Imagine if libraries had books randomly placed on shelves in no logical order whatsoever. It could take hours of browsing to find a specific title or author, or the book in question may never even be found. Learners could face a similar problem on some learning and development platforms when trying to find online courses to build a curriculum. Many training providers boast about the size of their libraries but underperform when it comes to vetting, curating, and organizing what they offer. It’s easy for L&D and HR professionals to become frustrated with the lack of organization.
It’s not enough to have a lot of content at your fingertips—even if it’s good. It must also be easily sorted and cataloged to fit a company’s priorities.
Seek Quality Over Quantity: Why Having Too Much Content Can Be a Problem
One major problem with huge content collections is that users can suffer from choice overload. Having too many options results in spending valuable time scrolling through the course material to find the courses needed. Even with a search feature, some platforms might use vague course descriptions or have multiple pieces of material on the same topic, so picking the right one involves a lot of research—or trial and error. Worse, users might give up and not choose anything because they are too overwhelmed.
Let’s say an L&D director is seeking material to train new hires and wants to group together some courses that cover the basics. Without a means of curating the content, the following can happen:
- Valuable time wasted on lessons that are not relevant, helpful, or necessary.
- A curriculum that is missing important pieces. For example, leaving out HR compliance training in a heavily regulated industry.
- A disjointed learning experience if lessons are not presented in a logical sequence.
- Confusion caused by skipping “prerequisite” classes.
- Hearing the same information multiple times due to overlapping subject matter.
- Lack of employee engagement because the training’s purpose is not clear.
- Courses that are outdated, or irrelevant.
Be cautious if an online training company’s main selling point is the number of courses they offer, but they have not put much thought into curation. Businesses need to make the most of the time and money spent on learning and development. The perceived value evaporates if it takes too long for users to find what they need, if materials are stale and out of date, or if it is difficult to filter, combine, and present the content in a meaningful training plan.
What Does it Mean to Curate Content and Why is it Essential?
Although course organization is important, there’s a lot more to content curation than just that. The content must be easily accessible and offer a consistent learning experience. There must also be a strategy to routinely update and refresh the materials.
Here is what an effectively curated content library looks like:
Vetted
Corporate L&D professionals must be confident that every piece of learning content they give to their employees has been vetted. By vetting, we mean checking it for quality, accuracy, and suitability.
An HR professional could, in theory, put together a lesson plan for practically any topic with instructional videos found online. But some of these materials might be substandard, incorrect, or contain outdated stats and information. A thorough vetting process ensures only the most appropriate materials are offered.
Consistent
Inconsistent learning materials can confuse students and detract from the learning experience. This is especially true if content is collected from various sources and not curated properly.
This is why HSI creates their own professional skills development content. It’s developed using instructional design principles that take into account adult learning theory and the methods of teaching that are most effective.
The result is a library of materials with a consistent tone and voice, rather than cobbling together content with several distinctive styles. This allows employees to go from one lesson to the next as if they’re reading different chapters from the same book. Everything “fits” together in a similar style.
Organized and Customizable
As mentioned, it must be easy to group content together and put it in a logical order to build a lesson plan or curriculum. But simply organizing by topic isn’t enough.
Consider onboarding new employees, training newly promoted managers, and offering continuing education to existing staff. Each group will need slightly different courses based on their status, even around the same topic of say, customer service. New hires will need to learn about basic corporate procedures, new managers need to learn how to evaluate their team’s performance and how to handle escalated customer issues, and a seasoned employee may only need a refresher on best practices.
Training may also need to be customized for different departments within an organization. For example, all employees may take courses in basic first aid including CPR and using an AED. But workers who handle dangerous chemicals may get additional hazardous materials training.
Learning is never one size fits all, and content must be curated to suit each team’s needs.
Current
The larger the content library the harder it is to make sure every piece of material remains fresh, accurate, and relevant. The timeline to refresh the courses will depend on the topic and the content itself. For example, a heavily regulated industry might change its compliance requirements frequently, while a course on how to help employees navigate change may stay relevant for years.
A system must be in place to continuously review training courses and retire and update them as necessary.
Accessible
To be effective, training content must consider generational and learning style differences. It must also be accessible so all employees can access it where and when they need to.
HSI’s microlearning platform is available on any device and on demand. The professional skills development course curation goes a step further with Professional Development Learning Pathways, providing teams with a roadmap for their career goals.
Professional Development Learning Pathways
Professional Development Learning Pathways cluster video courses and content-based lessons, job aids, and leadership briefs into a well-designed curriculum that is proven to build and reinforce the skills needed to be successful in today’s workplace. All courses and lessons in these pathways are curated and vetted for relevance and consistency and are updated regularly.
Beyond the actual courses and lessons, HSI provides a robust learning management system (LMS) so managers and HR leaders can track employees’ progress and what comes next in their curriculum. HSI courses are also compatible with most existing LMS platforms.
Partnering with HSI means providing employees with the best in curated content. L&D leaders can create their own lesson plans or work with an HSI Content Development Manager and Customer Success Manager to help guide their curriculum development.
Contact us today for a free consultation.
