5 ways Elucidat helped BDO Norway switch to digital learning in 12 months
How do you make the shift from face-to-face to digital learning, with a team of elearning novices keen to share in-house expertise? BDO Norway, a subsidiary of the fifth largest accounting firm in the world, took on this challenge and achieved astounding results in a matter of months. Find out how they managed this transformation with the support of the Elucidat Professional Services team.
Like many firms, BDO Norway traditionally trained employees through face-to-face training and online streaming. With staff across 70 locations, they recognized the opportunity to make significant savings by bringing training and development online, while increasing employee engagement.
They wanted to not only create top quality digital learning experiences and resources, at scale, but make a grassroots movement and have employees create it with and for others.
How did they do this with an inexperienced team? Enter the Elucidat Professional Services experts. The team helped BDO with strategy and planning for their transformation project and dedicated design coaching.
5 factors that made BDO Norway’s shift from face-to-face to online training a success:
1. A first-class plan
A solid strategy underpinning any digital learning project is key. Kicking into gear with our 5C Framework, we worked collaboratively with the BDO team to Capture their strategic needs, audience profiles and the skills available in-house to develop collaborative elearning. Together, we developed a plan and recommendations for how to approach their first project.
Tip: Pull back and ensure you’ve Captured a clear picture of what success looks like, then lay out a plan for how best to get there. It might be that you can curate your content, or bring in-house experts into the plan. Download the Capture Needs Template to help with this.
2. A clear design direction
How do you need your digital learning to look and feel? What do users need to get from it, and how can you best support them with structure and flow? What type of interactions do you want to create? These and others are all important questions to address before you dive in and start building your online content.
Focusing on the second C of our 5C Framework, Conceptualize, we set up visual styles, a design approach and some templates to help set the BDO team off on the right path to run an initial pilot.
Tip: Make sure you are testing your design out early on. Fail fast, succeed faster is our motto! This Conceptualize Guide can help with the process.
3. Training for digital learning authors
Sure, your authors will be able to work out how to use tools like Elucidat by themselves, but providing them with some focused training will help them publish higher quality content faster.
The new authors at BDO took advantage of Elucidat’s Fast-Track Onboarding program to get to grips with the platform quickly. All of them worked through Elucidat’s online micro-topics to get up-skilled, quickly.
Then, utilizing the coaching time that comes with this program, the new authors participated in a short series of dedicated virtual classroom sessions, run by an Elucidat expert. They performed a few short exercises that helped shine a light on what can make a modern learning experience really effective.
4. Wireframing projects and gaining feedback
Sounds simple, but it’s amazing how often this step gets skipped because people are so eager to just get stuck in!
We encouraged the BDO author team to plan out their projects – following the Capture and Conceptualize steps compact-style. Using a Capture Needs template, the teams noted the core needs their audience had for the project, then either brainstormed ideas with an Elucidat expert via a virtual session or sketched out some ideas first.
Either way, the BDO teams gained input, coaching and feedback on their designs early on, before getting stuck into the content.
Tip: Make sure you gain feedback and review this with your peers to ensure you structure your design in the most engaging way for your learners.
5. In-depth review and QA process
With a clear Concept under your wings, you can move into the next C: Create your elearning. While you can do this super-fast in a collaborative authoring tool, don’t rush at the final hurdle! Make sure your digital learning projects undergo a thorough review before you publish them. Check over the layouts, flow, user experience and all the fundamentals like links and interactions to ensure it’s all working like you want.
Through Elucidat’s Learner-Ready Service, the BDO team had peace of mind that their initial projects were being rolled out without any glitches – ensuring their employees had a great first experience of digital learning.
Want to get the best results from your digital learning? Find out more about our 5C Framework and Professional Services.
Free resources:
- “Capture Needs Template” – shape your best elearning project yet
- “Conceptualize Guide” – turn your needs into a vision
- How to move from face-to-face to online learning – download for tips and advice