Elearning

The term eLearning was coined by US learning guru Elliott Masie in November 1999, when he delivered his speech at the TechLearn Conference: “eLearning is the use of network technology to design, deliver, select, administer, and extend learning.” eLearning is short for electronic learning and encompasses any type of learning, training, or education on a digital platform, and comes in many different forms.

This includes:

• Online training
• Blended Learning: Blended learning combines traditional classroom-based learning methods with online learning methods to create a more dynamic learning experience.
• Remote Learning

In addition to using eLearning to train your employees, it can also be extended to your network, outside of your immediate organisation, be it with customers, partners, resellers, vendors, franchisees, suppliers, or a complex combination. Additionally, an eLearning program can be used to grow your business by selling courses online or offering eLearning content subscriptions.

Employee training

This is the most common use of an eLearning program. Organisations use an eLearning program to train employees for a host of reasons, including onboarding, upskilling and improving employee performance. Not only does it formalise training delivery but makes it more efficient, streamlined, and effective by encouraging professional development through the promotion of knowledge enrichment and an e-Learning culture.

Compliance Training

Compliance training is mandatory for almost any business, as it informs your employees on the laws or regulations applicable to their role and industry. Running a compliance training program via eLearning provides the platform for both tracking achievements and the ability to maintain up-to-date training content as legislation changes. This is especially advantageous if you need to implement immediate changes to your policies.

Customer Training

Customer training programs help your customers to better use and understand your products and/or services. In addition to raising the customer experience, it benefits the organisation with enhanced customer onboarding, increased engagement with your product or services, and improved customer retention.

Partner Training

This provides your partners and resellers with the tools required to be successful members of your network. Training provided can include areas such as product information training, sales training, support training and marketing guidance. By having an established eLearning program for your partners, your organisation can benefit from enhanced engagement, reduced support costs and scaled growth, along with the ability to protect your brand. A key benefit of using eLearning for partner training is that it can be used to run partner certification programmes.

Supplier training

Training your suppliers will improve their client retention and serve to enhance their product and/or service experience. It also presents the company with another potential revenue stream, selling learning material and services online.

eCommerce

The ability to sell online courses via eCommerce allows companies to monetise their eLearning material by extending your LMS outside of the organisation to other stakeholders to whom training content may be relevant and valuable. Often companies can get more from their existing content by marketing it to a wider audience and charging course fees.

Learning must be participatory

True learning involves active participation rather than just passive compliance. To be effective, the eLearning program should provide the learner with opportunities for self-direction and choice, encouraging interaction and participation at an enhanced level. Learners should be able to undertake training at their own pace, and the content presented should not be overwhelming to encourage engagement. Initially, content should be easy to absorb, so learners accumulate quick wins and grow skills and confidence to take on more challenging training courses.

Learning cannot be forced

To be effective, the motivation to learn and grow skills should come from the learner and not the organisation managing the programme. True engagement cannot be mandated but rather comes from within the responsible learner’s desire for educational opportunities that allow for growth and advancement.

Learning is a collaborative process

A collaborative learning process facilitates cooperation through continual feedback and mentorship. It enables trainers and managers to build relationships with learners through a system of constructive feedback and collaborative experiences that resonate with the learner on a personal level, enabling the organisation to focus on building true experiences that facilitate real-world learning and team building.

Learning cannot be standardised

A one-size-fits-all approach is ineffective. Instead of making learners undertake a series of potentially irrelevant training modules, all learning material and courses provided need to be targeted and segmented according to your different target audiences (i.e., employees, customers, partners, stakeholders) and their learning needs.

The result of a targeted approach to learning is that learners can look forward to receiving highly relevant and engaging information that facilitates their roles, with an emphasis on individual development and achievement, rather than simply ticking off the completion of mandatory coursework.

There are many far-reaching benefits of having an established eLearning program. The broader business benefits include:

1. Lower training costs
   This is one of the most significant benefits eLearning presents and probably the most welcome! It eradicates many of the expensive costs of traditional training, including printed materials and on-site instructors. Additionally, training resources can be easily updated and distributed via your LMS.
2. Time-saving
   Time is a precious commodity, and an eLearning program drastically reduces the amount of time required to maintain and run effective training.  Updates, changes, and new course materials can be created and easily added to your LMS. Many tasks that would previously have been executed manually can now be done automatically, making training management more efficient. eLearning also reduces employees’ learning time by as much as 60% when compared to traditional learning, from the perspective of starting and wrapping up learning sessions, travel time, breaks and meals, and teaching to a group rather than an individual.
3. Wider coverage with Just-In-Time Accessibility
   eLearning has no barriers and only requires internet access and a device to access your LMS platform. It can be accessed globally, at any time, from any device, enhancing the flexibility of training and access to key resources.
4. Scalability
   Once you’ve created your eLearning modules, they can easily be scaled up to roll out to as many learners as you need, in as many languages as you require.
5. Single knowledge base
   By establishing an eLearning program, all your training content is held in one place and can be easily managed and maintained.
6. Business adaptability
   eLearning helps employees and your extended network keep abreast of company updates, maintain, and grow skills, and solve problems in real time.
7. Easy progress tracking
   Participants on your eLearning program can be tracked in real-time, providing in-depth reporting analytics on training progress and achievements.
8. Improved productivity and performance
   Learners can complete their training according to their own schedules, at a pace suited to themselves, with the ability to select where they access the training (due to it being cloud-based). Course materials can also be allocated according to relevance. As a result, learners are motivated to pursue their own professional goals, resulting in increased satisfaction, improved performance, and greater productivity.
9. Lower environmental impact
   As part of an organisation’s drive for increased social responsibility, not only does eLearning save costs, but it is also an effective way of lowering one’s carbon footprint. An LMS offers a focused and targeted alternative to paper-based learning and contributes to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly workplace. Producing and providing distance learning courses consumes an average of 90% less energy and produces 85% fewer CO2 emissions per student than conventional face-to-face courses.

1. Establish your goals and objectives
2. Draw up a plan, which includes budgets and intended audience
3. Select and set up the LMS of your choice
4. Create content (this is key to the ultimate success of your e-Learning programme)
5. Get your LMS ready and upload all your content
6. Do a test run
7. Advertise your eLearning Programme to your intended audience
8. Monitor and track
9. Maintain courses and content

On average, only 1% of the work week is dedicated to training and development in the workplace. Thus, there is a need for organisations and employees to maximise training time while also achieving the best possible results. Corporate eLearning takes 40% to 60% less time to complete when compared to traditional learning. (Source: eLearning Industry).

Ensures training consistency and standardisation

Once you’ve put in the work to create an eLearning course, you know that all your employees will receive the same high-quality training, no matter where they are. One of the greatest advantages of eLearning is simply ensuring that all your employees receive the training they need.

Better employee retention for most training topics

eLearning is simply a better way to train employees about certain topics or subject matters. With gamification, videos, and other interactive content, eLearning can greatly increase your learners’ engagement with and retention of key information. This is especially true for specific, concise topics, such as new software training, compliance procedures, or reference guides that they can access on-demand.

Involving the employee in a customised, personalised training experience leads to increased comprehension on the part of the employee, enhanced employee satisfaction and improved employee retention rates.

Industry statistics state that eLearning increases learning retention rates by between 25% and 60%, with learners having more control over the learning process compared to traditional learning.

Provides employees with ongoing access to key resources

If your training covers a lot of material that will need to be referenced later,  such as new product specifications, eLearning provides your employees with the opportunity to access those resources right when they need them.

Allows for global collaboration

With an increasingly global workforce, one of the greatest benefits of eLearning is that it can be built to encourage online collaboration across the world. Some of the best eLearning solutions allow employees from different departments and countries to contribute to larger company discussions right in the training module itself.

Provides your employees and managers with timely feedback

Employees can get real-time feedback, and management can also benefit from up-to-date reports on how courses are performing with the ability to measure success over time.

Actual employee engagement can be tracked, including analytics such as employee satisfaction, knowledge of company goals and individual progress made. It can also capture how the completion of those modules by the employees affects the critical business company KPIs. This accurate measurement enables organisations to ascertain which employee engagement ideas and initiatives are benefiting the company in terms of increased employee productivity, satisfaction, and retention.

It presents management with a system for continuous feedback, measuring effectiveness and provides strategic insight into identifying skills gaps and succession planning.