eLearning Communities: The Business Case
Astute business leaders recognize that to succeed in today's fast-changing information economy, they need to maximize the intellectual capital that exists within their organizations. Among their knowledge management efforts, they are looking for ways to facilitate the rapid and effective exchange of information, particularly between experts and novices. Additionally, many workers are dispersed geographically which leads to an increased need for means of communication that are not only efficient but also help reduce travel costs. To face these challenges, an organization's strategic plan for training should be an integral part of its knowledge management efforts.
Many organizations are considering ways to increase their use of technology to improve their training efforts, manage information flow, and positively impact the bottom line. Blended training strategies, which at their best integrate face-to-face meetings, self-paced courseware, databases of resources, and synchronous and asynchronous collaboration tools, are becoming the solutions of choice. By meeting the diverse needs of different learners, a blended solution can help ensure that what is learned during training is practiced on the job and results in improved performance. This requires more than a series of training events and media, however. It may require a formal process for creating and sustaining lines of communication among experts, novices, and peers. Thus, the formation and maintenance of eLearning Communities can help an organization meet its performance goals.
An eLearning Community is defined by its members' common purpose of learning over time and by their interaction primarily through electronic forms of communication via the Internet. The community members form a social infrastructure where their collective intelligence is shared to aid and support all members. Live events such as scheduled chats, virtual classes, and net meetings in addition to asynchronous tools such as discussion boards, e-mail, and listservs enable workers to easily share their unique experiences, insights, and best-case practices. While the technologies connect workers who may vary in levels of expertise and experience, the connections that are made and the information that is shared can also deepen learning and hasten the application of new knowledge on the job.
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