What Questions Do You Need To Ask When You Have Finished Your eLearning Project?
Is it when the course is uploaded to the client Learning Management System? Is it after a number of client reviews? Do you have an agreed sign off point? Do you hand over the course without a formal review?
Many eLearning projects are informally handed over with a project review. When your eLearning project is completed do you review how well the development has gone? The temptation is to jump straight into the next eLearning project or perhaps you are already working on another project! If you want to improve your process and understand how you can improve it is important to stop, think, review and evaluate your performance through the development phase. What are the questions that you ask when you have completed an eLearning project?
But we’ve got maintenance contracts, our eLearning projects never endIt feels like we are always making changes, our project is on-going!I understand that your course, website or application might be in use for weeks, months or years but the development phase of an eLearning project can be completed and signed off by the client. I suggest that you agree a set point when the eLearning project has been delivered as per the original specification. If you don’t do this you can find the timeline will keep stretching and you will be continually working on the eLearning project. This can also affect your eLearning project budget and the delivery of the course to the learners. A good handover point is when the course is uploaded to the client for deployment. When you have done this I suggest that you get a sign off form completed by the client so that you know that this stage of the project is completed. Once you have completed the sign-off and handover you can then review your instructional, graphic, development and design processes. It is important for you to review the development with your client.
9 Important Questions To Ask At The End Of The eLearning Project
When you have completed an elearning project it can be the end of hours of hard work and you, your team and the client. It is important that you take some time to review the eLearning project.
- Have you signed off the eLearning project?
Do you have a formal sign off procedure when you complete an eLearning project? If not think about creating a sign off form. It is good to have something in writing that documents that you have completed your requirements and that the client had accepted the course. This is an example of an eLearning sign off that you can download.You might be ready to sign off when your course is ready for upload to the Learning Management System or is deployed to the learners. - Have you backed up and checked all of your files?
You have finished the eLearning project and if it has been a long project you are normally very happy! Elearning teams will be making little changes to learning scripts, voiceover and graphic files. Sometimes people will start making files straight to the course files and will stop updating the source files. Have you updated all of your files? Is your version control all up to date? What if you have mobile and desktop versions? At the end of the eLearning project it will feel like another job that you need to do but if you have a change request after the eLearning project is closed it will be easier to find your files.Don’t forget….Back up your files!Think about using an online project management tool like Basecamp or Minigroups. - Is the client happy?
You should be having regular client reviews and meetings to discuss progress but have you asked the client if they are happy?You should try to arrange a client meeting or review to discuss the eLearning project. You can find out what has gone well and what has gone less well. Don’t be surprised if the client picks up areas that you can improve. Listen carefully to the client comments, take some notes and review the client comments after the meeting. - Did you deliver on time?
Project timelines change so this can be tricky – but did you deliver on time? Review the project timeline to see if you delivered against the your timeline, if you modified your timeline and this was agreed this is fine.If you delivered your project late and there were no known issues then spend some time understanding why you didn’t deliver the project on time. Did you have a programming issue? Did you have a problem with the client Learning Management System? - Did you get the eLearning project delivered on budget?
Do you record development time on timesheets? Spend some time checking your timesheets and budgets to see if your eLearning project was under budget. Hopefully you are already doing this on a weekly or monthly basis.Have you included all of your costs? Do you included all of those stock images that you purchased? Who is paying for the studio time for the voiceover artists? Who paid for the plugin that your graphic designer needed?There are lots of online time apps available that also have mobile apps like TickSpot. - Would you use the same software again?
If you started the eLearning project again would you use the same software? Did you use the right software solution? Is there are a more suitable software solution available to you if you did the project again? - Is the solution what your client expected/wanted?
You should be managing the client expectations throughout the eLearning project but this is a good question to ask at the end of the eLearning project. Does the solution perform and work as the client expected? What do they think about the interactions and interface? Does it work with the client Learning Management System? Have they had any learner feedback yet? - Did your course work?
Check that your elearning solution works.You might have included a number of design, programming and instructional changes in your contract with your client but if you couldn't get something to work then you might have spent extra time bug fixing.Did you have any technical, script or graphic issues that you needed to fix that you didn’t expect? Has this uncovered a training requirement within your development team? - Are the learners using the solution?
The client will probably review the performance of the course and have its own set of performance measures. Keep in touch with your client to see how successful the eLearning project has been.If you have worked with a pilot group during the project then speak to them again to see what they think about the final solution and get their feedback.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the questions that you can ask at the end of your elearning project. What are the questions that you ask your own team? What are the questions that your clients ask you?Stay in touch with your client, it is a good idea to ask them how things are going after they have used the course for a few months. You might have some additional questions and they may have some new questions for you. You can also complete a learner review. This will allow you to find out what the learners think of the course. You can find out how many people are using the course, what do the trainers think of the course, has the course been a success with the organisation? If you have worked on an elearning project do you close down your project? How do you capture the feedback from your eLearning project team? What do you think you should do with client feedback?
You may find useful Starting a New eLearning Project - Questions To Ask Before You Start
