Conversion of an ILT into eLearning

Converting an ILT to eLearning
Created By: Syed Afzal Hussain

Is there really a so called classroom…

A Brief Re-cap…
Let’s look at some of the popular learning modes:
ILT
WBT
CBT
It is the type of training that is facilitated by an
instructor either online or in a classroom and involves
interaction between the learners and instructors.
It is anywhere, anytime instruction delivered over the
Internet or a corporate intranet to browser-equipped
learners.
It is the type of training whose primary means of
delivery is a computer and could be delivered via an
installed application or, a CD or over the Internet.

Evolution of the Learning Industry…
• The role of teachers nowadays is on the verge of
anachronism after centuries of little changes in the
learning industry.
• The power of information and communication
technologies have increasingly sidelined the people who
refer to themselves as teachers.
• Learner-centricity has become the key facet of the
learning industry and terms like learning organisations,
learning management systems, eLearning have become
popular.
"There are two fundamental equalisers in life, the Internet and Education. eLearning
eliminates the barriers of time and distance, creating universal, learning-on-demand
opportunities for people, companies and countries.“
[John Chambers, Chief Executive Officer, Cisco]

Evolution of the Learning Industry…
• The role of teachers nowadays is on the verge of
anachronism after centuries of little changes in the
learning industry.
• The power of information and communication
technologies have increasingly sidelined the people who
refer to themselves as teachers.
• Learner-centricity has become the key facet of the
learning industry and terms like learning organisations,
learning management systems, eLearning have become
popular.
"There are two fundamental equalisers in life, the Internet and Education. eLearning
eliminates the barriers of time and distance, creating universal, learning-on-demand
opportunities for people, companies and countries.“
[John Chambers, Chief Executive Officer, Cisco]
Anachronism: Someone or something
placed in the wrong period in history, or
something that belongs to the past rather
than the present.
[Source: Cambridge Dictionaries Online (US)]

Who is Jay Cross?
History of eLearning…
Jay Cross has been credited with coining the term eLearning (or e-learning) in 1998.
• eLearning is used professionally for the first time in October 1999, during a CBT
systems seminar in Los Angeles.
• It was associated with online learning or virtual learning.
• It was meant to qualify a way to learn based on the use of new technologies allowing
access to online, interactive and sometimes personalized training through the
Internet or other electronic media.
Who is Jay Cross?
 Internationally acclaimed speaker and designer of
corporate learning and performance systems
 CEO and Chief Unlearning Officer at Internet Time Alliance
 Former CEO of eLearning Forum
 Founder of Internet Time Group
 Co-authored “Implementing eLearning” with Lance Dublin
[Source: LinkedIn]

Some Mind-blowing eLearning Statistics…
Let’s look at some powerful eLearning statistics, that could be eye opener to you:
 In 2011 77% of American Corporations were using online
learning (in 1995 this number was only 4%).
 Corporate training alone is a $200 billion industry.
eLearning represents $56.2 billion of this. This will grow
into a $107 billion market by 2015.
 The US and Europe account for over 70% of the global
eLearning industry
 eLearning is the second most important training method
within organizations.
 The Asian eLearning market is expected to reach $11.5
billion by 2016.
 4,600,00 college students are currently taking at least
one of their classes online and by 2014 this number will
increase to 18,650,000.
 85% of every dollar spent on classroom training is spent
delivering it (instructor time, travel, etc).
 eLearning is proven to increase knowledge retention by
25% to 60% [Source: http://shiftelearning.com]

What This Training is All About…
The various competencies that will help you
attain this goal are:
 Identify the business reasons for converting
an ILT to eLearning.
 Explain the life cycle of the conversion
process.
 Identify some classroom trainings that are
best-suited for eLearning conversion.
The primary goal of this training is to explain the various aspects involved in the
process of converting an existing ILT or classroom training into an eLearning.

What You Should Not Expect from This Training…
This training will discuss about ILTs and eLearning from the perspective of converting an
ILT into eLearning only. Any other point or concept related to ILT or eLearning may not
be a part of this training. So, here are a few points that you should not expect from
this training:
 Any comparison to identify/argue the better
methodology: ILT or eLearning
 Differences between, CBT, WBT, Blended
learning, etc.
 Comparison of the eLearning conversion
process with pure eLearning development
Note: The intention of this slide is make the objective of the training more crisp and
standalone and to avoid any confusion that might occur during the training delivery
process.

ILT to eLearning Conversion: A Scenario…
Medi-Flex is a SAS (software as a service)
provider for the clinical trial process.
Pharmaceutical companies hire Medi-Flex to
conduct the clinical trial process for any new drug
they want to launch in the market
In the clinical trial process, Medi-Flex facilitates …
All the trainings are provided in-house with specific
training schedules.
Pharmaceutical
Companies
Medi-Flex
Clinical Trial
Process
Hire
Conduct
Medi-Flex
Software TrainingProfessionals
1 2
3 4

With increasing clientele in Medi-Flex, it became
cumbersome to meet the stipulated training schedule.
However, changing the schedule might affect the
overall training cost and the retaining it might led to
loss of potential clients.
Medi-Flex did not want to change the schedule and at
the same time want to retain the clients too.
So, Medi-Flex was at a fix to identify a convenient
solution that could help solve their training problem.
Training ScheduleIncreasing Clientele
5 6
7 8
Medi-Flex
Increased Training
Cost
Loss of Potential
Clients
What to do?

Thus, the business needs behind Medi-Flex’s adoption
of eLearning are:
 Training Cost
 Training Time
 Geographical Location
An immediate solution for this problem would be convert the current classroom training into an eLearning and
make it available for the clients/vendors who are unable to attend the training as per the existing schedule.
9
The solution will be a one time
investment for Medi-Flex to
convert the training into eLearning,
which will help them provide the
training at any time, anywhere
outside their stipulated
schedule.
The Solution

ILT Conversion: The Common Business Needs…
In the Medi-Flex scenario, we have identified a few business needs behind conversion
of an ILT into eLearning. Let’s now look at the most common business needs for ILT to
eLearning conversion:
Costs
Time
Geographical
Location
Training
Resources
Consistency
Trainings like product training, employee induction, compliance
training, etc. are suitable for eLearning in order to provide same
message and same level of understanding to the participant.
eLearning helps reduce travel, facility, and payroll costs as
trainers can focus only on teaching courses and topics that need
to be taught in person.
eLearning is suitable for trainings those require rapid
development, shorter deployment cycles and shorter training
sessions.
For organisations operating across different locations, eLearning
helps ensure all employees have access to critical training
materials and resources.
eLearning is justified for those organisations that are big
enough to have training needs but too small to have separate
resources for training or a training department.

ILT to eLearning Conversion: Blueprint…
The initial conversion of a classroom training into an eLearning can be considered as
the first step of a successful eLearning development. An effective development of
eLearning from a classroom training is an ongoing process as illustrated below:
Need Analysis
Design
DevelopmentDeployment
Evaluation
The conversion starts with an in-depth needs analysis, then move to eLearning designing and
development, followed by its deployment to the target audience. It concludes with the
evaluation of the effectiveness and success of the eLearning, which starts the cycle again.

ILT to eLearning Conversion: Need Analysis…
An effective and informative needs analysis involves identifying several important
pieces of information required for the ILT to eLearning conversion. The primary one
among them is to identify the business reason to move the specific training content
from ILT to an eLearning.
Consider yourself offering a 3-day
leadership development session. Now, for
your organization, a 3-day out-of-office
schedule could be a significant disruption
to operations. Therefore, a very good
business reason for converting the two
days of the training into eLearning could
be to minimize the operational disruption
by reducing the out-of-office training time
from three to one day.
Example:
Apart from the common business needs, click here to know about some more
driving forces for ILT to eLearning conversion.

An effective and informative needs analysis involves identifying several important
pieces of information required for the ILT to eLearning conversion. The primary one
among them is to identify the business reason to move the specific training content
from ILT to an eLearning.
Consider yourself offering a 3-day
leadership development session. Now, for
your organization, a 3-day out-of-office
schedule could be a significant disruption
to operations. Therefore, a very good
business reason for converting the two
days of the training into eLearning could
be to minimize the operational disruption
by reducing the out-of-office training time
from three to one day.
Example:
Apart from the common business needs, click here to know about some more
driving forces for ILT to eLearning conversion.
Driving Forces
 24/7 availability
 Less number trainers
 Improved learning tools
 Lack of classroom space
 More tech savvy learners
 Convenience of desktop learning
 Faster deployment and maintenance
 Popularity of Internet as a basic working tool

Identifying the business need provides you a better position to state the learning
objective of the eLearning.
Need analysis is also critical to examine the re-packaging of the content in terms of
what should be left in and what should be presented differently.
Your need analysis should also cater information around the following questions:
 What are the key learning points for the eLearning?
 How can you ensure that those key points will be
delivered to the learners?
 What will be the advantages and disadvantages of
offering the content in an eLearning environment?
 How will you overcome the disadvantages?
 What do you know about the learners, their skills,
attitude, experience, etc.?
 Will it be a standalone eLearning or a part of a blended
learning?
 How will you evaluate the success of the learning?
 What effect will the eLearning have on the job?

ILT to eLearning Conversion: Design…
Once you are done with your need analysis, you are ready to put the information you
gathered during the analysis in the form of a design.
However, to make your design effective, you will need two distinct types of expertise:
Instructional DesignSubject Matter
Click each image to learn more.

Subject Matter Expert
Traditionally, Subject Matter Experts (SME) are responsible for
preparing most training materials based upon their knowledge and
expertise. So, when you plan to convert an existing ILT into an
eLearning, it is very critical to have access to your SME.
However, SMEs might not be knowledgeable about adult learning or
training techniques and methodologies or have understanding about
eLearning. So, the content which is delivered excellently in ILT might
not work well in an eLearning environment.
This is where your Instructional Design (ID) comes into play, to extract
the content from SME in the desirable way for your eLearning.

Instructional Design
By Instructional Design (ID), we refer to a practice, which is essential
to maximize the effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal of your learning
instructions and other learning experiences. So, you can think of ID as
a process of building effective learning experiences for the intended
audience of the training content.
There are instances when organizations opt for conversion software
instead of taking ID expertise and apply that software to their ILT
content to publish the outcome as eLearning. However, such
conversions mostly results in poor learning experiences for the target
audience.

In eLearning development, a design is typically known as the Design Document, which
is actually the blueprint of the complete eLearning development process.
A typical Design Document consists of the following components:
 Project Specifications
 Standard Course/eLearning
Features
 Design Strategy
 Technical Specifications
 Media Standards
 Project Management
Let’s now look at the components of the Design Document in a bit more detail…

Provides a brief description of the course as well as lists
the Objectives identified in the analysis phase.
Provides information of the target audience regarding
their age, gender, culture, attitude, beliefs, skills, etc.
Provides the duration of the eLearning.
Provides a list of items, such storyboard, course alpha,
and course beta, which will be delivered to the client
during the eLearning development.
List of resources from the existing ILT such as PPT slides,
PDFs, Instructor Manual, etc. that will be used in the
eLearning development.
Design Document: Project Specifications…
A typical Design Document starts with the Project Specifications, which contains
information about the following areas:

Design Document: Standard Course Features…
The Standard Course Features section generally contains the following information:
Provide information about
the structure of the
eLearning course, which will
comprise of the learning
management system, course
materials (modules/topics)
and pre- or post assessments
and projects, if any.
the components that
comprise a module of the
course. For example, module
introductions, topics,
activities, in-line
assessments, quiz, etc.
the user interface of the
eLearning course, its
components, such as
dashboard, menu, help,
navigation controls, etc.
Course Components Module Components
Interface and Navigation
Controls

Design Document: Design Strategy…
The Design Strategy is considered as the core of the Design Document and typically it is
the longest section of the Design document. A typical Design Strategy spans across the
following information areas.
Treatment and
Themes
Instructional
Models and
Method
Testing and
Evaluation
Strategy
Interactions
Click each tab to learn more.

Treatment and Themes
If you plan to apply a consistent theme or want to
use a particular treatment throughout your
eLearning, you must identify it clearly and get the
necessary approvals early in the design process.
For example, you might plan to start your
eLearning by introducing a scenario relevant to the
content and move that scenario further along as
you move forward in the course. Similarly, you
might have a character or a coach introduced at
the beginning of the eLearning who will guide the
learner through the content.
Treatment and
Themes
Instructional
Models and
Method
Testing and
Evaluation
Strategy
Interactions

Treatment and
Themes
Instructional
Models and
Method
Testing and
Evaluation
Strategy
Interactions
Instructional Method
The Design Document must clearly mention the
appropriate ID model that you are going to apply
to convert the content into eLearning. For
example, ADDIE, Gagne’s Nine Events, Keller’s
ARCS model, etc.
The Design Document must also clearly mention
the agreed-upon instructional methods that you
are going to use in the eLearning to provide
information to the learner. For example:
 Presentations
 Demonstrations
 Case studies
 Graphical Illustrations
 Voiceover narration
 Interactions
 Simulations
 Blended Learning

Interactions
Based on the resources, time, and budget, your
Design Document must specify the interactions to
be used in the eLearning. For example:
Treatment and
Themes
Instructional
Models and
Method
Testing and
Evaluation
Strategy
Interactions
Types of Interaction Examples
Learner to Content  Flash Cards
 YouTube Videos
 FAQ
Learner to
Instructor
 Lesson
 Quiz
 Project
 e-mail
 Conference
Learner to Learner  Chat
 Discussion Forum

Testing and Evaluation Strategy
Your Design Document must include the testing
and evaluation strategy to assess the course’s
success. The testing strategy must outline the
following:
 The levels at which you will be going to
evaluate, e.g. reaction, learning, behavior and
results.
 The type of assessments, e.g. MCQ, MMCQ,
T/F, Drag and Drop, Sequencing, Matching, etc.
 The number of questions
 Feedback strategies, whether plain or
diagnostic
 Passing score
 Retake options
Treatment and
Themes
Instructional
Models and
Method
Testing and
Evaluation
Strategy
Interactions

Design Document: Technical Specifications…
Technical specifications are important from the perspective of the Development phase
of the eLearning cycle. Your Design Document must define the following technical
specifications:
Technical Specifications Description
Development Tools  Specify the tools you are going to use to develop the eLearning, e.g. Flash,
HTML, PhotoShop, Rapid eLearning Tools like Lectora, Articulate, Captivate.
File Naming Conventions  Specify how will you going to name the files you will develop at the various
stage of the eLearning development.
 Though there is no specific scheme, the file names must make sense to the
team members, easy to follow, and version specific.
Delivery Hardwar
Software
Depending on the end-user, the Design Document must specify the:
 System requirements
 Browser requirements
 Mobile requirements
 Plug-ins requirements
Data Tracking and
Interoperability
The Design Document must specify:
 Which data of the eLearning will be tracked?
 How the tracking will be happen?
 Is there any intention to deploy the eLearning in multiple LMSes?
 Is there any possibility to migrate the eLearning to a new LMS?

Design Document: Media Standards…
In any eLearning, media elements generally play a large role. Therefore the Design
Document must provide a detail convention of the various media types to be included
in the eLearning.
Text
Text standards vary depending
on the requirement of the
clients. Beside agreed upon
guidelines or standards some
typical text standards that a
Design Document may include
are:
 Logical chunking of the
content
 Using active voice
 Writing effective and
accurate instructions
Audio
Design Document should also
clearly mention standards for
voiceover, music or any sound
effect used in the eLearning. For
example:
 Will there be audio syncing?
 Is the eLearning be 508
compliant?
 Which content element will
be supported by voice over?
 How music and sound effects
will be used in the
eLearning?
 What will be the technical
requirements?
Visuals
Visual elements are essential to
support or re-inforce the on-
screen content in an eLearning.
A typical eLearning contains two
types of visual elements,
graphics and video.
 The Design Document must
specify the standards for
static, animated, and
interactive graphics.
 The video standards are
somewhat similar to the
audio ones.

Design Document: Project Management…
It is not essential to include Project Management information in the Design Document.
However, if you want to provide, then your Design Document must furnish information
about the following elements:
Team Members
List of members who will be involved in
the eLearning project.
Key Dates
A development timeline specifying the
deliverables and their delivery dates.
Approvals
List of items that require approvals at
different stages of the development and
who will approve them.
Quality Assurance
Information regarding whether there will
be a quality assurance review before the
final launch, and if so how it will be done.

ILT to eLearning Conversion: Development…
The development phase of the ILT to eLearning conversion primarily sees the actual
development of the elements specified in the design phase. A typical development
phase involves:
 Storyboarding
 Asset Creation and Programme Development
 Prototype/eLearning Development
 Testing
Click each link to learn more.

phase involves:
 Storyboarding
 Testing
Storyboarding
Storyboarding is the 1st stage of the development phase where the
IDs use their visualization to represent the content in a templatized
manner so that it will become convenient for the graphic designers,
programmers and other development roles to do their jobs.
Apart from content, a typical storyboard contains how that content
should be used in the eLearning, what will be the visualization for the
different slides, instructions for graphic designers, programmers, etc.

phase involves:
 Storyboarding
 Testing
Asset Creation and Programme Development
In this stage, the design and the development team (graphic
designers, programmers, animators, etc.) creates the course
interface, graphic elements, animations, interactivities, as instructed
in the storyboard. Depending on the assets and programmes, the
design and development team uses various tools like PhotoShop,
Flash, HTML, rapid eLearning tools, XML, etc.
The design and development team have to work closely with the IDs
to ensure what is agreed upon in the Design Document and visualized
in the storyboards is reflected in their works.

phase involves:
 Storyboarding
 Testing
Prototype/eLearning Development
This stage involves creating the fully interactive eLearning by
integrating the various assets and programmes developed so far.
However, not all organizations prefer creating the fully interactive
eLearning at the first go. Some of them choose to create a single
working module of the eLearning and focus on making it error free
before going for the complete eLearning. This is known as the
prototype development.
It is typically decided in the design phase whether the development
cycle will involve a prototype or complete eLearning development.

phase involves:
 Storyboarding
 Testing
Testing
Once the eLearning is developed, it must go through a series of tests
to ensure it is developed as per the design speciation's. A typical
eLearning development goes through the following testing
procedures:
 In-house testing: Involves in-house reviewers to test the
eLearning
 Alpha testing: Involves the client or a third-party in the testing
 Beta testing: Involves the client or a third party after alpha
testing fixes are implemented in the eLearning
 Final testing: Involves a final go through either by the client or
in-house to make the eLearning ready for distribution.

ILT to eLearning Conversion: Deployment…
You can build an excellent eLearning course. However, your work will not have any
impact until it is accessed and completed by the target audience. Also, the learning
behavior of adults is quite different from the traditional learning behavior. Therefore,
your deployment must include the following points in order to provide a complete and
successful learning experience:
 Explain the business reason the training is
important.
 Inform the learners how successfully completing
the training can help them with their jobs.
 Provide clear expectations for completion of the
training and provide choices and control to the
learners to manage their schedule to complete
the course.
 Demonstrate respect for the learners in your
messaging and expectations.

ILT to eLearning Conversion: Evaluation…
In the final phase of eLearning development, you must evaluate and assess the
effectiveness of the eLearning course. It involves referring to the success measures that
are set during the need analysis phase.
If your eLearning is able to meet the intended impact, you can wonder whether the
impact can be improved. If not, you must identify what must be changed.
In both the scenarios, you can jump into another round of need analysis and start the
process again.
eLearning is popular for its flexibility and
ease of revision. Since the content is
stored in one place (typically an LMS), for
any updates, you jut have to edit and
revise the content and publish the
updates. Everybody who has access to
the course will have immediate access to
the updated course.

ILTs That Could Be Effective eLearning: Examples…
Let’s now look at a few examples of classroom training materials that are suitable for
eLearning conversion.
On-boarding Safety
Compliance New Product
On-boarding training for new employees
can be great content to convert into an
eLearning because most of the learning
is purely cognitive in nature, e.g. how to
access the employee manuals, track
your leave balances, send an IT request,
etc. can be ideally suitable for eLearning.
Safety trainings usually empower the
learners with knowledge of some specific
equipment or procedures. eLearning is
suitable to deliver such pure cognitive
content with an on-going access to the
materials to allow learners to print any
job aids or written materials they might
need to reinforce the learning.
Many compliance training can be great
opportunities for eLearning. For
example, if you want to provide an
ethics training on a new sets of rules and
regulations, an eLearning might be a
perfect platform for teaching large
numbers of employees the basics of the
rules and regulations.
Typically, a new product launch requires
different employees, especially those
interacting with clients and prospects, to
have immediate access to accurate
information on the product or service.
Therefore, eLearning is an excellent
solution to provide updates to the
employees at their convenience

Conversion of an ILT into eLearning

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