This is an excellent overview from The Rapid eLearning blog. It summarises many of the benefits of elearning. Understanding elearning’s value helps you make the best decisions about when and why to use it.

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.

From the “Upside Learning Solutions” blog, a good summary of outsourcing benefits – some focus on outsourcing to India, but many of the key points apply equally to contracting providers closer to home.

In the current evolving economic environment, it is important for organisations to effectively implement and utilise e-learning applications, strategies and techniques to up-skill their workforce so that they are more productive, higher performing and competitive in regional, national and global contexts.

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.

Recommended reading, this is part one of a two part post suggesting some ways to use elearning to enhance relationships with your customers. In some ways it would be better titled “12 ways to use an LMS…” as some of the ideas – particularly in part two of this post have very little to do with e-learning as such.

Selected tweets: Week ended 15 November 2009. First Business Game to Simulate International Trade – PR Web (press re.. http://bit.ly/PDXDO Chambersburg schools implement online teaching tool – Herald-Mail: Students can read passage.. http://bit.ly/1YkpjS Learn.com, Announces Record Breaking Q3 2009 as the Company Approaches … – PR-USA.net: Lea..http://bit.ly/2ggYRb New Report Just Published Global Digital Economy – E-Government, E-Hea.. http://bit.ly/4iM5C9 “Free course design and delivery” offer for not-for-profits – Great offer! Pass it on -http://bit.ly/3VJ0iD

In this very succinct download, key lessons from Nestles experience upskilling its global workforce using elearning are described. The importance of learning as an integral part of organisation culture is identified, and the link between elearning and culture is also hinted at when this brief case study mentions internal branding for example.