3 Tips Help Online Training Far Away From Devils in 2009

We have all heard the claims that implementing eLearning and online training in corporation will significantly reduce the training costs and improve performance. But the fact is that eLearning projects rarely produce a significant Return On Investment (ROI).

Corporate University Xchange's Pillars of e-Learning Success indicated that nearly 75 percent of corporate learning professionals reducing education and training costs was their main driver for launching an e-learning initiative. But the corporate learning practitioners indicated they saved less than 20 percent in training-related expenses by delivering programs via eLearning.

How to advance the ROI of online Corporation training?

Tip 1: Think Better of Choosing Commercial LMSs
Many LMSs (Learning Management Systems) cost companies in excess of $750K per year for license, maintenance and student access fees. Some corporations are paying more for their LMS technology than they are for the eLearning content they deliver. LMSs are essentially high-tech warehouses for training management and eLearning content. Many research indicated that the full cost of LMS technology can be significantly higher than the returns it can provide. Most of these commercial LMSs are very expensive and the investment in LMSs always goes up to 80% of the training cost. Maybe you could choose Open Source LMSs such as Moodle or local LMSs which have strengths that suit certain organizations.

Tip 2: Take Pre-Assessments and Post-Assessments in the Training
Online Assessment (e-Assessment) can significantly reduce the training costs and enhance the training effectiveness. Instructors need to know the overall schedule of the training to grade whole learning process. With different levels, make exact schedule of assessments to examine all learners' performances. The good point is, instructors can benefit from those results of assessments as feedback, and add improvements in the learning courses of next level. For online training, the scheduled assessments could be easier to be integrated into original learning timeline. Assessments and courses can be based on feedbacks from previous assessments to engage learners with interactions. At the end, assessment in traditional way also makes sense with maximum efforts.

Tip 3: Using Open Source or Rapid E-Learning Software to Reduce the Costs on Course Contractor
Open source software is free to download and use owing to the absence of license costs and, according to a report this June in The Financial Times, even the European Union's competition commissioner has urged the European Commission to use software from open sources. And there are many rapid E-Learning tools for corporation employees to create engage courses from PowerPoint without any programming skills.

Here are many known Open Source, Free and Commercial rapid E-Learning authoring tools for reference.

eXe OPEN SOURCE SCORM Development Package:The eXe project is developing a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup.

CourseLab: CourseLab is a powerful, yet easy-to-use, e-learning authoring tool that offers programming-free WYSIWYG environment for creating high-quality interactive e-learning content which can be published on the Internet, Learning Management Systems (LMS), CD-ROMS and other devices.

Articulate Studio: Articulate Studio gives you Presenter, QuizMaker, Engage and Video Encoder in one integrated package. It’s very professional and known in E-Learning area.

Wondershare Rapid E-Learning Suite: It integrates PPT2Flash Professional, QuizCreator, DemoCreator and WebVideo Author in one package. You'll have everything you need to quickly create e-learning courses from PowerPoint and develop stunning interactive content, quizzes, assessments, surveys and simulations. All of these tools are easy to use without any programming skills.