With the rise of new technologies that have made learning-on-the-go far simpler, eLearning solutions have begun to overtake the preference for traditional learning models. Simple, streamlined and often tailored towards the user, there are several benefits of eLearning that easily explain its prominent rise in popularity, but there are also some drawbacks that need to be addressed for the betterment of the sector.
As a specialist learning and development recruitment agency, we’re well informed to bring you this blog all about the pros and cons of online learning. With years of experience matching companies in the medical sector, technology industry and beyond with professionals in the eLearning space, at Instinct Resourcing, we can help you to elevate your digital learning offerings and streamline your onboarding process.
Interested? Contact us now to see how we can help you. Or, if you want to first weigh up how eLearning solutions could benefit your company, find out more below.
The Benefits of eLearning Solutions
The global rise in eLearning solutions has seen the industry swell in value, with the market expected to reach $457.8 billion by 2026. This surge in interest hasn’t appeared without reason either, with eLearning providing businesses with a simple way for them to provide essential training to new and existing employees without pumping money into traditional resources. But, this isn’t the only advantage of eLearning, with the following benefits also tempting an increasing number of companies to invest their money in the solution.
Flexible & Convenient
In the busy modern world where time is precious, perhaps the biggest advantage of eLearning solutions is the time they save businesses and employees. Traditional learning models meant a business putting on a physical training session at a certain time and place, which employees would be expected to attend. Yet, digital learning does away with the need for this, giving users the flexibility to learn anytime and anywhere, as long as they have access to the internet.
This change from the norm provides a convenient alternative for users, allowing them the opportunity to plan their learning time around their private lives. Giving the user a choice of when and where they choose to learn makes them more engaged, particularly if the digital content they’re absorbed by is delivered using one of the technological innovations your business should be using to get ahead.
Removing the time and money needed to travel to a physical training session, by adopting an eLearning solution, you’re also working to create a more satisfying experience for the user. A robust digital learning experience has been found to take 40% to 60% less employee time than traditional learning, meaning that you can onboard new employees or upskill existing ones far quicker.
Personalised Learning Experience
Traditionally, professional training has been led by a learning expert teacher to a large group of employees. But, thanks to the size of the learning group, the content of these sessions is generalised, no matter what sector of the organisation you might be working in. This can lead to inefficient sessions that don’t give employees the scope of knowledge that they need, while others may benefit disproportionately.
Meanwhile, the right eLearning course can speak directly to the user and their role, being personalised to upskill their strengths and improve their weaknesses. Not every eLearning model will provide personalised learning, but the potential for a digital learning platform to achieve this provides a significant advantage over traditional learning that would be expensive and time-consuming to tailor to each employee.
A personalised learning experience can be delivered in the following ways:
- Pre-tests that identify skill gaps and tailor future learning depending on your results.
- Branching scenarios that create an interactive learning experience for users and allow the eLearning solution to tailor its session to the user’s answers.
- AI is the future of eLearning and can be used to adjust content difficulty in real-time based on a user’s performance.
Self-paced Learning
The advantage of self-paced learning is a product of the flexibility that new methods of training offer. Traditionally, a teacher in a work-based learning environment would go at one general pace, often having little time to re-address complex topics that a student may not have fully understood the first time around. The self-paced nature of eLearning solutions eradicates this issue.
One of the great benefits of eLearning is that lessons can be completed as fast or as slowly as you think is appropriate. Need a refresher on a topic you’re already familiar with? Work through it quickly to give yourself more time to focus on the lessons that matter the most to you. Don’t understand a particular topic? No sweat, take your time and use extra resources to make sure you fully understand before moving on.
According to LinkedIn Learning, 58% of employees prefer to train at their own pace, with this personalised way of working having several benefits for new and existing employees.
Cost-effective
So far, we’ve focused on the user-focused advantages of eLearning, but there are multiple benefits to the organisations providing the courses, too. One of the most prominent advantages for financially savvy businesses is the opportunity to save considerable amounts of money by switching to a digital learning solution.
Dropping the costs of hiring a room, a learning expert and all the necessary physical resources, businesses can save money by pivoting away from traditional solutions to a robust digital platform. But these aren’t the only ways businesses can save money, with eLearning solutions providing these additional benefits:
- Reduced employee downtime: Get your workforce back to doing those tasks that matter by giving them an eLearning solution that allows them to train at their own pace.
- Scalable: Easily update content in line with new expectations or policies, providing lifelong and continuous learning opportunities for employees.
- Reduced Staff Turnover: 94% of employees say that they would stay at a business for longer if it focused on their professional development. If a company invests in employee upskilling, it can create a more engaged workforce, preventing the need for constant, costly rehiring.
Access to a Variety of Resources
One of the greatest benefits of eLearning in comparison to traditional teaching, in which you’re often sitting down and presented with a slideshow, is the fact that you can access a wide variety of resources and alternative learning methods that complement your learning. Thanks to the global reach of online courses, you can often access relevant videos, online discussions and opinions from leading experts at the touch of a button.
In addition, these resources often provide students with an entirely new way of learning, whether they’re taking part in gamified exercises, interactive simulations or quizzes that provide real-time feedback. Learning experts in the medical sector may even provide a form of virtual reality (VR) training to supplement other traditional training so that students can experience what a practical scenario might be like.
Looking for an NHS recruitment agency where you can find expert eLearning professionals? At Instinct Resourcing, we can help. Simply contact us for more information.
The Disadvantages of eLearning Courses
But just because eLearning is the latest innovation in the educational field doesn’t mean that it’s the only way that employees can be onboarded and upskilled. There are, indeed, advantages to the traditional face-to-face learning model that organisations risk losing if they opt for eLearning solutions. Many of the disadvantages of eLearning revolve around this loss of direct contact with a teacher.
Inauthentic Learning
When a student is not working face-to-face with a teacher or course leader, there’s no knowing who could be completing the work or what tools are being used to create inauthentic test results. Though it may not occur in every sector, some individuals might disengage from the course yet pass it nonetheless, leading to a workforce with artificially inflated skills.
As the efficiency of AI models improves exponentially, this issue will only become worse, with learners often turning to generative AI sources to find comprehensive answers to complex questions. This leads to inauthentic learning and an ineffective training solution that turns more into a tick-box exercise rather than a genuinely transformative process that leads to further success.
Companies can avoid inauthentic learning in a range of ways. To avoid the cost of a bad hire and an employee who arrives without the skills they claimed to have, partner with a specialist eLearning recruitment company like Instinct Resourcing. We’ll meticulously screen candidates searching for eLearning jobs at your company and make sure only the ones with demonstrable digital skills make it through to the interview stage.
Loss of Physical Collaboration and Community
As the world becomes increasingly connected by a network of devices, many feel that they are more disconnected from life than ever before. Physical collaboration and the feeling of a genuine working community should be savoured, with these spaces often fostering the development of key personal and professional skills, building a robust and creative team who are ready for any challenge.
With only limited real-time discussion, your workforce could start to feel isolated, lacking the self-motivation to be proactive and creative. Moreover, one of the best ways that we can learn to progress in our careers is by working in close collaboration with those who are in a more senior position, yet digital screens can often act as a barrier to this collaborative process, preventing the development of significant progress.
If you want to invest in a digital learning platform but are concerned about the potential loss of collaboration that can come with choosing this process, consider opting for a different type of eLearning solution. For example, why not adopt the flexible blended learning approach that combines face-to-face training with digital solutions to provide a dynamic way of educating your employees?
Questionable Practical Application
How useful is an eLearning course when you’re working in a practical profession? Typical eLearning courses are knowledge-based and don’t require the user to take part in practical activity, meaning someone could miss out on crucial workshops or essential face-to-face sessions. Indeed, while quizzes and lessons can be helpful to boost your knowledge, sometimes they cannot compare to practical hands-on experience.
The clear solution to this issue is to adopt a different approach that incorporates both digital and practical learning. If you’re a business dealing in a largely practical space, consider these alternative eLearning solutions:
- Blended Learning: This involves both digital and face-to-face learning.
- Flipped Classroom: This form of blended learning flips the traditional classroom model, giving students online resources to study before a face-to-face seminar.
- Virtual Reality (VR) Learning: For practical scenarios that are expensive or high-risk to practice, VR learning can be an excellent solution.
Requires Mandatory Internet Access
No matter what type of eLearning solution you opt for, every one requires constant internet access and demands the user to have a basic level of digital skills. While this will suit a large proportion of your workforce, it may limit others from accessing training and, therefore, limit the diversity of your talent pool. In addition, while eLearning is often considered a flexible form of training, the demand for internet access may isolate users, making them unable to work on the go.
While you would expect those looking for digital instructional design jobs and LMS jobs to have internet access, circumstances could mean that this is not possible. This issue can be resolved by employing the training solutions explained in the previous section that incorporate digital learning into face-to-face sessions.
Security Concerns
Digital learning platforms are comprehensive, storing large amounts of personal information and sensitive academic data. While unlikely, there is always the security concern that this information could be accessed through cyberattacks or hacking. If you work in a sector that deals with particularly sensitive information, you may want to consider a digital learning model that prioritises face-to-face learning first and foremost.
That said, modern eLearning solutions are highly secure, and breaches remain rare, with the following preventative measures in place:
- Data Encryption: No matter which eLearning solution you choose, ensure that data is safely encrypted to prevent hacking.
- Encourage User Due Diligence: Enforce a policy of digital security, enforcing strong passwords or opting into multi-factor authentication.
- Regular Security Audits: Keep all software up to date and conduct regular security and vulnerability scans.
Eager to invest in an eLearning platform, but can’t find the professionals you need? At Instinct Resourcing, we can take on this task to effortlessly find you the professionals that you need. Working across multiple sectors to find a whole range of digital specialists, we can take care of your entire recruitment process, from screening the initial candidates all the way through to organising interviews.
Proud of the pace at which we work, we utilise our impressive talent pool to find you the perfect digital candidate from across the country, elevating your eLearning solutions with ease!
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