In the last ten years, e-learning has gained great popularity. For employers, it offers an affordable and effective way to train employees. In return, employees benefit from acquiring expertise and skills efficiently at a time when it is most enjoyable for them.
Companies also use e-learning to train their business partners and customers. The aim is to intensify the rates of mutual cooperation and thus increase corporate revenues. Demand for e-learning solutions shows no signs of decreasing, quite the contrary.
What is e-learning?
E-learning, or e-learning or online education, is a form of learning and training through digital resources. Education is provided on computers, tablets or mobile phones that are connected to the Internet. This makes it easier for users to learn, they can educate anytime, anywhere and without restrictions.
History of e-learning
To better understand how e-learning can help any organization, it's helpful to look into its past.
For the first time, the term e-learning was used by the American education expert Elliot Masie, in 1999. Since then, e-learning has come a long way of development. What factors contributed to its great flowering?
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 abandon these largely limited forms and take advantage of the flexibility of online sources of information.
Multimedia Development
The increasing popularity of e-learning is also due to the fact that online resources allow efficient use and integration of elements such as images, videos, audio recordings and graphics. These multimedia elements are a reliable way to keep training participants interested in the subject matter being discussed.
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 system for teaching management, that is, an application that solves the administration and organization of teaching. Applications that usually integrate various online tools for communication and study management and at the same time make learning materials or teaching content available to students online or offline. A more well-known representative of the LMS system is Moodle.
Over time, LMS systems have become more sophisticated, moving from on-premises to cloud-based systems, and organizations have increasingly used them to conduct many forms of training.
Ways to use e-learning in organizations
People, students and companies use e-learning for a variety of reasons. Whether it's developing new skills, distance learning, or watching lectures online, e-learning options are plentiful. In the following lines we will introduce you to the most common areas in which e-learning is used by employers.
Professional training of employees
Every good employer makes sure their employees have access to the latest information, trends and industry news. E-learning offers the possibility of professional training of employees without the need to send colleagues to specialized trainings often held in distant cities.
E-learning promotes more effective professional development of workers and entire teams. The correct e-Learning system also offers the possibility of exams and automatic evaluation of results, including sending feedback to each participant of the training. Thus, employees have the opportunity to continuously increase their work performance thanks to e-learning.
Compulsory training
Each personnel department has to contend with the organization of regular trainings stipulated by law. Whether it is driver training, occupational safety, health training or knowledge of internal regulations, everything can be solved through e-learning. Employees have the opportunity to complete an online test during their working hours, which is automatically evaluated. Thus, the employee does not waste the time that he can devote to his work activities and HR department care is taken to organize training and test evaluation.
Training of customers and business partners
The idea of training customers or business partners may seem strange at first glance. However, the opposite is true. If the company operates software with which the customer can order new goods or communicate with your company, e-learning is a suitable tool to effectively teach the customer how the software works, what it can do and what news it offers.
E-learning is also suitable for companies that offer sophisticated products complex to install or control 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 organizations have already been outlined in the previous section of the article. Now let's summarize them. Why is it worth every company to switch to an electronic form of education? Here are the main arguments.
Cost-effective solution
Cost-efficiency is the most significant and company management the most welcome benefit. Organizing traditional training courses and trainings can be expensive and time-consuming. E-learning eliminates the need to print training materials and pay instructors. You just need to upload new courses to the e-learning portal, invite participants and everything else will be provided by the system itself.
Saving time
Time is a precious commodity, especially in a work environment, so why not save it as much as you can. Using e-learning tools, you can automate regular trainings stipulated by law, provide professional trainings to employees without the need to print materials or organize physical training on site. You can also update the training materials online. The system will also automatically notify you of the need to implement additional compulsory courses. All these tools save time for both employees and HR department staff.
Increase in performance and productivity
E-learning enables students to complete training more quickly and easily at a time when it is most convenient for them, resulting in improved work performance and increased productivity. Pupils in e-learning education appreciate its ease of use and flexibility in learning. E-learning adapts to their own pace, moreover, they can study in the environment of their choice.
How to provide e-learning for your organization?
Implementing an e-learning solution into your organization is simple and easy to implement. Whether you choose to use e-learning for mandatory employee training, gaining and expanding expertise, or are interested in customer training, you can choose from a wide range of software solutions.
We offer you staffing software Pinya HR, which, in addition to e-learning courses, can automate the entire HR agenda of the HR department and thus connect all personnel processes that take place in a higher organization.
