eLearning: Resource Savings

Doing without a limited quota is one of its major appeals

Diana Lucía Salas Viquez
El Financiero

Training through eLearning can be defined as an innovative alternative to current training techniques.

Based on this teaching methodology, students have virtual alternatives that are intended to offer flexibility to the learning process.

Therefore, the use of Internet, Intranet, interactive television, or simply a CD-ROM can be part of e-Learning.

One of the immediate advantages is that students do not have a fixed schedule and can have access to information at any time.

Eric Taylor, Aura Interactiva Project Manager, thinks that eLearning has revolutionized company training approaches since it reduces costs exponentially.

Compared to a conventional training process that requires moving personnel and instructors and serving coffee and snacks, eLearning trains a larger number of people in less time.

Another advantage is that trainees are provided with standard information that will not be altered by external factors such as infrastructure, the weather, the mood, etc.

Schedule flexibility is also translated into company time and resource savings since students can have access to courses during their free time or after business hours.

Taylor asserted that through e-Learning, there is a simpler follow-up on information provided to students since it is taken from a central server based on a course manager that records student progress and grades.

Savings vis à vis individuality

The eLearning methodology does not substitute human beings or instructors by 100%.

This means that students will be deprived of the experiences resulting from sharing knowledge with other classmates or listening to other people’s doubts.

However, this teaching method offers a combined model that includes instructor assistance.

In this module, a virtual classroom is created and there is access to instructors through chat rooms, document delivery, and forums to answer questions and expand information.

There are also evaluations and additional tests.

There is another kind of eLearning, that is, the “pure” approach in which students take the course without instructor assistance.

This model does not have evaluations since it only exposes students to a topic.

In the process of e-Learning there is no topic limit; however, there are some courses that due to their nature and the need for making recommendations and exchanging doubts and instructions, eLearning is rather an obstacle. Some of these courses include driving lessons or cash register management.