This idea of single-sourcing has been around for a long time, but what does it actually mean and how can you take advantage of it? It is the ideal approach for learning content that is considered strategic to your organization. Strategic content are those unique skills or capabilities, proprietary processes, and specific approaches that continuously drive your success.

What is single-sourcing?

The definition of single-source in Wikipedia states, “Single-source publishing, also known as single-sourcing, is a content management method which allows the same source content to be used across different forms of media, more than one time.”

Let’s be a little more specific.  Say you have three separate types of documents: an instructor guide, online course and job aid. In the three documents there is a piece of content that is effectively the same.  With single-sourcing, it would mean that each of those instances of this content would reference the exact same source in your content database.   This would also be true if you had two additional online courses that require the same content.  In actuality, the documents that contain this one piece content may not overlap very much at all in terms of overall subject matter.

The way to do this is by creating your content in small, reusable blocks so you can use them throughout your learning documents in a variety of ways.  It does mean that you have to write these blocks agnostic of the audience, output and device.  This takes a little practice but is worth it. When you need to make a change, you only have to change it once and it automatically changes everywhere that instance is used.

What are the benefits to single-source?

Beyond the obvious benefit to maintaining this content, there are many other benefits to consider. When the learning content is strategic, you want to maximize efficiency, search ability and alignment to the business. Single-source helps you do this. Also, learning organizations are always being asked to do more with less. You don’t have the time to create full, blown-out e-learning courses every time. With single-source authoring, there’s no need to.

The modern learner wants bite-sized content and to be able to get what they want, when they want it. When employees can’t easily access the learning they want – they go to the one place they know is accessible – the Internet, namely Google and YouTube. But we all know this can cause problems because not everything on the Internet is good, vetted information. So by creating content in short-form or micro-learning ideal for reuse, you are also ensuring your employees and customers are accessing quality content at the moment of need.

One more benefit to point out is single sourcing can save your learning organization money. According to Brandon Hall Group, a single hour of training can cost more than $15,000 to produce. Imagine if you only ever have to do that once, and you can then reuse it to your heart’s content. That is a lot of money you stand to save.

Shifting the Mindset

There are three fundamental mindset shifts needed when moving to a content strategy based on single-source.

1. Content is a reusable business asset. This means it is something you create once and can be reused for different projects. Traditionally in learning design, you really think of courses as unique projects that aren’t meant for reuse. However, now you have to start thinking more systematically about how to design, develop, deliver and maintain the content. This is a pretty big shift.
2. Content is no longer the same thing as a course. Traditionally, when you get a request to build a course, you create it specifically to that request and audience. But when your content needs to be a reusable business asset, you can take a look at the bigger picture and think of who else might need this knowledge and in what format. Then craft your content as reusable blocks into various outputs.
3. Content needs to be separated from presentation. Before, you created a course as one content piece in one or two presentations. You might have made a course as a Microsoft Word document or PowerPoint presentation. But now you have to think about the content as a separate entity that could be presented in multiple different ways and delivery systems. It can be easily adapted and delivered to new software or technology.

You might have heard of the term single sourcing before. And perhaps, you are already employing it and this is old news to you. Single-source might just be the best kept secret in the industry, and organizations that have already caught on, have a head start on becoming high performing learning organizations by improving business performance.  Isn’t this what most in learning and development are striving to do?