The learning technology landscape is evolving rapidly and is awash with complex acronyms and terms that make little sense without detailed review. Once business need, learning objective and dominant digital culture of an organisation have been established, a far more effective evaluation of potential digital learning solutions can be carried out.

Questions to consider at this stage include:

• What impact must the learning technology deliver?
• Where is the evidence it has achieved this before?
• How must it integrate with the existing technology infrastructure?
• How will it engage with current user preference?
• What proof of concept is possible?
• What is the full cost of implementation, integration and maintenance?

The types of digital learning solutions adopted will vary considerably according to the responses to the above questions and according to the alignment required to fit with digital culture, learning objectives and organisational need. Where the organisational strategy is about standardisation, the focus may be a developing control and consistency, with people complying with good practices and policies that are embedded into daily working practice.

Any digital learning strategy needs to align with this position, and will therefore tend towards solutions that track compliance with appropriate behaviours. Learning management systems tend to dominate in this case, supported by content (in multiple formats – video, audio and text) with exercises to evaluate understanding of key themes. There may be a strong dependency on subject matter experts and limited debate and dialogue will be present between learners as the organisation seeks to measure the impact of the ‘one best way’.

Through alignment of business need, learning objective, and user preference, choices can be made from a range of digital learning components, which can then be combined to create an effective digital learning solution.

Use the five step checklist below to evaluate your current or potential digital learning solution.

Part 1: What are your business needs for learning technology?

• How would your business evolve if a learning technology were successfully implemented?

• What problems would it solve?

• What benefits would result?

• How could these benefits be measured?

• How will they connect to your overall business strategy?

Part 2: What are your learning objectives?

• What learning outcomes are required to best achieve the business goal?

• How could blended or technology-centric approaches deliver these learning outcomes?

• What levels of investment are available?

• What impact does the level of investment have on potential outcomes and expectations?

Part 3: What is your dominant digital culture?

• What are the dominant practices and preferences within your organisation?

• Are your IT standards, policies and practices carefully controlled, or socially driven by users?

• Is open dialogue encouraged or ignored?

• What is the organisational attitude towards social media?

• What willingness is there to participate in online collaboration?

• What forum exists to share perceptions and communicate understanding of technology projects?

Part 4: What are your learning technology options?

• What impact must the learning technology deliver?

• Where is the evidence it has achieved this before?

• How must it integrate with the existing technology infrastructure?

• How will it engage with current user preference?

• What proof of concept is possible?

• What is the full cost of implementation, integration and maintenance?

Part 5: How can your selected learning technology solution be implemented effectively?

• How will project deliverables and progress be monitored?

• How will changes be managed?

• How will stakeholders be kept involved, connected and enthused?

• How will the solution be launched?

• How will results be measured and used for improvement?

Read more in our whitepaper: Delivering results from digital learning