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By Claire Schooley
There may be a silver lining to the current state of the global economy after all. The world's economic woes present new opportunities for innovative forms of learning using technology like informal learning, eLearning, and blended learning.
With less money in the budget to work with, learning through technology has become very attractive because strong employee knowledge and skills remain key factors in enhancing a company's ability to compete. If organizations can get people faster to competency without travel costs and losses in productivity, it's a win/win situation.
With the economic downturn, all departments face belt-tightening but training often feels the pinch first. But, some of the problems caused by the shift in budget can be resolved by carefully evaluating the in-house resources that you already have, using non-traditional learning approaches, and potentially growing your learning offerings.
PROBLEM: Classroom training and face-to-face events are being cancelled because they are costly and not scalable.
SOLUTION: Transition classroom events to online virtual classroom learning formats. Online learning is not a replacement for all forms of face-to-face instruction. Yet, converting to online using Web conferencing technology and/or hybrid formats (some classroom and some online training) can have an immediate impact on costs.
PROBLEM: While conferences are wonderful informal ways to learn, exchange ideas, and network, travel and conference fees are expensive and organizations are being very selective about which conferences they choose and the number of people they send.
SOLUTION: Take advantage of links to online conference presentations, Webinars, or online symposia often with chat interaction. Provide these resources to employees and give them time to attend these sessions online, download materials, and have planned discussions afterwards about future impact of content on their learning function.
PROBLEM: Expenditure delays on custom training projects, outside vendor contracts, or new initiatives. Training leaders are putting custom content development projects on hold, increasing in-house content development, and choosing groups of titles from off-the-shelf vendors that offer the most value rather than large content libraries.
SOLUTION: Explore Web 2.0 as part of your learning strategy. Build on existing social networks, wikis, podcasts, and blogs by exploring new ways to support learning objectives, content, and worker interaction. Use these tools to create short training content.
PROBLEM: Hiring freezes mean delays in bringing on board new training staff. In the past three years companies have invested in stronger learning departments. They have hired chief learning officers (CLOs) who have helped align learning strategy with corporate objectives and they've brought additional staff on board to implement learning programs and explore new learning initiatives. Today, hiring has slowed or is frozen and companies are asking more from existing learning staff.
SOLUTION: Exploit learning tools that are already part of the "tool box." This includes both the software tools and the learning content that you license. Carefully audit the use of tools and course materials to look for opportunities to optimize what you offer.
If you make the changes and use more technology for instruction, there are three factors that are sure to bode well for success. First, your company will benefit from savings on travel, scalability, speed of training, and the ability to do more with tools you already may have. Second, online learning adoption is growing as it becomes a familiar way to get knowledgeable fast. And, third, your entering work force expects to learn online.
Tech-savvy workers entering the workplace understand technology and expect more job components, including learning, to come from online sources, especially Web 2.0 with its networking and collaboration capabilities. As one executive said at a conference, "If you don't embrace Web 2.0, talent will go out the door to your competitors with more online networking."
Claire Schooley is a senior analyst with Forrester Research covering the strategy and technology associated with formal and informal learning, the Web and videoconferencing.
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