E-learning is hot. And for good reason. If done right, it can produce great results by decreasing costs and improving performance.

E-learning Supports the Organization’s Goals

Improved training costs. Producing learning content is time consuming whether it’s online or not. With elearning, each time the course is accessed your return on investment improves because you are dividing the fixed production costs by number of uses. You also have savings through decreased travel, reduced material, and hopefully improved (and more efficient) performance.

Decreased material costs. Let’s say you have to train how to arrange equipment in a sterile environment like an operating room. If you had to use the real environment, it would be costly. Even setting up a fake environment has material costs and labor. By creating the environment online and letting the learner practice, you never have to worry about the costs associated with set up, use, and clean up.

Increased productivity. Because elearning is not bound by geography or time, you can control training’s impact on production by training people during down times. In addition, with the current economy, you’re asking people to do more with less. So elearning is a great way to give them the tools and skills needed to enhance their performance.

Standardization. You may have a great facilitator, but that’s no guarantee that the courses are presented the same across sessions. Elearning allows you to create a standardized process and consistency in the delivery of content. It also compresses delivery time.

E-learning Supports the Learner’s Development

Real-time access. Live learning events require that those who participate align their schedules to the training calendar. Elearning eliminates this because the course can be accessed anytime, anywhere.

Freedom to fail. Let’s face it, real learning requires some failure. But no one likes to fail in a classroom full of other people. Elearning lets you fail without fear. This encourages exploration and testing of ideas. With the right feedback you create a great learning environment. Worst case, you can always start over. Something you can’t always do in class.

Improved retention. The combination of multimedia and instructional design can produce a very rich learning experience that is repeatable. Throw in some good practice activities with feedback and you have a learning environment that’s going to help your learners retain the course content which will produce results.

If you do not have a user name or password. Please contact:

Mr. Malcholm Reese @ Malcholm.reese@us.army.mil or

Mike Shannon @ Mike@r-i-g.com