Developing an e-learning strategy - some things to think about

In the current economic climate more and more organisations are looking towards e-learning as a way of reducing staff training costs. Many companies are new to e-learning and don't consider the impact that implementng e-learning across their organisation will have. Each organisation will have its own aspirations and requirements, this document discusses just a few of the elements that you should think about before implementing 'e-learning'.

This is by no means an exhaustive list but it will provide you with a starting point. You might write a strategy paper, use a wiki or store initial thoughts in a blog, whichever method you choose I would ensure that your strategy focuses on a number of key areas, these are going to be specific to your organization but you may want to think about the following:

Participation
Who are the affected parties? What additional training provision will you need to put in place during the project life cycle? Who are your stakeholders (internal and external)

Technical Issues
What is the current IT platform? How will your e-learning strategy integrate with future IT changes and developments? You need to think about how these are aligned

Content creation and acquisition
Where are you going to get content from? Are you going to develop it internally? What will your quality standards be? You need to think about the creation of e-learning guidelines so that you can control the output.

Feedback systems
How will you measure performance? How will cost of ownership and return on investment be measured? What are the projected costs? How will effectiveness of the learning be measured?

Costs and budgets
How will you measure Return On Investment, how will you work with the cost centres within the business, who will pay for the course content, will you buy in content or develop it internally. It is a good idea to also think about on-going costs such as licenses, you may also start to think about cost savings such as reduction in travel?

Limitations
Think of the issues that you might have and get these highlighted early. These might include lack of technical knowledge, resistance to change, failure of previous projects, uncertainty about future budgets, who will manage the process and many other limitations that will be specific to your organisation.

Types of learner
Several things to think about: IT literacy levels, mobile learning, expectations of e-learning, where do they want to learn, what training provision do you currently have?

Business Improvement
Where will this be? Cost, Improvement in access to training material, process efficiency, increased number of employees engaged in training?

There are obviously many other things to consider, some of which will be specific to your organisation. The structure, content and detail included in your strategy needs to match the size of your organisation. If you are looking towards a rapid implementation then the creation of a strategy may appear to be a time-consuming activity. However, correctly done it can provide the basis for a structured and successful deployment.