As Curricula approaches its 6th anniversary, I wanted to share our latest product release that has everyone excited: the Curricula Learning Management System and Custom eLearning Authoring Software. Curricula now allows anyone to create fun custom online training stories, right inside our platform. Building your own quizzes, uploading videos, and using our story-based content library is now just a few clicks away. Let me share more on why we released this awesome product update.
The Organizational Online Training Dilemma
2020 was a year that has changed our lives in many ways. When it comes to the work environment, things shifted very quickly. In the snap of our fingers, we all started working out of our homes. Some of us have never done that before. Some of us were already working remotely. Some of us were in between. But one thing was common, no one knew exactly what to do anymore while being physically disconnected from their organization!
Companies needed to quickly adapt to this new online way of working with each other. They started using chat services like Slack and Teams to get employees connected. We basically all live on Zoom calls all day. But the missing piece was how do we continue to train and educate our employees while working remotely? How do we feel connected again?
Common complaints seen in online training programs are:
- It’s too boring
- The content is dry
- The words are too technical / there is too much legal language
- All the graphics look like they are from the 90s (or older)
We all know that and we have all been there. On the other hand, we have seen everyone all of the sudden have to become experts in online training, graphics development, and course design without giving them any guidance. Today, that changes.
So organizations started creating Google docs, PowerPoints, videos, forms, websites, boards, emails, Slack channels — you name it. We created a very disconnected world of a lot of information. Some organizations decided to go out and purchase several different eLearning systems in hopes of bringing that information together. Then they tasked each department to basically figure it out on their own. The results have been quickly implemented, insecure learning systems that are running wild across an organization.
Why Learning Management Systems Quickly Failed
Well, most companies went out and tried to solve this problem by quickly buying an online training platform otherwise known as a Learning Management System (LMS). Perfect just purchase any old LMS, stuff it in front of our employees, slap our logo on it, pick one with the most features and buttons, and we’re done. Problem solved, right?
While the “putting everything in one place” problem seemed to work, we still weren’t solving the primary problem. Employees really aren’t learning anything. They are clicking through training after training and checking compliance boxes without feeling engaged. They are just going through the compliance motions. And the training is still as ineffective and boring as it was before, just a bit more organized. On top of that, each department is going out and buying their own LMS because it takes too long to have someone else create content for them.
So inevitably, when I kept getting notes from customers about how great their experience is with Curricula, the same question kept coming up:
Can I create my own training in your platform?
Finding that answer wasn’t easy and we spent years saying no to that exact same question. But it kept coming up every single month. We all recognize that there is no other online learning company like us. We have a cyber security spine that is unique and a fun storytelling approach that is loved by so many people they keep coming back. Heck, we even have a phishing simulator that is run by DeeDee, our 5-year-old hacker AI character!
How can we help organizations replicate what we are so good at? I saw the gap that every customer was desperately trying to solve. They were just trying to make the rest of their training as good as Curricula because their employees loved it.
Companies adopted tools like Slack because email sucks to communicate with employees. Curricula is here to fix online training because other LMS content authoring tools suck at training employees.
So we sat down and thought about how we can help solve that problem. We looked at our own tools and came to an answer. Why not just give them access to our own content authoring tool?
Of course, admins wouldn’t have a full in-house production studio to create awesome stories, but we can give them a head start with the assets we already have. The more admins use those assets, they can start to tell their own training stories in the Curricula platform, using the content we know their employees already love.
It’s not that other LMS platforms don’t work, it’s that employees hate them and no one has seemed to obsess over the employee experience. Until now.
Death by PowerPoint is real and we all know it. On the other hand, we have seen everyone all of the sudden have to become experts in online training, graphics development, and course design, without giving them any of the right tools or guidance to be successful.
Well, boring content stops today.
What Curricula’s eLearning Content Authoring Tool Solves
Curricula’s new content authoring software achieves three (3) major principles. These principles are the guiding force behind our LMS, our content, and our approach to learning. Together, we can make progress in working towards better online learning programs, we can help empower our employees with new information on anything we put our hearts into.
Let’s look at the principles that make Curricula’s online learning content approach so effective.
1) Make it Simple
Our Creator allows anyone to create simple fun online training content in minutes, without being a designer. Customers will have access to the exact same design tools that Curricula employees use to launch our fun series of security awareness training episodes. Now anyone can build their own custom training, add quizzes, and communicate information in just a few minutes. We felt it was important to let anyone build awesome-looking content without having to be an eLearning specialist or graphic designer.
2) Make it Fun
When we hear the word training, we think boring. The concept has been ruined from the start. Well, that’s because we don’t put in the effort to “candy coat” our information to employees. We have to focus on making the learning experience fun. Just because something is serious, doesn’t mean it can’t be fun to learn about. Curricula provides a library of assets to use such as animated characters, heroes, villains, and other content that you can use in your training. Most online training has some stock art and stretched images that just make the whole experience look a little, well let’s just say boring. Not anymore.
3) Make it Relatable
At the end of the day, employee training is for employees. When building training content, we need a consistent approach to educate our people. Stuffing a bunch of technical terms and information is not relatable. Curricula will be working towards teaching everyone how to tell training stories to their employees that make an impact. We created a method that has been successful in communicating information and want to continue to share that with our audience.
Curricula is changing the way organizations create and deliver online training with the use of storytelling. We are confident in our process and approach and can now share that with the world. I’m excited to see what training stories our customers create and motivated by the thought that online learning programs will never be the same again.
Enjoy Learning.
