E-learning has gained a lot of popularity in the last ten years. For employers, it offers an affordable and effective way to train employees. In return, it offers employees the benefits of gaining professional knowledge and skills efficiently at a time when it is most convenient for them.
Companies also use e-learning to train their business partners and customers. The aim is to increase the level of mutual cooperation and thus increase company revenue. The demand for e-learning solutions shows no signs of decreasing, quite the contrary.
What is e-learning?
E-learning or e-learning or online learning is a form of learning and training through digital resources. Education is delivered on computers, tablets or mobile phones that are connected to the internet. This makes it easy for users to learn, they can learn anytime, anywhere and without restrictions.
History of e-learning
To better understand how e-learning can help any organisation, it is useful to look into its past.
The first use of the term e-learning was by the American education expert Elliot Masie in 1999. Since then, e-learning has come a long way. What factors have helped it to flourish?
Internet
Before the rise of the Internet, many relied on printed manuals, CD-ROMs and other static methods of learning and training. The development of the Internet has allowed organizations to move away from these largely limited forms and take advantage of the flexibility of online sources of information.
Multimedia development
The increased popularity of e-learning is also due to the fact that online resources allow for the effective use and integration of elements such as images, videos, audio recordings and graphics. These multimedia elements are a reliable way to keep trainees engaged in the subject matter.
Availability of digital devices
Understandably, the popularity of e-learning has risen hand in hand with the affordability of digital devices such as computers, tablets and mobile phones.
Development of LMS systems
LMS (Learning Management System) is a learning management system, i.e. an application that deals with the administration and organisation of teaching. Applications that usually integrate various online tools for communication and study management and also make learning materials or teaching content available to students online or offline. A more unknown representative of LMS is Moodle.
Over time, LMS systems have become more sophisticated, moving from locally installed to cloud-based systems, and organizations have increasingly begun to use them to deliver many forms of training.
Ways of using e-learning in organisations
People, students and companies use e-learning for a variety of reasons. Whether it's to develop new skills, learn at a distance or watch lectures online, the possibilities of e-learning are endless. In the following lines, we will present the most common areas in which employers use e-learning.
Employee training
Every good employer makes sure their employees have access to the latest information, trends and news in the industry. E-learning offers the opportunity to train employees without having to send colleagues to specialized training sessions often held in distant cities.
E-learning supports more effectively the professional development of employees and entire teams. A proper E-learning system also offers the possibility of exams and automatic evaluation of results, including sending feedback to each trainee. Employees thus have the opportunity to continuously improve their work performance thanks to E-learning.
Mandatory training
Every HR department is faced with organising regular statutory training. Whether it's driver training, workplace safety, health training or knowledge of internal regulations, it can all be handled through e-learning. Employees have the opportunity to complete an online test during their working hours, which is automatically evaluated. This way, the employee does not lose time that can be spent on his/her work activities and the HR department does not have to worry about organising training and evaluating the tests.
Customer and business partner training
The idea of training customers or business partners may seem strange at first. But the opposite is true. If your company operates software that customers can use to order new goods or communicate with your company, e-learning is a good tool to effectively teach customers how the software works, what it can do and what new features it offers.
E-learning is also suitable for companies that offer sophisticated products that are difficult to install or operate or special services. Even in these cases, e-learning helps in understanding the product or service.
Benefits of using e-learning
The benefits of e-learning for the organization have already been outlined in the previous part of the article. Now we will summarize them. Why is it worthwhile for every company to switch to e-learning? Here are the main arguments.
Cost-effective solution
Cost efficiency is the most important and most welcomed advantage by company management. Organizing traditional training courses and training sessions can be expensive and time consuming. E-learning eliminates the need to print training materials and pay instructors. New courses just need to be uploaded to the e-learning portal, invite participants and everything else is taken care of by the system itself.
Saving time
Time is a precious commodity, especially in a work environment, so why not save as much of it as you can. By using e-learning tools, you can automate regular statutory training sessions, providing employees with expert training without the need to print materials or organise physical training on site. You can also make updates to training materials online. The system will also automatically notify you when additional mandatory courses are required. All of these tools save time for both employees and HR staff.
Increase performance and productivity
E-learning makes it faster and easier for learners to complete training at a time that is most convenient for them, leading to improved performance and higher productivity. What students appreciate about e-learning is its ease of use and flexibility in learning. E-learning adapts to their own pace, plus they can learn in an environment of their choice.
How to provide e-learning for your organisation?
Implementing an e-learning solution into your organisation is simple and easy to do. Whether you choose to use e-learning for mandatory employee training, acquiring and expanding expertise, or are interested in customer training, you can choose from a range of software solutions.
We offer you Pinya HR software, which, in addition to e-learning courses, can automate the entire HR agenda of the HR department and thus connect all HR processes that take place in a larger organization.
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