You know you’re meeting the learning objectives
With FLOWSPARKS we learned what works and what doesn’t, what is meaningful and didactically relevant to achieve a certain learning objective.
BASF is a forerunner in the chemical industry. As many as 111,000 employees worldwide develop solutions and products for the most diverse customers and sectors, from agriculture and transport to food and construction. In Belgium, BASF has a strong presence with more than 4,000 employees at locations in six locations across the country.
All these employees must be trained. This primarily involves safety instructions, which are very important in the chemical industry. Not only our own employees, but also those of partner companies on the Antwerp site, such as Solvay and Air Liquide, and the 20,000 contractors who visit the site briefly every year, must be aware of a large number of safety measures.
Naturally, the training of all these people is not limited to safety videos. They also need to be informed about procedures and processes, the use of permits. And for our own employees there is a wide range of around 300 training courses.
BASF Antwerp did not have its own authoring tool before the arrival of FLOWSPARKS. Their e-Learning modules were developed by two external companies. ‘The content came from us, but they took care of the rest’, says Alain Molinard, Head of L&D at BASF Antwerp.
‘In 2016, two trends convinced us to invest in our own tool. The first was a technological development’, explains Molinard. ‘There was a greater range of decent authoring tools that you could use yourself, while more and more people started using a smartphone or tablet. We also found that it was very difficult to remove employees who work full-time in a shift system from their shift to put them in a classroom during the day.’
Molinard and his team wondered whether they should continue to offer all training in the classroom and in the daytime. ‘With e-Learning, our people were able to take part in training anywhere and at any time. In this way, we hoped to motivate them to attend training courses of their own accord.’
Of course, BASF Antwerp had a whole checklist that their new e-Learning tool had to satisfy on a technical and formal level. It was the purchasing department that explored the e-Learning tools market and ultimately recommended FLOWSPARKS.
‘The price of the package was certainly not the deciding factor,’ Molinard says with a smile. ‘But what you get at FLOWSPARKS for that price definitely was. That’s where FLOWSPARKS has a serious lead over the other tools. If all you have at the outset is content and know nothing about the rest, so to speak, the tool will lead you with a question route to the four or five templates from the wide range that are most suitable for developing your e-Learning and achieving your learning objectives.’
‘When you complete those templates, you know that your digital module will achieve the learning objective, that the whole thing will look good, that there is a good mix of content and that the e-Learning is interactive. Because we had no experience ourselves, we thought that was important. It’s helped us enormously. And we never felt that the templates were restrictive. On the contrary: you always have the freedom to add things, to leave things out…’
Molinard’s team wanted to create their own e-Learning, but it was just as important to them to receive didactic support. ‘We are subject specialists, but not didactic specialists, whereas I attach a great deal of importance to the didactic effectiveness of the training courses. FLOWSPARKS was able to provide us with perfect didactic support.’
Not only did the L&D team learn to work with FLOWSPARKS, it also gained useful didactic insights. ‘With FLOWSPARKS we learned what works and what doesn’t, what is meaningful and didactically relevant to achieve a certain learning objective.’
With FLOWSPARKS we learned what works and what doesn’t, what is meaningful and didactically relevant to achieve a certain learning objective.
BASF Antwerp has been using FLOWSPARKS since 2017 and can therefore look back on a rich experience with the tool. ‘FLOWSPARKS is continuing to evolve. Relevant templates and functionalities are always being added,’ says Molinard. But at the same time, he warns future users: ‘It’s a tool, a program. Its success lies in your own organization. You can purchase FLOWSPARKS, but if no one is really working on it, it will not change much. You need to get FLOWSPARKS to your people. This is partly a question of compatibility with other systems such as SharePoint or an LMS, but it is crucial to create a learning culture in your organization.’
