10 Benefits of e-learning

Are you using e-learning now in your organisation? If you’re wondering if you should be here’s ten reasons why online training should form part of your learning and development strategy.

1. Reduces Costs
This is at the top of the list because it’s usually the main reason that organisations turn to e-learning. Often they’ll just look at the direct course costs like travel, accommodation, trainer fees, and course materials. Don’t forget the indirect course costs though. Staff still have to be paid, (at overtime rates in some cases.) e-learning usually takes less time than classroom and this has a huge effect on the cost but we’re coming onto that next…

2. Saves Time
e-learning almost always takes less time. Think back to the last course you attended – housekeeping speel about fire alarms, toilets and facilities? Introductions, breaks and  lunch. Maybe you even played some ice-breaker games to get to know each other better. This all takes time. There’s also  wasted time because you and the other delegates won’t all be at the same level or have the same reasons for going on the course. It’s likely that you’ll find yourself listening to stuff you already know or that you’re not interested in learning about.

It’s also the fastest way of rolling out training to large numbers of people. Thousands of people can learn the same course, at the same time. How long would this take in the classroom where you’re limited by the availability of training rooms, trainers and logistics?

3. Effectiveness
Good e-learning is as effective as instructor led learning and numerous studies have confirmed this. e-learners have scored as well (better in some cases) than those on traditional classroom courses. So although many organisations are turning to e-learning as pressure on budgets increase, this is not a “second best” option for learning. Compared to classroom training, online training is as effective, if not more so.

4. Continuity
In e-learning, the trainer never has an off-day, calls in sick or talks to people inappropriately (it happens!) e-learning is the same for all staff doing the course so if continuity is important to you this will be a major benefit. That’s one of the reason’s it’s so often used for compliance training such as Safety Training and Diversity.

5. Scalability
You develop a course for 10 people, now 3000 need to do it. No problem with online training! The per person cost reduces dramatically as the numbers rise too.

6. Refresher training
Most e-learning is also available for refresher training after the event – often for up to 12 months afterwards. If your organisation owns the courses they’ll be available all the time and are very easy to update when the information changes. Ever been a course that made the topic seem easy peasy right up to the point where you tried to do it yourself afterwards? Are you going to ask for another course on exactly the same topic (ever?)  Wouldn’t it be useful to be able to dip into that Advanced Excel course to remind yourself how to use pivot tables?

7. Environmentally Friendly
No travel, no waste, no mountain of paper – elearning is much kinder to the environment than traditional training. Read more on Low Carbon Learning

8. Equality
Some staff find it hard to go to training courses. They have very young children or other dependants and need to be around early morning and during the night. Many organisations indirectly discriminate against people who can’t travel to attend a course. E-learning is a good option as it can be done anytime 24/7 and doesn’t require travel or overnight stays.

9. Availability
From home, the office, the local starbucks… Its available anywhere 24/7.

10. Tracking
Most e-learning runs through a Learning Management System (LMS) so if you’re worried about whether staff will really be watching Jeremy Kyle when they should be doing their Advanced Powerpoint course then you’ll be able to check or you could ask them to print their report off and bring it in with them.

One Response to “10 Benefits of e-learning”

  1. North East blogs - top posts from around the region in May | North East Bloggers said:

    Jun 17, 11 at 10:26 am

    [...] 10 Benefits of e-Learning from Flow Learning [...]


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