Hagen im Bremischen (Germany) | The piloting of eLearning courses is an important process. No matter whether in company training or elsewhere. Piloting is the first way to test how learners in a pre-defined and selected pilot group react to the course. In the following, some essential tips for the piloting process will be given.
– Ask the right questions!Â
What are you worried about, why would you like to hear the honest opinion of the Lerner pilot group? Where are any problem areas? You should be aware of all of these before the pilot and ask about these aspects in detail. However, it is also crucial that the pilot group should not focus on the concrete content aspect, but rather on functionality and user-friendliness.
– Clarify how you want to collect the data in the pilot process!
How do you want to record the pilot group’s confirmations? By interview or survey tool aka Survey Monkey or similar? How should the feedback process be documented?
– Decide who should be part of the pilot group!
The main purpose of a developed pilot course is to receive feedback on the presentation of the material in an online environment, which means that concrete aspects of the content are only of secondary importance. A large variance of learners in the pilot group can therefore often be an advantage.
– Determine the number of testers!
It is not easy to determine the sample size for the pilot test. A large sample size for the pilot test, for example 30 persons, should provide a lot of information, but only if redundant information is avoided. This can be controlled to a certain extent by the composition of the pilot group.
– Specify the location of the test!
Should the test take place in a specific room at the same time, so that the test run can be completed directly on one day, or is an online test that is flexible in terms of time and location better suited for this purpose? – The fixed time and location variant would have the advantage that the pilot group could be observed during the test itself.
Image: © Jacob Lund – stock.adobe.com
