It is the time of the year, when L&D practitioners take a stock of the months gone by and turn towards strategizing for the critical focus areas of the organization. This primarily includes planning the budget for different tools and systems and utilizing the budget effectively to gain maximum returns on the investments made. However, at times, what tends to get overlooked is the legacy content stuck in old technology and systems. Content modernization – the answer to tap existing learning materials and align those with the new-age learners’ needs – is the strategy L&D stakeholders need to actively consider.
This is not about “repackaging content” but is in fact, a transformational strategy to deliver business results by creating new and unique experiences for the learners. Modernization makes content more accessible for the learners and presents it in a format which learners would love to go through. Simply put, modernization is the key to improve content usage and adoption.
To make it easier for organizations to understand the several aspects of modernization, Brandon Hall Group, the leading HCM research and analyst firm, recently launched an eBook titled, ‘Why Modernize Learning Content? Things You Need to Know’ in partnership with Harbinger Interactive Learning. By leveraging Brandon Hall’s research-based analysis and Harbinger’s extensive experience in implementing content modernization solutions, this eBook combines industry insights and business intelligence to illustrate the importance of taking a strategic approach followed by a well-designed execution plan for content modernization.
Why Content Modernization Matters
According to Brandon Hall Group’s Learning Benchmarking Study, content accounts for as much as seven figures worth of L&D budget in many large organizations.
These figures emphasize that when it comes to strategizing, it is worth considering what an organization already has and how it can make the most of the content. Typically, organizations have a massive volume of documents in their existing legacy systems. The problem arises when deciding on which ones should be moved, and which should stay. What can be safely archived or deleted? The eBook is unique, in that sense, as it rightly points out the intelligent approach to what can be reused, repurposed, and replaced. It helps organizations identify the criteria to sift through the existing content and achieve their goal of making curated content easily available.
A Smart Framework for Content Migration
Harbinger, a Brandon Hall Group Smartchoice® Preferred Provider, has a “SMART” Framework that organizations can leverage for the modernization of their learning content. It provides a comprehensive solution to cover all the aspects of content modernization, namely, making the content searchable, accessible, responsive, trackable, as well as curating bite-sized learning elements. The expertise that Harbinger brings in is well covered in the eBook. In fact, Harbinger has recently assisted in the modernization of eLearning courses for a catalog learning solutions provider. The client had developed over 500 courses in Articulate Presenter and wished to keep up with the changing technologies, advancement of devices, and the need for a modern learning experience for the learners. Harbinger provided an innovative and rapid course development approach that unified experience across the courses in the catalog.
Harbinger has also helped in the modernization of legacy courses for a digital publishing company. The client had a library of over 500 courses which were developed using legacy tools like Flash and Articulate Presenter. Unfortunately, the end-users faced issues accessing these courses as the latest browsers do not support Flash. Harbinger converted the legacy Flash content to HTML5 XML framework so that the courses were moved to a more modern format.
Modernization: The Need of the Hour
Looking at the requirements of modern-day learners as well as the requirements of the future workplace, organizations need to increasingly focus on modernizing their legacy content. Topped with other factors like technology disruptions and scaling digital transformation, it becomes all the more imperative to look at modernization as a transformational strategy to deliver business results. To achieve this, L&D practitioners need to find an industry partner to optimize technology, to craft unique learning experiences for modern learners. This partner will help in optimizing the content, both in terms of the money spent as well as bringing in the content effectiveness.
If you are considering content modernization to align your strategic business objectives, download a free copy of the eBook to know how the L&D function can maximize its content value.
