How do you communicate e-learning data?

1 Know your audience

The first step to communicate e-learning data is to understand who you are communicating with and what they need to know. Different audiences may have different goals, expectations, and preferences for how they want to receive and use e-learning data. For example, managers may want to see the impact of e-learning on business outcomes, such as sales, retention, or productivity. Clients may want to see the return on investment (ROI) of e-learning, such as cost savings, quality, or customer satisfaction. Instructors may want to see the learning outcomes, such as knowledge, skills, or behavior change. Learners may want to see their progress, feedback, or recommendations. Therefore, you need to tailor your communication to suit your audience's needs, interests, and level of detail.

2 Choose the right format

When communicating e-learning data, it's important to choose the right format for your message. Depending on the audience, purpose, and message, you may use reports, dashboards, infographics, presentations, or videos. Each format has its own advantages and disadvantages that should be taken into account. Consider the type and amount of data you want to communicate, the medium and channel of communication, and the style and tone of communication. For example, reports can handle large and complex data sets while infographics can highlight key facts and figures; dashboards can be accessed online and updated in real-time while presentations can be delivered face-to-face or online; videos can be more engaging and emotional while reports can be more formal and objective.

4 Follow the best practices

The fourth step to communicate e-learning data is to follow the best practices for e-learning data communication. To ensure the quality, clarity, and credibility of your communication, start by defining the purpose and scope of your message. Then, organize and structure your data with headings, subheadings, sections, or bullet points. Additionally, visualize and simplify your data with visual elements, labels, legends, titles, or annotations. Finally, narrate and contextualize your data with text, audio, or video. Use examples, scenarios, or cases to illustrate how the data relates to your audience. Compare benchmarks or trends to show the significance of your data. And use feedback or recommendations to show the implications and applications of your data.

5 Test and refine your communication

Before you share your e-learning data with your audience, it's important to test and refine your communication. You should check the accuracy, validity, and reliability of your data and analysis, as well as the clarity, consistency, and readability of your communication. To do this, you can use various methods and tools such as data quality tools to identify and correct any errors in your data, data analysis tools to confirm and support your findings, communication quality tools to eliminate any mistakes in your communication, and communication feedback tools to collect the opinions of your audience or peers.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?