How a global healthcare company’s completion rates skyrocketed to 98% with microlearning

We spoke with Dr. Sandhya, Director Learning Design at CommLab India, and lead consultant of this project – about her experience leading the design and development of microlearning curriculums. Tune in to what she and her team have accomplished.

Our Relationship

The client first approached us in 2014 by filling the ‘Contact Us’ form on our website. After going through samples of our previous work and client testimonials, they decided to try us out with our first project – Medical Modules – worth $127103.

By collaborating with CommLab India, they could avoid the hassle of working with multiple, local eLearning vendors! Added to that was our expertise in most of the popular eLearning authoring tools of the day.

The Requirement

The client had a huge portfolio of medicines on which their new sales representatives were being trained through a 6-week instructor-led training (ILT) program. This training, though well designed, was not increasing reps’ proficiency, leading to delays in their readiness to meet potential customers (medical practitioners).

• Our client was looking to reduce the duration of their training sessions, improve how their sales reps market their brands to medical practitioners, and help their sales personnel handle doctors’ queries and objections better.
• To develop the training, we had to go through massive amounts of information make it easy to understand and accessible online for sales reps – most of whom were not from a pharmaceutical background.

It was challenging to deal with our client’s subject matter experts (SMEs) who were new to eLearning and did not understand the difference between ‘need to know’ and ‘nice to know’ content.

Our Solution

Considering the very limited time sales reps have for training, CommLab India, in consultation with the client, decided on a microlearning approach.

We created a curriculum of 5 to 6 microlearning modules for each drug, each around 10-15 minutes. The modules were developed in Articulate Storyline and were accessible on a range of devices.

The modules for each product included:

• Anatomy and physiology of the organ/system targeted by the drug
• Pathophysiology of the disease
• Drugs used in the management of the disease
• Composition, indications, contraindications, dosage, and limitations of the drug
• Performance of the drug vis-à-vis its competition

Modules included infographics and animations to explain the action of the drug on the human body, keeping learners engaged. Clinical application scenarios (of a sales rep answering potential questions from a doctor) helped sales reps interact better with their customers.

Along with Dr. Sandhya, the project consultant, a large team worked on this project – 8 instructional designers, 2 visual designers, and 10 courseware developers, overseen by a dedicated project manager.

The Results

We reduced training time by 67%, converting a 6-week instructor-led classroom training program to self-paced learning bites.

Standardization, reusability, and repeatability was our mantra for scaling up the eLearning development for the entire brand portfolio.

We are now on the client’s list of approved vendors and have worked with 10 stakeholders from the organization to date.