Is Your Organization Ready for E-Learning?

 Is your competition already taking advantage of the new media? Although most new ideas take time to gain wide acceptance, some—such as e-learning—take off like a rocket. If your organization hasn't yet made the leap, you may not be alone, but we predict you soon will be.

FutureU recently completed a research project on Internet-based training with one of our corporate clients and got a hint at just how many organizations are embracing e-learning. In fact, 60 percent of the 127 individuals we surveyed from 67 corporations were either close to or already engaged in skills-based training on the Internet. The other 40 percent were already using, or thinking about using, Internet delivery for their management development training. If other organizations in your industry are already using this new delivery method, you may be ready to embrace e-learning whether you realize it or not, by virtue of your commitment to competitiveness.

 Are your people ready to buy in? A feasibility study may be the way to find out. We can help you identify key individuals, give them a brief introduction to your plan, find out how they feel, and help them articulate their concerns and hopes. The very process of engaging them is often enough to secure their support. If that doesn't do the job, you will have discovered where the resistance lies and how best to address it.

 Are your people prepared to commit the time? The amount of development time will depend on your budget, your technology needs, the sophistication of your current programs, the interest and comfort level of your people, and other factors. Depending on the content and format, participants will need to spend between one and 15 hours per week on their learning, for as much as six weeks per module.

 Does your workforce have the literacy level and writing skills needed to contribute in a meaningful way to online dialogue? Sure, cyberspace has pictures and sound, but it is still primarily a world of written communication. The best e-learning includes interaction via the written word, through "living letters" written back and forth among students and instructors. Are your people up to it?

The answer may dismay you. The U.S. Department of Education has concluded that 47 percent of American adults can perform only the most rudimentary tasks that involve reading, writing, and speaking English. In other words, nearly half the American workforce cannot even write a brief letter about a billing error, let alone carry on a serious correspondence about professional issues. Where English is not the primary language of communication, the challenge may be larger still, since so many Web resources are presented in English.

Chances are, the executives and managers destined for your e-learning program can at least read and write, and yet, how effective is their written communication? And how eager are they to find out?

At both RealChange and FutureU, we have worked closely with countless executives and managers who have had serious difficulty making themselves understood on the written page. Some lack basic writing skills. Some are fluent in another language, but not English. Others simply suffer from writer's block. Some think they communicate well on the page or screen but really don't.

If your people lack the confidence and/or the skills to communicate effectively in writing, you may want to begin by letting us help you assess the literacy level and writing skills of your workforce. Then let us help you ease your way into e-learning with opportunities designed to improve your team's written communication in their letters, reports, and memos, as well as in online classrooms. We are prepared to offer a range of solutions, from individual coaching and editing to workshops delivered in person or on line.

 Do you and your team have a rudimentary understanding of how e-learning works? You may want to launch your relationship with us by having us provide your people with a Tech Tutorial--a half-day or full-day introduction to the equipment and procedures involved in e-learning. Or, your people may be ready for FutureU's two-week facilitated online module Make the Most of Online Learning, which is the ideal prerequisite to every other e-learning experience. Make the Most of Online Learning is also available as a self-paced eBook.

 Have other technology initiatives met with success and support inside your organization? If not, find out everything you can about what went wrong. If other initiatives are underway right now, find out how they are going. Use past and present successes as your template when you put forth your own proposal. If your organization hasn't engaged in a technology initiative in a while, that may be another good reason to begin with an internal feasibility study that will help put the topic on the table.

 Do you have the necessary technology in place? What you need will depend on the learning processes you want to support. For example, if you conclude that your workforce will learn best with full-motion interactive video conferencing, you will want to make a substantially different investment in technology than if you can meet your needs with a simple, text-based, asynchronous learning classroom. Remember, determine your needs first, then choose the technology to support those needs, never the other way around.

 Have you identified one or more priorities for learning? You have to start somewhere. Let us help you assess where the need is greatest.

 Are you prepared to commit the necessary startup resources? Organizations that rush to utilize technology for training almost always encounter a larger up-front investment of time and dollars than anticipated, as well as a longer payback cycle than normally used in corporate planning. Let the FutureU/RealChange team help you evaluate how e-learning fits into your organization's plans for available time and money—before you start committing your valuable resources to a major new undertaking.

 Are you willing to wait for long-term results? E-learning takes time to develop and pay off. Although morale may see positive results right away (because people tend to perk up at the first signs of any effort to improve their work life), your organization will nonetheless face a learning curve and substantial start-up costs. Don't expect e-learning to "save" the company, certainly not right away. Done right, however, an investment in e-learning can lead to a long-term increase in productivity, a more creative approach to group problem-solving and decision-making, enhanced communications, and a greater sense of teamwork.

 Is your environment conducive to learning itself? Before you invest in a whole new delivery method, take a good look at your current training activities and your organization's general attitude toward learning. Is lifelong learning an explicit value? Do people feel safe to express opinions, explore assumptions, test new ideas, and pursue their own personal growth? Is the organization committed to innovation and openness? If so, e-learning will make a valuable addition to your menu of training options, and the RealChange/FutureU team can help your workforce make the most of it. If your environment isn't yet conducive to learning, we can help you through the transformation to create a competitive learning organization for the 21^st century.

What if we're just not ready for e-learning? Long before we started offering services related to e-learning, we were helping organizations develop and execute learning programs for leadership development and business skills in traditional classroom settings. We can help you create a learning organization irrespective of delivery methods, and then work with you when the time comes to add technology-mediated learning to your menu.

The FutureU/RealChange team can help you realistically assess your training program and identify your organization's unique needs for change. We can help you articulate and present your ideas, engage your leadership and workforce, decide how best to upgrade your technology within your budget, and plan and execute a training program that will help your people not just to acquire more information but to produce the results they want from everything they do.

How do we begin? Once you're ready to introduce e-learning to your workforce, we can offer you both off-the-shelf and custom training programs, as well as a wide range of consulting services to get you started and maximize your results. Let us help you bring this new learning option to your organization and make the most of all it has to offer.