BlueStreak Learning - Tools&Resources

Questions to ask consultant’s references:

Did the e-learning consultant fully understand your business and your needs?
Did the e-learning solution meet your business and learning objectives?
Were your customers/employees satisfied with the e-learning solution?

For course development, contracts should state that the intellectual property rights stay with your organization. And your customer data should always be available to you.

Statements of Work (SOW) should include:

A project description
Project goals and success measures
A statement of deliverables including due dates
A project schedule
Roles and responsibilities
Clear pricing and timelines for payment
Project assumptions

This could include:

Attendance at training industry conferences or better yet, has been a speaker at one of these conferences. (Training, ASTD, TechLearn, e-learning Guild, etc.)
Membership in ISPI or ASTD demonstrating that the vendor is tied into a community of training practitioners who learn from each other’s experiences.
Regularly reading major industry publications, such as Training Magazine, T&D, CLO Magazine or Learning Circuits to stay up-to-date on the latest uses of learning technologies.

Conducting and publishing industry research to benefit the learning industry

Development processes can vary based upon the organization and the project. A professional should be able to vary the process to accommodate your needs. However, the process that they use should include some form of a front end analysis (also called Needs Analysis) as well as an evaluation that proves that they achieved your desired results.

This may sound too academic to you, but hiring someone who assimilates educational research findings in their work may ultimately save you money by avoiding known human factors issues which cause costly re-design work. If you hire a person who doesn’t have this background, then make sure that the cost for revisions is fixed and your timeline is flexible.

Just some food for thought … An accountant is CPA and has a degree in accounting or finance. A lawyer has a JD and has passed the bar. Engineers have engineering degrees and technical certifications. Why would you hire an e-learning professional without any formal education or credentials?

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When looking for an e-learning provider, look for the following 10 qualifications:

Qualification	Blue Streak	Other Vendor
Focuses on results, not courses, technologies or processes.		?
A designated CPT (Certified Performance Technologist).		?
Experienced with the media you think you want to use.		?
Familiar with industry standards such as SCORM or AICC.		?
Advanced Degree or certificate in Instructional Technology or Instructional Design with an emphasis in media-based learning solutions.		?
Coursework that includes human cognition and perception and implications for usability and learning retention.		?
Clearly explains the process they will use on your project and describes why they are taking the steps that they’ve proposed.		?
Keeps up with the latest industry trends that can save you time and money.		?
Provides fair contract terms and clear statements of work.		?
Can provide references of satisfied clients who achieved their goals with the e-learning solution that they purchased.		?

The more criteria a vendor meets, the more likely that the e-learning solution will achieve your desired results. BlueStreak Learning meets all 10 criteria, so it’s easy to choose!

Although learning can produce results, courses are not results. Results may include improved user performance, reduced costs, increased revenue, reduced turnover, greater customer satisfaction.

Following these standards can mean this difference between having several courses that don’t work together and having a growing, flexible e-learning program.

Media such as instructor-led online, self-paced Web-Based Training, business simulations, software simulations.

These professionals have proven that they have successfully completed at least half a dozen results-driven performance improvement projects. For more information see www.certifiedpt.org.