How To Track The Success Of Your E-Learning Programs

How To Track The Success Of Your E-Learning Programs

So, you've taken the time to develop your e-learning program. You've planned, you've written, you've edited. You've done your best to create some great, engaging content.

You've invested a lot of time and resources into your training course. It only serves to reason that you want to make sure you get your return on investment.

But how do you track the success of your e-learning programs, exactly? How do you know when your course has done everything you thought it should?

The short answer is that it can be really tricky to measure. The long answer? Read on.

Retention & Improvements To Performance

In most cases, the goal of e-learning is to teach employees new information, new technology, new skills, and so on. When it comes to measuring ROI on your training programs, what you're trying to do is make sure that your team members retain what they learn.

But as much as retention is important, it's the tracking part that can prove challenging. After all, the information is in the minds of the trainees, and how they apply it to their work depends on a lot of different factors; some that even go beyond overall retention.

Assuming your course was set up to increase performance, that's exactly what you want to track: overall productivity, efficiency, improvement in sales, and so on. However, a short-term view of the results could prove disheartening, and may not even be a clear reflection of the impact of the training. Evaluation must be done over the long haul, and it must be consistent with the purpose of the course itself if you want to get accurate results.

Some studies show that e-learning increases information retention by as much as 60% (e-Learning Infographics). How about yours?

Contrast & Compare

A very straightforward way to track the success of your e-learning is by comparing it to your past initiatives; especially if your training was previously delivered in a classroom environment.

First, you can take a look at the amount of time it took to deliver the training. You'll need a holistic picture, from course development all the way to the last moment spent in training, but as you gather that data, you'll get a better sense of whether or not your e-learning programs are more effective or not.

Some studies show that e-learning can actually reduce the amount of time employees spend on learning by 40 to 60%.

Another area to look at is cost. How much does it cost your organisation to train your employees one-on-one or in a classroom environment versus an e-learning course?

This will not necessarily tell you how behavior has changed, and that's something that should also be factored into understanding overall effectiveness, but at least you'll get a sense of cost in terms of money and time and have something to compare it to.

Regulations & Compliance

The purpose of your e-learning program may be to ensure regulatory compliance. It's not unusual for companies to have to update their employees on the latest practices, and ensure that they are following protocol and policies outlined by overseeing entities, such as the government. Even if this is isn't the primary goal of your training program, it can still be a good thing to measure.

With compliance, a very simple way to track the results is to see how many of your team members actually take the course. This would instantly tell you how many of your workers are aware of the latest changes in regulatory adherence and best practices. It may also reflect the number of your employees that are taking their work seriously.

Final Thoughts

These are just some of the ways in which you can track and measure the success of your e-learning initiatives.

The key thing you need to remember is to align your objectives with what you'll be tracking. Whatever you're measuring has to make sense based on what you're looking to achieve. If you're measuring the wrong thing, you can't accurately track the success of your e-learning.