Web Based Training

Traditional classroom learning styles are quickly becoming displaced by technology delivered learning solutions. Techniques range from video conferencing systems, multimedia CD-ROMs to interactive courses delivered on the World Wide Web. Web based training (WBT) is increasingly popular due to its low cost, ease of distribution, and on-demand access.

Traditional classroom learning often requires employees to schedule training well in advance, then fly out of town for several days for remote training, costing their employer huge amounts of money in travel and lodging in addition to the several days of lost employee productivity. WBT allows for on-demand, self-paced training that is far more convenient and less expensive than traditional techniques.

Off-the-shelf packages allow organizations to buy shrink-wrapped eLearning tools to develop WBT systems in-house. 

Unfortunately, roadblocks from internal IT resources, the challenges of assembling the variety of resources required to deliver online courseware, and the formidable up-front capital costs of building an eLearning infrastructure have led to the failure of many WBT initiatives.

Learning Service Providers

A new business model emerging from this demand for better service is the Learning Service Provider (LSP). 

The advent of Learning Service Providers is changing the conversation in many organizations from the option of purchasing a shrink-wrapped learning system and hosting it themselves to a focus on selecting an LSP.

Learning Service Providers (LSPs) provide the technical infrastructure needed to develop and host online learning programs. Buying software requires organizations to invest in all the technology necessary to support it: networks, servers, and support software. LSPs remove that complexity from the equation by providing all the supporting technology themselves. Customers are buying a business service rather than a software application and all the infrastructure costs that go with it.

LSPs allow organizations to minimize capital expenditure, choosing to ‘rent’ eLearning solutions instead. Pay-as-you-go pricing takes the economic burden out of buying software and transfers much of it to the LSP. There are no big consulting fees or hardware purchases up front, just a monthly fee and/or per-transaction fee. The only up-front fees are the minimal content development fees. 

This model also allows you to avoid making a long-term commitment in an ever-changing marketplace.

Also, since the LSP infrastructure is already in place, an organization can quickly deliver courseware to end users. The alternative, building an internal eLearning infrastructure, often delays by months or years the successful delivery of eLearning systems to end users.

Value Added Services

In addition to dealing with the headaches of monitoring and maintaining complex technologies such as redundant networks, load-balanced servers and streaming media backbones, full service LSPs are beginning to offer a variety of other eLearning services.

LSPs handle integration complexities often associated with the software package approach. LSPs often interface with popular ERP packages allowing better overall integration into your organization’s infrastructure.

LSPs insulate you from having to tailor your content to different platforms. LSPs can produce and ship CD versions of the online content for mobile users or users on slower Internet connections. As new technologies such as wireless palm devices mature, the LSP can migrate your learning content to the new mediums saving you costly conversion efforts.

eCommerce issues such as charging individuals for courseware, or charging departments or other specific organizations for courseware usage can be tracked and handled by the LSP, allowing organizations to distribute out the cost of content creation. 

Phone, email, and chat support offered 24x7 by the LSP means that end users that take training on-demand at late hours and on the weekend can receive quality help without adding staff to your internal help desk.

Psychometric services from the LSP provide you with analysis of your tests to make sure they are fair and defensible. If your courses result in a certification or credit, the LSP can provide fixed-facility proctored testing to authenticate and monitor testing candidates.

If your courseware includes rich multi-media, experts in audio and video production optimized for web delivery can make sure your training looks good and runs well over the Internet.

Bullish Market Outlook

Online learning is projected to boom in the near future. Clark Aldrich of Gartner Group is predicting that the online learning business will soar from its current $1.5 billion annual level to at least $22 billion by 2003.

This finding is backed up by research from the Corporate University Xchange. This New York City-based organization, says that the educational market currently spends 20 percent on eLearning and 80 percent on traditional classroom instruction. By 2003, this figure is expected to shift to 40 percent for online learning and 60 percent for traditional classroom instruction.

While web based training grows, so does the trend towards partnering with LSPs. eLearning expert Elliott Masie, whose Masie Center tracks the growth of LSPs, reports that more than a third of its corporate members are considering the LSP hosting approach. 

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Stan Shinn is the Vice President of Development for ClearLearn, a premier provider of training, testing and certification via the Internet.