Are you ready for e-learning?
Assessing e-learning readiness

E-learning has been the buzzword in corporate training for some time now. But as training budgets diminish and management looks even harder for ways to shrink the bottom line, more and more companies are racing to reap the benefits of e-learning.

Many of these companies jump into an e-learning implementation without first carefully mapping out their efforts. Unfortunately, the common results are often cost overruns, lackluster training products, and project failure. Worst of all, these disappointing learning results leave the organization with a jaded view of the potential of e-learning.

At MediaPro, we suggest that before beginning an e-learning project of any size, a company should complete our E-learning Readiness Assessment. Our E-learning Readiness Assessment is simply a series of detailed questions that help training specialists take inventory of an organization's ability to successfully implement an e-learning initiative. These questions are grouped into the following four categories that have proven critical to successful e-learning efforts: Purpose, People, Process, and Parts.

Purpose
The first area any organization ought to examine is the purpose behind an e-learning effort. Implementing e-learning before examining the rationale and counting the cost can lead to very expensive mistakes. Some of the "purpose" questions your organization should ask are:

• What are the business drivers the organization is trying to address?
• Are training objectives aligned with the business drivers?
• Is e-learning an appropriate strategy for these drivers?
• Is there an executive sponsor and political support for the project?

People
Next, the organization should examine the personnel available to complete the e-learning project. E-learning is much more than a series of educational Web pages and requires a specific skill set as well as an experienced team. Some of the "people" questions your organization should ask are:

• Does your staff have the required technical knowledge/skills and time to complete the project?
• Do you have a committed development team with defined roles?
• Do you have full support from all corporate stakeholders?

Process
Successful e-learning development requires a proven, efficient process for developing online courseware. This process must include time for analysis, design, user testing, review, and revision. Without carefully designing a process that includes these and other necessary steps, you significantly decrease your chances of e-learning success. Some of the "process" questions your organization should ask are:

• Do you have a realistic project schedule?
• Do you have a detailed project blueprint?
• Do you have a clear list of project requirements?
• Do you have a proven, written training development process?

Parts
Finally, do you have all the technical parts and pieces to make your e-learning effort actually work? Successful e-learning requires a complex mix of development tools, server architecture, and supporting bandwidth. Without these, the best-designed e-learning courseware can become dead on arrival. Some of the "parts" questions that your organization should ask are:

• Do you have the technical infrastructure to meet your training requirements?
• Do your end users have access to the necessary technical equipment to take the training?
• Does your development team have the necessary development tools?
• Is technical support available to developers and end users?

Thinking of your e-learning projects in terms of purpose, people, process, and parts will give you a good start towards e-learning success, help you avoid common pitfalls, and successfully demonstrate the power of e-learning to your organization.

Submitted by Mike Bean, Instructional Designer for MediaPro