Why are leading companies turning to e-learning to drive business performance?
Better Retention
The Gartner Group has stated that the retention of e-learning is twice as high as that of traditional classroom instruction, at half the cost.
W.R. Hambrecht & Company reported, “Whereas the average content retention rate for an instructor-led class is only 58 percent, the more intensive e-Learning experience enhances the retention rate by 25 percent to 60 percent.”
IBM, after rolling out an e-learning program for managers, found that “participants learned nearly five times more material without increasing time spent training.” And a study of officers of the U.S. Navy who took a leadership training course over the Web found that retention of the material improved by 44 percent, despite their spending one-tenth of the time.
Several factors account for these surprising results:
It has been estimated that, in most learning environments, the speed with which individuals can progress through instruction varies by factors of three to seven. Since e-learners are able to proceed through courses at their own pace, they are apt to learn the material more thoroughly, and less likely to become bored. |
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The interactivity typical of high-quality e-learning tends to captivate the learner. One study found that in the traditional classroom environment, a student asks about .1 questions per hour. Studies have demonstrated that students in e-learning environments can interact with courseware via question and answer up to 120 times per hour. |
| According to the American Society for Trainers and Development (ASTD), “numerous studies have shown that workers learn faster with multimedia content; they more accurately recall what they learned over a longer period of time; and they are better able to transfer what they learned to actual performance.” |
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The high retention of small modules of e-learning information provided “just in time” in support of on-the-job activity is attributed its perceived higher relevance and “digestibility”, as compared to lengthier, traditional, “just-in-case” training. The Research Institute of America found that, over time, the retention of knowledge from classroom lectures dissipates, with only 15 percent of such knowledge being retained three weeks after the course. | |
