What Is E-Learning and How Can It Benefit Your Company

E-learning is quickly becoming a widely used method to educate in just about every imaginable area of the workforce. New technologies are giving companies the ability to save time, money, and resources with the use of e-learning. Whether you hire an outside firm to implement this e-learning, or create your own web-based lessons in-house, e-learning should be considered a valuable educational tool.

In this article, we will dive into what is e-learning and how it compares to other learning models, the various types of e-learning, advantages and disadvantages, and examples for how you can best implement it in your organization.

Let’s start by understanding what we mean by e-learning—a.k.a. electronic learning or, as it’s also known, virtual learning. As the name suggests, e-learning encompasses any educational content that is pre-recorded and virtually accessible. These are delivered in a self-paced learning environment, where the students can access course materials and complete assignments from anywhere and at any time on their own schedule.

Traditional e-learning is also known as asynchronous online learning because of its pre-recorded and self-paced nature. This makes e-learning ideal for situations like standardized training, pre-recorded lectures, and individual learning paths. However, it can lack face-to-face interaction and real-time instruction, which may be needed in certain situations.

Online learning, on the other hand, involves lessons that are taught live online in real-time, usually accompanied by an online platform for teachers and students to communicate via audio, video, online chat, or/and interactive whiteboard features. This is known as synchronous online learning as it requires participation from everyone at the same time. It allows for a more interactive experience throughout the lessons, with more immediate support from instructors.

In a nutshell, e-learning offers flexibility and self-guidance, while online learning offers a more interactive, community-based experience that may be better suited for diverse learning needs and preferences. But both are great ways to utilize online tools and technology to provide more accessible training and development.

There are many different types of e-learning used in workplace talent development, and the right one for your organization will depend on your specific learning and development needs, goals, available resources, and workplace dynamics.

Here are nine of the most common types of e-learning that you can utilize to train and develop your organization’s employees:

1. Blended learning: This means a blend of both virtual and face-to-face training, giving you the best of both worlds—the flexibility of the former with the interactive nature of the latter. This is a great option for employees who prefer self-study with a bit of real-time guidance.
2. Mobile learning: This involves learning materials that are designed to be mobile-friendly, so that they can be accessed and consumed on employees’ phones while on the go, wherever is convenient for them.
3. Gamification: This type incorporates game elements into the learning process, such as leaderboards, levels, points systems, and rewards. This can help employees overcome common mental barriers with learning by making the learning journey more fun, competitive, and engaging.
4. Social learning: This is also a more engaging type of e-learning that involves social interactions and collaborations, such as online forums, chat rooms, and social media, allowing learners to interact with instructors and each other throughout the training.
5. Microlearning: This means breaking down the information into bite-sized modules—usually around two to four minutes long each—that employees can absorb more effectively and efficiently, particularly if they are busy or have trouble focusing on too much at once.
6. Virtual reality learning: This is an innovative type of e-learning where employees can engage in realistic scenarios and apply their new knowledge or skills in a simulated or virtual environment, providing them with similar benefits as real-world practice.
7. Video content: This involves using videos to deliver educational information to employees, particularly in situations where you need to visually explain or demonstrate complex topics. It can encompass all kinds of video content such as webinars, tutorial videos, and screencasts or screen capture training videos.
8. Audio content: This type uses digital audio to deliver training in an engaging way that is both quicker to produce and easier for employees to consume on any device wherever they are, or even while doing other things. Podcasts are the most common example of this, but it could encompass any other kind of digital audio content.
9. Written content: This involves using any sort of written copy and digitally printed content to deliver educational information. It could include any written and designed materials such as e-books, PDFs, white papers, blog posts, slide presentations, and infographics.

Our Careerminds career development and coaching programs utilize these e-learning types and methods to engage your employees and help them elevate their skills with the flexibility of a virtual environment. Click below to speak with one of our experts and see how we can help unlock your organization’s true potential.

Beyond types of e-learning, there are also many examples of e-learning platforms that offer a wide range of course structures and learning resources, making some more fitting for the different types of e-learning methods than others. You will want to carefully evaluate your educational needs and preferences before choosing the right one for your organization.

Here are nine common e-learning platforms and examples of when they are most useful:

1. Coursera: This platform is a great option for employees looking to enhance skills or change careers, offering a wide variety of virtual courses, certifications, and degree content.
2. Skillshare: This learning platform caters to creative individuals with thousands of classes on topics such as design, animation, and photography.
3. Udemy: This is an affordable platform with a vast library of free and paid courses on professional development topics such as design, marketing, and business communication, along with frequent promotions and discounts.
4. LinkedIn Learning: This is a comprehensive library of online courses taught by leading industry professionals on topics ranging from social media marketing and graphic design to coding and data analytics.
5. Google Digital Garage: This large online database offers free, bite-sized courses for professionals covering topics such as digital marketing, data analysis, and career development.
6. Khan Academy: This versatile platform particularly caters to learners seeking foundational math skills or advanced scientific concepts, but offers courses on many other topics including history, economics, and even test preparation.
7. edX: This is a large, free, open-source platform offering bachelor’s competition programs, master’s degrees, coding bootcamps, and standalone courses.
8. Codecademy: This online coding bootcamp is great for employees who want to learn or enhance their coding skills.
9. Udacity: This is a tech-focused e-learning platform offering courses and nanodegrees in areas such as AI, data science, programming, and cybersecurity.

Keep in mind that these platforms are mainly all learning destination sites (LDSs), meaning they offer a marketplace of existing virtual courses and microcredentials. These are great if you’re looking for existing training options for your employees. However, if you want to actually create and deliver your own classes and educational materials, you will want to look into learning management systems (LMSs) such as Docebo, TalentLMS, Litmos, and Thinkific.

There are many potential advantages of e-learning that can help you make the case for incorporating this method into your employee development strategy. Let’s look at each of these and how they could benefit your organization.

With this type of web-based learning, employees have more control over how they learn. They can access lessons anytime, anywhere, and study for however long they want. In a more traditional learning environment, the employee would only have access to the lessons for the duration of the training session. Employees will appreciate the flexibility and convenience of this 24/7 access, and make it easier for them to manage work-life balance.

This convenience not only benefits the employees, but also the instructor and organization at large. When someone has to take time out of their day to train others, or when a whole group of employees needs to take the same time off to attend a training together, it can slow down productivity for the whole office.

Virtual training methods are far more cost-effective than traditional means of teaching. E-learning allows employees to remain in their work environment and use their time more efficiently, instead of traveling to a separate location and disrupting their entire workday. This only hurts the overall organization’s bottom line, making in-person training sessions and conferences unnecessarily costly in terms of time and money.

When these costs are lowered, the company can then raise the bar of the training itself and expand its scope to more employees and applications. Of course, some outside e-learning providers may charge higher rates if the lessons need to be more tailored. However, the scalable nature of e-learning allows for these lessons to be used far beyond the initial session, making e-learning much more cost-effective in the long-run.

The pre-recorded and scalable aspects of e-learning also allow companies to offer a consistent method of training and teaching. You only need to ensure the creation of quality educational materials once, and then those same materials can be used across multiple employees and teams as needed for as long as the content remains relevant. When each employee receives the same information at the right time in their training, it ensures that everyone is learning the same things at the same rate and standards. This makes the training more consistent and inclusive for everyone.

Traditional learning methods can make this more complicated when you consider different teaching styles, strengths, and schedules, meaning that no two people would deliver the same lesson in the same way, time after time. E-learning allows for this consistency of training and development across the entire organization.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t also review the few disadvantages of e-learning. As we mentioned earlier, there are situations that might benefit more from a real-time online learning approach instead of pre-recorded, self-paced e-learning lessons. Essentially, e-learning is a less ideal option for students who need more interaction, direction, and/or technical assistance. Let’s review each of these disadvantages that could impact the value of e-learning for your organization.

The lack of face-to-face interaction in e-learning, both with instructors and other students, could cause employees to feel isolated as they go through the training. Everyone learns differently, and those who benefit from a more interactive and social learning environment might struggle with an entirely individual and self-paced e-learning approach. This could significantly impact their motivation and ability to sufficiently complete the training, not to mention to retain the information and skills after the training is completed.

In addition, the self-paced design of e-learning also means less immediate support for students if they have questions or need help while going through the training. Sure, you can prepare helpful resources and FAQs to accompany the learning materials, but there’s always a chance their questions will fall outside the scope of these resources or require more hands-on support. So it may become valuable to provide such support or coaching personnel for individuals going through the training, which can counter some of those cost-effective and time-efficient benefits of the e-learning method.

Lastly, there’s always the chance of technical issues that can inhibit the smooth delivery of e-learning training, and disrupt a student’s ability to focus on the lessons themselves. E-learning requires having a robust online platform to distribute the virtual lessons and materials. Companies would need to provide sufficient technological infrastructure and support to assist employees if they have issues accessing the content.

Of course, this could largely be outsourced by hiring an outside e-learning provider or using any of the examples of e-learning platforms shared above, but it’s still a possible impediment to prepare for. This could be especially difficult in less developed regions, where there may be a shortage of technological resources, connectivity, or qualified staff.

When considering implementing e-learning in your workplace, there are a few best practices to consider. Below are a few notable pieces of advice from e-learning expert, Trina Rimmer.

On choosing a designer: “When you pay for good design, you’re buying more than just good looks. You’re paying for the expertise of someone who knows what to ask and how to ask you all of the hard questions so you’ll actually save time, money, and agony in the long run.”

On the matter of time: “One industry guideline many of us consult is a study from the Chapman Alliance which states that it generally takes 49 hours to develop every one hour of basic, click-and-read e-learning. That’s just a guideline, of course. Your goals may require the use of complex simulations or branching scenarios that push that timeline out, or your interests may be best served by developing another solution entirely.”

On considering e-learning a tech solution: “If you or your team are uncomfortable with technology, don’t force yourselves to become e-learning experts. Instead, invest some time and money into becoming better informed in the long-term. And in the short-term, outsource the design and development to experts who can coach you through the process.”

So what is e-learning and how can it benefit your company? E-learning can be a powerful way to expand your organization’s talent development and foster a more accessible and sustainable culture of learning for your entire workforce. You can utilize different types of e-learning—such as blended learning, social learning, gamification, virtual reality, videos, podcasts, and e-books—across a variety of e-learning platforms—such as Coursera, Skillshare, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning.

It’s important to consider all of the various e-learning advantages and disadvantages that could impact your organization. For example, the advantages of e-learning include greater flexibility, accessibility, learner control, cost savings, and consistency across all employees. The disadvantages, however, could include employee isolation and lack of motivation, less hands-on support, and the need for more advanced technical infrastructure. Make sure you weigh the pros and cons of available e-learning models to decide which strategy is right for your organization.

Regardless of which model you choose, e-learning is a rapidly growing and improving field that can have an immense impact on your organization. From gamification to social collaboration and mobile apps, e-learning is the future of workplace education. This isn’t a passing trend, so the quicker companies get onboard, the better.

At Careerminds, our goal is to foster both individual and organizational growth, ensuring that everyone in your company can achieve their goals. We utilize a variety of virtual and online learning methods to make our industry-leading outplacement and career coaching services as accessible and impactful as possible.

If you’re interested in learning more, click below to connect with one of our experts and see if Careerminds is the right fit for your organization. 

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Rebecca Ahn

Rebecca is a writer, editor, and business consultant with over 10 years of experience launching, managing, and coaching small to midsize companies on their business, marketing, and HR operations. She is a passionate people advocate who believes in building strong people, teams, and companies with empowering culture, content, and communication that facilitates meaningful results at every level and touchpoint. In her spare time, Rebecca is an avid traveler and nomad who also enjoys writing about travel safety and savvy. Learn more on her LinkedIn page.