Learning and Development Case Study
This case study will focus on a company, whose name will remain confidential for privacy reasons, operating within the Government sector. The company identified a need for a comprehensive course that focuses on Public Speaking and Communication in Politics for their Legislative Assistant employees. Driven by the ambition to foster a communication-savvy workforce in a political environment, the company sought to capture the following metrics on course engagement; the number of times each participant successfully delivers a public speech in simulations, change in the ability to listen effectively and respond aptly in simulated political debate scenarios, and a measurement of the rate of improvement in their adaptation ability to different audience types and environments.
Standard Learning Management Systems (LMS) are geared towards managing, delivering, and tracking online coursework and training programs. While these systems serve a critical role in virtual education, they might not be intricate enough to track the metrics set by the company. The number of times a participant delivers a successful public speech in simulations, for instance, involves evaluating nuanced elements like choice of words, body language, engagement with the audience, and the overall delivery which an LMS isn’t designed to measure. Similarly, standard LMS aren’t capable of evaluating the efficiency in listening and apt response in simulated debates because these metrics necessitate the assessment of cognitive and emotional aspects which are beyond their scope. Performance in adapting to different audience types and environments – another set of subjective measures – further reiterates the limitations of an LMS in evaluating in-depth interactive skills. Therefore, the company required a more specialized system that can measure these intricately detailed aspects of public speaking and communication within a political context.
The solution to the company’s detailed metric needs was found in the Google Sheets eLearning Widget. This tool helped to save and export data entered by the learner or generated in the course into Google Sheets. They connected Google Sheets to the course and set triggers in their online course design programs to pass data from the course to the spreadsheet. This made it possible for them to monitor each step a learner took within the course, save responses from quizzes, record each interaction learners have with the course and even track custom variables. In simple terms, instead of using a standard system, they used the tool to gather detailed information about how the students were progressing and how they interacted with the course. This provided them with a better understanding of their employees’ performance and a chance to make improvements based on their findings.
Case Study Outcome
As a result of using the Google Sheets eLearning Widget, the company was able to successfully capture the detailed metrics they needed from their public speaking and communication in politics course. This allowed them to critically evaluate how the staff progressed throughout the course and which areas needed additional support. They uncovered patterns that helped customize the course to their staff’s precise requirements and improve its effectiveness. The best part? They achieved all these improvements without the use of a standard learning management system.
