Answer Geek
QUESTION: How can I determine whether e-learning is right for my organization and the people in it?
You'll need to conduct a needs assessment, a type of evaluation. It will help you estimate how many people need training. That in turn will determine the resources required--personnel, equipment, software, and other supplies--and the best delivery method.
A needs assessment doesn't have to be a large undertaking. To conduct a basic one, you simply need to research the answers to a few focused questions. About.com's primer on program needs assessments offers an excellent outline of such questions.
Once you determine that e-learning is the best solution for your needs, the next question you should ask is whether your organization is ready to implement it. A PowerPoint slide show from the University of California provides one example of a training needs assessment used in course planning. The article "An Assessment of Training Needs in the Use of Distance Education for Instruction" offers a scholarly presentation of a completed needs assessment, including recommendations for course implementation.
The final step in exploring e-learning is to assess the readiness of your organization's learners. One good resource, the U.S. Department of Energy's free Web user training needs assessment (WUTNA), covers nearly 60 types of readiness tasks in seven areas that include accessing and searching the Web, using multimedia, maintaining security, and performing browser maintenance.
Additional resources to assess learner and organizational readiness for e-learning include:
For more information on assessing e-learning readiness for your organization, see "Are You Ready for E-Learning" and "E-Learning Readiness Model."
Published: February 2001