5 Practical Tips To Maximize Your Gains From Outsourcing Corporate eLearning Development

Over the last two decades, organizations have seen tremendous value in outsourcing corporate eLearning development. In this article, I outline 5 practical tips that you can use to maximize the gains from outsourcing.

Maximize Your Gains From Outsourcing Corporate eLearning Development

Outsourcing corporate eLearning development is an established practice and has been there for over two decades now. The success stories across the world clearly highlight that it delivers the required benefits.

Consider the following data that enumerates the impact of outsourcing eLearning content development:

• Based on a Docebo report, companies allocate roughly 42% of their budget on outsourced online training services. This is a strong indication that organizations acknowledge the importance of investing in L&D in order to improve training ROI. They know that hiring a trained eLearning professional will provide them with the experience and skills they require.
• Traditional classroom training involves a lot of travel. eLearning has the potential to reduce the combined cost by as much as 70%. However, outsourcing eLearning gives you the ability to reap these budget benefits, even if you don’t have the time or know-how.
• Larger organizations tend to outsource more of their online training needs than mid-size organizations. In fact, 60% of large companies reported that they outsourced some, if not all, of their online training efforts. This may be attributed to the fact that eLearning is so flexible and adaptable, as it is constantly improved to match industry standards.

Source: Outsourcing eLearning: 6 Facts And Stats eLearning Pros Should Know

In this article, I highlight the top 8 benefits for which outsourcing of corporate eLearning development is done. Then I share 5 practical tips that you can use to maximize this gain.

Top 8 Benefits Of Outsourcing Corporate eLearning Development

1. Reduction in costs
   This typically is the first reason and the most obvious benefit that the outsourcing of corporate eLearning development brings to the table. Furthermore, it brings the added value of getting more done in a shorter time with the required quality.
2. Flexibility to scale up or down
   The organizational business needs are dynamic, and they often lead to headcount increase/reduction to manage the training needs. While this is difficult to do with your in-house team, this flexibility to access additional resources, when needed is the second biggest benefit that outsourcing of corporate eLearning development offers.
3. Access to new skill sets and more varied talent in a given domain
   Authoring tools and related technologies are changing so rapidly that it is virtually impossible to keep track of all of them. Equally tough is the mandate to have in-house expertise across all of these. This is where outsourcing corporate eLearning development gives you yet another significant advantage as you can now bridge the specific skill gap with ease.
4. Faster turnaround time
   Most outsourcing partnerships give you access to a dedicated talent pool that can be used to complete your projects in a relatively shorter time.
5. Access to the best practices leading to the optimization of your development practices
   While you may have a great in-house practice for eLearning content development, there is always room for further improvement and optimization. This too is possible as you consider outsourcing corporate eLearning development wherein your partner’s capabilities can help you enhance your current approach further.
6. Addition of more innovative solutions to your portfolio
   While most eLearning development organizations have access to a similar portfolio of tools and technologies, your partner can add value to your learning designs through innovative and creative Instructional Design approaches.
7. Enhanced focus on your customers
   Whether you are servicing internal or external customers, outsourcing the development of your eLearning content provides your internal team with additional bandwidth to pick up other related aspects. These could help you devote quality time with your customers that can help you create further business opportunities.
8. Focus on strategic activities
   As an extension, the delegation of outsourcing corporate eLearning development frees up your team’s calendar that can be better spent on strategic initiatives.

What Are The Tips That Can Help You Maximize Tthe Gains from Outsourcing Corporate eLearning Development?

Now, I share 5 practical tips that will enable you to maximize the gains from the outsourcing corporate eLearning development initiative and see gains beyond the benefits highlighted here.

Tip 1: Refine Your Approach And Factor For The “New Normal”

There has been a sea change in the online training offering in the last couple of years. There has been a significant transition in many aspects including the change in devices learning happens on (read smartphones) to the kind of learning experiences learners want (read microlearning, video-based learning, gamification, and so on).

As a result, these aspects need to be incorporated into your charter, and this new set of needs should be used as you outsource corporate eLearning development.

Some of the key trends that you should factor are listed here:

• Mobile learning in contrast to traditional eLearning
• Conversion of Instructor Led Training (ILT) to blended or fully online training
• Mobile learning solution designs featuring both mobile friendly (adaptive) and mobile-first formats (fully responsive)
• Microlearning
• Approaches that are fun yet provide serious learning experiences (like gamification, videos, and animated videos)
• Learning paths that include both formal training and informal training
• Social or collaborative learning
• Personalization of learning
• Content curation and user-generated content

Look for a partner who can fulfill these learning approaches.

Tip 2: Identify Measures To Collaborate, Communicate, Review, And Work Effectively In The Distributed Development

Whether you select an onshore, a near shore, or an offshore partner, the success of outsourcing corporate eLearning development hinges on the model that is in place.

Look for a partner who has the required frameworks for online collaboration, communication, and review to maximize your gain.

Tip 3: Change To Agile Development Methodology

The usage of Agile development methodology is an established practice in software development.

Now, its usage in eLearning content development has created a different approach that focuses on an iterative process that emphasizes continuous quality improvement.

• It includes “huddles” that bring all stakeholders (yours and your partner’s teams) on the same page.
• The development happens over small chunks that are built in short “sprints”. There is room to iterate and enhance the learning experience at each sprint.
• It reduces the overall development time and provides higher predictability.

This is another significant aspect that you should look in a partner for as you carry out outsourcing corporate eLearning development.

Tip 4: Enhance The Workflow By Integrating Techniques Like Design Thinking

As an extension of the Agile approach, you should also evaluate the integration of the design-thinking approach that enables your team to collaborate innovatively with partner teams. The result is a solution that aligns better with your mandate.

This, too, is an important aspect that you should look for as you outsource your corporate eLearning development.

Tip 5: Establish Methodologies That Can Measure And Enhance Your ROI

A positive ROI is the final litmus test in determining the success of your initiative. This success is an aggregation of many aspects notably:

• Learner reaction
• Sticky learning strategies
• Learning effectiveness or learnability
• Support to learners at the moment of their need (supplementing formal training with Performance Support Tools/job aids that are available to the learners within their workflow)
• Measurement of the gain/business impact

Look for a partner who can work with you not just for content development but who can add value across the spectrum from Training Needs Analysis (TNA) to training evaluation and ROI computation.

I hope this article provides insights into the benefits of outsourcing corporate eLearning development. I hope my tips will help you reap further gains from the outsourcing of your corporate eLearning development.

If you have any queries or need any specific support, do contact me at apandey@eidesign.net.

Source: https://www.eidesign.net/5-practical-tips-to-maximize-your-gains-from-outsourcing-corporate-elearning-development/

A Step-By-Step Outsourcing Guide For eLearning Content Development

Before you begin your outsourcing initiative, you need to watch out for several factors that can impact its success. In this article, I will share a step-by-step outsourcing guide based on my 14 year experience of providing offshore eLearning content development services to customers worldwide.

eLearning Content Development: A Step-By-Step Outsourcing Guide

Background: This step-by-step outsourcing guide is an outcome of my own practical experience over last 14 years. My company EI Design has been providing offshore custom eLearning content development services to our customers across the globe.

As you embark on the journey to outsource eLearning content development, you can use the following pointers mapping to 4 key steps:

Step 1: The Start Point

Begin the exercise by setting up a team to deliberate on:

Why do you want to outsource?

What are the expected gains (over what period of time)?

What are the possible options to outsource?

What should be your outsourcing strategy?

Outcomes: At this stage, you should be able to identify:

1. Why Outsource And Expected Gains.

This exercise should help you quantify the triggers that are prompting you to evaluate outsourcing. These could range from scaling, higher profitability, enhancing your portfolio of services, access to a specific talent pool, and so on. These would have a bearing on the profile of the partner you should seek and the evaluation criteria.

2. Outsourcing Strategy.

Once you have done this and arrived at one or more reasons why you should outsource, the focus shifts to evaluating the options:

Onshore vs. offshore.

Selection of an onshore partner has a bearing on the cost (and your profitability) but has advantages in terms of access to additional talent, enhancement of your existing portfolio, and so on. The offshore partner will have cost advantage, plus the other gains, but you will need to plan for related risks of time zones, communication, and cultural differences.

Single vs. multiple partners.

In my experience, I see that several organizations prefer to begin with multiple partners to offset the perceived risk (do not put all eggs in one basket). However, my personal assessment is to adopt a more rigorous evaluation process, pick pilot projects that give you a 360 degree view of the interaction but go with one partner.

Step 2: Partner Evaluation And Selection Process

At this stage, you need to extend the core team that you had set up to carry out the evaluation and selection process. Also, ensure that your Project Management team is now part of the team. Then:

• Draw up the criteria for evaluation.
• Create frameworks to review and analyze the information you receive from potential partners.
• Decide on the weightage of the evaluation criteria and create a scorecard that will enable you to compare and select.
• Identify the list of potential partners (that map to the value proposition you are seeking).

Outcomes: At this stage, you should be able to:

• Create a target list of partners.
• Put together criteria for evaluation.
• Establish how to rank the partners.
• Create comparative scorecards and select a partner (or a maximum of 2-3 partners) to initiate a pilot project.

Step 3: Engage With The Selected Partner Or Shortlisted Potential Partners For The Pilot Phase

At this stage, re-look at your team composition and identify the team members who need to undertake the critical phase of pilot initiation. Prior to the pilot roll-out:

• Validate your assumptions (collated during the evaluation process).
• Review the success factors that you had identified and if they still look feasible.
• Identify the risk areas and mitigation plans.
• Outcomes: At this stage, you should be able to:

1. Initiate A Pilot Project.

Do ensure that the length of the project will enable you to evaluate the engagement model, processes, and communication capabilities of the potential partner. Check for ease of collaboration, the way the brief is being processed, whether they are asking the right set of questions, and so on.

2. Identify Other Costs You Will Incur.

Besides the quality of the product and if it was delivered on time (as per the agreed upon schedule), quantify the time your team took to:

• Ready the brief.
• Handle the partner team during the pilot project’s execution.
• Review updates and various builds.

3. Arrive At The Total Cost Of Outsourcing (TCO).

The aforementioned pointers will help you determine the TCO that includes the costs you have to budget over and above the project outsourcing cost.

Step 4: Create The Road Map Of The Engagement

At this stage, you should have successfully completed the pilot project and you should be able to select a partner (onshore or offshore) or multiple partners.

At this stage:

• Do go back to where you started and relook at the expected gains and create a framework for on-going check-pointing against the required success factors.
• Create a road map on how you will outsource, how you will scale, and most significantly, how you will track your progress.

I hope this outsourcing guide adds value to your initiative to outsource your eLearning content development. If you have any questions or need any specific assistance in your outsourcing initiative, do contact me.

Source: https://www.eidesign.net/a-step-by-step-outsourcing-guide-for-elearning-content-development/