You’ve established that eLearning is the way to go for your project, but how do you explain the benefits compared to traditional methods to your stakeholders? How do you get them excited about the possibilities?
Digital learning now comes in many shapes and sizes - eLearning, mobile learning, microlearning, gamification... the list goes on. And while it isn’t suitable for every situation, eLearning is continuing to become more versatile and more widely used. But convincing your stakeholders to give it a try can still be an uphill battle! And that’s why we have pulled together some facts, figures and talking points to help you out.
Some of the key benefits of eLearning are:
- Increased Retention and Application: eLearning increases retention and application back on the job, delivering 25% greater impact than traditional methods (JD Fletcher). A huge 42% of companies surveyed say that eLearning has led to an increase in revenue (The Ambient Insight 2012-2017 Worldwide Mobile Learning Market – Executive Report).
- Reduced Learning Time: Brandon Hall’s research has shown that eLearning can cut down on training time by 40-60%. This is due to more personal control, individualised feedback, greater learning interactivity, and catering to multiple learning styles. Optimism’s experience has also shown that a 2-hour seminar can be converted into a 20-minute interactive eLearning course while maintaining or improving the quality of learning.
- Active Engagement: Unlike with a workshop or seminar, it isn’t possible to passively ‘coast’ through an eLearning module. Well-designed eLearning requires genuine cognitive engagement from your people. They solve problems, make decisions and apply what they are learning as they go. This means eLearning is often a more enjoyable (and more effective) learning experience.
- Reduced Costs of Training: Turning a 2-hour seminar into a 20-minute course greatly reduces the cost of training. When you add in salaries, travel costs, accommodation, venue hire, food . . . It all starts to add up! eLearning can save you most of those costs and often works out significantly cheaper, even after you include the cost of development.
- Automated Tracking and Reporting: Each person’s progress and completion is automatically tracked, drastically reducing administration time. This automation also means you have access to real-time reports for compliance and audit purposes.
- Environmental Sustainability: Britain’s Open University’s study found that producing and providing eLearning consumes on average 90% less energy and 85% fewer CO2 emissions per person than face to face courses (Knowledge Direct Web).
- Greater Consistency: Relying on facilitators and managers can result in inconsistent learning experiences for your people. eLearning offers accuracy and consistency, ensuring everyone has the same opportunities and learns to the same standard.
- Greater Availability: If your people miss a training course they may have to wait months for the next one. Not so with eLearning! They will be able to access learning anytime, anywhere and on any device that suits them.
- Reusability: This is a big one… as mentioned above, eLearning can be reused. So you get more out of your investment than with many other types of learning. You can use your eLearning again next month, next year, or the next day if a new starter joins the team. You can also use your eLearning as refresher training by setting up any assessments to randomly select different questions each time.
We hope this list is useful! There are plenty more ways to help get your stakeholders on board, so feel free to give us a call if you would like some input from one of the team. Good luck!
