Association eLearning program development should reflect the current and upcoming training needs of members and industry employers. However, too often, development programs focus only on topics reflecting the strengths of subject matter experts (SMEs) and the assumptions of committee members.

Your team limits its perspective if you rely only on SMEs and committee members for input on new online learning programs and courses. Rather than only responding to incoming ideas, take a proactive approach too.

 

Steps for Taking a Proactive Approach to Learning Program Development

In this post, we outline a plan for identifying learning program topics and formats that meet and anticipate member and industry needs.

 

Clarify your association’s professional development goals

First things first: sit down with your team to clarify your learning portfolio’s goals and ensure they’re aligned with your association’s strategic goals. Some programs exist to achieve one goal but aren’t expected to help with another. For example, a low-priced introductory microcredentialing program is designed to support workforce development but may not help your bottom line.

Typically, association programs are expected to achieve goals such as:

• Boost workforce skill development
• Raise the level of professional proficiency in your industry
• Enhance your association’s standing and influence
• Promote accessibility and inclusion
• Help members advance their careers
• Deliver member value and increase retention
• Facilitate knowledge transfer
• Support credential maintenance
• Generate revenue 

Understanding how a new program may or may not fulfill professional development goals helps you make better decisions when investing resources in program development.

Get clear on your target audience. Decide which market segments your programs will serve and which they won’t.

 

 

Conduct needs assessments 

Your charge is to ask, listen, and dig deeper to identify skill gaps and future needs and understand learner needs, habits, and preferences. Start with member and customer surveys and pulse polls to uncover existing knowledge and skills gaps and anticipate which competencies industry professionals will lack in the future.

Supplement these surveys with deeper dive interviews and focus groups. Talk with representatives from each member/customer segment about their current and looming career challenges, learning needs, and on-the-job problems to be solved. These conversations help you see the holes in your professional development portfolio.

Recruit human resources professionals, senior managers, and industry recruiters from member companies to serve on an advisory council. This group helps you understand workforce development challenges and skills gaps in new hires and employees by career stage and position. Find out what training needs are unmet due to lack of employer capacity and/or capability.

Teach board members, committee members, and other volunteer groups how to develop foresight skills. With foresight, volunteer leaders can better understand:

• Drivers of change in your industry and beyond
• Emerging workplace trends
• Opportunities, concerns, or threats posed by these changes 
• How your programs could address these changes and needs

With the help of an advisory council and committee members, you can determine which competencies to focus on when developing programs in the next few months and beyond.

 

Better understand your market

Survey members about their past learning activities to understand what they’ve actually done, not what they say they’ll do. 

• Where have they participated in learning?
• Why did they choose those providers or sources?
• What learning format(s) do they prefer?
• What’s their capacity for learning? How much time are they willing to commit? What type of budget do they have?

Examine member and customer engagement data to understand the interests of your audience segments, for example, popular webinar and conference session topics. Besides attendance data, see where you could expand offerings by analyzing:

• Email clicks
• Community conversations
• Website search topics
• Customer/member service or chatbot inquiries

In program evaluations, ask attendees what problems they’re encountering at work and where their skills and knowledge fall short.

Ask marketing colleagues to help you understand Google search traffic for topics of interest.

Do a competitor analysis. You are likely to have more competitors than ever before. In fact, many of your supplier members may offer competing education. Look also at the online programs offered by higher education, non-profit, and for-profit organizations, and entrepreneurs. 

 

Outline a program development roadmap

Based on needs assessments, market research, and employer/member feedback, identify four to seven professional domains where you’ll focus program development. Before going further, make sure they align with your association and professional development goals.

Define the competencies required for each domain at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Create a learning pathway for each level that matches your current (and future) portfolio.

Where are the gaps? Which competencies aren’t you teaching? Determine which programs, courses, or credentialing programs to develop and in which format, based on market preferences.

Map out a development pipeline that prioritizes programs needed to meet current skills gaps and address existing workplace challenges. Also include programs that meet future needs so you’re not always playing catch-up. Determine the order: deliver immediately, in 6 months, 1 year, 18 months, 2 years, etc.

Decide on the delivery method: 

• Instructor-led synchronous program/course
• On-demand asynchronous program/course
• Webinar
• Blended learning experience
• Cohort program
• Microcredentialing program
• Certificate program

 

Invest in a continuous discovery and development cycle

Create a process for continual assessment and development. Committee members help assess programs and learner feedback and monitor emerging practices and technologies. Establish working groups that assist you and your committees on a temporary basis with market research. If recruiting volunteers for committees is difficult, rely on working groups to do this work on six-month assignments.

Gather feedback through:

• Regular conversations with employers—those who serve on the advisory council and those who don’t
• Town halls and meetups for human resources professionals and recruiters
• Virtual and in-person member focus groups 

Host a year-round submissions form on your website for session, program, course, and webinar proposals. Changing the session proposal process requires the cooperation and collaboration of your conference education team—a great way to break down departmental silos for the benefit of members and industry professionals.

Cast a wider net when requesting proposals to attract the interest of a more diverse group of prospective speakers and instructors.

Create an online channel to collect member ideas and feedback using a form on your member portal, volunteering page, or community platform.

Develop a standardized proposal approval process with transparent selection criteria. Establish a workflow for agile content development so your association delivers education to your members and industry when they need it. If your association doesn’t have the capacity or expertise to quickly roll out online learning programs, consider working with an eLearning partner like Apti.

At Apti, we partner with leading professional associations, empowering them to elevate member experiences through education. Together, we create engaging learning programs that position their organizations as the definitive source of expertise in their respective fields. 

If you’re ready to enhance your association’s educational offerings and member engagement, let’s talk. Email us at contact@hiapti.com.