For IT professionals in the Gulf region, 2018 was almost unequivocally the year of digital learning. Instantly after Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid launched the Translation Challenge a year ago to produce 5,000 Arabic videos for e-learning, the race was on for governmental and private organizations to go digital with their training and learning.
As an IT company, we had front row seats to the action. Where three years ago we were struggling to convince customers that online learning was the solution to their technology adoption and training woes, this year we have been engaging with- on average- five to eight customers a week looking to either digitize their training process, create digital learning assets, or set up online libraries. Alongside the customer meetings, our bids team has been busy answering at least two RFPs weekly for knowledge bases, digital libraries, and e-learning systems.
While customers were suddenly keen to launch their own e-learning solutions, many of them found the idea of digital learning somewhat daunting. We would spend meetings addressing their top concerns including:
The biggest question, however, and the one that often hindered decision making and movement was: “What do we need to have first? The ‘library’ to host digital content or the digital content itself?” In other words, what comes first- the chicken (library/system) or the egg (content)?
It really is a good question: On your organization’s quest to e-learning, what should you set up first – the library/learning portal or the content?
There are arguments supporting both sides. Why would you need a portal, or library, if you don’t have the content? Does it make sense to invest in a system when you do not have anything to put in it?
From professional (and personal) experience, the chicken- or system - should come first. What better motivation to create digital content for learning than an empty system that needs to be filled?
At Exceed, we’ve been doing e-learning for at least nine years- even before it became a ‘thing’. Soon after we expanded to Bahrain and Oman in 2008, it became clear that traditional, in-class training would no longer be feasible for employees. That was when we started setting up orientation sessions online for new employees or training for new products. Our customers, however, were still well behind, many of them refusing online training in all of its forms.
In 2008, we made our first ‘tutorial’, which was a screen-recorded session with voiceover for one of our customers. That was back when screen recording software was far from sophisticated and recording a how-to video was a two person job (someone to click the mouse and someone to narrate). It was only one minute long and we were only showing them how to download software for Microsoft’s Home Use Program, but the customer was thrilled with the concept.
In spite of this early and promising foray into digital content creation and online learning, it took us several years to launch our own internal e-learning library. The reason was that every time we came to do it, we would decide to postpone it until we ‘had more content’. We continued this way, saving content on SharePoint and OneDrive, conducting trainings through Skype for Business or GoToMeeting, uploading videos to YouTube, and sending documents through email. In spite of all attempts to do things systematically, finding most of the items after they had been created and launched was a headache.
That was when we decided that the digital library is a must. Not just a portal, but an actual system designed to hold learning material. Did we have enough content? No one really knew. All we knew was that the content we did have needed a home.
We developed and launched Technadopt internally to our product managers and partners. The first few days, it stood there empty- like a sleek new house without furniture. After a few reminders, and demos of how easy it was to add content, we soon had documents, links to videos, tutorials, and online trainings. We actually had much more content than anyone ever initially believed.
It’s like the bookcase I bought a few years ago. I had books here and there, but only bought the bookcase because I liked the way it looked. I figured it would take me a few weeks, but, eventually, I’d have enough books to fill it. It took three days. After gathering all the books I had lying around in different places in the house (and the office), I only had a little extra space left on the shelves.
In summary, if you’re going to go digital with learning and content – just do it. Take the plunge and get the chicken – the eggs will follow.
Visit www.exceeders.com/store/technadopt to learn more.
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