Knowing the right questions to ask about digital learning will do a lot to ensure its eventual success. The leaders must ask hard questions about the business and the learning experience.
Business-related questions
Here are the first questions that I ask when I am asked to lead the creation of a successful digital learning experience:
- What is your organization’s differentiation strategy?
- How would this experience support that strategy?
- What does success look like to you? How are you going to measure and track this?
- What are your scale, pricing, and growth goals?
- What people do you have—and will you have—to support this effort?
- How will you fund this, at what pace, and to what level?
- What technology (and affiliated support personnel) do you currently have? What flexibility do you have around these commitments?
The organization’s leaders must ensure that the strategy, people, finances, and technology are all aligned in support of the digital learning experience. If any one of these are not aligned, then the program will never achieve its envisioned success.
Learning experience-related questions
I then move on to questions that focus on ensuring that the experience engages students and helps them achieve their goals:
- Clear objectives: Have you defined clear objectives that support students in their lives or careers?
- Active learning: How are you going to integrate active learning into that experience?
- Community engagement: How are you going to support community engagement throughout?
- Quality content: What does quality content mean to you, and how are you going to support its creation?
- Relevant & inclusive: How are you going to ensure that the experience is relevant and inclusive to all those in your target market?
- Student support: How are you going to support learners on their path to achieve their desired outcomes?
While the business-related questions set the stage for a successful digital learning experience, answers to these questions will provide real clarity to the designers, faculty, and program leaders around the organization’s concept of what it means by a high quality digital learning experience.
Improved digital learning experience
An organization that takes the time to answer these questions, and defines the experience accordingly, ends up with a better, more sustainable digital experience:
- The learner is highly engaged
- The experience is structured to ensure that learning outcomes are met
- The experience clearly supports the organization’s strategy
- Community connections are strengthened
- The experience is economically sustainable
Lots of hard work would still lie ahead for such an organization, but all involved should feel a sense of purpose and positivity as they move forward.
