Stop, Listen, and Learn Electronically

By Courtney Macavinta

This has become a familiar employee-training scene in 2006: Instead of the sales teams for a major retailer meeting for days in one city to take a retail metrics course in a classroom, they can be found online at different times of the day completing a "Webinar" from the comfort of their own desks -- or even while on the road.

The process is called eLearning, and it's being embraced by not only private companies but universities and government, too. Though Web-based training is a popular eLearning application, organizations are also delivering this kind of training through other mediums and tools, such as CD-ROM, digital television, mobile phones, PDAs, and even computer games or podcasts.

The eLearning trend has many drivers, according to a new report by Forrester Research, Trends 2006: eLearning Goes Informal And Moves Closer To The Worker's Job.

"You want to keep employees up-to-date so you can meet the competitive environment out there now," says Claire Schooley, senior industry analyst for Forrester Research, who authored the report. "So most large globally dispersed companies are using eLearning in some way today."

For starters, eLearning is growing due to the increasing competitiveness of the marketplace. That competitiveness has heightened pressure on organizations to maintain a highly skilled and productive staff. But sending employees off to graduate school or seminars can be costly, time-consuming, and isn't as flexible.   In contrast, eLearning initiatives can help an organization train employees to be more effective at their jobs while saving money over traditional courses -- from the cost of travel and lodging for participants, to renting space to deliver the training, to the costs for printed classroom materials or expert facilitators.

eLearning also makes more sense when the training needs to be done in context, such as learning how to use specific software or a Web-based tool. With eLearning, employees can learn through simulations, and their aptitude can be assessed on the spot. A company can also tie training directly to an employee's roles and responsibilities.

It's no surprise that many eLearning projects are becoming in large part the responsibility of CIOs to implement. After all, eLearning is usually IT-based. And CIOs will often spearhead eLearning programs for their own teams when it comes to compliance efforts, system certifications, or employee development, such as learning new IT skills. According to a Gartner Research report, When to Implement E-Learning and How to Do It, "eLearning demands careful, strategic planning by CIOs, training managers and business units because it includes many different technologies, each with its own pace in the adoption cycle." 

So how can CIOs learn to navigate the eLearning world? The following steps can help them develop a strategy on how and when to implement eLearning:

• Know the business drivers for training  Forrester's Schooley says, "eLearning is not something you just do -- there has to be a need for it, and it has to be aligned with the goals of the company." For CIOs, this means working with business division leaders -- particularly r whoever is requesting a new eLearning program -- to determine what employees need to learn, and what kinds of experiences they need to have to gain specific skills in a set period of time.  For instance, do employees simply need to learn about a new policy, how to comply, and then be assessed on their understanding? Or will the training require that they practice performing certain tasks within a software program, for example?
• Know all your requirements  There is a growing number of off-the-shelf eLearning solutions, which Schooley says many vendors will let companies try for a trial period. Or some companies pay for custom-developed eLearning programs or create them in-house. Either way, she says it's smart to know both your technical and content requirements before evaluating or building eLearning solutions. She says CIOs should consider: Will our current IT infrastructure be able to support this? Is this standards based? Do we need to set this up behind our firewall or can we offer it via a Web site hosted by an eLearning solution provider?
• Know how to measure employee performance  Both IT and employee learning and development projects also need to deliver a return on investment (ROI). So CIOs should discuss with their business partners how the cost of an eLearning program and results will be measured -- especially when it comes to assessing employees' skills before and after training. For any eLearning program it is important for CIOs to explore how employees' new skills and learning objectives match up with improving the company's bottom line, specific metrics, or other defined goals. Also, even if an eLearning class is self-paced, there needs to be an accountability system built in to know when and if employees completed the training, and how well they did.
• Know the benefits of blended learning  In many cases, employees need to combine self-paced eLearning with hands-on learning in the real world, Schooley says. So many organizations are now offering "blended" learning opportunities. For instance, a sales person might learn the tenets of successful negotiating in an online class, but then have to practice the new techniques in the seminar where she can role-play with other sales people, or discuss what she learned via a conference call with the rest of the sales team. "It helps to have that personal touch," Schooley says.

Conclusion
Ultimately, classroom training won't disappear and be completely replaced by learning games or virtual simulations, Schooley observes.  But CIOs will find themselves exploring eLearning more and more for the simple reason that it allows enterprises to integrate training into work.

"Companies are trying to integrate learning with the performance of employees, and the CIO has a lot to do with this," she says. "They've got to be part of the whole discussion when an eLearning initiative is brought to the table."

Courtney Macavinta is a Silicon Valley-based business and technology writer. Her articles have appeared in CNET News.com, Business 2.0, Red Herring, Wired News, and The Washington Post.