COVER STORY
Navigating the E-learning Roadmap-What's Ahead for Your Organization

WHAT'S AHEAD FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION?
Fall 2005
By Josh Bersin

You’ve been driving down unfamiliar roads for almost an hour. The printed directions
on the seat beside you are making no sense. It’s time to pull over and get out the map. But, before you can figure out how to get to your destination, you first must determine where you are.

The same is true for e-learning. Before you can determine how your organization should move ahead – the technology investments, organizational changes, and new programs that should be incorporated in a 2006 plan — you first must identify where you are today.

A recent research project based on input from more than 500 learning managers representing organizations of all sizes identified three distinct stages of e-learning implementation. Each stage is increasingly more sophisticated, with different business drivers, challenges, and business benefits. The research also points to a fourth stage on the horizon.

This evolutionary roadmap can help you identify where your organization is today and offer specific directions to the next stage.

STAGE 1: FOCUSING ON THE BASICS
In Stage 1, an organization is typically new to e-learning and has identified one or more important programs that can take advantage of this approach. The business case for e-learning is usually built around these factors:

• Saving money by reducing travel, facility, instructor, and administrative costs.
• Improving reach by making training available to new and larger audiences.
• Improve the range of learning offerings by giving employees and customers access to a wider set of learning programs.

Although cost savings are the genesis ofmost e-learning investments, companies soon realize they are not the ultimate benefit. E-learning actually replaces variable costs (such as those for instructors and travel) with fixed costs (for content, technology, and infrastructure) to increase speed to market and scale.

Most organizations start e-learning initiatives with a single program or subject area, often online IT training from an offthe- shelf courseware provider. A few organizations start by purchasing a single course and rolling it out to many people as an experiment.

The three common challenges encountered by Stage 1 organizations include obtaining funding, selecting the right infrastructure and content, and addressing cultural change. A large percentage of small (fewer than 5,000 employees) and medium-sized companies (5,000 to 20,000 employees) are in this stage.

STAGE 2: PROGRAM EXPANSION
After the first 12 to 18 months of an elearning program, the issues change as companies begin to expand e-learning initiatives. The majority of organizations currently using e-learning are in Stage 2; these are their typical challenges:

Access. Stage 2 organizations are involved in the creation of standards for
content development (such as plugins, bandwidth requirements, software versions)
and hardware standards for PCs.

Outreach and support. Regular outreach mechanisms (newsletters, regular
conference calls) and local coordinators are used to encourage adoption and regular
use. Often organizations add a support person or group to provide technical, user,
and program support.

Platform and branding. Organizations create a branded portal with easyto-
use registration and login interface.

Blended learning. Upon realizing that online self-study courseware does
not address all training needs, organizations adopt blended learning. This transition requires platform enhancements and the creation of a program management
function to handle registrations, materials, and reporting.

Custom programs. The demand for custom programs has resulted in a small
in-house development team or an outsourcing partner. Standards are now
required for branding, content development techniques, reuse of graphics, editing,
and technologies.

Measurement. Organizations focus on creating custom reports with relevant measurements, such as which learner groups are most active, which are falling behind, and topic areas that are in high demand or have high pass or fail rates.

Platform and tool standardization. Standard tool sets are selected for live events, content development, and assessment.

Assessment of instructor-led training: Organizations with large libraries of instructor-led training programs evaluate resources to determine which should remain unchanged, which should be converted to online courses, and which should be part of a blended approach.

One of the first moves made by organizations new to e-learning is the purchase of an off-the-shelf catalog encompassing a wide variety of topics — IT training, desktop application software training, generic soft skills training, and compliance programs. However, while important and valuable, these courses are often underused. Why? Usually these courses are not aligned with strategic business issues. It’s important to note that alignment, which takes place in the next stage, can be accomplished with much of the same content. The difference is that the training organization has taken the time and done the due diligence to develop curricula that clearly relate to the business.

At Stage 2, most organizations also realize that traditional courseware does not address all training needs. In fact, business performance problems are better solved by performance support tools than by traditional training. Today, 40 % of online learning buyers are adopting online books and reference resources, such as those offered by Books24x7 and Safari, for performance support. Such resources meet the needs of professionals who want answers, not training. Most organizations that adopt online reference resources start with an IT collection and then quickly evolve to business skills and specialized areas, such as financial, legal, and engineering.

Another commonality of Stage 2 organizations is a focus on further increasing the scale of e-learning while reducing costs. The use of outsourcing or offshoring becomes more common. Bersin & Associates research shows that the two fastest areas for outsourcing are LMS infrastructure and content development.

By the time organizations reach Stage 2, they’ve seen successes and failures with elearning. Certainly, e-learning isn’t a onesize-fits-all solution. But most organizations have found that e-learning investments deliver reach and performance support that can’t be achieved with other types of learning.

STAGE 3: INTEGRATION AND ALIGNMENT OF E-LEARNING
After three to five years of experience with online training (some companies move faster), organizations find themselves with significant e-learning investments and often with out-of-control budgets. Employee audiences are often overwhelmed by the number of resources available. Multiple LMSs may be in place, with different interfaces.

Learning programs are not well aligned with HR and other business processes. Therefore, at Stage 3, the focus is on integration and alignment.

Integration initiatives will extend the value of e-learning investments. While these projects are highly complex, time intensive, and costly, they yield high value. Following are the types of integration initiatives that occur within Stage 3 organizations:

Technical integration. In order for learning to become integrated with business, an organization’s e-learning platform must be integrated with enterprise systems, including HRIS, CRM, financial, and customer support systems. The IT department must take ownership of the e-learning platform and these integration initiatives, which will also require involvement of various business units.

Content integration. Because e-learning specifications (AICC and SCORM) are not uniformly implemented, organizations must dedicate internal resources to make sure various forms of content work correctly and seamlessly. More than 70% of respondents in a recent survey said content integration was problematic.

Process integration. In addition to the integration of systems and data, Stage 3 organizations realize that e-learning and training processes must be integrated with business processes. For example, when a new employee is hired, she is automatically enrolled in a series of online and classroom courses that are customized to her new job. Managers can see the progress of the new employee and the employee knows exactly what is required.

The second major effort in Stage 3 is the alignment of training programs with specific corporate-wide and business-unit needs and priorities. In a 2005 survey, 61% of training managers and executives cited business alignment as one of their biggest
priorities. To be successful, organizations must seek alignment with:

Lines of business. The most important training customers are line of business managers. The only way training executives can be sure that e-learning programs meet the needs of these managers is through the use of performance consultants who work directly with line organizations.

HR. Stage 3 organizations must align training with HR-driven programs, such as compliance and new hire training; talent management initiatives, which often requires collaboration on the development of a standard skills library, the purchase of specific courses, and implementation through the LMS; and performance management solutions, which often drive training requirements and additional integration.

Training. In large organizations, training often is spread out between a central group and multiple departmental or divisional departments. Organizations now focus on building shared service teams, standards, and technical groups that centralize content integration, testing, and measurement. Often the position of CLO is added to pull these functions together and clarify accountability.

One of the important transitions that take place in Stage 3 is the realization that e-learning is no longer a goal in itself. Organizations now view e-learning as a performance enhancement tool that can be used and applied in a wide variety of ways.

STAGE 4: LEARNING ON DEMAND
What comes next? Is there a fourth stage of e-learning? While research can’t predict with certainty, trends do point to another stage – learning on demand. Learning on demand implies that all the digital learning assets (courses, references, help files, documents, and presentations) are made available on demand, just as a worker needs them. In some cases, learning is pushed out to workers just before the actual need – for instance, a competitive update might be broadcast to a field organization immediately following breaking news story. Learning on demand blends the traditional the course-based approach to training with online performance support. When companies accumulate hundreds of online learning objects, the need to make these resources easier to find and use becomes a priority. The major enablers of learning on
demand are the new search and publishing technologies and the ability to manage content resources. Powerful search capabilities, such as SkillSoft’s Search-and- Learn™ and NETg’s Search & Select™, enable learners to search through libraries of courseware, simulations, live replays, online books, reference documents, scheduled events, discussion groups, and more – from a single search command. A worker’s search will bring up a list of learning offerings organized by date, relevance to search
criteria, and content type.

WHAT’S DRIVING ON-DEMAND LEARNING?

1Powerful search capabilities meet the immediate information needs of most knowledge workers today (sales people, service representatives, engineers, IT professionals, managers, executives), and, if well integrated and aligned, can replace the need for many formal training programs.

However, implementing such powerful and comprehensive search capabilities on non-proprietary platforms is a challenge. LMS systems cannot search across content libraries unless all content is loaded into a learning content management system. Companies approaching stage 4 are starting to build these solutions internally, often partnering with IT and knowledge management managers.

2Learning on demand can quickly identify the right individual to answer a question or help with a project. Advanced organizations are already addressing this need with online expert directories. Often sponsored by HR organizations, these directories allow workers to publish their capabilities, interests, availability, and preferred mode of contact. As these experts are identified, they can be published as resources within formal learning resources or through a general portal. One could imagine a solution in which an employee’s skills and competencies are published directly from the LMS as learning and development assignments are completed.

3A third driver of learning on demand is the ability to let relevant content find the learner. With Really Simple Syndication (RSS), users can subscribe to information pertinent to their needs and interests. Content can then be delivered via an e-mail, a mobile device, or frequently visited web-page. RSS technology can also be used to “feed” learners new resources and events, depending on their organizational roles.
Automatically serving content to workers takes a proactive approach to keeping learners informed, since learners don’t have to ask for the information.

Podcasts, which combine RSS technology and MP3-based content, are powerful learning tools for the distribution of information, celebrity messages (such as a message from the CEO), audio tutorials, and much more.

Content management systems are absolutely essential to making learning on demand a reality. These systems are needed to manage and implement content changes, keep content current, identify content owners, and provide a mechanism to categorize and/or tag content according to a number of different dimensions.

Advanced companies are just beginning to implement content management technology. Best practices have yet to be developed. In the upcoming years, content management is an area that will likely grow significantly.

Learning on demand is still being defined. As tools and technologies become more mature, a true ondemand, personalized approach to information needs and skills development will become a reality. The key is to approach this stage in sequence. By successfully implementing the three preceding stages, learning will be relevant, integrated, and aligned with an organization’s business problems and strategy. In other words, be sure to look at the map and find where you are today before planning the route to this destination.

Josh Bersin is the principal at Bersin & Associates. The Four Stages of E-learning study referenced can be secured online at www.bersin.com

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