Developing eLearning at Gwynedd County Council
Having a clearly defined eLearning strategy is an important step towards gaining senior management support – backing at this level can directly influence the success of any eLearning programme. Participating with the Engaging Diversity project gave partner Gwynedd County Council the understanding they needed to refine their thinking and begin to formulate an eLearning strategy that was compatible with the needs, resources and objectives of their organisation.Prior to their participation with Engaging Diversity, Gwynedd County Council had made limited use of eLearning and had not yet implemented any organisation-wide eLearning. However, with over 6500 staff to reach, the council had decided to incorporate eLearning but needed to explore how best to implement it and to determine where it could be used within the organisation. Participating with the Engaging Diversity project gave the council the ideal opportunity to trial and evaluate different implementation approaches and get a sense of what could be achieved using eLearning.
As part of their overall learning strategy Gwynedd council categorises staff into training groups according to their responsibilities. This enables the council to use a range of approaches within each learning programme to suit the needs of different cohorts. The council wanted all their staff to complete the diversity eLearning programme but as this was a completely new medium decided to phase it in gradually and implement it to select groups. A piecemeal approach would enable the council to rollout the programme in a manageable way and overcome obstacles such as IT issues as part of the process.
The council chose senior managers as the first cohort for trialling the programme because these individuals would ultimately have responsibility for supporting their own staff with the same learning. To encourage them to start learning as soon as possible the managers were given a deadline by which the programme had to be completed. Depending on their preference, the Managers could choose between completing the programme at their desktop or using computers in the IT suite.
After everyone had completed the programme they attended a ½ day workshop session where they discussed how the learning could be applied in real situations. “Despite not having extensive experience of eLearning, we knew we wanted to try a blended approach. The workshop was a crucial element for us to successfully raise awareness – it would reinforce the learning and put it in the context of everyday situations,” explains Carey Cartwright, Training Manager at the council.
Carey reports that the first session had mixed results – the blended approach had been effective and feedback was positive. However, it would have been more helpful had the workshop been delivered immediately after the modules so that the learning was fresh in participant’s minds. The council continued to rollout the programme to the next cohort of Managers. This time the discussion workshop was scheduled immediately after participants had completed the first modules. “The training co-ordinator really enjoyed delivering the session, says Carey, “the discussion after learners had completed the modules was much more lively, with people more willing to talk about their understanding of diversity and how they might review their perceptions.”
Carey continues, “We were really pleased to have identified an effective approach for tackling the complex subject of diversity. The modules had the power to convey the facts and issues much better than a co-ordinator could when delivering them in a face to face session. Many learners said that the imagery, particularly in the disability module had a real impact on them.”
In conclusion, trialling the diversity eLearning programme has provided Gwynedd County Council with both an understanding of the particular approach for making eLearning effective in their organisation and the practical knowledge needed to implement eLearning successfully. “The Engaging Diversity project has strengthened our commitment to introducing eLearning at Gwynedd County Council. As part of our learning strategy we have identified most of the training we’ll be carrying out for the next 5 years and we’ll be considering using eLearning for each of those programmes,” Carey added.
