Elearning can have a transformational impact on small business, not-for-profit and other fragmented groups sharing common interests, challenges or opportunities.Being able to provide training to a disjointed group spread over thousands of kilometres on a flexible schedule enables you to capture more people, more quickly, and more effectively.

Graphic showing the 5 D’s of e-learning in industry. See Figure 1.1
http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/ict/58148

Now, more than ever, industry has an opportunity to develop the people they already have in a way that is cost effective, and highly customised. E-learning provides an ideal means of addressing specific skill shortages. Employers who are serious about taking charge of their own future, and proactively addressing the barriers which are preventing profitability and growth without waiting for others to act, should be grabbing e-learning with both hands.

Recommended reading, this webpage from the Ministry of Education (New Zealand) summarises key issues and findings from the full report (also available for download). The content is succinct and includes some excellent graphics clearly depicting the process of elearning industry, elearning as it occurs in large companies, and in small or medium businesses, and a model for examining elearning effectiveness. This is an excellent summary of key e-learning issues in the New Zealand workplace, but many of these factors have wider relevance. It also glances towards the future…

When planning for e-life, empower trainers and learners to engage in e-life. Concepts and methodologies of elearning will have to take into account the needs of the small business environment and its learners in order to achieve a wider learning application. A learner driven pedagogy rather than a product driven one could be experienced as the real challenge as it may confront equal opportunities and the democratisation of learning environments, be it blended learning approaches or others.

This brief research report looks at e-learning in small and medium enterprises in Canada to provide an overview which hints at some key factors in utilising this effectively.Though this report was published in 2004, the findings are pertinent, particularly in New Zealand where SME adoption of e-learning is lagging behind the North American experience. The report also outlines very succinctly some of the perceived advantages of elearning – both in theory and in the experience of the SME’s which participated in the research.

Learning is critical to organisation and people development in any organisation. Elearning provides improved and innovative ways to contribute to this vital function. This is a broad and complicated subject, but let’s consider it in simple terms and link elearning with organisation development in plain english. Thorn and Mackey proposed the following checklist for developing people and organisations

The Benchmarking and Research business activity of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework has released An investigation of the enablers and barriers to industry uptake of e-learning: Small business which examines the current status of e-learning in small business, barriers to the increased use of e-learning solutions and the potential for increased uptake of e-learning by small businesses.

The emergence of elearning as a tool for business is not complete until it is fully accessible for small and medium sized businesses in New Zealand. There are over 350,000 SME’s in New Zealand, making up 99% of all business and employing about 60% of the workforce. There are a number of ways that design and delivery of elearning can be accomplished which are highly affordable for even the smallest business.