A formula for successful online distance learning

This Wednesday I hosted the first in a series of webinars in which winners of the 2012 E-Learning Awards present their projects and describe how they set about achieving their successes. This is the second year of these webinars and I'm delighted to be involved, primarily because I find the projects so inspirational. It's a bit depressing when you come across dull e-learning, so when you see how it really can be done it puts a spring back in your step.

In this first webinar we concentrated on the Best Online Distance Learning category and we were lucky to have both the Gold and Silver winners taking part:

1. Willow DNA, working with the Institute of Practitioners in Marketing (IPA), the UK's professional body for advertising, media and marketing communications agencies: In response to a survey that showed that 56% of IPA members wanted to study through online distance learning, Willow helped the IPA to develop an online route for members to gain the IPA Foundation Certificate. Some 1500 members are now studying online, with 691 passes to date. Most impressively, the IPA has seen a 200% increase in enrolments in their Foundation Certificate.
2. Growth Engineering, working with Aggregate Industries and the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management (ISMM), to offer 19 ISMM qualifications entirely online to 400 sales people and sales managers at Aggregate. The programme has saved Aggregate �500K in training costs, while achieving an unprecedented 98% pass rate.

It was interesting to find out the factors that Willow and Growth Engineering felt most contributed to the success of their programmes:

Not dull e-learning: Willow's programme replaced what was some pretty horrible page-turning. And, as Juliette Denny of Growth Engineering was proud to proclaim: 'We are the arch enemies of dull learning.'

Learner journeys: Both organisations set out their programmes as highly-flexible but cohesive learner journeys, making use of rich blends of different resources and activities. Willow used a diagnostic tool to help learners filter out material that would be of less value to them. Growth Engineering encouraged learners to analyse and reflect on their own experiences in order to generate insights.

Use of scenarios: Growth Engineering made a big use of interactive scenarios to develop sales skills: 'We don't ask you what you know, we ask you what you would do.'

Use of video: Willow made a big use of video in their programme and felt it made a big contribution. Willow's Lisa Minogue-White made an interesting observation about video production values. She felt really simple, home-made pieces-to-camera worked fine when the speaker was passionate about what they were discussing. At the other extreme, really professional videos also worked well. What she didn't rate were home-made videos that tried to mimic professional video techniques.

Gamification: Growth Engineering worked hard to gamify their offering using badges and leader-boards and this really seemed to pay off with a sales audience. According to Juliette, gamification is 'the best thing ever'.

Social: Willow made it easy for learners to connect live with other learners who were online at the same time and Lisa felt this was 'incredibly valuable'. There were some 10,000 posts for a single intake of the Foundation Certificate.

All in all, a potent mix for delivery of online professional qualifications and plenty of evidence for a move from the same old, same old. Well done to both of these organisations.

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