10 years of lessons learned

Money101 has been in the business of eLearning for 10 years. As leaders in online financial education in Australia, we provide services to major corporates, financial institutions, super funds, industry associations and government and we’d like to share our experience of successful (and not so successful) eLearning. The lessons we’ve learnt are broad and hopefully make interesting reading. 

Firstly, we know that content is king. It must be relevant, fit for purpose and engaging … not as easy as it sounds … as we’ve learnt along the way.

To get good content, you need expert writers who can speak volumes in simple sentences. So many think they can do it, yet very few manage to do it well. We’ve seen time and again how poorly thought out content can spoil what should be a very satisfying educational experience, and yes, we’ve been guilty of it ourselves.

Simplicity is the next concept that so few eLearning developers embrace. Information should be on a need to know basis – the short story is always best. This is where expert editing comes in – an essential component in the lifecycle of an eLearning module.

Bringing the content to life through brilliant instructional design is a critical component, without it, we have words on a screen, online PDF’s or eBooks that are the poor and lazy man’s eLearning. If there’s no difference between the online and a text book, then why bother with the time and cost of producing the online at all?

The very nature of digital lends itself to unlimited design options – so fantastic graphic designers and multimedia developers are essential to produce online content worthy of a learner’s time. The screen must look good and the experience and journey through the content free from any confusion.

Maintaining currency is a very difficult job for most developers but the online world is instantaneous and ‘need it now’ and everything can be googled for accuracy. We don’t even bother with an online program unless the intention is to update and continuously improve.

So why do we do it?

Our business has been driven by the need to educate consumers on financial services and products. We develop online content that assists a learner to gain vital financial literacy skills and determine their needs in a financial sense.

In our industry we’ve had to identify what customers or clients did or did not understand about money management and how we could build that knowledge base and remove the unnecessary jargon.

We’ve learnt over the past 10 years that financial institutions and super funds really do want to help their customers and members to successfully and confidently manage their finances but they invariably get it wrong – after all, they’re not educators or gatekeepers. But it’s our view that they have a responsibility as custodians of our life savings to offer education of the highest standard to help us all make better and more informed financial decisions.

In a world that’s increasingly characterised by complexity and change, the need for everyone to be enterprising to cope and thrive has never been greater. Enterprising people that are in control of their finances are typically optimistic about their future and have higher aspirations for achieving social and economic prosperity. And financially literate Australians will play a fundamental role in the development of Australia as a nation and its resources.

Financial literacy is not just about having money, being independent and being able to work or run a business. It is vital to keep us safe, secure and maintain our basic needs such as food and shelter. When we buy a house we need to understand the responsibility of a home loan and what happens if that house devalues, is burnt down or we can no longer afford the repayments.

So the training need has been simple to identify. How to attack the need is more difficult. And we’ve tried many ways over the past decade – some more successful than others.

Education versus the brand

Clients often ask us to include product in our eLearning. We believe education cannot include product if we are to stay true to our educational goals. There is absolutely nothing wrong with producing education that is branded, that contains links back to websites (and more learning) and IS easily identifiable with the provider, however, we’ve learnt that if the educational message is sacrificed, an inferior outcome will always be the result. The eLearning will seem pointless and irrelevant and eventually won’t be used – so the spruiking of product won’t be seen anyway. Learners are not fools – they can smell an advertisement a mile off and if the content is one big ad, they click away in a heartbeat.

Bonus outcomes!

So we’ve explained how the number one goal is increased financial literacy, but we’ve also learnt there are numerous bonus outcomes to successful eLearning.

Let’s take a financial literacy program for a super fund as an example. The education potentially increases business opportunities for everyone because if the learner understands what superannuation is and how it is a tax effective investment product, then they can engage with their super, learn about the various products, and make wise choices. Members will always have questions and if they can seek the answers at a time that suits them, without feeling threatened or rushed, this is a win/win for everyone. This, in turn, reduces the load on super fund call centres.

Measuring up

So how do we know what works and what doesn’t? We need to determine what success looks like. We’ve learnt that it’s not about clicks and how much time the learner has spent in a module; it’s about the user experience and their unique learning requirements. Too often we look at time-based training rather than an effective outcome, typically positive behavioural change.

User feedback is critical. Do participants like the training, are they gaining the knowledge and is there a behaviour change? Lastly is there a learning result and impact?  We have ten years of good and bad feedback on our work and trust us, we know what works.

Cut costs at your own peril

At Money101, we are honest in our belief that in eLearning, you get what you pay for. Cheap training will turn the learner off and is usually a waste of time – a box ticking exercise that benefits no-one. However expensive training does not always equal good training. You should be able to find a provider who has done it before, can explain what the educational outcomes will be and knows from experience what works and what doesn’t. If you get nothing else from this article, please take this one piece of advice … if the costing is not transparent with options then look elsewhere. You should be able to see examples of other work and have a robust project plan in place at commencement. Many eLearning providers fall down in this area.

Lastly … enlist the help of experts if you want the best result. You’ll need an exemplary team to put it all together. A project manager, content writer, instructional designer, graphic designer, IT experts, editor and the list goes on.

Experienced providers can successfully identify training needs, define your goals, and establish what success looks like. By understanding the costs and benefits of your eLearning program with a team you can trust, you can set the stage for success.