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The reason behind the sucess of Elearning
Why go the e-learning way?
Elearning is the catalyst that is changing the whole model
of learning in this century – from school pupils, university
students, for employees, for the ongoing training and development
of professionals like doctors, nurses and teachers - to in
fact for just about anyone who wants to learn something new
or upgrade themselves on either a formal or casual basis.
Forget about the long travelling periods and traffic jams
to a location to attend a course; you can now have access
to learning whenever and wherever you want to.
Elearning helps organisations improve time efficiency and
faster time to market. It is playing a major part in helping
keeping them agile and competitive in their market. Reduction
in learning time has meant savings on salaries and opportunity
costs, and an increased customer and staff satisfaction has
led to higher customer and staff retention rates.
Face it : online learning isn't going
away. For most of us, it's not a question of if it will work
but how. The "Information Age didn't disappear just because
a few dot-coms did. Online learning is still the most effective
way to disseminate information and enhance performance throughout
the enterprise. Just consider the following :
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The Gartner Group predicts that 42 percent of all business e-learning initiatives will be directed at customers by 2003, up from 7 percent in 2002. |
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The University of Phoenix has become the largest private university in the United States with greater than 61,000 students, of which 9,000 are enrolled in its distributed learning programs. |
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Despite the stock market "correction" of 2000-01, online learning is still poised to consume an increasingly greater share of corporate, collegiate, and military training budgets through the year 2005, according to IDC. |
In the corporate world, network technology has spurred an
astonishing proliferation of educational tools that optimize
investment in human capital. The goal? To provide learning
solutions that facilitate the delivery of the right information
and skills to the right people at the right time
Even though we were already working and publishing in the
field of e-learning, we wanted to learn more. Why are some
organizations scoring impressive successes with online learning
while others are floundering? What makes for a smart, streamlined,
and effective online learning program? Ultimately, how can
online learning improve employee or student performance?
Elearning drivers
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Knowledge-based economy |
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People as the main source of competitive advantage |
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A shift to a highly skilled workforce |
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Resultant skill shortage |
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Highly competitive global marketplace |
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Speed of technological change |
The bottom line is that business performance is based on people performance, and under such testing conditions the role of training is being put under the microscope. Organisations have ongoing needs to train employees, partners and customers but the logistical challenges and cost of delivering all of this through classrooms can be prohibitive.
Move knowledge faster
With Internet technologies, knowledge can be moved faster and more cheaply than people. Speed to competency or the length of time it takes for a person to become productive with a new role or skill can affect the competitive position of the whole company. If issues relating to cost, geography and time become barriers, alternative approaches must be considered.
Elearning is by no means a panacea. Talking about the wholesale replacement of existing classroom-based training is misguided. What's needed is a common sense approach that balances current approaches that work well with new technology-led approaches.
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