There is no doubt that online training and elearning has made a profound impression upon HRD and is here to stay. One of the key reasons underpinning elearning success is that both the Chief Executive and the Training Manager realize the difficulties, and the time and the cost, associated with collecting a group of people together for a traditional modularised management or personal skills development programme. What is also apparent is the difficulty in establishing the training needs of people and evaluating what they have learnt and more importantly the extent of learning retention and its application.

Online training and elearning most represent one of the biggest benefits to human civilisation since the Internet itself was created. However introducing elearning is itself not without its problems.

The first problem associated with introducing elearning for most organisations is that the elearning process is not well understood. Also what is not realized is that elearning, like any new initiative, involves radical changes to management thinking, skills, systems, processes, etc., with consequences cascading throughout the organisation.

This elearning article is aimed at helping those organisations who are considering introducing an elearning system (hopefully the HRD South Africa training management and elearning system). Why? Because although we will value your business, experience has taught us to avoid going headlong into an elearning implementation without first considering with our customer what their elearning requirements are, what the learning culture and supporting HRD systems are, and therefore what the implementation of elearning might involve. Only then can we hope to implement an effective elearning solution for your organisation and its people.

Whilst mistakes in implementing elearning have been made we can all learn from this experience. I am sure that with the right attitude, careful planning, effective elearning procedures and a qualified elearning support environment we can work together to ensure that your elearning implementation will be a resounding success.

Mistake 1 - Lack of elearning preparation
Mistake 2 - Failing to understand the elearning medium
Mistake 3 - Failing to link elearning with Business needs
Mistake 4 - Unrealistic Expectations
Mistake 5 - Failing to understand Learners elearning requirements
Mistake 6 - Failing to invest in people
Mistake 7 - Failing to follow up elearning
Mistake 8 - Failing to integrate elearning with existing learning and administrative systems