs members have access to additional on-line learning content, including virtual classroom content and time-bound courses from eCornell.  Level 2 and Enterprise members can create and upload custom-developed courses to their portals, or purchase access to SCORM 1.2 Compliant courses from other vendors to place on their portals.

To see an overview of courses available from LINGOs, listed by topic and by Developer/Partner click here.

When thinking about developing custom, or bespoke, courses, remember the eLearning Global Giveback Competition, through which you may be able to work with a volunteer instructional designer or eLearning developer to transform your existing content into eLearning.

Upcoming blog posts will address how to build awareness of the learning program with a communications plan, and how to identify learning liaisons and power users in the field.

 Ruth Kustoff is a learning strategist with 20 years experience. She works with organizations to develop and integrate talent solutions, including adult learning, elearning, and training programs. Her expertise includes organizational performance, project management, and information and knowledge sharing.

Ruth is a member of the LINGOs Group on LinkedIn and can respond to general learning strategy questions there. She is also available for consultation for issues specific to an individual organization.

Getting started: Identify top learning needs and develop a plan

By Ruth Kustoff, Principal, Knowledge Advantage

As a guest blogger here, I will be writing several posts that I hope will help both new and existing LINGOs member agencies. We will take a look at how to plan a learning strategy, and start learning with LINGOs courses.

 

So, how do you begin to identify top learning needs and develop a plan?  This will vary by organization, but in most cases, you can start from the organizational mission and strategic plan already in place.  Recognizing the goals of the organization, ask yourself what are the specific skills, or knowledge requirements for any of your staff in order to contribute to those goals? For example, are these areas important for job success? 

 

• project management
• management and / or leadership skills
• meeting facilitation
• communication skills – written and oral

You may want to look at the different job functions in the organization to determine where gaps may exist between identified requirements and current knowledge levels.

Another consideration as part of the first planning steps is to determine the scope of the assessment. Do you want to assess the entire organization’s learning needs, or break it into smaller groups?  You may want to select a specific job type or function within the organization as a pilot group, or choose a potential group of learners based on priority and need within the organization.

Role of Senior Management

Before moving ahead too much with the planning process, you’ll want to get senior management support that there is a need for a training plan, and the recognition it will require staff resources. Additionally, senior management should identify at least one individual to spearhead the planning, and allocate time for this to be completed. Prior to approaching senior management, you may want to outline the high-level steps required for the plan, and what type of review and approval process will be in place.

Since the learning plan will be based on organizational strategic goals, leadership may be interested in revisiting strategic goals prior to pursuing a learning plan. They may also like to explore how learning and knowledge align to organizational goals. One way to do this is to complete a SWOT analysis. This process takes an in-depth view of internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors (opportunities and threats) that impact the organization. This exercise, if carried out completely and given the time and thought it requires, can shed light on creating new processes for growth and success in the organization.

Leverage learning in the community: Join the June 16 LINGOs Member Virtual Coffee Break to discuss this further. Peter Balvanz of FHI will share his organization’s recent planning and pilot process, and Guest Blogger Ruth Kustoff will be on hand to participate.  

Please click here for Virtual Coffee Break details, including the login link.  Read about FHI’s pilot in our January 31 post.