The following article was published in Training Technology & Human Resources [May/June 2002].

Measuring the results of e-learning

‘All too often I am shown technologically superlative solutions only to ask ‘what business benefits does this really bring?’  Being able to answer this question is one of the hardest things to do, yet one of the most fundamental in the long term.  Let’s look at how you can measure the results of e-learning in your organisation.

There are a number of models available that provide guidance on the best way to measure the results of an e-learning intervention.  Whilst each of these has its own merits depending on the situation, there are three areas which should always be measured:  These are:

• learner satisfaction

• impact on the business problem

• return on investment

Let’s look at each of these in turn.

Learner Satisfaction

This is often referred to as the ‘how was it for you?’ question!  Whatever e-learning you provide, you should always ask the learners for their reactions.  Include questions about the style, content, pace and quality of the learning.  Whilst long questionnaires do provide excellent feedback, it’s always worth keeping your questionnaire short and to the point.  Use a scoring system for questions as opposed to getting the learner to write in answers – it’s quicker and much easier to analyse.  Measuring learner satisfaction can also provide useful feedback about navigational and usability issues.

Impact On The Business Problem

Whenever you undertake e-learning you will be attempting to address a particular business problem and therefore it’s imperative to know whether there has been any improvement.  If you are trying to increase the sales of a particular product, it’s not enough to know that sales have increased; you’ll also need to know by how much.  You will also need information regarding other issues which could have influenced sales such as a change in price, marketing, competitor activity, weather etc., as the effects of each of these will need to be isolated from the overall results you achieved.

Return On Investment

Tackling the business problem is great, however organisations will ask – ‘what was the price we had to pay to gain those results?’  A straightforward method for achieving this is to look at all the costs, savings and benefits as a result of making and running the e-learning intervention.

Costs would include such items as:

• producing the e-learning programme

• time spent by internal experts in developing the programme

• time spent by learners to study the programme

• learner support

Savings [when compared to conventional training] would include:

• reduction in travel and hotel costs compared to other training methods

• reduction in trainer fees

• reduction in time taken to study the programme

• reduced time away from the office

Benefits would include:

• faster training of target audience

• ability to train large numbers at once

• consistency of training

• beneficial impact to the business problem e.g. increased sales, lower rejection rates

In summary, e-learning can offer substantial cost savings over traditional training methods.  You should continually measure results as businesses don’t mind investing money as long as they can see a clear return on their investment.’