What are the benefits of e-Learning?

As we’ve all learned through the years, e-Learning can be a very effective training tool, but only when it’s used in the right places – for the right prices.  Otherwise, it can be a wonderfully broad hole to dump your money into…

But!  When applied correctly, e-Learning can have the following benefits:

• reduced training costs – e-Learning can reduce the cost of delivering applicable training by 20% in the first year and up to 50% in subsequent years. Please see the ROI section to understand the breakdowns and our assumptions.
  
  
• reduced time – e-Learning can reduce the time your employees take to train by 25% to 50%. This improvement, of course, depends upon the type of training offered, but it is largely due to higher retention which can result from the visual and auditory nature of the medium, and the specific feedback for employees.
  
  
• more effective learning / better staff productivity – Not only does this delivery method reduce employee learning time, it can also improve their mastery and retention of the training material. This richer learning environment maximises the way many people retain information. A study by J.D. Fletcher for the Institute for Defense Analysis found that in some situations employee learning achievement was improved by up to 25% over conventional training methods.
  
  
• more consistent learning – imagine the consistency of having your best trainer in front of your employees!
  
  
• flexible delivery / distance delivery – interactive e-Learning can be delivered in many formats – floppy diskette, corporate networks, CD-ROM’s, corporate intranets, even over the Internet. This means that you can get the same training content to employees virtually anywhere. It is often effectively combined with paper-based materials, such as workbooks and written case-studies.
  
  
• measurable learning – because a computer is involved, your management team can track which training areas are giving employees the most difficulty, which competencies are most in need of refocusing, which employees need what training – and you can analyse this across departments, branches, groups and regions!
  
  
• recognition of prior learning – effective training needs to reach a variety of audiences, sometimes both experienced and inexperienced employees. Using learner "streaming" methods, you can allow employees to pre-test at the beginning of a module and stream them through the appropriate lessons, based upon their performance.
  
  
• multi-cultural learning – this is quickly becoming an important challenge for trainers. Again, using streaming techniques, e-Learning can handle multiple languages and cultural idioms to ensure that the employee’s learning environment is made as "comfortable" as possible.

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