Corporate e-Learning – Mythology, Ideology, and Reality

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The last two decades saw many organizations jump on the e-learning bandwagon expecting  that it would help set them on a fast track towards their goal of training cost reduction.

We all know that training departments have traditionally been seen as “overhead departments” or departments that incur costs but do not “directly” contribute to revenue generation. The training department’s contribution to an organization’s bottom-line is always “projected”, “explained”, “defended”, and “interpreted”, but seldom “demonstrated.” The costs incurred by this department, however are seen by everyone.

Despite every organization’s training department swearing by the Kirkpatrick Model, it’s a known fact that seldom an organization crosses the third level (of measuring the change in the learner’s behavior) outlined by this model – and it’s actually the fourth and the most difficult to achieve level, which establishes the actual, measurable contribution of a training department. Obviously then, the pressure on the Training Managers is for cost-reduction – and one of the methods of reducing the training costs, is to deliver the training programs electronically.

Though e-learning has been making rapid strides in the corporate segment, many corporations are still approaching it with a cost-cutting mind-set. If e-learning has to succeed, the decision-makers have to look at it holistically. They need to consciously remind themselves that despite the organizational perception, it is the training department and its policies that ultimately determine the growth path of an organization.

In the upcoming posts, I’ll discuss the following:

  • e-learning for Corporate Skill-building – The Possibilities
  • e-learning for Corporate Skill-building – The Challenges
  • e-learning 2.0 and the Corporate Employee
  • e-learning vs. ILTs

So stay tuned…and if you’d like me to help you stay tuned, subscribe to this short and simple eZine notification that I send out in the middle of every month.