The Business Case For ELearning [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Where Do We Go from Here?

As Cisco went through these seven years of experimentation and a variety of implementations, results, and reporting, it became obvious that organizational impact needed to be broader than any one group or department could create. The individual group successes were a definite sign that larger, integrated successes were possible.

So, John Chambers suggested an initiative called Cisco University be undertaken to assure that this company developed its employees in better, more creative, and more effective ways. He asked that Cisco University (CU) become the place where "employees train for excellence in their current job, but develop and prepare for jobs they will have in the future."

That means that CU would need to offer learning opportunities beyond traditional training, and beyond the common e-learning offerings.

Because Mr. Chambers is the CEO of Cisco Systems, the initiative known as CU was created, funded, and launched in spring of 2004.

CU is formulated around the concepts of Education, Exposure, and Experience. It will ensure that people have or develop the skills and knowledge to perform their current job in an exemplary manner, exposure within Cisco's broad leadership community to see or be offered other career opportunities, and experiences that prepare employees for broad, long-lasting success in their career at Cisco.

We are building this capability because of the strategic importance of people to this and any company or institution. Cisco is using E and other learning/ teaching media because of the incredible success of the network deployment content: quick, efficient, and consistently to large, dispersed audiences.

The strategic impact of e-learning demonstrated in the business cases sited in this book (and so many more cases that could not be included) support all the early adopters and experimenters in e-learning. The continued improvement in the tools that enable us to share knowledge, teach skills, and then test and validate our confidence in the competence of employees are clear evidence that e-learning will become a larger and larger part of the public and private sector's education/training/learning implementations.

However, e-learning will never eliminate the need for people who are skilled in teaching and communicating. That is not the point, or the intent.

E-based learning simply shifts the priority in the learning process from the instructor's availability to the learner's control. The learner decides how and when to engage an instructor, a mentor, or a coach, and when to learn from a book, a video, a simulation, or a game. The learner decides when during the day or night, and where to employ those wide range of choices. The learner chooses which way works best at that moment and at which location.

That control and flexibility allows us to learn when we are most motivated and most interested. It allows more control of our present schedules, our future, our career, and our lives. And it allows companies and institutions to make learning a part of their strategic advantage in the marketplace, a key retention tool, and a tactical solution to the need to develop talent within the ranks of their employees.

E-learning works, and the successes of the past seven years (only partially documented here) will drive greater experimentation, more creativity, and even more human and business success over the next seven years.

Combining the Internet and education eliminates the barriers that stand between people wanting a different life and the future they dream about.

Combining the passions of employees and the goals of a company increases the success both experience.