E-learning proponents have alternatively claimed that the technology allows IT training to be less expensive or more effective than live training alternatives. The fact is that these claims have always been based on nothing more than wishful thinking. Objective studies show such claims to be outright myths. But for many, it’s difficult to separate the hype from the reality. The idea certainly sounds nice – learn anywhere at any time – however, the reality is that companies and individual students who choose e-learning as a training solution are elevating their risk of failure. This report provides detailed, fair, and balanced information that will enable you to objectively evaluate e-learning solutions.

Studies show that e-learning solutions require a much greater time commitment than classroom based alternatives and that student productivity upon return to the workplace suffers exponentially. The Thomson Job Impact Study, published in February 2002 by Thomson NETg, reports that students who participated in hands on training “performed with 30% more accuracy” and “performed real-world tasks 41% faster”
than those whose training was technology-based. In other words, e-learning produces employees who are slow and make a lot of mistakes.

E-learning companies advertise that their solutions are more cost-effective than hands on, classroom-based training. A startling number of companies who have spent money on these solutions disagree with these claims. A 2003 study conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found, “half the companies questioned felt that the technology had been over-hyped, with a similar number saying that there was the potential to waste a lot of money.”

Of all the stated benefits of e-learning, one of the most consistently hyped has been its potential for high personalization. Adult learning expert Stephanie Burns, who has studied online learning since the 1980s, states in an 2001 interview with Financial Review, “People are bored out of their brains and the interactivity provided by online mentoring, online seminars and chat rooms does not address the problem of getting people motivated to stay online to learn.” Students turned to e-learning, in part, because they wanted a customized experience. They didn’t want to be another face in the crowd as they might have been in a college lecture hall. And, unfortunately, they haven’t gotten what they were looking for.