4 Responses

1. Developing an e-Learning Strategy
   Anyone holding the the Certified e-Learning Professional (CeLP) Certificate in e-Learning Management Skills will probably be delighted to tell you that there are six key steps in establishing an e-learning strategy:

   1. Analyse the situation
   2. Establish objectives
   3. Review the options
   4. Describe the solution
   5. Plan implementation
   6. Analyse the situation

   The first task in developing an e-learning strategy is to examine the drivers for change. What threats or opportunities make it desirable to move towards e-learning?

   Objectives obviously need to be SMART – Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-based.

   Let’s take an example. Imagine you are a provider of learning materials.

   SPECIFIC: might mean to increase the audience for your learning materials.

   MEASURABLE: may mean you’re going to measure your success in terms of a percentage increase in the sales of your materials.

   ACHIEVABLE: may mean you’re looking for a realistic increase of 25%.

   RELEVANT: means that increasing the audience for your materials is of real importance to your organisation.

   TIME RELATED: may mean you’re going to try and achieve this objective within one year.

   Even if you consider that e-learning would be likely to achieve the objectives that you have established, it would be a mistake to jump to the conclusion that this is the right way forward without first considering the options:

   • Is education or training the only solution to the problem? Are there other interventions that would provide a better return?
   • Would other learning methods provide similar or even better returns than e-learning?
   • Given that e-learning includes a wide variety of approaches, would other forms or combinations of e-learning methods provide better returns?

   Here is where carefully conducted Return of Investment analyses pay off. Which solution provides the best return on investment?

   The next step is to flesh out the details of the solution you have chosen. This could include information on:

   • the subject matter, skills or competencies to be addressed
   • the audience(s) for the e-learning
   • the nature or style of the e-learning solution
   • how e-learning will blend with traditional methods
   • the hardware and software infrastructure required to support the solution
   • how e-learning content will be resourced

   The final step is to set out the plan for implementing the solution:

   • what needs to be done
   • who will be responsible for doing it
   • when this needs to be done.

   As well as a detailed schedule, you’ll need an analysis of the budget involved.

   I hope this helps!

2. E-learning Strategy Framework
   To add to Adrian’s response, most recently when I’ve worked on e-learning strategies, I’ve also developed:

   * An organisational capability assessment – an honest assessment of what has to change to bring the strategy into being
   * An e-learning evolutionary path analysis – how the strategy will evolve in the medium to long term, i.e. what is achievable now, then in the future and when
   * The e-learning strategy execution plan, providing the precise steps to take, particularly in the short term

   To echo the precision of Adrian’s suggested process, I cannot stress enough that the strategy should be very specific to your organisation. Whereas there is an increasing amount of best practice out there, ultimately you will need to find out what works best for your organisation.

3. Article on e-learning Strategy.
   An article on Workplace Expert titled: ”If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, Any Road Will Take You There: Lessons on e-Learning Strategy from the Chesire Cat” is worth a read. A direct link to it is:http://www.n-email.com/trimax/elearning_strategy_lessons.htm

   Tony Treacy

4. Learning Campus
   The Learning and Skills Council run the half day workshop “Building an effective E-learning strategy”. It is popular and gets booked up quickly, although they do schedule extra dates. You can find out about feedback from previous workshops and dates for upcoming ones at:

   http://www.thelearningcampus.co.uk/connews.asp?renleewtsapf=50&sitemapid=4&parent_id=0

   Claudine
   http://www.structured-training.com