Engaging Tech-Savvy Learners with Custom Self-Paced Learning

A leading integration software company that provides business agility to companies with an API-led approach by connecting applications, data, and devices – both on-premises and in the cloud. The success of their platform of integration products is driven by enabling partners and clients to fully understand and achieve a technical certification.

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The challenges faced were manifold:

• The original instructor-led training (ILT) modules were designed purely to provide basic information and help learners take the certification examinations. 
• The content and presentation didn’t contribute to engaging the learners with the curriculum.
• Course abandonment rate stood at 90%, mainly due to text-heavy presentations. 
• The program Lacked support or infrastructure for learners. 

To keep up with changing times, training employees, clients, and partners needed to move from a “managed” strategy to a more self-paced learning experience that offered ample flexibility. The training course needed to be learner-centric and offer an engaging experience. The software company wanted to optimize course modules, provide context, and scale up for diverse learners across the globe while delivering credential training for certification.

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To cater to a global, diverse, and tech-savvy audience, ELB Learning proposed a new self-paced learning strategy that would appeal to all kinds of learners—visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. 

The learning structure was divided into four main categories: Teach me, Let me, Assess me, and Challenge me.

Teach Me: This section was built for personalized instruction and offered an opportunity to dive deeper. Lightboard videos were included to provide analysis and insights on specific topics.
Let Me: Learners had the opportunity to learn while doing. Here, they can self-navigate by watching a demo and replicating the steps in their own “provisional lab.”
Assess Me: Simple assessment tools and techniques check the learner’s understanding of the topic.
Challenge Me: An immersive simulated environment allows the learner to exhibit his knowledge and skills to tackle real-world problems and use cases.

The entire ILT course material was re-created as self-paced learning modules following this unique structure. After rapid prototyping and development sprints, the end result was a superior learner-driven learning experience for diverse patrons. This initial design accounted for cultural interpretations with feedback from various University students pursuing a computer science education program. 

Further, three groups of audiences were chosen for the course’s usability study: 

• Group 1 - People who had never heard of the organization but have had experience with self-paced learning 
• Group 2 - Employees from within the organization who have limited to no technical depth of the product, and 
• Group 3 - Customer-facing senior technical architects and integration developers with very sound product knowledge. 

With these findings, navigation and UI issues were addressed, and a final version of the digital program was established. 

The new training model was staged internally for employees; customization requests to the LMS provider followed. Several elements and new features were enabled that ensured an excellent user experience: 

• An embedded link takes the learner directly to a common Course Forum, where they can post questions and clarifications as progress is being made. 
• The master instructor’s demonstration was accompanied by a walkthrough step-by-step PDF to provide greater context to their learning. 
• A picture-in-picture (PIP) feature allows the learner to watch videos in a floating window and permits them to simultaneously work on exercises. 
• Lightboard videos provide a deeper understanding of a topic. The video reflects a one-on-one learning experience. 
• All visual content was multilingual; video content was subtitled in six global languages. 

Additional benefits for the learner include: 

• Permanent access to the learning content 
• Ability to revisit specific modules prior to certification 
• Toggle-view to personalize access and presentation of content

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Learners were positively engaged and exhibited improved knowledge retention. In terms of success metrics: 

• The Net Promoter Score (NPS) was used to determine training effectiveness. Since its implementation in 2020, the score has increased by 20% year over year. 
• All learners across the ecosystem, regardless of how much they completed of the course, rated NPS higher in 2020 than in 2019. 
• A higher number of learners completed the training course and there were fewer course abandons. 
• NPS increased by 53% for those individuals who completed the entire course in 2020 compared to 2019. 
• 80% of the participants reported that the design allowed for active engagement and enhanced application in the flow of work.

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