8 lessons about e-learning from 5 organizations: this summary of Gold's five-part series of case studies on enterprise-wide e-learning captures the crucial and often hard-earned lessons

T+D, August, 2003 by Martha Gold

Implementing an enterprise-wide e-learning system is a lot like raising a child. In both cases, there's a plethora of advice and suggestions for the common problems and situations, but there's no one clear solution. For instance, take the task of making courseware function through a learning management system. Some companies keep staff on hand to write wrappers or adjust parameters; others avoid the problem by running only software customized for its system.

Factors such as the number of employees, ratio of professionals to factory floor employees, and available technology and resources play a part in determining a suitable solution. But without a specific formula that determines what solutions work with what situations, most organizations are more likely to stumble across the answer than go straight to it.

Gerrie Wydeven, e-learning program leader at the Internal Revenue Service, managed to cut down on some trial-and-error when she was given the task to lead the implementation of the IRS's LMS. She did that by immediately seeking advice from others who were in the process or had already implemented their systems.

"Basically, I went to conferences, talked to people, did some reading, and got some idea of the best practices," says Wydeven.

Here's a summary of the eight most common problems---from marketing e-learning to employees in different countries to discovering the joys of chunking--and the solutions arrived at by five different organizations featured in the five previous articles April through August in T+D. The challenges and resolutions can become your shortcuts.

Lesson 1

Despite the existence of SCORM, AICC, and other standards, compatibility between all courseware and LMSs remains a goal rather than an accomplishment. Narrowing down course selection helps keep down customization costs.

Lack of compatibility required almost all of the organizations in the case studies to adjust their courseware selection to attain maximum capability from the technology with minimal intervention. Most organizations made compatibility a top priority and limited their selection to products that worked best with their systems--pushing other criteria, such as interesting interactive features and compelling content, further down on the requirements list. Some companies had the luxury of having the resources to devote staff to the task of customizing content. Lucent Technologies, for example, has a group of e-learning specialists whose primary function is to write wrappers and adjust third-party courseware so it works on its LMS, provided by Saba.

Companies without such resources either limited their selection or used only software created exclusively for the company and its LMS. Even firms with staff on hand to adjust courseware often preferred to limit selection to a few companies to minimize the need for customization.

"When we first started, we thought it would be good to get more content from different areas," says Catherine Nowaski, director of e-learning at Kodak. "Now we feel otherwise. With all the challenges, it makes me want to work with just a few vendors with whom we have a good partnership."

Lesson 2

Don't keep it a secret. Market the new system to employees actively.

Throughout Kodak's Latin America facilities hang brightly colored posters with catchy slogans in Spanish and Portuguese that urge employees to get online and visit the company's new eCampus portal. Monthly newsletters highlight learner success stories, answer questions, and publicize e-learning resources and emails featuring outstanding Websites.

After devoting several years and many resources toward implementing its enterprise-wide e-learning system, the Latin American division of Kodak began a comprehensive marketing campaign to employees. Within the first three months of the launch of eCampus, 60 percent of the employees in the Latin America region were registered for classes. Why did Kodak and other organizations devote so much attention to marketing something that was already considered a benefit? To get people used to the idea of receiving training in a place other than the classroom. Many employees are put off by the idea of having to learn new technology before they can even begin training, which is why many organizations, in addition to marketing their LMS, also work with managers, supervisors, and top employees to help get their message across. At Kodak's Latin America division, for example, more than 100 supervisors, managers, and other leaders have been assigned to help other employees accept and use the LMS. The IRS's strategic HR group also worked with managers and frontline supervisors to ensure their cooperation in getting employees to use the new LMS.

Like Kodak, the IRS learned that the phrase "build it and they will come" doesn't apply when it comes to e-learning. The benefits that make e-learning so appealing to businesses--flexibility, limited time away from work, savings on travel costs, and self-determination--are disadvantages in the eyes of the employees who enjoy the break from work that classroom-based training provides. Even more ambitious employees who welcome education for advancement opportunities may be too busy to notice the new e-learning portal icon on their desktops until someone points it out.