e-Learning

Learning solutions in the context of an enterprise portal can be separated into two categories: learning/ training management systems and integrated e-learning.

Online learning projects are commonly initiated by training organizations within a line of business (such as a sales training group), or by a centralized training division within the human resources organization. These solutions can often be described as:

• Custom applications with embedded "point" solutions that have been purchased and potentially customized as well.
• Having courseware developed for self-paced training that can be launched from the learning system, although access and end-user ease-of-use tend to create practical limitations.
• Poorly or only partially integrated with other internal systems, the corporation's ERP, and related processes
• Often focused on logistics, although training administrators find these systems difficult to use as the lack of integration makes their use inefficient
• Slow to adopt self-paced courseware via the system, with significant dollars still being spent on offline training materials and delivery
• If integration with the portal exists today (which is not likely), having low-level functionality via a link from the portal platform.

Integrated e-learning describes a new breed of contextually relevant learning solutions that deliver "just-in-time" knowledge to a wide range of user constituents. e-Learning at this level:

• Is intricately tied to a job function, work process, or user goal and is delivered as an integral part of the overall portal such that the user may or may not even be aware that learning is taking place
• Puts the user more in control than the system. Learning is achieved through an interactive dialogue between the system and the user. The portal is designed to account for what the user needs to know at each step in a process and to provide contextually meaningful assistance.
• Allows users to navigate through the portal while performing their job, and provides necessary learning is built into the experience as they get their job done. This informal, just-in-time learning is designed to more closely link learning with real work.

As portal projects have migrated over the past 12 to 18 months toward process-centric portals (i.e., portals that are designed to mirror the work activities of users) this emerging trend of embedded learning, following a process-centric approach, makes sense. It is, essentially, an elaboration of the process portal model. And, as we move from process portals to include more intelligent accommodations, we call these emerging environments Intelligent Portals.

The business case for integrated e-learning is more readily realized when the business processes are complex, when they serve a broad constituency of users, and when the users' knowledge and expertise, if improved, would net significant advantage to the business. Integrated e-learning applies to any user-centric system in which the value of a user's decisions directly affects the outcome of the process.

It is easy to get excited about integrated e-learning and the possibilities of using an Intelligent Portal to couple "access and action" with "accommodation and awareness."

Find out more about how LDS makes e-learning work.