If training departments are going to be successful in the 21st century business environment, they must show business value. Part of providing value means spending as little money as possible to achieve the greatest result in the shortest amount of time. Expensive and time consuming one-and-done training course development is no longer a viable strategy. In order to succeed you must shift to produce-publish-repeat. The “repeat” means learning from data and feedback so you can reproduce and re-publish.  You continue the process until there is no more improvement required or the need no longer exists.

This “good enough” strategy is not something traditional training designers/developers are often open too. To be fare, in some cases they are right. You will have instances where more in-depth analysis and content development is required. But those cases are rare. Most self-motivated adult professionals opt for training when no other choice exists. Accessing content and learning on their own is often the preferred choice. Even if that choice is watching an hour long course lecture video. They would rather have the option of watching the video now, rather than waiting for the next available course offering.

Step #1: Always make content available as soon as possible in any format. 

Part of this “lean training design” strategy is leveraging your existing instructor-led training. Instead of deriding the ILT, as our industry does so freely, you should be grateful for it and view it as an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to provide real business value in the form digital content that was inexpensive and quick to produce and publish.

5 Reasons Why Recording ILT is Worth Your Time

1. Inexpensive – In a world of seemly constant expense reductions, inexpensive solutions have become more and more valuable. When your audience wants the information now, don’t make them wait because you want the training to be perfect. Do what you can with what you have and you will be surprised at your success.
2. Scales Up – The logistics around physical spaces are limiting. Once you’ve held an event, if it is not recorded, that experience is lost forever only to remain in the minds of those who attended. And after a while, according to research, only 10% of that content will remain. Recording classroom presentations allows you to publish the recording making it available to a larger audience any where, at any time, almost immediately after the event.
3. Fast – When you and your training team are short on time, you need fast solutions. These solutions are not perfect but they are better than nothing. And they provide business value. Be fast first! Then make improvements.
4. Anyone can do it – Recording presentations and other live events has become easier than ever. And when the training team ends up needing some help, this is an area where you can delegate outside of the training department.You may have an in-house AV team that can help. Or perhaps someone in IT, or other department is interesting in helping out. In some cases you may even have an instructor that can record their session themselves.
5. Design Strategy – If you have SMEs already teaching regular courses as part of their job, then instead of wasting their time with meetings, recording their training events gives you key insight into what content is important. You can review the recording multiple times to further define your content re-design strategy. You can also use these events to gather attendee feedback on the SMEs content. This is all work you would normally do as part of content and audience analysis. However, instead of the hassles of scheduling multiple meetings, coordinating schedules, and a myriad of email exchanges, you can get most of what you need by simply attending and recording the training event.

I know recording ILT as a design strategy is unorthodox and not part of traditional training design models. However, I know you have employees currently wanting information. They are looking for any bit of digital content they can find to help them do their jobs better. Their need and desire outweighs any instructional design value you could add. If they could get an hour of time with the SME instead of taking your class (sadly) I know they would. Give them the next best thing. And then make it better!

Have you already done this? What was your experience? I’d love to hear about it. @Litmos