The design of an e-learning system: Beyond the hype

Abstract

The impact of the Internet on the development and delivery of training programs is real—analysts forecast that corporate spending on e-learning programs will top US$23 billion by 2004. Although the term “e-learning” has now firmly embedded itself into the global corporate vernacular, most executives find themselves doing little more than scattering people and technologies within training programs at random with the hope that one of these programs will work. First generation e-learning systems tend to focus almost entirely on the management and measurement of training processes. They add little or no value to the learning process. Furthermore, they do not provide any means to support internal content production processes, relying instead on commercial courseware. These “learning management systems” (LMS) were seen to be nothing more than launch pads for third party content that the organization would purchase or outsource. Adding to the confusion has been the roar of hype among a growing number of e-learning providers, whose promises and forecasts have left executives wandering on the e-learning path, without a definite direction. In this paper, the author provides an insight into the different types of e-learning systems that can be developed as well as the tasks and activities necessary to build them.