These days, data is everywhere, but it’s what you do with it that counts. Picking which data to collect and how to analyze it can make all the difference between an efficient and effective L&D strategy and one that fails to live up to expectations. The first section of this article will explain the key points that make for effective data analytics for L&D.
The key points of good data analytics
Good learning analytics starts with knowing what you want to achieve. It’s important to have clear goals for what you want your data to tell you. If you don’t know the right questions to ask, you’ll have trouble getting the answers you need. So, you need to know what results you want for the business, what data will tell you if you’ve achieved it, where your data will come from, how you will analyze the data, and how you will present the results to other stakeholders. Planning is the first key to success!
Once you know what you want to achieve at the macro level, we can move on to what makes good data analytics at the micro level. Effective learning data analysis starts with what you collect. You want broad sets of data points that can give you deep knowledge. In particular, you want real-time data on learner behavior that you can access quickly at a glance. Once you have a deep well of data to draw on, you can begin to analyze it based on your chosen KPIs.
But the best L&D teams don’t just analyze their data to glean deep knowledge; they also share and present succinct reporting insights based on that data to drive better business results. It’s vital to tie your data analysis to real-world business goals, like sales targets, margins, efficiency, and staff retention rates. Finally, the last key to great data analytics isn’t the analysis itself, but your presentation of it. It’s vital that you are able to present your analysis in a clear, visually appealing format that is easy to understand for executives and other key stakeholders.
The business benefits of good data analytics
Now that we understand what makes effective learning analytics, we can move on to discuss the business benefits that it can bring to your L&D teams, individual learners, and organization as a whole.
The most immediate impact of good learning analytics is the ability to know what’s working and what isn’t. For instance, if you know that some of your learners are struggling with a particular learning module, you can revise and optimize it to increase its effectiveness. The ability to customize and personalize learning paths for individual learners can greatly increase L&D impact.
Another vital benefit of good data analytics is the improved ROI and increased efficiency that can be gained by revising or removing modules that aren’t adding value to the learning experience. With the ability to create reports that identify trends, patterns, efficiencies, and inefficiencies you’ll have all the insight you need to maximize impact.
Finally, with good data, good learning analytics, and detailed reports on results, you can create content that helps you reach your L&D goals, including attracting and retaining talent, developing people and skills, supporting the corporate culture, building the company brand, and motivating and engaging employees. With the power of data analytics, L&D leaders can improve their decision-making, make smarter recommendations, track business impact, and enhance the learning experience.
To sum it all up, good data analytics leads to more effective L&D… and that leads to better learning outcomes and real business results.
CrossKnowledge dashboards simplify learning analytics
and reporting thanks to impactful visualizations
that are readily available in the CK Learning Suite: