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 LOMA
: Article |
| This Month from LOMA |
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Since LOMA has given us permission to run a full article or
pieces of articles from their monthly RESOURCE Magazine, we
think it is the most appropriate to reprint part of the following
article to commemorate the launching of Thai Life Company’s
E-Learning. |
| E-Learning:
Hype or Happening?
By Meg Rose, FLMI, ACS
Manager, e-learning, LOMA
Reprinted from LOMA’s Resource Magazine, June 2004
Copyright by LOMA, www.loma.org |
The American Society for training and Development defines e-learning
as a wide set of applications and processes such as Web-based
learning, computer-based learning, virtual classrooms, and digital
collaboration. Delivery of the content can occur through the
Internet, intranet/extranet, audio tape and videotape, satellite
broadcast, interactive television and CD-ROM.hat’s clearly here
to stay. According to a recent report by Eduventures, an independent
research firm focused on learning markets, online learning enrollments
will exceed 1 million students in 2005 and represent a market
of more than $6 billion.
Best Practices: Reaping the Benefits of the “E” in E-Learning
The possibilities e-learning offers for increasing the overall
effectiveness and efficiency of training and development are
becoming more recognized by training and development managers
and others who are responsible for human resources art organizations
around the world. Some of the potential benefits these professional
value most are lowered costs, accessibility, just-in-time learning,
customization, consistency and flexibility.
The latest benefits for e-learning that are being discovered
and promoted are its distinct abilities to provide relevancy,
accountability and credibility. It allows employers the ability
to hold employees accountable for what they should know to do
their jobs well, and to analyze this knowledge and skill spectrum
at the most macro level with today’s sophisticated learning
management systems.
Of course, while corporate e-learning strategies have the potential
to gain from all of these categories, the benefits rely on strong
research and planning, much like any other significant business
investment and initiative. This process often includes a good,
hard look at the current organizational training process as
well as the major corporate strategies. It should also include
strong methodology and implementation planning for how learners
will be prepared for the introduction to e-learning. This strategic
analysis and the “road mapping” of e-learning provides the best
opportunity for a customized fit for the organization and the
greatest potential for high participation and successful outcomes.
The potential effectiveness of e-learning is perhaps just as
important to consider as its potential cost savings; in other
words, companies must be cautious not to focus on e-learning
options simply to find a way to save money. Many organizations
that began with this focal point later discovered that greater
emphasis and analysis should have been given to audience readiness
or whether the current systems infrastructure would accommodate
their initiatives. Successful deployment of e-learning means
focusing on what learning outcomes and performance measures
you want employees to achieve and then developing your systems
and content to fit these key business drivers.
One of the strongest advantages of e-learning in the corporate
setting is the ability to create consistency in learning throughout
the organization. At LOMA, we look at the concept of “creating
common denominators.” This means that e-learning should not
necessarily replace classroom-based training, but can instead
be used to facilitate and simplify the process of getting information
and education out to all of your employees, including those
in more remote locations that sometimes get neglected.
E-learning is also being effectively deployed in many other
insurance and financial services organizations to meet various
strategic and divisional efforts, such as new employee orientation,
management development programs performance and employee development
plans, and a specific product development and organization change
initiatives. At its most sophisticated level, e-learning can
be deployed throughout an organization, aligning the content
need directly to an organization’s core competencies and performance
measures and driving increased performance and revenue right
to the bottom line. |
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