With Industry 4.0 looming, how you adopt technology and utilise it throughout the learner journey is key to a sustainable business. In the Vocational Education and Training Industry this could be right throughout their journey, as ASQA defines it, from Marketing & Recruitment through to Completion and beyond.
So what are the steps you need to take to understand what your learners’ digital experience should look like and how to adopt best practice? Check out these top tips!
1. Understand The Learner Journey
The first place to start when analysing the experience your Learners have with your organisation is to break down their journey and check what happens at each stage.
Marketing & Recruitment
The first touchpoint with your RTO or business is through your advertising and marketing materials.
Enrolment
From an assessment point of view, it all starts when they enrol on your unit and course. Having a seamless approach and making it easy is key. Set the scene for a great place to study and learn.
Support and Progression
Ensure your Learners are supported and progress throughout their studies as planned.
Training and Assessment
Whether you favour online, face to face or blended, the important thing to note from ASQA is that
the amount of training and mode of delivery is consistent wth requirements.
Completion
Providing timely feedback to your Learners is key to meeting their expectations.
2. Understand Their Needs
Learners these days are no different to the average tech savvy 21st century customer in the context that more people across the world have access to a smartphone than a toothbrush as first proposed by the the MMA. In essence, tech and digital experiences are a huge part of life to the majority of your target market. It’s because of these tools, they expect things to be easy and quick, as the digital revolution has influenced us.
We asked a student of one of our client’s what was important to her when it comes to a digital experience and she stated:
- Ease of use to navigate and manage workload
- Quick and easy submission of assessments
- Easily consumable engaging content
- Portable and flexible so she could access her work whenever she had spare time
- Accessible means for communication and flow of information
3. Integrate Your Data
Whenever your Learners are engaged with your organisation you need to have their records at hand. As an RTO you collect more data and information on your customer than most including copies of personal documentation through to videos and important declaration forms.
Companies that can cross pollinate their student data between their systems are already on the front foot. With the technology available today, there is no reason why this can’t be possible.
Getting things set up can seem daunting, but any good ‘best of breed’ provider will help you with this. From then on you can save hours and days of data entry and avoid frustration from your team providing support to Learners.
4. Think About Their Touch-Points
Omnichannel experiences are the latest buzz word from all of the leading messaging technology companies out there. It’s to do with the fact that customers are interacting with you constantly throughout many different devices, places and spaces. To ensure you are always delivering the best experience you need to make sure that your solution can adapt to the various device types your learners are using and flow on to how your interact with them in person and throughout their engagements with your RTO.
The New Learner App from Cloud Assess is fully responsive and adaptive to perform in the best way at any time for your learners. What this means is that when they access or perform tasks on their desktop device, they will have the same familiar experience when accessing their records, capturing evidence or sending their trainer a message as they would on an iPad or smartphone. They can use it both remotely or face-to-face, in accordance with your Training and Assessment Strategies.
5. Consistency Is Key
As stated earlier, with a greater number of touch-points your Learners are experiencing you must consider that the familiarity of your brand’s tone of voice is key to their engagement and overall experience with your RTO.
To ensure your Learners are actively engaged in your digital resources a clear brand message should be applied across all of the interactions they have with your RTO. From the moment they hit your website, receive their first email or login to your online assessment solution, consistency is key.
Ask yourself Does your online assessment solution allow your brand and corporate identity to flow in a seamless manner? Does the interface provide a consistent look and feel to your website and even your physical premises? Creating and delivering a seamless and consistent experience across all digital touch-points will harness your brand in the mind of your Learners.
6. Ask For Their Feedback
Whatever your customer journey looks like to you could look slightly or entirely different to your customers. Regularly engage in asking your Learners for their feedback whether it is part of a formal process like the Learner Questionnaire, or an informal process, make sure you log it, discuss it and act upon it. There are various tools you can use to analyse and this data like Survey Monkey. To begin with you can create a simple form in Cloud Assess to capture feedback and export it as an Excel file to analyse it as you need.
In summary, creating a digital experience for you learners is not just about providing them with immersive learning content or flashy mobile devices. It’s the sum of all the parts above and it all starts with the breakdown of their journey and understanding their needs and your compliance requirements at each stage. If you are searching for a digital training and assessment solution, check out this blog for a detailed buyers guide.
