We’ve been constantly impressing on readers and visitors of this site of how elearning is important in today’s world – especially when it comes to a company’s training program. If you think about it, the time is right for this type of learning to take the spotlight – thanks to the advancements of technology. In fact, we wrote an article about it recently – about how today is the best time for elearning.
Both educational institutions and business entities have taken notice of this new way of learning. Companies recognize how valuable this type of training is – especially when it comes to cost-efficiency. But we all know that creating elearning courses can be costly. This is why you may want to consider outsourcing this task.
There are many benefits to outsourcing the creation of your training program to a professional instructional designer. Before we dwell into that, let us get into a bit of background about the purpose of his expert in your training program.
An instructional designer is someone who understands technology and know how to use it to turn content into an engaging and interactive elearning course. That is probably the simplest way to define what they do.
So how will your company benefit from this professional? Why do you need to hire them if you can tap someone in-house to create the training course for the company?
The first benefit of an instructional designer is expertise. Although your in-house training manager may know the content that has to be taught, they will be unable to create and deliver a course in the same way that an instructional designer will. While the main goal of these professionals is to provide good instruction based on the content provided by your company, they need to know how to best deliver that. It is the delivery part and the use of the right tools is what you will gain out of the expertise of this professional.
When you mention expertise, you also need to consider the experience of instructional designers that will benefit your training needs. It is with experience that their expertise becomes an asset. Unlike in-house employees, an instructional designer is focused on creating training materials and making sure that they are effective. That focus is probably the best deal that you will get out of hiring this expert.
Another benefit that you will gain is in the cost. You may be thinking about the price that you have to pay for this service is hardly saving you money. That may be true – but only if you consider the cost of not having the right training material when you need it the most. We all know how a skilled employee is needed to make the company profitable. But no matter how skilled they are, you need to continue updating their knowledge and skills. Otherwise, their productivity will slow down and the business profits along with it. Outsourcing the creation of an elearning course will prove to be more cost friendly compared to hiring a professional to join your team permanently. After all, a third party service provider only has to be paid when you need them to complete a project. Once the project is delivered, then the financial obligation can be terminated.
Of course, hiring an instructional designer is not always applicable to all businesses. Some companies have constant need for training programs and that could mean hiring an in-house professional may be more appropriate. However, for smaller companies, outsourcing may be the more economical choice.
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