Today it is impossible to imagine a corporate learning without distance and digital technologies. Present information environment gives a lot of opportunities for self-education, knowledge control and new material mastering without the direct presence in the classroom.
E-learning has three main benefits over the traditional ways of learning:
- Distance training mainly can be in-service education.
- It may be more massive than the classroom programs.
- It is cheaper than other types of training.
The experience of foreign companies shows that the increase of e-learning share in general complex of corporate training can save considerable sums. For example, IBM has lowered the cost of new managers training for $ 400 million per year due to the e-Learning introduction. Moreover, the number of educational material in the course multiplied five times.
However, this is not the whole advantages of e-Learning. Use of the up-to-date digital technology increases the richness and variety of training content. Teachers and students can interact with each other through various communication networks, in particular, the Internet, email, video and audio connection. It makes it possible to simulate business processes and operation with applications and automate the process of students testing and examination.
A lot of electronic learning programs are built from separate thematic sections - the modules. Modular design allows to change easily the layout and the content of the training courses. Therefore, modular programs are useful for teaching the large quantity of people with different basic training levels.
The software for e-learning mostly allows to schedule the frequency and succession of training. Management can monitor the training passing and test results for employees. Via online services it is possible promptly to deliver educational materials, to make changes in curricula or to inform personnel about important changes in business processes. Distance education can involve all the staff to continuous professional development. It also allows to unify the curriculum to all divisions and branches of the company.
E-Learning boom in the West took place in the 90's. Some experts even predicted a quick death of the traditional training. However, this did not happen. In practice it was found that remote learning is most effective only in concord with traditional methods of learning.
In recent years the picture of corporate training in the world has undergone more significant changes. After the era of general online learning a period of mixed forms of training has ensued. And now we-learning period comes instead of mixed types of training. We-learning ("learning from each other") combines traditional and digital technologies with collaborative and social learning.
Traditional training and certification have not lost their importance. They help the employee create a set of necessary basic knowledge and skills. However, for individual learning it is more important to obtain information from other sources: coaches, experts and colleagues.
Each organization has a unique knowledge and experience base, which is stored by the personnel during the work. This data informal exchange can make the traditional teaching more effective, expand and improve training programs and accelerate their practical use. The task of training now includes not so much the creation of training programs as assistance in collaborative learning and knowledge sharing. The latest digital technology enables integration of we-learning in a single set of corporate training events.