Blog Post
What are the benefits of elearning?
This post is written for the employer that is looking for an affordable and engaging way to train staff.
Perhaps you’re in the hospitality industry and you want to deliver basic food safety training to new starters. Or you work in social care and you want to put several staff through a Level 2 course in Dementia Awareness.
Elearning is a very viable alternative to traditional face-to-face training. Here six reasons why it could be the right choice:
- It is a super flexible way to learn. Your employee just needs a PC (or even a tablet), an internet connection and some time. Many employees prefer elearning because they work at their pace at a time that suits them. There is evidence that some quieter colleagues who may be hard to engage in a classroom environment do better when they work through a well designed elearning course.
- It’s inexpensive - in fact for some learners it can be free. There are nationally funded elearning courses available that lead to recognised qualifications that are free to learners who meet certain criteria. That Level 2 course in Dementia Awareness is free to employees who are over 19 and live in England. At the end - after 7 assessments - the employee gets a nationally accredited qualification.
- Many online courses are backed up with telephone or online support from real tutors. Even the free ones can come with online support. Assessments are submitted online, marked and the employee gets meaningful feedback.
- The quality of the learning experience can be very good. Modern elearning content makes good use of interactive quizzes (instant feedback), audio and video. There are well established elearning content companies with high production values. And the overall quality of the service is checked - elearning providers that deliver funded learning are inspected by Ofsted.
- The delivery technology - the learning management system - will give you an overview of your team’s training history and future needs. That has to be good. You get a better, more skilled and motivated workforce.
It’s worth remembering that face-to-face training is still valuable. It’s an opportunity to get staff out of a work environment and to give them time to reflect on how things are going. And it’s a chance for staff to collaborate together on learning activity. Create a blended approach - a training programme that brings together the best face-to-face learning with the best elearning.