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Online e- Learning Options
"If you are looking for one central source for your organization's learning needs, as well as one place to manage, track, create and deliver online learning, look no further than the new wave of learning portals on the market today."
Kevin Oakes
President, click2learn.com
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What Are They?
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Why Would You Want to Use Learning Portals?
What are they?
Learning Portals are a relatively new combination of words and meaning that can offer new options in online learning for both the learner and their organizations. The word "portal" itself offers the opening clue for this entry into the Land of Oz for training. It is a gateway to learning courses, information and specific knowledge pieces.
Ah, but in this new Land of Oz, is there indeed one master wizard cranking up and cranking out training courses, buzz words or the answers to all your online training needs? The answer is no, there are a handful of Learning Portal providers at this time with predictions of many more to come in the year 2000 and beyond.
Think of learning portals as a "one stop shop" for providing a wide variety of training courses and information. An example to start with is the concept provided a long time (several years is prehistoric in digital think) ago by Amazon.com. First there were books - if you wanted to shop for a book, any book, and the search engines made it very easy. And then, the ease of buying - 1 click and your purchase is on the way. And oh yes, if you wanted to be alerted to certain subjects that were of interest to you, a quick profile helped trigger an email to you when new books on that topic become available.
Now, take that thought and transfer it to a learning magic wand. Enter the learning portal world and decide what you want to learn - by topic, subject, course, knowledge or information. Wave that magic mouse clicker and presto, more times than none, you will find something you want or need to learn.
Why would you want to use learning portals?
Some reasons might be:
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Ease of locating training materials and trainers
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To save time in plowing through the millions of training catalogs
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To save money for your organization by having an online infrastructure already in place on the internet
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Quick access to many online courses
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A pay-as-you use financial arrangement - knowing the price per course and budgeting accordingly
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Ability to have the learning portal provider build you a customized portal on your internal intranet
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Centralize learning activities within your organization
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The ability to provide the learner with 24/7 access to experts for digital coaching, help in general and, a personalized development plan complete with a skills gap analysis
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To add the online dimension for lifelong learning
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To enhance the online learning experience with a community of learners communicating through chat rooms, bulletin boards, live chats
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Provide courses that can be used for certification
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Consistent training to geographically dispersed learners
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Provide online learning solutions at work or home or anywhere (boat, plane, train - wherever)
With all these potential benefits, this might be a no-brainer, at least to try it. Be certain that you look at the comparisons of different learning portal providers before you sign on the dotted line or click on the secure server "ok" box.
Courses offered are off-the shelf products designed by many different authors. Get a list of not only the developer/author/trainer produced products, but client references from the portal provider. Make a list of questions that you have in your mind, and ask them to users of the service. Also ask what, if any, downside they have experienced. In addition, be sure to ask them how often and how their product offerings are updated. With the speed of change, it is vital that you offer your learners the most up-to-date information.
Here's a web list of some of the current learning portal providers in addition to click2.learn.com:
I had the opportunity to meet Kevin Oakes from click2.learn.com recently.
I asked him if there was a comparison chart for evaluating learning
portal providers. There wasn't and he and his staff designed one for
me. What follows on the next page is the end product of our discussion.
Thanks Kevin.
These portals are so new that "lessons learned" are being created as you read this article. The playing field will fill up with new players in 2000. Don't get "e-numb" by wondering how to respond to all the learning portal advertising. ("e-numb"is a term recently used by Elliott Masie, President of The Masie Center ) (www.masie.com). Identify the needs of your workforce, segment out the online learning possibilities, and then see how the portals can possibly help you help your learners.
Imagine the possibilities of continuous access to online learning!
Karen Mantyla is the president of Quiet Power located in Washington, D.C. She is the co-author of Distance Learning: A Step-by-Step Guide for Trainers and the author of Interactive Distance Learning Exercises That Really Work! Contact her at kmantyla@quietpower.com.