Custom-Designed Learning

With so many vendors offering off-the-shelf or online learning programs, why would you want to custom-design training for your organization? What are the features and benefits of custom-designed learning?

The chart below summarizes what to say the next time you need to convince someone that custom-designed learning is the way to go.

Features & Benefits

Component	Concerns About Non-Customized Learning	Custom-Design Features	Custom-Design Benefits
1. Learning Needs	How well does the learning address our learners’ identified performance ‘gaps’ i.e., difference between expected performance and actual performance?	The custom-designed training design process starts with identifying and documenting the actual ‘performance gaps’ before designing the learning solution.	Your learners’ real learning needs are the focus of the learning. Your learners acquire ‘must know’ knowledge and skills. Your learners don’t spend time and energy on ‘nice to know’ information.
2. Organizational Culture	Will the learning support or clash with our organizational culture?	Since you know your organization so well you can directly influence how the learning is custom-designed to reflect your organization’s unique culture.	Your organization’s vision, values and beliefs are reinforced in the training. The learning materials are aligned with and support your organization’s culture.
3. Learning Objectives	How well do the learning objectives match what we need?	Before designing the learning, you, your subject matter experts and any other stakeholders review and approve the documented learning objectives.	You know how each component of the custom-designed learning initiative fits within your overall learning strategy (competency-based architecture). You can ensure the inclusion of specific learning content and exercises to achieve each learning objective.
4. Materials and Resources	How realistic and relevant is the content, examples, case studies, scenarios, and exercises to our organization?	Your internal subject matter experts provide most, if not all, of the content to create the examples, case studies, scenarios and exercises.	New, unique models, graphics and diagrams are developed to explain your organization’s key processes, procedures and principles. Your organization’s terms and acronyms are incorporated into the materials and resources.
5. Copyright	Who owns the copyright? How restricted is the use of the learning materials?	Your organization owns the copyright to the custom-designed learning product. You don’t need to get permission from the vendor (author) to revise, copy, or update the learning materials.	You can save time and money by having your own internal team make any updates or changes, as necessary. There’s no ongoing vendor contracting needed to revise the materials (and no additional costs). You can freely share the materials with other divisions in your company.
6. Review and Collaboration (Subject Matter Experts, Stakeholders,learners)	To what extent can we review and influence what’s included in the learning program?	You get to see exactly what is going to be taught, in what order, to what depth, and how well before the learning initiative is implemented.	The review and collaboration process increases your stakeholders’ and subject matter experts’ buy-in and support of the learning initiative. The learning initiative gains higher credibility and value to the organization based on your own team’s review and stamp of approval.
7. Learning Evaluation	How will we know what has been learned? How effective are the learning evaluation instruments?	The performance-based and custom-designed learning evaluations are directly linked to the approved learning content and process.	You can customize your evaluation instruments based on your ROI reporting requirements. You can easily compare the learning outcomes to the documented learning objectives.