Top 7 Reasons to Invest in eLearning Now [Infographic]

Have an idea of a big eLearning project and thinking of ways to justify the big investment to your boss? Or, maybe, you are the boss?

Regardless of what brought you here, this article will make you (and your boss) even more convinced of investing in eLearning.

Online learning has already gained massive popularity in the corporate world. 77% of U.S. companies offer online training as a way to improve their employee’s professional development.

And it is still an upward trend. The corporate eLearning market is expected to grow 13% per year until 2019.

Here, we are listing seven main reasons why you need to invest in eLearning if you haven’t done it already. And if you did, you’d want to invest some more.

1. It Takes Less Time

Online training requires 40 to 60% less time than classroom one.

We are talking about massive time savings here! All this time can be spent working or living…

The reasons for this are also quite obvious:

• Learners don’t have to spend time traveling or commute
• Self-paced learning and mobile learning allow learners to choose the most suitable time and place for them
• Microlearning, which breaks a material into bite-size chunks, enables learners to spend as little as 5 minutes per session.

2. It Costs Less

Online training saves money:

• 26% of companies saw a decrease in costs after implementing eLearning
• $11 per eLearner vs $95 per classroom learner
• Businesses save a minimum of 50% when they transition from classroom training to online.

This is because with online learning you don’t have to pay for:

• Travel and accommodation
• Instructor for every learning session
• Facilities (classroom and equipment).

3. Employees Learn More

And, research shows that employees manage to study more efficiently with eLearning than in a traditional classroom.

Participants of an online course learn five times more without increasing the time spent in training.

How is that possible?

We attribute this advantage to various engagement strategies of online learning. Things like edutainment, gamification, micro-learning and spaced repetitions have proven to increase the learning intensity.

4. Employees Remember More

One of the biggest challenges of L&D professionals is the so-called Forgetting Curve. This term describes our tendency to forget up to 90% of what we’ve learned days after the training.

The only way to fight this is with training reinforcement. We need to refresh our memory at regular time intervals with supporting materials and assessments.

eLearning is very well suited for this job.

As a result, those who study online retain 60% more knowledge, than trainees of face-to-face format, who remember only 8-10% of the material.

There is a number of online reinforcement strategies that help learners retain more knowledge:

• Gamification
• Spaced repetitions
• Continuous post-assessments.

5. Employees Become Better at Their Jobs

Since the goal is to not only retain knowledge but also apply it on the job, improved work performance should be a result of any successful training program.

So the successful adopters of eLearning have witnessed the following results:

• 53% saw an increase in productivity and engagement
• 10% or more in improvements to key performance indicators (KPIs).

Of course, this doesn’t mean that any online course can bring you results like that, just because it is digital.

To be so impactful, your eLearning program has to possess the following characteristics (among others):

Learning content should be customized and relevant to work

Employees should be supplied with enablement tools, such as action plans, templates, playbooks, checklists, etc. can be directly applied to work.

6. Employees Like Their Jobs More

Employees also understand the importance of good corporate training and the role it plays in their career advancement.

Thus, 16% of the companies saw a decrease in turnover rate after the implementation of eLearning.

And employees are less likely to quit if they like job-related training.

7. eLearning Helps Achieve Company Goals

But most importantly, successful eLearning brings the desired outcomes for business:

• 46% are more likely to be the leader in their industry
• 42% say online learning has led to an increase in revenue
• 58% feel prepared to meet future demands

Besides a great execution of eLearning (design, content, and LMS system), there is another key distinction of a successful training from a wasteful one.

Those who reap the most benefits from eLearning start every training initiative with business goals in mind. They ask themselves about the results a particular initiative should bring to their companies. They set expectations for the desired business outcomes, then translate those into the learning objectives and, then, into study curriculum.

Conclusion

There are so many ways your company can benefit from online learning when it is done right.

It costs way less money and takes less time, than traditional offline training formats. All thanks to massive savings on traveling, educational instructors, and facilities.

Online training can also be very efficient. Employees can learn more and remember more due to the powerful engagement and reinforcement strategies. In addition to that, micro-learning is also a very good tactic that improves learning efficiency. It is about breaking material into small pieces and packaging it into convenient formats to best fit the busy schedules of modern workers.

As a result of good training, employees become better at their jobs and like their jobs more. And all of this leads to the overall success of the company.

In order for this to happen, your training has to be aligned with the company’s goals. The planning of each training initiative should begin with agreeing on the desired business outcomes it should bring. And then it should be designed to achieve them.

So, it is no longer a question of: “Why should you invest in eLearning?”. It is rather a question of how to do it right, so your company could leverage the full potential of online training?

Each project is different, but here we’ve outlined the key questions one should answer to develop a successful eLearning program.

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Author: Kateryna Reshetilo is a Head of Marketing at Greenice web development agency. She is responsible for uncovering new market opportunities in the eCommerce, Healthcare and eLearning spheres. Kateryna also crafts and oversees the execution of marketing strategy at Greenice. When off-duty, she is a loving wife and mother of a cute 8-year-old boy. She is also passionate about climbing and windsurfing!