Learning Pool at ScotWeb2 2009 on Collaborative Learning and Saving Money

What are the tangible benefits of online learning? Show me the money!

According to Paul, local authorities and organizations have been throwing money away for years on face-to-face training and they don’t care because when it comes down to evaluation they only care about 3 things…

1. Was lunch any good?
2. Could I get parking?
3. Was there a good crack around the break?

But when it comes to online training, we start to evaluate the tangible benefits i.e.

1. Did we save any money?
2. Were there tangible benefits to the organization and how long did it last for?
3. Did services improve?
4. Are we spending less money?

….the thing with face-to-face training is the more people we train, the more money it costs… but with e-learning its different, you spend alot of money upfront but you save alot of money in the long run. So if you want to double the number of people on training, you can save money by doing training online…

-Paul McElvaney

Paul McElvaney from Learning Pool on Collaborative Learning at ScotWeb2 from Liz Azyan on Vimeo.

Making sense of our learning

It was certainly a pleasure to see Paul McElvaney once again. I think I have now seen him 3 times at 3 separate events! It’s always such a delight to see a familiar face wherever I go. 🙂

Paul talked a lot about ‘Return on Investment’ (ROI) when it comes to training and how much money is or can be wasted.  And building upon the Public Sector Learning Conference, Paul outlines the difference between the evaluations of doing face-to-face and online training.  I completely agree that there is a vast difference between these two.  E-learning is definitely gaining more popularity within organizations and even I myself prefer this method of training.

A learning evaluation framework

Here is the industry-accepted Kirkpatrick/Phillips evaluation methodology that provides the framework for a world-class value measurement system. The following table describes the focus and the required actions at each level of measurement. So hopefully the same evaluation can be applied to e-learning as well.

The case studies

Paul did share some case studies that demonstrate the ROI impact of e-learning. If you flick through the slides, you’ll see those examples. But if you want to see a more detailed case study, have a look here on LearningPool’s website.

Paul did have share with us a saying that I thought really holds true, which is…

Things that don’t quite make sense can be our most valuable tools.

David Wilson, Director of the Museum of Jurassic Technology

Click here for LearningPool’s case studies

Let’s look at the figures

1. Bournemouth – Trafford Collaboration (Fraud Awareness Training) conducted in days not months and £1,000s saved.
2. Blaenau Gwent CBC (Recruitment and Selection & IT Policy) saved over £50,000 annually since they’ve changed to e-learning and the training manager was not replaced.
3. Rotherham MBC (Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults) saved £35,000 annually and delivered 478 hours of training to 1,500 officers in just 3 months.
4. A mandated IT Security training repurposed by 50 councils for free. It would have cost £85 per person in a classroom vs £1 -£3 online.
5. South Gloucestershire (Training for elected members) where there was a 40% turnover at election time and all councillors were trained within 2 weeks and there was 50% less complaints to the standards board.