To understand why e-learning is the tool of choice for corporate training, it is important to understand the target audience. Employees today are keen to learn and upskill. If an organization does not provide ample learning opportunities, its employees may join a competitor. According to LinkedIn’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report, 94 of employees say they will stick with an employer that invests in their development. Today’s learners want personalized content at their point of need. Since they are mostly on the move, they prefer being able to access content anytime and from anywhere. Twenty Eighty’s 7 Consumer Realities report states that at the time of need, 91 percent of people depend on their smartphone for an answer. Jane Hart of the Centre for Modern Workplace Learning and the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies found that 93 percent of employees prefer to learn on the job. Learners are busy multitasking and have a limited attention span. If organizations want them to learn something new, they have to offer bite-sized pieces of information that do not take too much time to consume. Online learning has features that cater to these modern learner preferences – hence its rise in popularity. Here are the top five advantages of e-learning.
It is real-time learning. In synchronous learning, you, other participants and the teacher or only you and the teacher, are online and interact at the same time from different locations. You deliver and receive the learning resources via mobile, video conference, Internet or chat. In this type of learning the participants can share their ideas during the session and interact with each other and they get detailed queries and solutions. Synchronous eLearning is gaining popularity because of improved technology and Internet bandwidth capabilities.
It is a pause-and-resume kind of learning. In this type of eLearning the learner and the teacher cannot be online at same time. Asynchronous eLearning may use technologies such as email, blogs, discussion forums, eBook’s CDs, DVDs, etc. Learners may learn at any time, download documents, and chat with teachers & also with co-learners. In fact, many learners prefer asynchronous instead of synchronous learning because learners can take online courses to learn at their preferable time by not effecting their daily commitments.