Who knew that a devastating pandemic like COVID-19 (coronavirus) would cause so much traditional, face-to-face learning to move to the online environment?
This crisis caught a lot of people off guard. Many are dealing with the stress of switching gears in the ways they teach or learn. Still, if there’s one thing to say for this disruption, it’s that it’s helping people understand the benefits of e-learning.
It shouldn’t have taken a disaster of this magnitude for that to happen, though! So why not use the social distancing phase we’re in as a chance to socialize them to e-learning?
Ten Benefits of E-Learning for Companies
Businesses and companies stand to benefit from e-learning in several ways. Some are aware of these benefits, while others need to learn more. If you’re in the latter category, keep reading while we identify some of these benefits.
1. Scheduling Convenience
E-learning for companies allows employees to schedule their professional development activities to accommodate their busy schedules.
E-learning makes the workplace feel much friendlier. It also allows workers to schedule their office work (or home) workday more effectively. Many courses are available on demand.
2. Allows Self-Paced Work
If you find a certain subject hard to learn, you can easily fall behind. With e-learning, people can proceed at their own pace and review or repeat material as necessary until they’ve grasped the concepts.
When well-designed, e-learning can accommodate multiple different learning styles. Self-paced learning is a crucial part of that.
3. Flexible and Reusable Learning Materials
With e-learning, the learning materials can be reused and updated rather than taught each time anew, as in a face-to-face context. Many of them can also be accessed easily after the course has ended.
4. Many Available Materials
There is a wealth of possible e-learning materials available online—many of them at little or no cost. You and your employees enjoy the benefits of online training by tapping into these resources out of curiosity or for formal course development.
5. Augmenting Existing Skill Sets
Some employees genuinely love to learn. They’re eager to use professional development opportunities to build on their existing skill sets—which can create new possibilities for both the employee and the employer.
6. Scalable
E-learning is scalable, meaning that it can accommodate learner numbers from one to thousands at a time. The only limitations would be available bandwidth at the hosting site and any grading that would need to be done by a human.
7. Accessible from Many Places
E-learning is accessible from any place that has a computer or device and an Internet connection. In most places, especially in North America, this isn’t much of a problem.
8. Real-Time Interaction
E-learning interactions can help maintain the social element of the workplace while employees work from home. Interactivity and interpersonal communication are especially likely during live online sessions—such as those delivered via Zoom.
9. Ease of Assessment
Increasingly, anything that takes resources needs to have its benefits and effectiveness demonstrated empirically. Most e-learning platforms have embedded assessment tools, making data collection and reporting relatively easy.
Why Not Try E-Learning at Your Business?
All of these benefits add up to happier and more independently motivated employees, especially when they can interact in real-time. These are benefits that will outlast the current pandemic situation.
Employees, in turn, are likely to appreciate the opportunities and benefits of e-learning — and you, for providing them.
Part of e-learning’s value is that it can be both engaging and efficient. It’s also a time and cost-effective way to build knowledge and capacity for your business. It’s also available on an as-needed basis. What could be better?
If you need expert help with the design, marketing, and hosting of your e-learning program and its platform, let us know. We’d be very interested in helping you try out this professional development possibility.