Television networks constantly monitor their audience ratings. They will often brag about the “golden minute”, those magical sixty seconds when unprecedented numbers of people are watching a certain channel. They usually happen during great sporting events like The Super Bowl or The Olympic Games when national teams get into the finals.
There are numerous specialists working on the publicity, teasers, polls – of course, that costs a lot of money. Getting large numbers of people to watch the same thing when there are so many options out there is a complicated task.
When we are talking about e-learning courses, the budget is obviously not that big and the goal is to engage people for a lot longer than one glorious minute. To make matters even more complicated, the main goal is to educate, not entertain. So in order to keep people not only clicking but also reading and retaining the information it is important to find out who they are, what they need to learn and how they would rather do it.
Engagement is key when learning is concerned and in order for your learners to get on board with the course and stick to it until those pesky learning goals are met, you need to design it in such a way to fit them.
Of course, just how not everybody is a Super Bowl fan, it is impossible to create a course that will appeal equally to each and every individual enrolled in it. However, in order to reach (and hold) as many learners as possible, you need to find a common denominator and adapt the content and delivery methods.
This is where a thorough audience assessment comes in. In order to do it right, you should start with basic questions concerning the age and educational background of your audience, the expectations they have regarding learning and how technical they are.
Gathering this information from the potential learners will give you quite a lot of data you need to start the analysis. It will provide you with a glimpse of how they do their jobs, what their roles are within the organization, and how they feel about their current position.
However, you should go beyond simply asking the learners. Ideally, your learners’ answers should not be the only source of information for your analysis. If you have the time and opportunity, it’s great to observe them as they perform their jobs and get feedback from the team leaders.
You should also look into what has previously been done in terms of learning and development. Of course, if time and resources are limited you can go with an online survey. Here’s what you should find out:
To cover this section you should ask questions concerning:
No e-learning course is ever designed for a single person. In order for the initial investment to pay off, it should be suitable for a large number of learners. A group always exhibits some similarities but also some notable differences that you need to have in mind. To learn about these characteristics you should ask about:
It’s important to know what your audience already knows about the subject matter. This way you will be able to set realistic training objectives. Here’s what you should know:
Engagement is key to information retention. It’s important to see how the learners feel about learning in general and the subject in question in particular. The following information will help you figure out how much effort you should put into getting your audience on board:
Having a good idea about how the audience likes to learn will help you design appropriate materials for optimal information retention. The questions to ask are:
To figure out the technical side of your course, you have to find out about the technology that is available to your learners. Get the answers to the following questions to ensure you can deliver a smooth learning experience:
A thorough audience analysis ought to be the first step of your e-learning design process. Knowing exactly what your audience expects from your course, how and where they prefer your course to be delivered, and how they would rather interact with the information will ensure the success of your course.