After all the effort that you have put into creating your custom training program, it is now time for you to launch it. But just before you do, there are a couple of things that you need to check first. This is part of your quality check routine.
In truth, a quality check should involve other people. Assuming that you have already shown your course to other people and they have given their comments and approval, you need to make one last sweep before implementing the program. This is more necessary if the comments you got involved some changes in the program that you created. You want to make sure that everything is in order because this project of yours will be a reflection of your own skill and work ethics.
Here is a list of the 10 things that you need to check before you finally launch your custom training program.
- Learning goals and objectives. Begin by looking at the program as a whole. Were you able to meet the goals and objectives that you had set at the beginning of its creation? You need to check if all of the elements you incorporated in your course is aligned with your objectives.
- Typo errors. This includes your grammar and use of spelling and punctuation marks. Even the best training programs look unprofessional because of poor grammatical and sentence construction. This is actually one of the most simple mistakes that you can make but it will still have a great effect on the impact of your course.
- Links and references. For sure you used some references and links in your course. It is admittedly tedious but you need to check each and every one of them to see if they lead to where you intend them to go. Sometimes, we think the links are still active but then something happens to the source website to make the link irrelevant.
- Navigation. You should also check out the navigation feature of your course. Is the course easy to navigate or is it a bit confusing? This should have been part of the comments that you received when you asked someone else to check your course. But even after their comments, take one final look at it to see if there are certain links within the course that leads to a dead end or the wrong page. If your custom training program allow learners to jump from one part of the course to the other, your navigation will be a very important feature.
- Tracking and monitoring systems. This is both for the benefit of your learners and the instructor. Some learners want to check how they have progressed in the training program. Usually, learners can use this to motivate themselves to complete the course. Not only that, instructors will need a monitoring tool that will help them see if some learners are lagging behind. That way, they can jump in to see how they can assist them.
- Feedback tools. The comments of your learners will be very important – especially when you plan on creating more custom training programs. You have to ensure that this tool is incorporated and working well in your course – regardless if it is a separate survey form or at the end of your course.
- Submission process. If you have tests or homeworks included in the course, you may want to ensure that learners will not have a difficult time in submitting them. Ideally, you want the process to be simple and fast – so as not to frustrate your learners.
- Browser compatibility. Not only should you check if your training program is supported by all type of browsers, you may want to check if any multimedia element in your course is too. Some browsers will make some video formats look different or fail to display some animations correctly.
- Mobile compatibility. Speaking of browsers, if your custom training program is meant to be accessed via mobile, then this is another thing that you need to check. Mobile screens are smaller than a desktop so make sure the course has the right layout for it. You do not want your course to be distorted as it might affect the content.
- Summary of the lesson. This is like the concluding part of your training program. Make sure that this part will highlight the key parts of the course so as to strengthen retention in the minds of the learners.
Once you have checked out all of the things in your list, it is now time for you to finally launch your custom training program.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles for FreeDigitalPhotos.net