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

PNC Bank discovered the importance of marketing when response to its new enterprise-wide e-learning system was less enthusiastic than anticipated. "We were so intent on the technical aspects that we didn't pay attention to marketing," says Paul Dickerson, director of e-learning at PNC. "We have to work on making people aware of it; we're in the process of making direct presentations to groups and redesigning and redoing our marketing materials."

Lesson 3

Don't be pressured into buying. Carefully assess your organization's needs before making a final purchase.

Kodak, after piloting one LMS, instead of upgrading switched vendors and ended up with a less expensive system. The Rochester, New York-based photo-imaging company made the switch when it became apparent that the company didn't need a lot of bells and whistles.

"We were looking for a miracle application and were sure that what we needed was a huge LMS system that would take care of all of our training needs," says Nowaski. "We learned the hard way that you don't really need all of the features, all of the functionality from day 1."

Kodak scaled back after discovering that employees preferred simpler applications because they didn't have to struggle to learn how to navigate through them as they did with the more sophisticated, interactive programs. Had Kodak charged ahead with its initial plans without checking with employees first, the system might have ended up collecting dust.

As with any other large ticket item, it's important to be an educated consumer and not be overwhelmed by the technology. That involves knowing the market, your organization's needs, and all of the available options. It also helps to know the capabilities of current technology and to hold off on purchases if the application doesn't meet the needs of the organization. For example, the IRS put plans to purchase an LMS on hold after deciding that current LCMS technology was insufficient for its needs.

"We hoped that when we purchased an LMS, it would come with the ideal LCMS component attached," says wydeven. "We found that isn't the nature of the current practice, particularly in terms of an open architecture. So, we're looking at this as a future acquisition."

Lesson 4

Security will always be a critical issue.

The World Wide Web was one of the best things to happen to electronically based learning. Suddenly, companies didn't need to purchase expensive LAN or WAN systems or CD-ROMs. With ASP models, they could access thousands of courses over the Internet, all for one licensing fee. If they outgrew the system or wanted to change, they just had to end the contract--no equipment to discard or sell.

In addition to flexibility and availability, the Internet presents serious security risks. For financial organizations such as PNC Bank, the risk is too great. It has put off offering training to customers until it upgrades its LMS by Pathlore because the newest version has technology that limits access to paying customers. Kodak, on the other hand, figured out how to limit access to its eCampus portal so it could be accessed via the Internet and available to employees, but not to the Web-surfing public. Kodak did that by incorporating the portal into the company's password-generated entrance program. Employees now access training with the same ID and password they use daily to access the company system.