The Business Case For ELearning [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Cost-Effective Business Model

Through an outsourced approach to content creation, the University of Toyota keeps its content library current and relevant at a fraction of what it might have cost for the company itself to create it. It places the responsibility of investing in content with an expert external organization instead of internally with Toyota. The university has a relationship with ElementK for an e-training curriculum that features access to more than 700 IT technical and desktop applications serving 4500 registered learners through elementk.com on topics ranging from personal computing to web design. According to Tymer, the response to an outsourced e-training curriculum has been "phenomenal."

An outsourced content library has also strengthened the just-in-time proposition that is critical to the university's offerings. Tymer recalls a situation in which a manager was to present his graphs and charts on Microsoft Projecta tool with which he and his team were not familiar withat a meeting the next day. By enrolling in a self-paced e-Learning course that same day, the manager and his team quickly acquired the skills to convert the presentation. The support was timely, accessible, and relevant for the team. Through anytime-anyplace access to learning, a potential showstopper was averted, and the presentation proceeded without a hitch.

As an evaluation metric, Toyota uses a return-on-expectations assessment to determine the cost-effectiveness and cost-efficiency of its performance-improvement efforts. By gathering feedback from customer departments, the University of Toyota determines how its role affects productivity among other organizations. This form of evaluation provides input for analysis of learning and development programs.