E-learning is taking a rapidly growing piece of the overall training pie. Those companies that reported improvements in performance between 1997 and 1998 tended to report a higher level of spending on training, measured as a percent of payroll and on a per eligible employee basis. Higher performing companies also provided training to a higher percentage of their employees when compared across benchmarked companies. While the business applications of e-learning as a training tool gains strength and momentum, obstacles present themselves around each corner. Learners want streaming audio and video, interactive and responsive lessons and high-speed transfer of information.
Nothing kills an e-learning course more quickly than slow loading time of pages.
Bandwidth has been an obstacle and continues to prove a source for tension between training departments and industry technology departments. Finally, some learners exhibit a reticence to sign up for online learning over classroom training. At IBM, they commissioned Harvard University to study learner preferences for a management development curriculum. Learners said they preferred classroom training. But once they completed a course, the preference switched to e-learning.