Does eLearning need to have a ROI that’s more than just money?

The Adobe Captivate Blog earlier this month reported on a Higher Ed blog - http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/

“Around 70% of faculty believe that the learning outcomes of online learning are inferior to F2F.”

This got me thinking about business eLearning -

I have seen all sorts of content classified as eLearning and as an educator I have to ask –

Is it important to have learning outcomes associated with eLearning for it to be “Learning”?

Behavior changes, should we expect this to be a part of eLearning? Should there be an expectation of “measurable understanding” obtained from the eLearning content?

Should there be pedagogical tools and standards used to create elearning content? From a business prospective should there be an expected ROI for eLearning?

If a training department saves money on training costs by switching from classroom training to eLearning but gains no business outcomes have they really saved anything?

I know this is more questions than answers, but at the end of the day the education experience can’t be about saving money can it?

Jodi Harrison

jodi.harrison@interactyx.com
www.interactyx.com

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Comment by Ellen on September 18, 2009 at 5:12pm: Is it important to have learning outcomes associated with eLearning for it to be “Learning”?
ABSOLUTELY

Behavior changes, should we expect this to be a part of eLearning? Should there be an expectation of “measurable understanding” obtained from the eLearning content?
YES and YES

Should there be pedagogical tools and standards used to create elearning content? From a business prospective should there be an expected ROI for eLearning?
YES and YES

If a training department saves money on training costs by switching from classroom training to eLearning but gains no business outcomes have they really saved anything?
SAVING MONEY IS A BUSINESS OUTCOME

I know this is more questions than answers, but at the end of the day the education experience can’t be about saving money can it?
OF COURSE IT CAN

Comment by Ellen on September 18, 2009 at 5:15pm: Sorry, I missed your title question:

Does eLearning need to have a ROI that’s more than just money?
NEED = NO SHOULD = YES

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