Answer Geek
QUESTION: How can I find the best e-learning apps and services out there? There are just so many popping up!
Although there are many products and services out there, many of them will not fit your organization's needs. The first step is to educate yourself and anyone else involved about your organization's requirements. An internal needs assessment can help you answer these important questions:
- Who is our audience?
- What type of learning will they be doing?
- What are their capabilities?
- What is our budget?
- Who in our organization can help develop this product?
From this information you can further determine whether you will be buying a product to develop the training yourself, or whether the development will need to be done outside your organization. A good site for the basics on needs assessment is at http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~rouda/T2_NA.html. Another choice is to hire a consultant to determine your needs and recommend a solution.
If you decide not to opt for a consultant, the search for the product or service begins. Some Websites that have e-learning information, recommendations, or examples are:
Also, do some research on what other organizations in your field of work are doing and what they're using. This might give you some more options.
After you find a few products or companies that fit your needs, contact the appropriate people to get more information and even a demonstration. Or send out a request for proposal (RFP) to each company. Set up a chart to measure each "contestant" equally (like a Likert scale, for example) and decide based on your results.
Published: September 2000