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Part - III

Benefits of e learning:

1. Anywhere, anytime, anyone factor
   Approximately 80% of the professional workforce already uses computers on the job. Technical obstacles, such as access, standards, infrastructure, and bandwidth, will not be an issue two years from now. The growth of the World Wide Web, high-capacity corporate networks, and high-speed desktop computers will make learning available to people 24 hours a day, seven days a week around the globe. This will enable businesses to distribute training and critical information to multiple locations easily and conveniently. Employees can then access training when it is convenient for them, at home or in the office.

2. Consistency of method
   Compared to conventional teaching methods, e-learning brings in consistency across various parameters. This will be greatly helpful in the areas of value education, spreading the vision/mission of the company, policy deployment etc. where consistency becomes critical. Distribution of content to the entire organization would be possible allowing organizations to rapidly deploy learning throughout the organization without being tied to the constraints of the classroom.

3. Substantial cost savings
   Many companies are trying to cut down on all expenses that are not directly related to revenue. With e-learning, the bulk of training expense is invested in learning, not travel and associated costs. E-Learning lowers the overall costs of creating a workforce that performs faster and more efficiently than the competition. Costs can be cut without completely sacrificing training efforts. Web based training is less expensive when considering the distribution of training, in relation to the limited number of participants in a traditional classroom environment. Web based training can be easily updated for additional content without much cost.

4. Learner centric program
   Participants in an e-learning program have more control of the pace of the course and also more opportunity to concentrate on content most applicable to them. Furthermore, they can apply what they are learning during the course and come back online at any time for more help and clarification. Also individuals are able to take advantage of lifelong learning without relocating or quitting their jobs. It even brings in the entirely new concept of "safe failure" which allows employees to experience challenges and failures in a simulated environment without affecting the success of the organization.

5. Just-in-time access to timely information
   Web-based products allow instructors to update lessons and materials across the entire network instantly. This keeps content fresh and consistent and gives students immediate access to the most current data. Information can be retrieved just before it is required, rather than being learned once in a classroom and subsequently forgotten. Similarly, organizations can quickly roll out a small piece of targeted learning that focuses on solving an immediate business problem.

6. Improved collaboration and interactivity among students
   Distance education can be more stimulating and encourage more critical reasoning than a traditional large instructor-led class because it allows the kind of interaction that takes place most fully in small group settings. Participants in the internet learning environment are unaffected by gender, race, and age differences. For e.g.: in USA, Web-based training manuals, newsletters and support for training to help female science and engineering students are done. In addition, for asynchronous conferencing, students may read and reflect for as long as they like before posting their comments to the class.

7. Better use of resources
   E-learning helps in bringing together groups of learners from around the globe. It provides new opportunities for collaborative learning and instruction with new groups of people. Trainers can coordinate instruction with colleagues from other locations and organizations that they probably would have never had the opportunity to work with in other instructional settings. Computer based training helps in knowledge management in organization. This is done in two ways, a) CBT holds the knowledge onto the intellectual capital even if a person leaves; b) Allows the reuse of work across organizations, so that best practices and products can be found and used.

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* Contributed by -
Rakesh Balachandran is a Post Graduate Programme student of IIM, Ahmedabad. Sandeep Krishnan is a Fellow Programme in Management student in the personnel and industrial relations area of the IIM, Ahmedabad. They can be contacted at 3rakesh@iimahd.ernet.in and sandeepk@iimahd.ernet.in.