Speeding Up Course Content Creation
Brainstorming, drafting, and creating your corporate training content can be incredibly time-consuming. The demand for new course content is higher than ever, especially when you factor in new compliance measures as a result of COVID. This is on top of the standard course content your development team is already responsible for.
Luckily, there are a few simple strategies your development team can use to speed up the content creation process without sacrificing quality or the overall effectiveness of the content.
What Is Training Course Content Creation?
Training course content creation is the process your development team is responsible for when it comes to creating learning material for your company’s training programs. More specifically, this process usually entails your organization’s content for your LMS and eLearning platforms.
Content creation for eLearning platforms includes video content, text-based content, infographics, and webinars that learners use to advance their knowledge regarding compliance and other relevant topics based on their position and department.
However, as we mentioned previously, development teams are currently being required to rapidly develop new content because of new regulations and compliance due to the pandemic. Despite their workload, development teams must ensure that all content keeps learners engaged and drives home the most important points of each lesson and course.
The following section provides tips on how your development team can speed up the content creation process and better manage their workload.
1. Create Training Standards
Training standards give your development team an outline for creating future content. Having a guideline allows creators to focus on developing content that includes only the most relevant information that employees need.
The first step is to create an assessment that analyzes your training needs.
You should have a complete view of the workforce, including key metrics such as job descriptions, responsibilities, skills required for each level, and knowledge levels about employees’ current performance based on surveys, conversations, and exit interviews.
You also need to identify gaps in performance and opportunities for improvement within the organization. Once this is accomplished, you’re ready to start creating training standards based on needs assessment analysis of your workforce data, job descriptions, and gaps analysis.
Training Standard Development
The next step is developing a standard that outlines how a job should be performed and any related skills or competencies required to perform that function successfully. For example, a salesperson should have good interpersonal skills because he or she is expected to help customers learn about the company’s products and services, communicate effectively internally and externally with potential clients, and present company information in an organized way.
Once you have outlined the standards for each job function within your business units, create a list of the competencies required per position. This list may include key skills such as listening to improve customer relationships and communication skills needed to sell a product or service. It could also involve more specific skills like knowing how to use QuickBooks software to organize accounts payable and accounts receivable for different locations.
The training standards for these skills can be designed by the development team or through workshops with current employees. The standards should include what it takes to master a skill or knowledge area along with how much time employees should spend learning each area.
It’s also important to identify how these skills will contribute to the overall company performance by identifying benchmarks for success, including customer satisfaction ratings or employee retention rates.
Once you’ve created training standards based on data analysis from the assessment and job task analysis, identify which tasks are critical to employee performance. These tasks should be included in the training standards and information about employees’ skill levels when they perform these tasks correctly or incorrectly at levels below the standard level.
2. Use LMS Content Management Tools
LMS content management tools can be lifesavers for your development team when the demand for content is high in a short period.
These tools can help speed up the creation process and allow you to use various forms of media for your courses. Content management tools can also provide the following benefits.
Organized Storage
Most content creation tools allow you to categorize your content into folders and subfolders so that you can easily find and share pertinent content. Depending on your tool, you can also access content using a search feature, making it easy to find exactly what you need.
Easy Collaboration
Some content management tools have built-in collaboration features so that multiple people can edit content simultaneously. Others offer a version control system, meaning that the same piece of content can be edited multiple times before being finalized.
Manage Content In Real-Time
Real-time content management means that changes to your content are always reflected instantly in the interface, even if someone is working on editing content while others are viewing the page.
Easily Upload Content
This tool makes it easy to add content to the LMS. Some of them require you to log in with an existing account and create a password for that account.
3. Consider Hiring Content Creators/Outsourcing
The final solution involves bringing in content creators or outsourcing your content development. This is the last resort, as outside content creators may initially lack the inside knowledge needed to create the exact type of content that meshes with your course and company.
However, it is an option, especially if the workload for your development team just gets too heavy to manage. You should make sure the content creators work closely with your development team so nothing is lost in the translation.
If possible, have them come into the office so they can spend a day or two learning exactly what the development team needs to create the appropriate course content. The first couple of offerings may need editing, but eventually, the work that’s turned in will be accepted for implementation into your course.
When things get hectic for your content development team, you must provide them with strategies for relief. You don’t want them to get burnt out or overwork them – otherwise, you stand to run into more significant problems in the not-so-distant future. Take advantage of online learning and the right LMS platform to start having greater production and an overall increase in the quality of your organization.