Challenges and Strategies for Sustaining eLearning in Small Organizations

Abstract

The fact that small organizations have been slow to adopt elearning is not because of a lack of need – in fact elearning offers tremendous benefits for small organizations in the form of time savings, captured expertise, improved workflow and improved staff development – but rather because small organizations tend not to have the right components and working atmosphere in place that allow for the adoption of elearning. There are three main ingredients that will enable this to occur for even the smallest of organizations: a learning culture, a web savvy staff, and the presence of at least one good training professional. Economies of scale that often help justify elearning for larger corporations are not applicable for small organizations, therefore managers must therefore take a closer look at how elearning can solve multiple problems faced by the small, busy staff. By integrating elearning into an organization’s strategic plan, and by combining e-learning with a knowledge management system, a virtual network, education partnerships, or other tools and strategies, smaller organizations can improve office efficiency and program effectiveness on a sustained basis with elearning.