How do you implement a learning platform?

From Our Implementation Services Team

A learning platform brings benefits to educators and learners alike, but implementing and adopting it isn’t without its challenges. It’s a technical initiative that requires careful planning and change management to win the hearts and minds of users and set your organisation on a path to achieving its learning goals.

Your organisation will have its own set of needs that you’ll want the learning platform to meet. For a successful implementation, you need to fully understand what they are and consider a range of other influences and factors—from training, rollout and uptake to administration, support and digital upskilling.

Ultimately, an effective implementation lays the foundation for long-term success.

What happens during learning platform implementation?

This stage determines how the platform will fit into your digital ecosystem, integrate with other systems, and be used to deliver courses. At D2L, implementation typically goes through four stages:

1. Discover

To start, the implementation team needs to understand and agree on what your organisation wants to achieve. What are your learning goals? Where does the platform sit within your learning ecosystem? How will it be used?

2. Site design and review

This is the technical delivery—how the learning platform will work, how it will operate and how users will interact with it. It’s likely to be an iterative stage as designs are created, assessed and revised before you arrive at your final workflow.

3. Train and coach

This is when you’re trained in using the platform, D2L Brightspace create learning content, assessments, feedback routes, grading mechanisms and all other course elements.

4. Prepare for launch

Once the first three stages have been delivered and you’re ready to go live, your change management programme team can move on to the next stage of adoption.

The reality, of course, is that the final release is likely to be a phased process with training for, and rollout to, a small number of early adopters. On-the-ground training focuses on equipping people to use the platform. The larger goal of implementation is to ensure the solution will help your organisation achieve its learning vision.

How can you prepare for learning platform implementation?

You can prepare in three important ways to optimise your learning platform implementation:

1. Agree on learning objectives: You need to be clear on both what you want to achieve in adopting a learning platform and how courses will be delivered.
2. Establish an implementation team: A leader will need to drive the programme forward, set expectations around timelines and priorities, and manage deliverables. They’ll need the support of senior management and a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities—who is accountable for what and who needs to be consulted and informed on progress. In addition, you’ll need to assign a project manager to deliver the implementation. That individual needs to be supported by an appointed system administration and business representatives who will be teaching in the system. This is the basis of the RACI matrix, which is a good foundation by which to establish your team.
3. Partner with your learning platform provider: Your chosen learning platform supplier should be your go-to resource during implementation. You want to be able to work as one team to agree on desired outcomes and establish a plan of action.

Partnering with D2L

We know how important a good implementation can be. As a dedicated partner, we bring strategic consulting to help you frame your learning goals and connect them to the capabilities and possibilities our platform and services bring. Once we’ve set those objectives, our team will work with yours to craft a personalised implementation plan, aligned to your needs, to help make sure your learning environment is optimised for success.

Our implementation team will be with you each step of the way, bringing considerable expertise and experience to help you get the results you’re seeking.

Seamless and smooth learning platform implementation

Change is a big deal and implementing a new learning platform is no exception. But it’s important to get this stage right in order for your investment to help your organisation, learners and educators get the best results.

The key is to break the task down into clear and manageable aspects. First, set goals for the programme team so that you can track your progress through the activity. Second, build an implementation plan. Your learning platform provider will be central to creating this. Third, communicate consistently, though this should happen at all stages and with all stakeholders. Finally, collaborate, because success will come from drawing on the expertise of the right people, at the right time and empowering those individuals to deliver.

For information on how D2L can help you achieve a seamless and smooth transition to Brightspace, take a look at D2L’s onboard and launch services or get in touch to discuss.

Written by: