Doom & Boom
Doom & Boom - 28 July 2008
Michael Hanley from 'The E-Learning Curve Blog' wrote an interesting piece on the prospects for e-learning during an economic downturn. He also noted that “The prevailing feeling seems to be one of optimism, and that this is in fact a time of opportunity for the industry.”
To back this view he quoted a number of industry experts and commentators in the US:
David Barton of Michelin North America agrees:
“For the first time in the 13 years that I have been working with technology enabled learning in North America, our global learning and development group is seriously exploring its use.”
Ankit Jain, G-Cube solutions writes:
“Lower revenues and lower profits for US corporations certainly means a cut in L&D spending. However, I have strong views that e-Learning in relative terms is likely to benefit from recessionary conditions as it is a proven cost friendly alternative to a traditional classroom. ... In my views the share of e-Learning hours will increase to over 40-50% from current 30% due to two factors - lowered base of number of training hours (as expected during recession) and increased share of e-Learning as such. ... [the] e-Learning industry in general has a great future irrespective of US recession.”
Brett Andersen of The Bank of America is not afraid to use capital letters:
“With financial cutbacks come greater restrictions, such as hiring freezes, significantly lower budgets, etc. And with less money and fewer resources, training and development employees have the challenging OPPORTUNITY to be more creative.”
The same feelings were echoed in the by UK Richard Naish. He estimates that in the current downturn the proportion of learning delivered as e-learning could increase from 20% “to around 30 per cent e-learning. So rather than worrying about how they will weather any downturn, the e-learning industry should be looking forward to growing revenues over the next two years.”
Of course none of these writers go on to suggest that in the next economic upturn, e-learning will nosedive as training budgets flow back into flying people around the world to stay in nice hotels so they can attend poorly designed residential courses. Once you go e-learning, you never look back. Good for everyone.