Career advice, insights & tips for HR professionals
How powerful is e-learning in addressing training needs? 15/05/2010
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What should employers consider when exploring training solutions for their employees? What are the Benefits of e-learning and when does it have a place? Edward Fisher explores the pros and cons of e-learning solutions and reminds us that at the heart of any training lies the need for organisational efficiency.
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- Advances in technology
- The Benefits of e-learning
- What's your budget?
- What learning do you want to facilitate?
- What direction do you want to go in?
- Attention to application
- Where does the IT department fit in?
- It's all about efficiency
Advances in technology
Numerous software companies have developed authoring programmes that allow real-time collaboration between participants and facilitators. It’s also good to know that most of these programmes don’t require a PHD to operate - with a little bit of know-how development professionals can create visually impressive and impactful learning programmes that are highly customised to the needs of an organisation.
The Benefits of e-learning
Additionally there is an economy in scale when using e-learning as the initial cost of development of a programme and installing the necessary hardware may be pricey but thereafter the cost of each additional new student reduces the cost per head.
Although we have explored some of the Benefits of e-learning there are also a number of potential pitfalls which organisations would do well to consider before undertaking any e-learning initiative. In many instances standard face-face training is still the best approach.
What follows are a few considerations which should help you to determine whether e-learning, or classroom based training, is the right approach to meet your learning objectives.
What's your budget?
Although we mentioned previously that there can be a scale of economy when using e-learning, it's easy to overlook the hidden costs behind developing a successful programme. These include:
- time spent planning
- necessary infrastructure
- installation
- bandwidth
- system integration
- ongoing marketing to ensure that the system is being used
These are factors which can often be overlooked when budgeting for an e-learning programme and can result in running heavily over budget. A detailed pricing assessment for each of the above will make sure that your development initiative doesn’t end up in the red. Depending on the size of the target audience, you may find that classroom based training is still the most economical way to go.
What learning do you want to facilitate?
But it’s worth remembering that human beings are social learners and really benefit from face-to-face interaction particularly when grappling with sensitive subject matter, or communication-based training. Negotiation skills, customer service training, team building and change management are just a few courses where allowing people to converse as a group frequently yields better Results.
The large majority of our communication when relating attitudes and feelings is non-verbal (approximately 93% according to communication pioneer Professor Albert Mehrabian) and so being in the presence of the participants when dealing with ‘softer’ subject matter is invaluable.
The ability to detect resistance, uncertainty and the level of engagement allows a facilitator to take an individual approach which cannot be as well catered for in e-learning. This possibly explains why 68% of leadership development training is still classroom based (www.ddiworld.com).
What direction do you want to go in?
Conversely, there are drawbacks to self-directed learning - one of the most notable being that the completion rate of programmes is often very low. Pete Weaver, vice president of DDI notes that 50-90% of web-based training courses are never completed. For this reason it's critical that the development consultant integrates ways of managing the completion rate of their e-learning programmes and builds in fail-safes for important areas of learning.
One possible tactic is informing participants ahead of the training that they may be asked to provide detailed feedback on their learning experience for development purposes. This heightens attentiveness and allows you to really measure the success of specific areas of the programme.
Attention to application
People generally assimilate new ideas or techniques through execution and practice. Factoring in a way for participants to ‘have a go’ will often be the deciding factor in determining whether the programme’s information sticks.
E-learning does not always compel participants to try out what they have learnt, while a good trainer will often make sure that participants try out their new skills within the workshop which can offer a risk-free environment to practise.
Where does the IT department fit in?
Not only does the expertise of the IT department allow for the development of a realistic time frame for implementation, but they are also integral to diagnosing whether the organisation’s infrastructure is capable of supporting the type of undertaking planned. Compatibility of software, as well as installation, are all areas which the IT department will need to assess before anything is designed or purchased.
There are ample stories of development initiatives which have had to be shelved or expensive upgrades that have had to be undertaken simply because there was no direct contact with the IT function until too late in project.
It's all about efficiency
The Benefits of e-learning cannot be overstated. However, e-learning is not simply interchangeable with conventional classroom learning. It has a specific application and there are many variables which need to be carefully considered before committing to a development project. Failure to address these could result in costly mistakes and training programmes which lack efficacy or simply never get off the ground.
Placing yourself in the shoes of the participant and trying to assess which option would be the most powerful and efficient way to acquire new information, and then balancing this against the availability of resources is a useful way of determining the right approach.
Bill Gates probably said it best with the astute lines…
"The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency."
Edward Fisher, development consultant, you:unlimited
Edward Fisher is a development consultant for you:unlimited, a groundbreaking people development agency. His writings on management development are frequently published and have appeared in prominent publications by the CIPD and Personnel Today.