Outsourcing eLearning Development

• Are you working with an organization, which has either outsourced the eLearning content development or is in the process of doing the same?
• Are you directly involved in what is called vendor management?
• Have you seen your attempts at eliciting quality content from the vendor organizations, fail?
  

If any of the above points apply to you, you’ll find this article very relevant. You see, when you are overworked, worried, anxious, confused, and angry; it is a great comfort to know that you are not the only one with these woes. The reason behind this comfort isn’t born from any kind of sadistic attitude; it is actually the hope factor that makes us feel better! When we know that we aren’t the only ones, we begin to realize that there is something that is making those others survive; and we also know that some of them may have found ways to surmount the problems that have been making us miserable!

So if you are an eLearning vendor manager, don’t worry. Others have walked this path before, and they’ve left clues, which if deciphered correctly, could lead us out of this darkness! But then, as each problem is unique, each solution too has to be unique; and in order to solve any problem correctly; the first step is to find its root cause.

The following case will help you relive some of your better-forgotten moments:

Pronoy Ghosh works with a BPO company, which is located in Gurgaon. His current designation is Assistant Manager (Training), but his main role is that of an outsourcing manager. Pronoy, who was earlier a Voice & Accent Trainer, had always dreamed of moving into the training management function. The reasons weren’t very obscure. In fact, his reasons can be well understood by all those couples where both partners work in the BPO sector. He wanted to move out of working in shifts so that he could have a more settled lifestyle.

Unfortunately, his promotion came decorated with a rider. His new responsibilities included spearheading the eLearning initiative in his organization. Pronoy, of course, didn’t have any experience with eLearning content development, and he protested. However, the Training Head brushed his protests aside by telling him that eLearning was the future, and Pronoy was lucky to be at the right place at the right time. Thus, Pronoy’s future was inextricably linked with the success of this new eLearning initiative.

Pronoy researched the market; he got in touch with all his acquaintances to gather information about those who developed eLearning content. The Training Head too recommended those he knew. The vendors made their presentations, the prices were negotiated, and the agreements were signed. The eLearning initiative required the digitization of all the training manuals in the organization.

With three different vendors working on three different manuals, Pronoy was happy to perform the role of a manager. This state of happiness lasted for a fortnight as the first lot of deliverables were supposed to arrive after two weeks of signing the contract. Pronoy waited the whole day, then the next day, and the next…and then he gave up and called his vendors. “We are working on the deliverables, they’ll reach you tonight,” was the lowest common denominator in the replies he received from the vendors. It’s easy to guess, that Pronoy had to make numerous other calls, and only after his throat had gone sore and his voice had turned hoarse, that he received his first deliverable, a storyboard from one of the vendors.

Of course, for Pronoy the nightmare was just beginning. Though Pronoy didn’t know much about eLearning, he could see that the content would turn out to be boring and ineffective. The vendors had literally digitized the content. They hadn’t used the eLearning medium to its advantage. When he tried pointing this out in the reviews, the whole thing went into a loop. The six-week delivery cycle for the finished product became a long-forgotten dream for Pronoy. While he spent most of his time reviewing content, and speaking to the vendors (requesting, cajoling, and sometimes almost screaming at them,) the management woke up and asked him the question that he was attempting to dodge – why isn’t the content ready?

Pronoy had waited for his promotion for five long years. For the first time in his career, he began thinking of putting in his papers. His job required him to work unearthly hours. Earlier his shift used to have a definite end; now he was working all the time. He wasn’t confident of what he was doing with the reviews, he didn’t know anything about eLearning, and the vendors were always reminding him of this fact. His performance, which was always rated excellent, was recently rated average!

So, what went wrong?

Honestly, everything!

• Absence of “informed” planning
• Incorrect vendor selection parameters
• Absence of an appropriate vendor management team
• Absence of eLearning orientation training for the vendor manager (and the vendor management team, which was absent in this case.)
• Lack of instructional design expertise in the vendor management team
• Incorrect understanding of eLearning by the management
  

As all these are self-explanatory, I shall not being the explanation harangue. Instead, I will create an indicative things-to-do list. This list is synthesized from my own experiences in the Indian eLearning industry, and I hope that it would be of extreme practical utility for the Indian as well as the foreign organizations that outsource eLearning content from India.

1. Plan for eLearning outsourcing in an informed manner

   This means, don’t take the plunge before testing the waters. Also decide where you should dive. Don’t dive into the shallow end of the pool. All training content is not appropriate for eLearning transformation. You may want to go for a blended learning solution for some content types. Don’t just decide to convert all the manuals into eLearning! It doesn’t work. In fact, it’s like advertising to the vendor that you don’t understand eLearning. Don’t do that.

   Get an eLearning expert in your team. (Remember that everyone with ten years of experience in eLearning need not be an expert.) Try to determine the actual role that this person played in the different projects he or she worked on. Find a person who has the experience of designing or proposing complete eLearning solutions as opposed to merely developing content or reviewing it.
   

2. Establish a vendor management team

   Ensure that you have a small trained team for vendor management. Train this team for the following competencies:
   
   • Vendor management
   • eLearning orientation
   • Instructional design
   
   Also define the responsibilities for each member of the team unambiguously. Establish either a system of account-management (one vendor – all processes – one manager) or function-management (all vendors – specific processes – one manager.)
   

3. Determine the appropriate pricing policy

   This is a very touchy issue. The base for pricing should be selected in such a way that the vendor is motivated to improve the effectiveness of learning. The quality factor should definitely figure in the pricing. Generally speaking - interactivity, case studies, scenarios, quizzes, and other exercises; all these improve the effectiveness of content. Ensure that your pricing doesn’t discriminate against vendors who provide you more interactive and more effective content just because their frame count is lower. Think about making your pricing input dependent. Also think about building quality bonuses after establishing the content quality review milestones. Do you see why it is important that the first step in outsourcing should be hiring the expert?

4. Establish correct and relevant vendor selection parameters

   Knowing that a company does some kind of eLearning development, or that it is inhabited with some extremely nice people should never be a reason for closing your eyes to the other important characteristics that a vendor organization should possess. First and foremost, as your organization intends to design, develop, and implement an eLearning solution, you should try to ascertain whether or not the vendor organization being evaluated has similar experience. If it has, try to find out what the audience/clients have to say about them. The litmus test of any organization’s eLearning content creation abilities is their audience’s response. Also determine whether or not the eLearning vendor organization has the following three abilities:
   
   • Instructional Design
   • Graphic Design
   • Programming
   
   Many organizations hold the instructional design process internally, and sub-outsource the graphic design and the programming process. If your data needs to remain secure you need to tread carefully.
   

5. Establish vendor management processes

   Ensure that there is a strong vendor management process in place. It will help reduce the stress on the vendor management team while ensuring quality and timely deliveries from your vendors. A good process will also provide adequate visibility of the status and the quality of the deliverables to all the stakeholders.
   So,
   
   • Establish practical timelines.
   • Schedule appropriate reviews
   • Establish standards & guidelines
   • Establish a concrete follow-up policy
   • Conduct process orientation sessions for the vendors

If you are just boarding the eLearning bus, stop for a moment. Reflect upon what you’ve just read. If you seriously consider these things-to-do and form your own eLearning transition plan by addressing all or most of them, you will find that the transition that you’re spearheading will result in happiness, success, and growth for you and for everyone around you.

Happy Outsourcing!

Author: Shafali R. Anand