The ELearning Fieldbook [Electronic resources] : Implementation Lessons and Case Studies from Companies that are Making eLearning Work نسخه متنی

Figure 5-2). Once functional requirements and content composition have been finalized, prioritized technological components and capabilities should be identified and mapped against content and process strategy.

There are a number of different options for supporting various technology infrastructure components:

Internally hosted solution

Externally hosted solution or Application Service Provider (ASP) model

Combination of internal and external hosted solutions

Internally Hosted Solution

Figure 5-6 depicts an internally hosted model. By interfacing with the HR system employee information is given for single sign-on to systems, as well as data on geographies and job roles. The LMS houses the content and provides a single access point for end users. It also tracks and records their learning progress.

Figure 5-6: e-Learning Technology Infrastructure Solution for an Internally Hosted Model

Benefits of the internally hosted e-learning model include:

Direct control over timelines for upgrades and changes to the system

Ensured confidentiality of information and security of content

Single point of contact with vendors

Global changes to the provider's site do not impact your system or users

Consistent quality assurance procedures for all system components

Avoids lengthy build processes and longer response time to problems

Avoids reliance on vendor performance, which may be inconsistent and/or subject to vendor financial/environmental issues, particularly for shorter term contracts

Some benefits of outsourcing versus a totally internally hosted solution include:

Outsourcing to a vendor allows the company to concentrate on core business activities and frees up resources to respond faster to other market opportunities.

Outsourcing to a vendor can be beneficial when qualified resources are not available in house or internal staff is unable to meet deadlines.

Outsourcing to a vendor can ensure access to new skills and the latest technologies without having to go through an extensive and expensive hiring or retooling process.

Many vendors have significant best practices and experiences in these areas, from which most organizations would benefit.

A better ROI is possible by shortening the overall project lifecycle.

Externally Hosted Solutions (ASP Model)

If you do not currently have an extensive learning infrastructure in place, you may want to consider a vendor-hosted solution that provides immediate access to an online technology platform and/or learning content repository. You may choose to outsource individual functions and features to an external provider; or you may choose to outsource the entire architecture.

Application Service Providers (ASPs) are becoming more popular if you need to offer significant e-learning capabilities in a relatively short time-frame. These are third-party entities that manage and distribute software-based services and solutions to customers across a wide-area network from a central data center.

Benefits of an externally hosted solution include:

Faster implementation timelines, as most vendors have prescribed, well-tested infrastructure capabilities

Less reliance on internal resources to implement and support the final solution; outsourcing allows the enterprise to increase their development capacity and offer newer products and services without increasing the in-house staff

Outsourced solutions may actually provide a higher level of control over operating costs. Most typical vendor agreements clearly spell out expenses, removing the guesswork when it comes to expenses.

Internal learning teams can benefit significantly from working with experienced vendor team; through this learning process, internal resources will gain proficiency, and may be capable of absorbing additional roles and responsibilities over time

However, there are also challenges posed by this approach, including:

Changes to the global external site may impact your internal technology environment.

If the vendor technology is down, you are down.

The vendor drives the timelines for changes.

You must rely on the vendor's support structure.

The vendor may not grow in a direction compatible with your business.

Combination of Internally and Externally Hosted Solution

Perhaps the optimal, and most acceptable, solution for most organizations is to adopt a blended approach to technology implementation. With a blended solution, part of the technology infrastructure (specific functions) will be hosted internally and others will be provided externally. A few examples of this strategy might include:

LMS and content externally created and hosted, but HRIS functionality internally hosted

Content internally developed and created, but hosted on external vendor servers

Some content internally developed, other provided by vendors, some hosted on internal servers, and other hosted externally

There are a myriad of possibilities here. In reality, the crux of the challenge here is to identify those functions and capabilities that you have the capability of doing well, and to outsource those that you do not. One example of such a strategy is shown in Figure 5-7.

Figure 5-7: Combination of Internally- and Externally-Hosted Infrastructure Components

The benefits of this blended solution include:

It allows access to a wide variety of courseware.

The vendor tracks progress for you.

Automatic progress and catalog feeds can be established.

Integration is not necessary, which reduces development and support time.

However, there are challenges, such as:

Sufficient staff time must be dedicated to managing the vendors.

Any integration with feeds must be monitored for failure as well as maintained.

You are reliant on the vendor, and the work is according to their timeline.