Towards Maturity

Towards maturity 

Looking at the impact of e-learning in the workplace March 2007 

Facts and Figures

Towards Maturity: Facts and Figures 

This is one of a suite of “Towards Maturity” publications to report on a comprehensive survey of 

over 200 employers and 1000 of their learners conducted online and through interview during 

autumn 2006. 

Full details of this research are published in the Towards Maturity suite of reports: 

Towards Maturity: Summary report (published 31 January 2007) 

Towards Maturity: Insights for employers and training providers (published 5 February 2007) 

Towards Maturity: Implications for policy-makers 

Towards Maturity: Facts and Figures (published March 2007). This report provides the detail 

on which the other 2 documents build and does not include an executive summary. 

The full reports and further information regarding the research findings and implications can be 

found at www.e-skills.com/elearning/towardsmaturity 

Towards Maturity research team: 

• Laura Overton (author of ‘Linking learning to Business’ investigating e-learning 

success, commissioned by e-learning Age magazine, 2004) 

• Howard Hills (co- author of ‘Embedding e-learning in large organisations’, a 

study commissioned by UfI, 2004) 

• Dr Genny Dixon (e-skills UK work based e-learning Project Manager) 

This study is part of the Skills for Business Network work based e-learning project 

(based at e-skills UK) which is funded by the Learning and Skills Council to understand 

how technology assisted learning can support employer skills requirements. 

For further information please contact: 

e-skills UK 

1 Castle Lane 

London SW1E 6DR 

t: +44 (0)20 7963 8920 

f: +44 (0)20 7592 9138 

e: info@e-skills.com 

w: www.e-skills.com 

© Reserved, e-skills UK Ltd, 2007 

All rights reserved. No part of this material protected by this copyright may be reproduced or utilised in any form, or by any means, 

electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without prior 

authorisation. 

e-skills UK is a not-for profit, employer-led organisation, licensed by government as the Sector Skills Council for IT and Telecoms. e-skills 

UK has responsibility for improving business competitiveness and UK productivity, uniting employers, educators and government on a 

common employer-led agenda for action on skills. 

Part of the Skills for Business network of 25 employer-led Sector Skills Councils

Contents 

Contents 

1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 9 

1.1 Research methodology................................................................................................... 9 

1.2 Maturity ............................................................................................................................ 10 

2 Reasons for investing in e-learning...................................................... 13 

2.1 e-learning: the drivers and reasons for investment ................................................... 13 

2.2 Differences in drivers by maturity segments............................................................... 14 

2.3 The Business Case ........................................................................................................... 19 

2.4 Maturity and Business Impact....................................................................................... 19 

2.5 Stakeholder involvement and Business Impact......................................................... 21 

2.6 Stakeholder involvement as Users................................................................................ 22 

2.7 The relationship between training capability and business impact....................... 24 

2.8 Compliance and Business Impact............................................................................... 27 

2.9 Staff Impact..................................................................................................................... 28 

2.10 Staff Impact versus input dimensions .......................................................................... 29 

2.11 Maturity and staff impact ............................................................................................. 31 

2.12 Learners Perspective...................................................................................................... 33 

3 People and organisational capability................................................. 35 

3.1 Decision making ............................................................................................................. 35 

3.2 Who uses e-learning?..................................................................................................... 37 

3.3 Who influences learners? .............................................................................................. 40 

3.4 Roles trained by sector .................................................................................................. 45 

3.5 Source of funding ........................................................................................................... 47 

3.6 Sources of e-learning ..................................................................................................... 49 

3.7 Expectation clients have of vendors........................................................................... 51 

3.8 Characteristics of the marketplace ............................................................................ 51 

4 e-learning – technology, software and topics delivered .................. 53 

4.1 Topics covered ............................................................................................................... 53 

4.2 Topics learners are interested in................................................................................... 59 

4.3 Programmes offered...................................................................................................... 61 

4.4 Services provided to learners ....................................................................................... 66 

5 Take-up of Software Tools in support of e-learning............................ 69 

5.1 Technologies used to support e-learning ................................................................... 69 

5.2 Impact of maturity on the use of software tools ....................................................... 71 

5.3 Differences due to geography and size..................................................................... 74 

6 IT Capability ........................................................................................... 76 

6.1 Key differences observed with IT capability .............................................................. 76 

6.2 Influence on success...................................................................................................... 78 

6.3 Supporting learners ........................................................................................................ 80 

Towards Maturity: Insights for Employers and Training Providers| © 2007 e-skills UK 3

Contents 

7 Supporting learners ............................................................................... 83 

7.1 Difference in support provided by maturity segments............................................. 86 

7.2 Learning support and business impact ....................................................................... 88 

7.3 Learners’ view of support .............................................................................................. 89 

7.4 Technical support ........................................................................................................... 92 

8 Promoting and sustaining e-learning .................................................. 93 

8.1 Learners response to the communication methods................................................. 96 

8.2 Convenience of e-learning ........................................................................................ 100 

8.3 Who influences learners? ............................................................................................ 102 

8.4 Obtaining feedback .................................................................................................... 103 

8.5 Key actions that influence the success of e-learning............................................. 106 

9 Towards Maturity – The changing face of e-learning ...................... 109 

9.1 Informal learning and the views of learners ............................................................. 109 

9.2 Technologies supporting informal learning .............................................................. 111 

9.3 Learners’ willingness to contribute............................................................................. 113 

9.4 Informal methods and tools – the employers view ................................................. 115 

9.5 Spend on e-learning .................................................................................................... 118 

10 Comparison of Education Sector with Other Sectors ....................... 121 

10.1 Comparison of probability of drivers being selected ............................................. 123 

10.2 Sourcing and development of e-learning................................................................ 124 

10.3 Funding........................................................................................................................... 124 

10.4 Learner support............................................................................................................. 124 

10.5 Technologies used and considered .......................................................................... 126 

10.6 The future - do educational organisations have a different view?...................... 127 

11 The future of e-learning....................................................................... 129 

11.1 Challenges for e-learning............................................................................................ 131 

11.2 Geographic differences.............................................................................................. 133 

11.3 Progress since 2004....................................................................................................... 133 

11.4 Sources of advice......................................................................................................... 139 

12 Conclusions.......................................................................................... 141 

12.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 141 

12.2 Chapter 2 – Investment ............................................................................................... 141 

12.3 Chapter 3 - People and organisational capability................................................. 142 

12.4 Chapter 4 – E-learning – technology, software, and topics delivered................ 144 

12.5 Chapter 5 – Take-up of software tools in support of e-learning............................ 146 

12.6 Chapter 6 - IT capability .............................................................................................. 147 

12.7 Chapter 7 – Supporting learners ................................................................................ 148 

12.8 Chapter 8 – Promoting e-learning ............................................................................. 149 

12.9 Chapter 9 – the changing face of learning............................................................. 150 

12.10 Chapter 10 – Comparison of education sector with others .................................. 152 

12.11 Chapter 11 – the future of learning ........................................................................... 153 


Contents 

Index of Figures 

Figure 2.1 Financial impact of e-learning maturity................................................................. 19 

Figure 2.2 Maturity and alignment to the business................................................................. 20 

Figure 2.3 Who influences success in relation to business impact ....................................... 21 

Figure 2.4 Maturity versus influences......................................................................................... 22 

Figure 2.5 Business impact varies according to usage by different groups of staff.......... 23 

Figure 2.6 The learner perspective on business impact......................................................... 24 

Figure 2.7 Training function capability affects business impact........................................... 25 

Figure 2.8 Consolidation of learning reflected in improved business impact.................... 26 

Figure 2.9 Compliance and business impact.......................................................................... 27 

Figure 2.10 Factors related to staff impact.............................................................................. 28 

Figure 2.11 Staff impact versus input dimensions.................................................................... 30 

Figure 2.12 Change management influences staff impact of e-learning ......................... 31 

Figure 2.13 Staff impact versus maturity................................................................................... 32 

Figure 2.14 Employer view of staff impact............................................................................... 32 

Figure 2.15 Learner responses.................................................................................................... 33 

Figure 2.16 Staff impact and freedom of choice................................................................... 34 

Figure 3.1 Making e-learning investment decisions................................................................ 35 

Figure 3.2 Making decisions about e-learning ........................................................................ 36 

Figure 3.3 Making decisions about e-learning ........................................................................ 36 

Figure 3.4 Business impact of a strategy compared.............................................................. 37 

Figure 3.5 Effect on key dimensions when directors use e-learning .................................... 38 

Figure 3.6 Staff impact versus use by directors ....................................................................... 39 

Figure 3.7 Directors’ use of e-learning affects factors comprising take-up........................ 40 

Figure 3.8 Whose opinion encourages use of e-learning...................................................... 41 

Figure 3.9 Who encourages you to learn? .............................................................................. 44 

Figure 3.10 Percentage organisations by sector selecting role as user of e-learning ...... 47 

Figure 3.11 Where does e-learning spend come from?........................................................ 48 

Figure 3.12 How is e-learning sourced?.................................................................................... 49 

Figure 3.13 Source of supply of e-learning by maturity ......................................................... 50 

Figure 3.14 Important qualities organisations are looking for from their supplier .............. 51 

Figure 3.15 Percentage of suppliers selected by respondents ............................................ 52 

Figure 4.1 Range of topics offered by organisations ............................................................. 53 

Figure 4.2 Adoption patterns by topics as organisations become more mature ............. 58 

Figure 4.3 The range of topics studied by learners................................................................. 60 

Figure 4.4 Programmes offered by organisations................................................................... 61 


Contents 

Figure 4.5 Programmes offered with an e-learning component ......................................... 65 

Figure 4.6 Types of formal online services offered.................................................................. 66 

Figure 4.7 Formal online services offered changes with maturity ........................................ 67 

Figure 4.8 Types of informal online services offered............................................................... 68 

Figure 4.9 Use of informal techniques increases with maturity............................................. 68 

Figure 5.1 Current and planned use of learning technologies ............................................ 69 

Figure 5.2 Information and production tools........................................................................... 72 

Figure 5.3 Delivery tools – change of use by maturity ........................................................... 73 

Figure 5.4 Use of collaborative tools increases with maturity ............................................... 74 

Figure 5.5 Differences from average take-up of technologies by geography ................. 75 

Figure 6.1 Effect of IT capability on key dimensions............................................................... 76 

Figure 6.2 Key differences associated with IT capability....................................................... 77 

Figure 6.3 Variation in influence of roles with IT capability.................................................... 78 

Figure 6.4 IT capability affects where learning can be offered........................................... 79 

Figure 6.5 Learner support mechanisms change with IT capability .................................... 80 

Figure 6.6 Seeking feedback from learners............................................................................. 81 

Figure 6.7 Sourcing and managing production of e-learning.............................................. 81 

Figure 7.1 Study support provided to learners ........................................................................ 83 

Figure 7.2 Learner support – the learner perspective ............................................................ 84 

Figure 7.3 Learner support- what is most useful when it is available ................................... 85 

Figure 7.4 Number of different types of tutor support............................................................ 86 

Figure 7.5 Learner support compared by geographic characteristics .............................. 87 

Figure 7.6 Workplace learners support by maturity................................................................ 87 

Figure 7.7 Business impact increases when learning is consolidated.................................. 88 

Figure 7.8 Support received by employees............................................................................. 89 

Figure 7.9 Attributes valued by employees ............................................................................. 90 

Figure 7.10 Learners’ views by dimension ................................................................................ 90 

Figure 7.11 Relative importance of dimensions to learners by segment ............................ 91 

Figure 7.12 Provision of technical support to learners............................................................ 92 

Figure 8.1 Promotion of e-learning – what mature organisations do differently ............... 93 

Figure 8.2 Sustaining e-learning – what do mature organisations do differently .............. 94 

Figure 8.3 Sustaining interest in e-learning according to business impact ......................... 94 

Figure 8.4 Promoting and sustaining take-up – action to achieve take-up....................... 95 

Figure 8.5 Learner response to communications about e-learning .................................... 96 

Figure 8.6 Communication about e-learning – effect of age of learner............................ 97 

Figure 8.7 Communication about e-learning – effect of management responsibility..... 98 


Contents 

Figure 8.8 Communication about e-learning – effect of where learners work ................. 98 

Figure 8.9 Communication about e-learning – effect of when learning occurs............... 99 

Figure 8.10 Availability and access to learning .................................................................... 100 

Figure 8.11 Where is e-learning offered and where is it done?.......................................... 101 

Figure 8.12 Who encourages learning varies with work and learning location............... 102 

Figure 8.13. Who encourages learning varies with age and responsibility....................... 103 

Figure 8.14 Methods used to gather learner feedback ...................................................... 103 

Figure 8.15 Mature organisations gather more feedback from learners.......................... 104 

Figure 8.16 Business impact is enhanced by effective follow up....................................... 105 

Figure 8.17 Staff impact is enhanced by effective follow-up............................................. 105 

Figure 9.1 How learners are building their skills and knowledge ........................................ 109 

Figure 9.2 Technology supporting informal learning – learners’ views .............................. 111 

Figure 9.3 Discussion boards – which learners find them most useful?.............................. 112 

Figure 9.4 Willingness to use technology to help others learn (by responsibility) ............ 114 

Figure 9.5 Willingness to use technology to help others learn (by time/location) .......... 114 

Figure 9.6 Informal methods in supporting technologies .................................................... 115 

Figure 9.7 Informal services and supporting technologies by maturity............................. 116 

Figure 9.8 Use of informal techniques compared to staff impact of e-learning ............. 117 

Figure 9.9 Use of informal techniques compared to business impact of e-learning ...... 118 

Figure 9.10 e-learning budget plans vary with sector.......................................................... 119 

Figure 9.11 e-learning budget plans very with maturity ...................................................... 119 

Figure 9.12 Percentage of budget spent on e-learning...................................................... 120 

Figure 10.1 Differences in dimensions – education sector versus others........................... 121 

Figure 10.2 Drivers for e-learning ............................................................................................. 123 

Figure 10.3 Support provided to learners............................................................................... 125 

Figure 10.4 Help in consolidating learning............................................................................. 126 

Figure 10.5 Learning technologies in use ............................................................................... 126 

Figure 11.1 Predictions for the future of e-learning .............................................................. 129 

Figure 11.2 Predictions of e-learning futures by maturity..................................................... 130 

Figure 11.3 Barriers to e-learning in the next 3 years ............................................................ 131 

Figure 11.4 Barriers to e-learning over the next 3 years by business sector ...................... 132 

Figure 11.5 Propensity for organisations to report barriers................................................... 133 

Figure 11.6 Changes in managerial commitment and availability of e-learning ........... 137 

Figure 11.7 Changes in skills and IT capability....................................................................... 138 

Figure 11.8 Sources of advice used by respondents............................................................ 139 

Figure 11.9 What type of additional support would be helpful? ....................................... 140 


Contents 

Index of Tables 

Table 1.1 Defining e-learning maturity ..................................................................................... 10 

Table 1.2 Comparison of factual responses by maturity....................................................... 12 

Table 2.1 Drivers behind e-learning investment...................................................................... 13 

Table 2.2 Biggest benefits of e-learning perceived in 2004 by users (n=291)..................... 14 

Table 2.3 Comparison of frequency with which drivers are cited by maturity segments 15 

Table 2.4 Frequency of citing drivers compared by geographic circumstances ............ 16 

Table 2.5 Comparison of citing drivers by size of organisation............................................. 17 

Table 2.6 Comparison of frequency with which drivers are cited by sector ..................... 18 

Table 2.7 Who uses e-learning in your organisation?............................................................. 22 

Table 2.8 Consolidation of learning reflected in improved business impact..................... 26 

Table 3.1 Percentage of respondents agreeing with Staff Impact statements ................ 39 

Table 3.2 Percentage agreeing with take up statements .................................................... 40 

Table 3.3 Who encourages you to learn? ............................................................................... 41 

Table 3.4 Use of e-learning by directors ................................................................................... 44 

Table 3.5 Percentage of employers providing e-learning to this role ................................. 45 

Table 3.6 Percentage of organisations offering e-learning to specific roles...................... 46 

Table 3.7 Sources of funding by expenditure.......................................................................... 49 

Table 4.1 Likelihood of skills being delivered by e-learning .................................................. 54 

Table 4.2 Percentage of organisations offering skills by sector............................................ 55 

Table 4.3 Percentage in each sector who use e-learning for each skills area.................. 56 

Table 4.4 Respondents offering topics with an e-learning component ............................. 57 

Table 4.5 Provision and usage of e-learning programmes ................................................... 60 

Table 4.6 Work-based programmes offered ........................................................................... 62 

Table 4.7 Penetration of an e-learning component into work-based programmes ........ 63 

Table 4.8 Respondents offering skills with an e-learning component ................................. 64 

Table 4.9 Penetration of e-learning .......................................................................................... 65 

Table 5.1 Software tools used vary with maturity.................................................................... 71 

Table 8.1 Enhancing Business Impact..................................................................................... 106 

Table 8.2 Enhancing staff impact ........................................................................................... 107 

Table 8.3 Enhancing take-up of e-learning........................................................................... 108 

Table 10.1 Significant differences in self-perception ratings............................................... 122 

Table 10.2 Capability of the training function....................................................................... 127 

Table 11.1 Comparisons in e-learning implementation 2004-2007 .................................... 135 

For related case studies please visit www.e-skills.com/elearning. 


1 Introduction 


The Skills for Business Network commissioned a study during 2006 to research the uptake, 

demand and use of e-learning by employers and employees. Its purpose is to report on the 

current state of e-learning amongst knowledgeable users rather than across all work-based 

learning. The scope of the study is amongst users of e-learning to provide an up-to-date 

picture of the demand side to complement annual research programmes that understand 

the further education and work-based provider provision on the “supply side”. The aim of this 

report is to distil perceived wisdom on the implementation and engagement of e-learning by 

both employers and learners. We investigate the barriers and the drivers and the resulting 

business impact of e-learning and build on research conducted in 2004 and 2005. 

Specifically the “Linking Learning to Business” report and the “Embedded e-learning Report”, 

see footnotes. 

A further aim is to raise awareness within the potential user community, via the Sector Skills 

Councils Network and by other methods, on the potential benefits of e-learning and to 

provide guidance to that community on its successful implementation. The study is also 

required to guide policy and decision-makers on the future pattern for Government provision 

of work-based learning in general and e-learning specifically. The Skills for Business Network 

will look to use the findings to help them improve, influence and develop skills 

recommendations of behalf of employers. 

E-learning has been in place now for more than 6 years, and prior to that time various other 

forms of technology have been used to deliver learning. There should be a wealth of 

guidance and advice available from experienced and mature users of this technology. 

1.1 Research methodology 

Appendix A describes the approach to the research in more detail. An on-line survey was 

selected as being (1) rapid, (2) economical, (3) in line with the ethos of our research to 

investigate the exploitation of technology in the support of learning. However, the on-line 

element created a number of risks on the quality of the data, fully discussed in Appendix A. 

Likert scale 10-point questions were used extensively in both the employer and the employee 

survey. The purpose of using this collection method was to render the data suitable for factor 

analysis, specifically Principal Component Analysis, to group factors into dimensions and 

investigate the relationship between them. The definition of the dimensions arises from 

questions that were identified as related to each other and that were answered in a similar 

fashion by a wide range of respondents; no other meaning should be applied to the use of 

these terms in this report. The term factors is used to describe the answers to these questions. 

The analysis also focused on both social software and informal learning. The term social 

software is derived from the current discussions into what has been termed e-learning 2.0 (a 

term reported in the DTI Global Watch Mission report “Beyond e-Learning: practical insights 

from the USA” May 2006, citing an article by Stephen Downes the Senior Researcher at 

National Research Council Canada in October 2005. He described the applications and 

environments of Web 2.0 as supporting learning through sharing, communication, 

collaboration, syndication and social interaction. 



These changes are typified by current developments in the Internet, moving from content 

distribution to a much more collaborative phase. This allows the development of more 

learner centric applications for learning than has typically been available up till now. 

Examples of social software include wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, moderated and un-moderated 

chat rooms virtual classrooms and discussion boards. In collecting data about the use 

organisations are making of Web technology specific questions are included to investigate 

these developments and to find out whether they feature in the plans of organisations up to 

2010. The study has also asked specific questions around informal learning, including asking 

learners how else they learn. This included questions on such things as search portals and 

communities of practice. 

1.2 Maturity 

Maturity is a key concept that is used throughout the report to analyse the responses from 

the employer respondents. The division into maturity segments is done on the basis of the 

self-perception of respondents. They were asked to answer the following question ‘Which of 

the following statements do you think best describes your company’s knowledge of how to 

use ICT to manage and deliver learning?’ Table 1.1 lists the responses, together with the titles 

that have been adopted throughout the report and the number of respondents who 

selected that particular option. 

Table 1.1 Defining e-learning maturity 

Which of the following statements do you think best describes your company’s knowledge of 

how to use ICT to manage and deliver learning?. 

Title used in report Survey statement Number of 

respondents 

The Novice We know very little about e-learning 10 

The Sporadic user 

Use of e-learning is localised or sporadic (used in some 

departments or for some courses) 

The Developing user We are developing and coordinating our use of e- 

learning 

The Established user e-learning is established across the company and is 

transforming the way we manage our learning and 

development 

The Embedded user e-learning is thoroughly embedded within the company – 

we have a learning culture which influences our everyday 

work 

The Innovator 

We are thought leaders and innovators in the way in 

which we are using e-learning – prepared to experiment 

in new areas and with new technologies 

45 

75 

36 

11 

36 



An essential part of the initial analysis was to assess this segmentation to discover its validity. 

The results of this analysis demonstrate very clearly that those who perceive themselves to be 

more mature do a number of things differently (Table 1.2). 

A certain amount of care is required in this analysis because of the varying number of 

respondents. The 2 categories of novices and embedded attracted relatively few 

respondents. It is also clear, and is discussed further in Appendix B that the innovation 

segment attracted a number of respondents who are perhaps inappropriately placed. 

However, a number of trends emerge: 

> There is a greater probability that more mature organisations will have staff dedicated 

to the development, purchasing and commissioning of e-learning. The percentage 

rises from 30% of those who perceive themselves to be novices to 89% of those who 

perceive them innovators. 

> Generally speaking more mature users are more likely to cite a greater number of 

reasons behind their company’s investment in e-learning. For novices this is 

approximately 4 rising to 7.7 for embedded users. 

> More mature users employ e-learning in some shape or other in support of specific 

topics. On average novices will deploy e-learning for about 3 out of 18 topics. 

Embedded users will use e-learning for 10 out of these 18 topics. 

> More mature users will have a greater number of roles using e-learning, increasing from 

3.5 for novices to 6.6 for embedded users. Respondents were asked where they 

offered e-learning and again more mature users are likely to offer it in a greater variety 

of locations. 

> The same pattern appears with the various on-line learning services that are offered, 

although those who are less mature do offer a significant number; typically about 5 

different types of services for novices and sporadic users, rising to more than 8 for more 

mature users. 

> The average number of ICT and e-learning technologies that are currently being used 

rises from 2.2 for novices to 8.6 for embedded users. 

In addition to this analysis there are a significant number of other differences reported on 

that are based upon segmentation by this maturity question. 

The full employer and learner surveys are included in the Appendices. 



Table 1.2 Comparison of factual responses by maturity 

Survey 

Questions 

6) Do you have staff 

dedicated to the 

development, 

purchasing and 

commissioning of e- 

learning? 

10) What are the 

reasons behind your 

company’s 

investment in e- 

learning or the use of 

ICT to support 

learning in your 

organisation? 

11) Which of the 

following types of 

a) Key Skills 

b) Operational Skills 

c) General Skills 

training have 

employees in your 

organisation 

undertaken in the last 

12 months? 

13) Who is 

using e- 

learning in your 

organisation? 

(Please tick all 

that apply) 

14) Where do you 

offer e-learning? 

(Please tick all that 

apply) 

Which of the 

following 

15) formal 

16) informal 

on-line services 

do you offer? 

17) Which of the 

following types 

of ICT e-learning 

technologies are 

you using? 

Average 

responses 

to factual 

Questions 

Percentage of 

respondents who 

have dedicated e- 

learning teams 

Average total drivers 

cited by respondents 

Average number of 

topics for which e- 

learning is being 

used now. 

Average 

number of roles 

using e- 

learning 

Average number of 

types of locations in 

which e-learning is 

provided 

Average number 

of on-line learning 

services offered 

Average 

number of 

technologies 

used 

Novices 30% 4.10 2.33 3.50 1.83 5.00 2.20 

Sporadic 

Users 

Developin 

g Users 

Establishe 

d Users 

Embedde 

d users 

39% 3.95 3.31 3.49 2.20 4.71 3.79 

67% 4.91 5.26 4.61 2.87 5.59 4.28 

86% 5.36 9.00 6.63 3.50 6.87 5.16 

82% 7.73 10.50 6.67 3.33 8.67 8.67 

Innovators 89% 5.61 7.63 5.22 2.89 8.35 8.12 


2 Investing in e-learning 

2 Reasons for investing in e-learning 

Overview: This chapter investigates elements in the data that show a link with Business 

Impact and the reasons that lie behind employer’s investment in e-learning. We present the 

essence of a business case for e-learning; by implication it has many lessons for the 

successful deployment of e-learning but a full discussion of this is left to later chapters. 

2.1 e-learning: the drivers and reasons for investment 

Respondents were asked to select the reasons behind their company’s investment in e- 

learning or the use of ICT to support learning. They were asked to select from a list all the 

most important reasons to them (Table 2.1). They were given the opportunity to add 

additional reasons. Where the question was asked in 2004 the average response is shown. 

Table 2.1 Drivers behind e-learning investment 

Drivers cited by respondents 

2006 responses 

(n=212 employers) 

2004 responses 

(n=290 users) 

Increase access to learning 79% 10% 

Increase flexibility in providing training 73% 10% 

Reduce training costs 49% 16% 

Develop a better qualified workforce 48% not asked 

Improved management and administration 47% not asked 

Improve quality of work-based learning 41% not asked 

Availability of improved technology 38% 42% 

New processes or new products 31% 26% 

Organisational change 27% 37% 

New IT systems 25% 29% 

New regulations and legal requirements 25% 22% 

Maintain image of organisational innovation 20% 23% 

Demand from workforce 11% 16% 

Respond to ICT literate younger staff 11% not asked 

Pressure from senior management 5% 16% 

Achieving consistency* 3% not asked 

Extending the reach of training* 2% not asked 

* listed by respondents in the “other” category 

There has been a significant shift in emphasis for the reasons behind the adoption of e- 

learning since 2004. Seventy five percent of respondents are driven by a need to increase 

the access to learning, compared to 10% of respondents in 2004. Similarly the need for 

flexibility was cited by 10% of respondents in 2004 and 69% of respondents in 2006. 



NB. Approximately 75% of respondents in 2004 cited greater flexibility of learning as the most 

and 65% cited greater accessibility as the second most significant benefit of e-learning. 

What were not seen as drivers in 2004 but were realised to be significant benefits have now 

become drivers for investment in 2006. In a very real sense the experience of the past 2 years 

has made users of e-learning consider the rationale for its use in a very different way. 

Experience of the benefit is translated into drivers for future expansion of e-learning. 

Table 2.2 Biggest benefits of e-learning perceived in 2004 by users (n=291) 

Survey statement 

Number of respondents 

Greater flexibility 73% 

Greater accessibility 65% 

Cost savings 53% 

Greater quantity of learning 25% 

More effective learning 23% 

Record keeping for compliance requirements 24% 

Better focus on business requirements 21% 

Other responses: 22% 

Saves time 

Self managed 

Consistency of message 

Ability to track / assess learners 

Provides an alternative 

Brings people together 

Best practical cutting edge 

2.2 Differences in drivers by maturity segments 

Respondents are divided into segments according to their self-perception of maturity. Table 

2.3 shows the percentage of respondents within each segment who cited a particular driver 

as listed in the questionnaire. This table includes the average number of drivers cited per 

respondent. More mature organisations cite significantly more drivers. If we make 

allowances for the greater number of drivers cited per respondent by more mature 

organisations, then there is less difference between the relative importance of the various 

drivers between maturity segments than is apparent from the percentages in Table 2.3 

More mature organisations are more likely to be driven by a requirement to improve quality, 

increase access, increase flexibility and achieve a better qualified workforce. They are also 

more likely to be driven by new processes or products, new IT systems and improved 

availability of technology for learning. It would appear that this is because more mature 

organisations are likely to see more opportunities for e-learning. If we replace the 

percentages with a rank order there is little difference in the relative importance of specific 

drivers by maturity. The top 5 drivers are predominantly the top 5 drivers for all maturity 

segments. 



Table 2.3 Comparison of frequency with which drivers are cited by maturity segments 

Title used in report 

Novices Sporadic 

users 

Developing 

users 

Established 

users 

Embedded 

users 

Innovators 

Increase access to learning 60% 66% 80% 78% 91% 69% 

Increase flexibility in providing 

staff training 70% 57% 76% 72% 91% 58% 

Reduce training costs 50% 34% 45% 58% 64% 47% 

Develop a better qualified 

workforce 30% 36% 43% 42% 82% 56% 

Better manage or administer 

work-based learning 40% 34% 40% 61% 64% 44% 

Improve the quality of workbased 

learning delivered 20% 32% 35% 39% 73% 50% 

Availability of improved 

technology (internet, intranet, 

bandwidth) 30% 32% 33% 36% 55% 42% 

New processes or new products 20% 20% 29% 33% 55% 31% 

Organisational change 10% 18% 27% 19% 36% 42% 

New IT systems 20% 23% 23% 28% 36% 19% 

New regulations and legal 

requirements 10% 16% 19% 33% 36% 36% 

Maintain public image of a 

progressive and innovative 

organisation 30% 11% 16% 22% 27% 22% 

Demand from workforce 10% 7% 9% 8% 27% 17% 

Younger staff recruits increasingly 

technology literate 0% 7% 11% 6% 18% 22% 

Pressure from senior 

management 10% 2% 5% 0% 18% 6% 

Average number of drivers cited 

per respondent 4.1 4.0 4.9 5.4 7.7 5.6 

Table 2.4 shows the percentages within each one of the geographic segments who cited a 

particular driver. Those who are occupying a single UK site select slightly fewer drivers than 

other organisations. As might be expected those with multiple sites, either globally or UK 

wide select slightly more drivers but the difference is small. If we compare the ranking of 

individual drivers within these geographic segments the only notable difference is that those 

with a few relatively large UK sites are proportionately more likely to select both 

organisational change and new IT systems as potential drivers. In the case of all the 

geographic segments both increased access and increased flexibility remain as the first and 

second most frequently selected drivers. 



Table 2.4 Frequency of citing drivers compared by geographic circumstances 

Across 

Europe 

/Worldwide 

N= 81 

A few relatively 

large sites 

N= 50 

Single UK 

site N= 36 

Many small 

branches or 

offices/location 

s N=45 

Increase access to learning 77% 76% 61% 80% 

Increase flexibility in providing staff 

training 70% 72% 56% 73% 

Reduce training costs 56% 36% 36% 51% 

Develop a better qualified workforce 54% 30% 33% 53% 

Better manage or administer workbased 

learning 48% 42% 33% 49% 

Improve the quality of work-based 

learning delivered 36% 44% 28% 47% 

Availability of improved technology 

(internet, intranet, bandwidth) 35% 34% 39% 38% 

New processes or new products 32% 28% 22% 31% 

Organisational change 20% 38% 25% 24% 

New IT systems 22% 30% 11% 29% 

New regulations and legal 

requirements 31% 12% 19% 29% 

Maintain public image of a progressive 

and innovative organisation 19% 20% 25% 11% 

Demand from workforce 12% 12% 8% 9% 

Younger staff recruits increasingly 

technology literate 16% 2% 14% 9% 

Pressure from senior management 5% 6% 6% 2% 

Average number of drivers cited 5.3 4.8 4.2 5.4 

Table 2.5 compares the frequency of selecting drivers by organisations on the basis of 

organisation size. The 4 drivers most likely to be selected by all organisations are slightly more 

likely to be chosen by the larger organisations. Table 2.5 gives some indication that larger 

organisations are more likely to be driven by increased access to learning, increased 

flexibility in providing staff training, the need to reduce costs and the requirement to improve 

the management or administration of work-based learning. All other drivers show no 

particularly distinct pattern in relation to the size of organisations. 



Table 2.5 Comparison of citing drivers by size of organisation 


Table 2.6 Comparison of frequency with which drivers are cited by sector 

Ignoring sectors with >10 respondents 

Manufacturing 

Transport, storage and 

communic-ations 

Financial intermediation 

Real estate, renting 

and business activities 

Public admin and 

defence 

Education 

Health and social work 

IT and 

Telecommuncations 

Increased access 80% 71% 78% 82% 76% 68% 85% 75% 

Increase flexibility 80% 81% 65% 71% 79% 51% 80% 75% 

Reduce training costs 53% 43% 70% 18% 56% 32% 55% 55% 

Achieve better qualified 

workforce 73% 71% 39% 35% 41% 34% 45% 55% 

Improved management for 

learning 

60% 38% 65% 29% 44% 34% 50% 40% 

Improved quality 40% 43% 35% 35% 41% 39% 30% 45% 

Improved ICT available 33% 29% 48% 24% 26% 34% 40% 40% 

New processes / products 40% 24% 43% 29% 15% 32% 35% 40% 

Organisational change 20% 14% 30% 0% 35% 34% 45% 20% 

Regulatory requirements 13% 24% 57% 24% 18% 12% 30% 35% 

New IT systems 0% 19% 35% 6% 32% 20% 30% 30% 

Public image 7% 10% 9% 12% 24% 34% 15% 20% 

Younger staff are more 

technology literate 

7% 10% 26% 6% 3% 12% 5% 15% 

Demand from workforce 13% 5% 9% 0% 12% 7% 10% 20% 

Senior Management pressure 0% 5% 0% 0% 3% 10% 5% 5% 

Regulatory requirements are significantly more important for the financial sector than for 

others, the education sector is more likely to be driven by the need for organisational 

change and the requirement to maintain public image of a progressive organisation than 

those in other sectors. Senior management pressure, demand for work force, younger staff 

being more technology literate remain the least important drivers for all sectors. 

Access and flexibility are within the top 3 most important drivers for all sectors. Both the 

business activities and education sectors are least likely to be driven by the need to reduce 

training costs. 



2.3 The Business Case 

The initial analysis of the 10-point self-perception Likert scale questions indicates that some of 

them could be grouped into dimensions. The analysis has segmented respondents in 

accordance with 2 of these dimensions (see Appendix C for detailed definitions). These are: 

Business Impact – the tangible business benefits, the ability to respond to business need and 

the direct application of skills to the job in hand. 

Staff Impact – the intangible benefit of e-learning in an organisation, including staff 

motivation and the propensity to learn. 

The factor analysis used is discussed in Appendix A (Output Dimensions). The value of e- 

learning’s business impact is calculated from the mean of the 6 factors of which it is 

composed. Three of these include some financial element in the survey question. They have 

been grouped into a sub-dimension termed ‘financial impact’. 

2.4 Maturity and Business Impact 

The average rating for each maturity segment for each factor is shown below (Figure 2.1): 

Figure 2.1 Financial impact of e-learning maturity 

10 

8 

6 

4 

2 

0 

Novices 

Sporadic 

users 

Developing 

Users 

Established 

Users 

Embedded 

Users 

Innovators 

n=139 

Job performance metrics* Financial impact** Cost Savings*** 

* Job performance metrics: e-learning has had a positive impact on existing job performance metrics (eg sales, machinery 

downtime, production, project completion etc) 

** Financial impact: e-learning has had other positive financial impact on the organisation 

*** Cost savings: Cost savings have been realised on staff training and development 

NB. On graphs with numeric scales of this type, 1 indicates strong disagreement with the survey statement, 10 indicates strong 

agreement. 

Ref: This graph appears as Figure 4 in Towards Maturity: Insights for Employers and Training Providers 



Figure 2.1 shows that the average rating for the 3 factors comprising the dimension financial 

impact for innovators and embedded users is double that for novices. The conclusion is that 

those who perceive themselves to be more mature in the application of e-learning perceive 

that e-learning has a greater financial impact on the business. A similar pattern can be seen 

with the other 3 factors that comprise the business impact dimension. These are shown 

plotted against maturity segments in Figure 2.2. 

Figure 2.2 Maturity and alignment to the business 

10.00 

8.00 

6.00 

4.00 

2.00 

0.00 

Novices 

Sporadic 

users 

Developing 

users 

Established 

Users 

Embedded 

Users 

Innovators 

Better business focus Quicker learning implementation Effective learning 

The link between maturity and the perception of business impact is a useful comparator but 

segmenting respondents on business impact is more relevant to understanding the link 

between e-learning and business performance, 

Respondents are segmented based upon the average of these six factors that may be 

grouped into the dimension termed Business Impact. Respondents are divided according to 

which quartile they are in for these values. Those in the bottom quartile have a business 

impact rating of between 1 and 4, those in the 25 th to 50 th percentile have a rating of 

between 4 and 5.5, those in the 50 th to 75 th percentile a rating of between 5.5 and 7.3 and 

those in the upper quartile have a business impact rating of between 7.3 and 10. These 

values are used to segment respondents into 4 groups. The number of respondents who 

could be segmented in this way varied from 136 to 141. Although 212 respondents started 

the survey only 141 answered the self-perception Likert scale questions, which are used to 

make the business impact segmentation and of those only 136 reliably answered every 

question. 



2.5 Stakeholder involvement and Business Impact 

The respondents were asked to select the top 3 stakeholders that had the most influence on 

e-learning success in their organisation. They were offered 9 choices; the training 

department, senior executives, head of HR, learners, local champions of e-learning, head of 

IT, line managers, project sponsors and head of Finance. These are analysed against the 

perceived business impact of e-learning. The head of HR, head of IT and head of Finance 

show an inverse relationship with the business impact, the most extreme of which is head of 

IT. The influence of this role in terms of e-learning success is shown in Figure 2.3. Those who 

perceive themselves to be in the upper quartile for business impact are least likely to select 

the head of IT as one of the 3 key influences on e-learning success. Selection of neither 

project sponsor nor senior executive showed any particular relationship with business impact 

and are not shown in Figure 2.3, neither are the heads of HR and Finance; although selection 

of these as influencers show a similar but less pronounced pattern to head of IT. Both the 

selection of the training department, learners, and line managers, do show a positive 

relationship with perceived business impact. Seventy percent of respondents who are in the 

upper quartile for business impact select learners as a key influence on e-learning success, 

compared to 40% of those in the bottom quartile. 

Figure 2.3 Who influences success in relation to business impact 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 

n=139 

Upper quartile 3rd quartile 2nd quartile Lower quartile 

Business Impact 

Training department Learners Line managers Head of IT 

If we plot the probability of these 4 roles shown in Figure 2.3 against maturity, as shown in 

Figure 2.4, we see that line managers and learners are considered to be a greater influence 

on the success of e-learning by more mature users than less mature users. The influence of 

the head of IT shows a similar inverse relationship to maturity as it does to business impact. 

However, the influence of the training department drops off significantly amongst innovators. 

This may be because 70% of innovators select senior executives as one of the top 3 

influencers on the success of e-learning. Perhaps with innovators the training department 

sees itself much more as responding to the demands from learners and senior executives. 



Figure 2.4 Maturity versus influences 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 

Innovators 

Embedded 

Users 

Established 

Users 

Developing 

Users 

Sporadic users 

Novices 

Training department Learners Line managers Head of IT 

2.6 Stakeholder involvement as Users 

Respondents were asked to identify the roles of individuals within their organisation who used 

e-learning (Table 2.7). Administrators, professionals and line managers are the “soft touch” for 

e-learning. In fact 57% of all respondents deliver e-learning to all these 3 roles. They seem to 

be the easiest group to market e-learning to, perhaps easiest to develop or buy material for, 

by virtue of the nature of their jobs. 

Table 2.7 Who uses e-learning in your organisation? 

All 

Innovators Embedded 

Users 

Established 

Users 

Developin 

g Users 

Sporadic 

users 

Novices 

Admin (with PC) 81% 78% 89% 100% 82% 69% 50% 

Professionals 80% 78% 111% 93% 77% 63% 100% 

Line Manager 75% 74% 100% 100% 70% 63% 33% 

Technicians 64% 67% 78% 80% 57% 54% 67% 

Director 52% 74% 100% 80% 38% 29% 17% 

Admin (no PC) 39% 41% 56% 57% 38% 23% 17% 

Service Roles 38% 41% 56% 57% 34% 23% 17% 

Skilled role 37% 37% 44% 53% 38% 20% 33% 

Manual role 26% 33% 33% 43% 26% 6% 17% 



However, if we look at the relationship between who uses e-learning and business impact we 

can identify the key roles who make the biggest difference to business impact. The 3 key 

roles that change with business impact are shown in Figure 2.5. Other roles do not 

demonstrate such a clear cut linkage. 

Figure 2.5 Business impact varies according to usage by different groups of staff 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 



n=139 

Directors Technicians Skilled Roles 


Those organisations which can increase their use of e-learning by directors, technician grade 

staff and those in skilled roles are most likely to improve their perception of business impact. 

The self rating questions asked of learners mirror those asked of employers; with appropriately 

different wording. Learners were asked a number of questions relating to alignment to the 

business. Some of these relate to Business Impact. Four of these are picked out in Figure 2.6. 

Questions are related to job performance, relevance of training to current role, customer 

satisfaction and speed of putting into practice. Three of these belong in a dimension labelled 

Job Relevance (see Appendix A, Table A.4). The question relating to customer satisfaction 

does not. Not surprisingly learners had a very neutral view on whether or not customer 

satisfaction had increased since learners were able to access e-learning; average rating 

4.64; (20% agree, 28% disagree). This is close to the employer’s view of customer satisfaction 

linking to e-learning with an average rating of 4.71; (agree 16%, disagree 26%). The 28% of 

learners and the 26% of employers who disagreed with this statement are not necessarily 

saying that customers are more dissatisfied, they may have a much firmer view that there has 

been no change in customer satisfaction. Nevertheless the jury is out as far as customer 

satisfaction is concerned except that these average ratings change, depending on which 

quartile employer respondents are in for staff impact (See Figure 2.10). 



Figure 2.6 The learner perspective on business impact 

e-learning has had a positive impact on my 

existing job performance 

My company provides e-learning events that are 

directly relevant to my current job 

Customer satisfaction has increased since we 

have had more access to e-learning 

I am able to quickly put into practice what I 

learn from e-learning 

n=720 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 

Agree Neutral Disagree 


Employees have a more positive view of the speed with which they can put their learning 

into practice, not only do 45% agree they can do it quickly, the average rating for all 

employees is 6.02 compared to 5.63 for employer respondents, although employer 

respondents are reasonably positive that they can quickly implement learning with an 

average rating of 6.03. This factor is included within the business impact dimension for 

employers. It appears that employers have some confidence they can roll out e-learning 

quickly; but less sure learners apply it quickly. However, learners have some confidence they 

can apply it quickly; to the same extent that employers feel they can roll it out quickly. 

Generally speaking 4 out of 10 learners perceive that e-learning has a positive impact on 

their jobs, is relevant and they can quickly put it into practice. These 3 factors are part of the 

learner dimension job relevance which has an overall average of 6.02 and 43% of learners 

with an agreement score. Only 13% disagree that e-learning is not relevant to their job. 

2.7 The relationship between training capability and business impact 

Respondents were asked a number of questions relating to the capability of the training 

function. Of these 4 behave in a similar fashion and their relationship to business impact is 

shown in Figure 2.7. The fifth question in this section of the questionnaire referred to auditing 

skills of those in the training function and this shows a greater relationship with change 

management than with the 4 factors reported on in this section. The grouping and 

dimensions are defined in Table A.3 All 5 are shown in Figure 2.7 and all show a relationship 

with the respondents’ perception of business impact. Respondents who perceive themselves 

to be in the top quartile of business impact are far more likely to agree that they have the 

skills to manage e-learning providers, have good relationships with IT and are willing to 

embrace the new technologies. They are less likely to agree that they have audited the 

training skills of the training function; to be more accurate those in the lowest quartile for 

business impact are more likely to agree that they have not audited the skills of the training 

function against the skills required to deploy e-learning. Appendix A discusses the grouping 

of 4 of the above 5 factors into a dimension labelled Training Function Capability; see Table 

A.3. 



Figure 2.7 Training function capability affects business impact 

10.0 

9.0 

8.0 

7.0 

6.0 

5.0 

4.0 

3.0 

2.0 

1.0 

0.0 

Top quartile 3rd quartile 2nd quartile Bottom quartile 

Business impact 

Manage e-learning providers 

Audit of IT systems 

Audited training skills 

Links with IT 

Willing to embrace new technology 


2.7.1 The relationship of the consolidation of learning to business impact 

Respondents were asked a number of questions relating to the support provided to learners 

before, during and after their use of e-learning. These included 4 support mechanisms that 

helped them consolidate new skills from e-learning in the workplace. This shows a 

relationship with business impact. Respondents were asked which of 6 support mechanisms 

they provided. These were: job related assignments, reference books, electronic help and 

job aids, periodic reassessment, printed job aids and line management coaching and 

feedback support. Four of these demonstrate a relationship with business impact. This is 

shown in Figure 2.8. This shows the probability that a respondent in each quartile will offer 

that type of support. Of the 2 not shown on this graph printed job aids are provided by 12% 

of respondents and job related assignments by 23% of respondents. Neither showed any 

particular relationship with business impact. A similar comparison was carried out for other 

forms of support. 

Table 2.9 shows the percentage of all respondents who offered the particular type of support 

listed. A greater number of respondents offer technical support than offer either study 

support or support in consolidating learning. Whilst none of these support methods show any 

particular relationship with business impact some of them are influenced by the maturity of 

respondents in relation to their implementation of e-learning. This is discussed further in 

Chapter 5 - Supporting and promoting e-learning. 



Figure 2.8 Consolidation of learning reflected in improved business impact 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 



n=139 

Reference books 

Re-assessment 

Electronic job aids 

Line manager coaching 


Table 2.8 Consolidation of learning reflected in improved business impact 

How do you provide technical support to your learners? (Please tick all 

that apply) 

In person 43% 

Telephone help desk 80% 

By email 74% 

Through a web resource 34% 

% of respondents 

What study support do you provide to your learners as they progress 

through the programme? (Please tick all that apply) 

In person before e-learning starts 32% 

With a tutor in telephone contact 29% 

With a tutor in email contact 39% 

In person during the course 28% 

Through a learning resource centre 28% 

With on-line web reference materials 42% 

With a virtual learning classroom system 14% 

In person after a course is completed to review and evaluate 21% 



How do you help learners consolidate and apply what they have learnt 

on completion? (Please tick all that apply) 

Job related assignments 36% 

Reference books 18% 

Electronic help and job aids 26% 

Periodic re-assessment 32% 

Printed job aids 18% 

Line manager coaching and feedback support 53% 

2.8 Compliance and Business Impact 

In the self rating perception section of the questionnaire respondents were asked 2 questions 

in relation to record keeping; e-learning has improved our record keeping for compliance 

purposes; and tracking e-learning progress is essential for compliance purposes. Not 

surprisingly a covariance calculation shows that these two factors behave similarly; 

furthermore their correlation is 0.63. Both have a reasonable correlation with business 

impact, 0.52 and 0.57 respectively. This is shown in Figure 2.9. These 2 factors have a much 

lower correlation with both staff impact and maturity; 0.36 and 0.32 for any improvement in 

record keeping and 0.35 and 0.31 for the relative importance of tracking. 

Figure 2.9 Compliance and business impact 

10 

8 

6 

4 

2 

0 



n=139 

Tracking essential 

Improved record keeping 




Thus, whilst using e-learning to support compliance training has an effect on business impact 

its impact on both staff and its relationship to maturity are much less significant. If we isolate 

the cost-saving factor from business impact the correlation with improved record keeping is 

0.55, thus we can argue that a focus on compliance as an e-learning requirement is likely to 

produce cost-savings and improved business impact, but less likely to make a difference to 

staff or take-up. Although the correlation figures are all relatively close, if we plot the 

compliance self rating factors against the quartiles of either staff impact or take-up we do 

not get the same linear relationship. 

2.9 Staff Impact 

Appendix C defines the meaning of the term staff impact used in this report. The derivation 

of this is discussed in Appendix A. Respondents are segmented in accordance with their 

average rating for the 5 factors: interest in professional development, learner outcomes, 

speed of putting into practice, changes in employee motivation and behaviour. The 

dividing points for the quartile are as follows: bottom quartile 1 to 3.7, 25 th percentile to 50 th 

percentile 3.7 to 5, 50 th percentile to 75 th percentile 5 to 6.2 and the top percentile 6.2 to 10. 

In Table 2.16 the average scores of the respondents grouped by staff impact are shown for 2 

dimensions and one factor. These have been selected because they show a particular 

linear relationship with segmentation by quartiles at staff impact. 

Figure 2.10 Factors related to staff impact 

10 

8 

6 

4 

2 

0 


n=139 

Staff Impact 

Uptake of e-learning Financial impact Customer satisfaction 


The financial impact dimension is composed of 3 factors (see Appendix C): cost savings, 

improvement in metrics and other financial benefits. Take-up of e-learning is composed of 3 

factors: e-learning has attracted more learners, staff are more likely to complete courses, we 

have a high percentage of e-learning course completions. In addition the number of 

different roles in the organisation that use e-learning is added into this dimension. Both these 



2 dimensions are related to perception of staff impact in that those organisations who 

perceive themselves to be in the top quartile for staff impact are more likely to agree with 

the various statements that make up these 2 dimensions than organisations in the bottom 

quartile for staff impact. The single factor that is also plotted in Figure 2.10 is respondents’ 

perception of the extent to which there has been an increase in customer satisfaction since 

staff have had more access to e-learning. Whilst this question overall shows a neutral 

response; with an average for all respondents of 4.71, there is a relationship to respondents’ 

perception of the impact e-learning has on staff. This seems to indicate that where 

respondents perceive e-learning better motivates staff they are more likely to perceive that 

there has been an improvement in customer satisfaction. This is supported by research in the 

United States that provided a link between employees’ perception of support provided to 

them and a measurement of customer satisfaction. The single most significant factor in the 

perception of employees in their employers support was the provision of training 1 . The 

hypothesis that improved support to staff via e-learning will improve customer satisfaction 

appears to have some substance. 

2.10 Staff Impact versus input dimensions 

Appendix A defines the use and meaning of the term “input dimension”. These are 

composed of factors over which management can exert some control, unlike output 

dimensions like staff impact which are the result of actions taken. The dimension Change 

Management is composed of 9 factors as listed in Table A.3 of Appendix A. The linkage 

between these factors is weaker than with other dimensions. The factors are: we 

communicate e-learning success, senior management demonstrates commitment, we brief 

line managers, we communicate success to line managers, we apply change management 

to the implementation of e-learning, we operate pilot projects, we apply branding and 

identity to e-learning, we train local champions and we have audited the skills of the training 

function. Figure 2.11 shows that those organisations who agree that they are more likely to 

do these 9 things are more likely to be in the upper quartile for staff impact. 

Empowerment is defined in Appendix A Table A.3; as comprising the factors: staff know what 

e-learning is available and have the freedom to ask for it. The linkage between these 2 

factors is not as strong as others; both as a dimension and as 2 factors the extent to which 

respondents agree with the statements increases with staff impact. 

Availability is an input dimension composed of 6 factors plus one calculation. The factors 

are: wide range of opportunities, access anywhere, access anytime, management allow 

time (at work and elsewhere), an infrastructure capable of delivering e-learning to places 

convenient to staff. The calculation that is included within the dimension of availability is 

based upon the range of places in which employers offer e-learning. 

Employer respondents were asked to select which locations they used for e-learning from a 

list composed of: at the desk, at home, at an in-house learning centre, at an external 

learning centre, in a quiet place away from the learner’s desk and when travelling. Those 

who make e-learning more available based upon this criteria are more likely to find 

themselves in the top quartile for staff impact. 

1 Schneider, White and Paul (1998) Service Climate and Customer Perception, Journal of Applied Psychology 1998, 

volume 83 and Eisenberger, Cummings, Armeli and Lynch (1997) Perceived Organisational Support, Discretionary 

Treatment and Job Satisfaction, Journal of Applied Psychology 1997, volume 82. 



Figure 2.11 Staff impact versus input dimensions 

10.00 

8.00 

6.00 

4.00 

2.00 

0.00 


Staff impact 

Change Management Empowerment Availability 

The variation and linkage between these factors and dimensions is discussed and reported 

on in later chapters. 

Whilst there is similarity in the way that senior management commitment and the other 4 

factors vary with staff impact the covariance calculation does not justify including the 

commitment of senior managers in the dimension change management. Senior 

management commitment is a key factor closely related to staff impact but considered as 

an input factor rather than an output. Senior managers appear to be influenced by some 

change management practices (the correlation with communicating success is 0.48, with 

line manager briefings is 0.48) and in turn influence availability mainly on their impact on 

management behaviour, (correlation with line managers make time for staff to learn 0.46, 

time to learn at home 0.52). 

Senior management behaviour is clearly key but its linkage to other dimensions and 

measures is not as clear cut as the strategic direction and role model example set by 

directors, the board and top management. 

Figure 2.12 isolates some of the factors that comprise change management and plot them 

against staff impact; in addition the extent to which senior managers show commitment. 

Whilst there is similarity in the way that senior management commitment and the other 4 

factors vary with staff impact the covariance calculation does not justify including the 

commitment of senior managers in the dimension change management. Senior 

management commitment is a key factor closely related to staff impact but considered as 

an input factor rather than an output. Senior managers appear to be influenced by some 



change management practices (the correlation with communicating success is 0.48, with 

line manager briefings is 0.48) and in turn influence availability mainly on their impact on 

management behaviour, (correlation with line managers make time for staff to learn 0.46, 

time to learn at home 0.52). 

Senior management behaviour is clearly key but its linkage to other dimensions and 

measures is not as clear cut as the strategic direction and role model example set by 

directors, the board and top management. 

Figure 2.12 Change management influences staff impact of e-learning 

10.00 

8.00 

6.00 

4.00 

2.00 

0.00 


e-learning brand 

Communication of success 

Senior managers 

Pilot e-learning 

Local champions 


2.11 Maturity and staff impact 

Maturity has an effect on staff impact, as might be expected. We have established that 

maturity is a fundamental concept that relates to a number of factual measures, as well as 

the more subjective measures of business impact and staff impact. Figure 2.13 plots the 5 

factors that make up the staff impact dimension against segmentation by maturity. 

Figure 2.14 reports the responses for all employer respondents to the 5 factors that make up 

the dimension staff impact. Broadly speaking, as many respondents disagree that e-learning 

has an impact as agree. The notable exception is the speed with which learning can be 

applied where over one-third of respondents agree with this statement: staff quickly put into 

practice what they learn from e-learning. 



Figure 2.13 Staff impact versus maturity 

10 

8 

6 

4 

2 

0 

Novices 

Sporadic 

users 

Developing 

users 

Established 

users 

Embedded 

users 

Innovators 

Greater interest in development 

Improved outcomes 

Quickly applied 

Improved motivation 

Behaviour change 


Figure 2.14 Employer view of staff impact 


Improved 

motivation 

Greater interest in 

development 

Improved 

outcomes 

Behavioural 

change 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 


As previously discussed speed of response is surfacing in this report as a statement with which 

a significant proportion of both learners and employers agree with in relation to e-learning. 



2.12 Learners Perspective 

Learners are asked a number of questions which can be related to their response to e- 

learning. The 30 self-perception opinion-based questions, described as factors, have been 

grouped into 6 main dimensions. The rationale for these 6 dimensions and their definition is 

discussed in Appendix A. 

Figure 2.15 Learner responses 

Need for recognition 

Job relevance 

Management support 

Learners control their opportunties 

Empowered learners 

Detachment 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 


It is clear that there are a range of factors that give learners empowerment and that more 

learners agree that this has an impact on them than with other dimensions. Empowered 

learners in the learner responses is not defined in the same way as Empowerment in the 

employer responses. For learners it means confidence in using PCs, engagement without 

prompting, knowing what is available, empowered to ask and technology that delivers 

learning to places convenient to the learner. 

The view of learners is mirrored by the relationship between staff impact and availability of e- 

learning and the employer definition of empowered learners. We may relate the views of 

learners in relation to empowerment by plotting availability and empowerment as defined 

by learners against staff impact (Figure 2.16). 

Again, employers have been segmented into quartiles by their perception of staff impact. 

The learner dimensions that are closest to both availability and empowerment from an 

employer’s perspective are key dimensions that influence staff impact. 



Figure 2.16 Staff impact and freedom of choice 

8.00 

7.00 

6.00 

5.00 

4.00 

3.00 

2.00 

1.00 

0.00 


Staff impact 

Availability of e-learning 


The dimension detachment shown in Figure 2.16 is a negative effect of e-learning; I only do 

e-learning when it is compulsory and I find e-learning choices confusing. It is disturbing to 

note that 4 out of 10 in learner respondents demonstrate detachment from this 

empowerment because they only do learning when it is compulsory and find the choices 

confusing. Are these the same learners who do not feel empowered? In the majority of cases 

they are. In fact 62% of respondents were on opposite sides of these 2 dimensions, 

empowered and detached. That is; the average score for the factors that make up 

empowerment was above 7 and the score for the factors that make up detachment was 3 

or below, or the average score on the factors that make up detachment was 7 or above 

and the average score on the factors that make up empowerment was 3 or below. Learners 

are largely divided into those who embrace e-learning and agree that it brings a certain 

freedom to select what they need and want and those who avoid its use unless they have 

to. Learners are divided into those who can take the opportunity that e-learning presents 

and those that can’t, demonstrated by the 58% of learners who are empowered and the 

38% of learners who are detached from doing e-learning voluntarily. 


3 People and organisational capability 


Overview: This Chapter considers how decisions are made, the impact of an e-learning 

strategy and the effect directors have on e-learning and who uses e-learning. 

3.1 Decision making 

Respondents were asked how they decided which e-learning courses and content will be 

bought or developed. They were offered 4 choices but multiple answers were acceptable. 

Then average number of responses selected by respondents is 1.5, the proportion of items 

selected in Figure 3.1. The percentages shown are the percentages of respondents who 

selected that particular item and therefore add up to more than 100. 

Figure 3.1 Making e-learning investment decisions 

Training 

function 

decides 

44% 

Business 

projects 

demand 

30% 

Respond to 

external 

suggestions 

2% 

Based on 

board 

strategy 

24% 

If we segment these responses by maturity, as shown in Figure 3.2, the indications are that 

training departments are more likely to make decisions for organisations who are 

approaching maturity rather than those who are either embedded or innovators. 

Bearing in mind that responses from novices are susceptible to a much wider statistical 

variation because there are only 10 respondents in this segment, there is also an indication 

that a Board strategy is used to make decisions more often by more e-learning mature 

organisations. This is also supported by Figure 2.4 which plots the key stakeholders who 

influence e-learning by maturity, although in this case 86% of embedded users selected the 

training department as one of the 3 key stakeholders but only 44% agreed that the training 

department made purchasing decisions. This may indicate that embedded users have a 

greater understanding of the amount of work that training functions need to do in order to 

ensure a product is implemented and used successfully. However, this should be viewed 

with some caution as there are only 11 respondents in the embedded segment. 



Figure 3.2 Making decisions about e-learning 

1.00 

0.80 

0.60 

0.40 

0.20 

0.00 

Innovators 

Embedded 

users 

Established 

users 

Developing 

users 

Sporadic 

users 

Novices 

A board strategy Training department Business units 

The training function is the most frequently selected source of decision-making, 64% of 

respondents (Figure 3.3). Those in the upper quartile for business impact are twice as likely to 

cite the Board and having a strategy as a key decision-making process (56%) as those in the 

bottom quartile for business impact (24%). Those in the upper quartile are also more likely to 

involve business units in decision-making for e-learning (50%) as opposed to those in the 

lowest quartile (32%). 

Figure 3.3 Making decisions about e-learning 

0.80 

0.70 

0.60 

0.50 

0.40 

0.30 

0.20 

0.10 

0.00 

Upper quartile 

(1.7) 

3rd quartile (1.6) 2nd quartile (1.4) Lower quartile 

(1.2) 


A board strategy Training department Business units 



The importance of a Board strategy being part of the decision-making process is supported 

by previous work. The report on Embedding e-learning in Large Companies 2 reported that 

“the analysis shows that the existence or otherwise of a strategy was the most significant 

driver of successfully embedding e-learning”. 

Over a third of companies agreed that their Board has agreed a learning strategy aligned to 

business priorities. Companies were segmented on this basis and their perception of business 

impact compared (Figure 3.4). In all cases respondents perceived e-learning has a greater 

business impact where a strategy existed than where it didn’t. The average difference is 0.94 

on a 10-point scale. Having a Board strategy makes a 10% difference in employers’ 

perception of the business impact of e-learning. 

Figure 3.4 Business impact of a strategy compared 

8.00 

6.00 

4.00 

2.00 

0.00 

Impact on 

metrics 

Financial 

impact 

Cost savings 

achieved 

Business 

focus 

Speed of Effective in 

implementation application 

Strategy in place 

No strategy 

3.2 Who uses e-learning? 

Leadership from the top is a key element that influences a number of factors relating to the 

success of e-learning. Aiming to involve directors and being successful in doing so pays 

significant dividends. 

Figure 3.5 compares the key dimension where directors use e-learning personally and where 

they do not. In some cases the differences are greater than whether an organisation has a 

strategy or not. A difference between 5.6 and 3.9 falls well within an average neutral 

assessment about the commitment of senior managers. 

2 Hills 2005, published by Ufi 



Figure 3.5 Effect on key dimensions when directors use e-learning 

8 

6 

4 

2 

0 

Business impact Staff impact Uptake Senior manager 

commitment 

Availability 

Directors using e-learning 

Directors not users 

In fact, 39% of respondents in organisations where directors use e-learning, agree that senior 

managers show commitment, as opposed to 23% of those in organisations where directors 

do not use e-learning. Over half the respondents (55%) in organisations where directors do 

not use e-learning expressed strong disagreement implying that senior managers not only do 

not show commitment but perhaps are even antagonistic to it. This corresponds to a quarter 

of organisations (24%) where directors are users who disagree with the statement. We can 

conclude that the example set by directors has a significant impact on the behaviour of 

senior managers and on the rest of the organisation. The discussion in Chapter 2 has already 

highlighted the influence senior managers have on certain key factors. If we isolate 2 of the 

dimensions reported in Figure 3.5, that of staff impact and uptake rates, then we can identify 

some even more significant differences. 

Figure 3.6 shows the average agreement with the 5 statements that fit within the dimension 

termed staff impact. We observe a 10% difference in the perceptions of respondents 

between those organisations where directors use e-learning and where they do not. 



Figure 3.6 Staff impact versus use by directors 

7.00 

6.00 

5.00 

4.00 

3.00 

2.00 

1.00 

0.00 

Greater interest 

in development 

Improved 

motivation 

Improved 

outcomes 

Behaviour 

change 


Directors use e-learning 

e-elearning not used by directors 

However, the averages are very close to the neutral point on the 10-point scale used in the 

self-perception questions. If we look at the percentage of respondents who agree with those 

statements then greater differences become apparent (Table 3.1). 

Table 3.1 Percentage of respondents agreeing with Staff Impact statements 

Directors use e-learning e-learning not used by Directors 

Agree Neutral Disagree Agree Neutral Disagree 

Greater interest in 

development 22% 51% 27% 13% 43% 43% 

Improved motivation 27% 56% 17% 10% 60% 30% 

Improved outcomes 31% 49% 20% 16% 51% 33% 

Behaviour change 29% 51% 20% 19% 46% 34% 

Quickly applied 49% 46% 4% 23% 48% 29% 

In the case of all respondents twice as many agree with these statements in organisations 

where directors use e-learning than in those where they do not. This is mirrored by a 

reduction in those that disagree with the statement. About half of respondents in both 

segments express a neutral view about these 6 statements; this may be because there is an 

uneven pattern of staff responses to e-learning across the organisation or the respondent 

doesn’t know how staff are responding. The change in the agreement and disagreement 

percentages is more significant than the fact that half of respondents express a neutral view. 

We discern a similar pattern when we analyse the dimension take-up of e-learning (Figure 3.7 

and Table 3.2). The measurement of take-up is determined by grouping 3 self-perception 

questions with a measure of the number of roles in an organisation who use e-learning. 



Figure 3.7 Directors’ use of e-learning affects factors comprising take-up 

8 

7 

6 

5 

4 

3 

2 

1 

0 

More completions 

Higher % of 

completions 

Increase in 

Learners 

Roles who use 

Directors use e-learning 

e-learning not used by directors 

Respondents were offered 7 roles to select and the number of roles selected has been rebased 

to 10 and averaged with the measure of agreement with the 3 statements. The 

average number of roles who use e-learning in organisations where directors do not is 

approximately 1½. The number of roles who use e-learning when directors do rises to 

approximately 5 out of 7. In Table 3.2 we can see the percentage of respondents who agree 

with the 3 statements, the number of respondents who agree with this statement doubles 

when directors are users of e-learning. 

Table 3.2 Percentage agreeing with take up statements 

Directors use e-learning e-learning not used by Directors 

Agree Neutral Disagree Agree Neutral Disagree 

More completions 32% 37% 31% 18% 39% 43% 

Higher % of 

completions 55% 26% 19% 26% 40% 34% 

Increase in Learners 47% 35% 19% 22% 40% 37% 

Directors have a profound impact on the success of e-learning within organisations. Where 

they set an example organisations are twice as likely to perceive take-up as successful and 

the number of roles who use e-learning will treble. 

3.3 Who influences learners? 

Learners were asked to select the one person whose opinion is most likely to encourage 

them to take an e-learning programme. They were offered a list of 6 individuals, or roles. 

Figure 3.9 shows their responses. 



Figure 3.8 Whose opinion encourages use of e-learning 

My manager 

52% 

My learning 

centre coordinator 

2% 

A contact outside 

of work 

4% 

A senior executive 

5% 

A member of the 

training 

department 

10% 

A work colleague 

27% 


Although senior executives clearly have an impact on the take-up of e-learning this is not 

reflected in an individual learner’s view, as only 5% of learner respondents select this role as 

the most important influence on them as to whether they will take an e-learning programme. 

It may well be a blinding glimpse of the obvious that managers and work colleagues are the 

2 most important influences on learners. 

There are some differences by learner segments. Learners are segmented by educational 

level, age, where they learn, their normal work environment, whether they learn in their own 

time or company time, whether they manage their own time or it was managed for them, 

whether they have responsibility for others or only for themselves. Table 3.3 shows the 

percentage of respondents in each segment who selected a particular individual as their 

prime influence. 

Table 3.3 Who encourages you to learn? 

Education to 16 

n=93 


n=73 

Education to 

Post 18 

n=147 

Education to 

Graduate level 

n=522 

Manager 56% 49% 50% 52% 

Colleague 22% 32% 24% 29% 

Senior Executive 4% 5% 6% 5% 

Others 18% 14% 20% 13% 



Age is 25 or 

under 

n=103 

Age is 26 to 39 

n=292 


n=314 

Age is 55 or 

over 

n=126 

Manager 60% 50% 54% 45% 

Colleague 23% 27% 28% 32% 


Others 13% 16% 12% 21% 

Learn at an Inhouse 

learning 

centre 

n=27 

Learn at home 

n=132 

Learn at the 

desk 

n=643 

Learn in a quiet 

spot away from 

the desk 

N=32 

Manager 41% 45% 54% 59% 

Colleague 22% 25% 29% 16% 


Others 37% 20% 13% 16% 

Work at a 

regular place 

n=740 

Work from 

home 

n=35 

Work on site at 

customer 

n=52 

Work on the 

road 

n=8 

Manager 52% 57% 44% 50% 

Colleague 28% 29% 23% 25% 


Others 5% 3% 8% 13% 

Learn in own 

time 

n=167 

Learn in 

Company time 

n=668 

Manager 44% 54% 

Colleague 25% 28% 

Senior Executive 10% 4% 

Others 20% 14% 



I do not 

manage my 

own time 

n=57 

I manage my 

own time 

n=778 




Others 18% 15% 

No responsibility 

for others 

n=459 

Responsible for 

others 

n=376 




Others 14% 7% 

Those without management responsibility are slightly more likely to respond to their own 

manager. Those with management responsibility are slightly more like to respond to senior 

executives; but only 6% of this segment select the senior executive as the person whose 

opinion they most valued in persuading them to use e-learning. Those who manage their 

own time are slightly more likely to respond to senior executives, but again the percentage is 

small (6%) although this group are also slightly more likely to respond to their own manager. 

They are less likely to respond to recommendations from colleagues. Those who learn in their 

own time or work on customer’s sites are less likely to respond to managers and more likely to 

respond to senior executives; perhaps a blinding glimpse of the obvious in that those least 

likely to be in direct contact with their manager are most likely to respond to the leadership 

of a senior executive. 

When a manager is in direct control of an individual, that is the learner does not manage 

their own time, then managers seem to exert less influence and peers exert more influence. 

The pattern that emerges is those that work more independently, either by location or work 

style, are less likely to respond to managers and more likely to respond to senior executives, 

those in direct contact with managers and whose time is controlled for them are less likely to 

respond to the person exerting that control. This analysis should be viewed with some 

caution as the segmentation gives population groups of radically different sizes. The 

respondents were segmented by age and a linkage is identified. 



Figure 3.9 Who encourages you to learn? 

50% 

40% 

30% 

20% 

10% 

0% 

Manager Colleague Training 

Manager 

Senior 

Executive 

A Friend 

LC 

Coordinator 

N= 948 

I do not manage my own time 

I manage my own time 

The influence of managers declines with the age of the learner; not unreasonably since older 

learners are likely to have a better appreciation of their own learning needs. The 

recommendation of a colleague rises in importance with age. However, an individual 

learner does not seem significantly influenced by a senior executive and yet the behaviour 

of senior executives significantly influences uptake (Table 3.4). 

Table 3.4 Use of e-learning by directors 

Directors use e- 

learning 

Agree 

e-learning not 

used by Directors 

Agree 

The majority of our learners engage with their e- 

learning courses without prompting 33% 15% 

Senior Management regularly demonstrate 

commitment to e-learning 39% 23% 

We provide line managers with training and briefings 

relating to specific e-learning courses 34% 18% 

Managers make time for staff to learn at work 42% 39% 

Managers allow staff work time to learn at home or 

locally 38% 28% 

Managers appraise staff at regular intervals and plan 

their development 70% 55% 

Managers coach their own teams 55% 36% 



The hypothesis is that the behaviour of senior executives influences that of immediate 

managers, which in turn increases the availability of both time and space to learners and 

improves the propensity for managers to develop and coach their own teams. Managers in 

almost three quarters of organisations, where directors use e-learning, appraise staff and 

plan their development, as compared to just over half in organisations where directors do 

not use e-learning. 

The impact of directors’ behaviour is also clearly seen in Table 3.5, which reports the 

percentage of each organisation in each segment providing e-learning to the 7 roles 

identified in the questionnaire. We have previously (see Chapter Two Table 2.7 and Figure 

2.5), seen the significance of encouraging the use of e-learning by technician grades and 

skilled roles; where directors use e-learning the percentage of organisations providing e- 

learning to these 2 key roles more than doubles. 

Table 3.5 Percentage of employers providing e-learning to this role 

Directors use e- 

learning 

n=83 

e-learning not 

used by directors 

n=85 

Administrative or customer service positions with a PC 98% 65% 

Professional grades or equivalent 95% 65% 

Middle/Line Manager/Shift supervisors 96% 54% 

Technician grades or equivalent 86% 42% 

Director or Senior Management 100% 0% 

Administrative or customer service positions without a PC 57% 21% 

Employed non-manual position, not at a desk but 

travelling or in service job 57% 19% 

Supervised or skilled manual worker 52% 22% 

Other manual worker 41% 12% 

3.4 Roles trained by sector 

Table 3.6 lists the percentage of organisations in each sector that provide training to the 

various grades of staff. The analysis has only been done for those sectors where the number 

of respondents exceeded 10. Four of these sectors do show some key differences from the 

overall average (Figure 3.10). The remaining sectors have been combined into one line. 

These remaining sectors show little differences from each other. The 4 sectors plotted show 

some differences. 

Seventy percent of those responding from the manufacturing sector provide e-learning for 

supervisory or skilled manual roles, compared to an overall average of 36%. Appendix B 

discussed the nature of the various segments in more detail. However, it is clear that 

manufacturing directs more e-learning effort at the less skilled employees. By contrast the 

financial sector puts significantly more effort into training the knowledge workers and senior 

management staff than all other sectors. 



Table 3.6 Percentage of organisations offering e-learning to specific roles 

Manufac 

-turing 

Business 

Financial activities Public 

Health 

Education 

Computing 

Administrative or 

customer service 

positions with a PC 79% 95% 75% 97% 53% 94% 75% 78% 

Professional grades or 

equivalent 79% 90% 92% 79% 83% 82% 63% 77% 

Middle/Line 

Manager/Shift 

supervisors 71% 95% 67% 83% 53% 82% 75% 72% 

Technician grades or 

equivalent 71% 90% 58% 55% 43% 59% 69% 61% 

Director or Senior 

Management 43% 85% 42% 48% 40% 47% 56% 50% 

Administrative or 

customer service 

positions without a PC 21% 40% 25% 52% 27% 35% 38% 37% 

Employed non-manual 

position, not at a desk 

but travelling or in 

service job 57% 50% 25% 34% 7% 29% 50% 36% 

Supervised or skilled 

manual worker 71% 35% 8% 41% 10% 35% 31% 36% 

Other manual worker 50% 25% 8% 28% 10% 18% 19% 25% 

By contrast those organisations in the business activities sector put less effort into providing e- 

learning for less skilled and more junior staff. Clearly companies in these 3 sectors are making 

management decisions at directing e-learning effort at those roles that are most significant 

for the business. 

The education sector is less likely to train all roles other than professional grade staff. For all 

except this role 20% fewer organisations provide e-learning. It is worth investigating what else 

the education sector may be doing that is different to others. This is reported on in a later 

Chapter. 

ALL 



Figure 3.10 Percentage organisations by sector selecting role as user of e-learning 

100% 

90% 

80% 

70% 

60% 

50% 

40% 

30% 

20% 

10% 

0% 

Other manual 

worker 

Employed 

non-manual 

position, not 

at a desk but 

Supervised or 

skilled manual 

worker 

Administrative 

or customer 

service 

positions 

Director or 

Senior 

Management 

Technician 

grades or 

equivalent 

Middle/Line 

Manager/Shift 

supervisers 

Professional 

grades or 

equivalent 

Administrative 

or customer 

service 

positions with 

Manufacturing Financial Business activities Education Others 

3.5 Source of funding 

Respondents were asked how they funded the development of e-learning and the 

acquisition of resources for its development. Respondents were offered 5 choices: internal 

company budget, learning and skills council funding, European funding, regional 

development agency funding and others. The most commonly quoted source under ‘other’ 

was those from NHS respondents where they entered bids into strategic Health Authorities. 

Indeed the majority of sources quoted under ‘other’ were central Government supported 

authorities which either were not within the remit of the LSC or respondents were not aware 

of this. In a very few cases bids to these type of organisations represented the majority of a 

respondent’s spend on e-learning. For each funding source respondents were asked to 

select one of 4 percentages of their total spend on e-learning, in relation to its source. 

For all other respondents the majority of their e-learning spend came from internal company 

budgets. However 20% of respondents use their internal company budget for less than 10% 

of their e-learning spend. 

Where does this money come from? The percentage of respondents seeking some level of 

funding is as follows: 

> Learning and Skills Council funding 14% 

> European funding 9% 

> Regional Development Agency funding 5% 

> Other sources of funding 12% 



Figure 3.11 Where does e-learning spend come from? 

Other 

Regional Development Agency funding 

European funding 

Learning & Skills Council funding 

Internal company budget 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 

less than 10% 10% to


Table 3.7 Sources of funding by expenditure 

Percentage of respondents seeking some 

proportion of spend from external sources 

Sector 

Seeking 

> 10% LSC European RDA Other 

c) Manufacturing 31% 8% 0% 0% 8% 

h) Transport, storage and communications 13% 13% 0% 0% 0% 

i) Financial intermediation 15% 0% 0% 0% 0% 

j) Real estate, renting and business activities 25% 25% 0% 0% 13% 

k) Public admin and defence 19% 14% 10% 5% 5% 

l) Education 40% 50% 35% 25% 30% 

m)Health and social work 54% 8% 8% 8% 31% 

o) Computing 21% 0% 0% 0% 0% 

3.6 Sources of e-learning 

Respondents were asked how they sourced their e-learning material and facilities. 

Respondents were offered 7 options (Figure 3.12). , there was the possibility for respondents 

to include an ‘other’ response (selected by 6 percent). This distribution remains uniform by 

almost all the segmentation that has been used in this analysis. 

Figure 3.12 How is e-learning sourced? 

Commercial bought-in products 

Partnership with e-learning vendor 

47% 

55% 

In-house with simple rapid development tools 

47% 

In-house with development tools for experts 

33% 

Partnership with educational/work-based learning 

provider 

Through a customer or supplier 

18% 

14% 

n=153 

Through an industry or trade body 

10% 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 



Buying from commercial sources remains the most likely activity for sourcing e-learning 

although in-house development and partnership working are used as sources by over a third 

of respondents. Do these patterns change with maturity? We can detect some patterns 

relating to maturity if we segment into 3 segments for maturity. Figure 3.13 combines novices 

and sporadic users into a less mature segment and innovators, embedded users and 

established users into a more mature segment. 

Figure 3.13 Source of supply of e-learning by maturity 

60% 

50% 

40% 

30% 

20% 

10% 

Commercial bought-in 

products 

Industry or trade body 

In-house (user tools) 

In-house (tools for 

programmers) 

Partnership with e- 

learning vendor 

Partnership with a 

learning provider 

Customer/supplier 

0% 

Less mature Becoming mature More mature 

This indicates that more mature organisations are more likely to use in-house development, 

both user tools and those more appropriate to programmers and web experts. They are also 

more likely to work in partnership with an e-learning vendor. The remaining sources for e- 

learning show little change with maturity or with any other segmentation. 

The responses to the sources of e-learning were analysed to identify the percentage of 

respondents who selected in-house production, either of the 2 options, and no other option. 

Fifteen percent of respondents fell into this category, somewhat less than indicated that they 

did not use external suppliers. 

Amongst the other options mentioned by respondents included: searching the Internet for 

the best deal, developing with internal learning designers in partnership with internal IT and in 

partnership with specialist instruction design companies who are not e-learning development 

companies. 



3.7 Expectation clients have of vendors 

Respondents were asked to rate a number of features they would expect to see in a 

prospective e-learning vendor, irrespective of whether they used one or not. The list of 

attributes offered is shown in Figure 3.14. 

Respondents have an option of grading each attribute as vital, important, useful or not 

relevant. Value for money, expertise and proven reliability are top of the list. It is also 

apparent that respondents expected to be able to shop around a number of e-learning 

vendors, as a one-stop shop is of least importance. It is worth reflecting that 20% of 

respondents regard as vital that suppliers are knowledgeable, innovative, suitable as longterm 

partners and provide reliable after-sales support; clients in this market are demanding. 

Figure 3.14 Important qualities organisations are looking for from their supplier 

Value for money 

The expertise to build exactly the e-learning that we need 

Prov en reliability 

A source of advice with good knowledge of the industry 

Innovation 

Suitability as a long term partner 

Product/system after-sales support and training 

A wide range of quality products and content 

Experience of needs analysis and can offer wide range of 

training solutions 

A one stop shop for all our learning needs irrespective of 

media 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 

Vital Important Useful Not relevant 


3.8 Characteristics of the marketplace 

Respondents were asked to select the suppliers they used. There was a named list of 18 

suppliers, all of whom had agreed to distribute the survey to their customers. In addition 

respondents were able to add the names of additional suppliers who were not on this list. 

A total of 139 suppliers were mentioned by 116 respondents. The majority of these suppliers 

were mentioned by only one respondent. Only 5 of the suppliers mentioned could claim 15 

or more of the 116 respondents who use external suppliers. 



Figure 3.15 Percentage of suppliers selected by respondents 

Mentioned by only 1 respondent 

by 2 

by 3 to 5 

by 5 to 10 

by 10 to 15 

by 15 or more 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 

This is an indication of the nature of the market, there being only a very few large firms but a 

large number of very small firms, many of whom may have less than a dozen customers. The 

description applied to the e-learning supply market is that it is a cottage industry and this is 

borne out by the findings of the report. 


4 e-learning delivery 

4 e-learning – technology, software and topics delivered 

Overview: This chapter looks at the range of topics covered, the e-learning services 

available, including learner support, and the technologies and software used. We look at 

both current delivery and plans for the next 3 years. 

4.1 Topics covered 

Respondents were asked which type of training employees had undertaken in the last 12 

months, divided into key skills, operational skills and general skills. For each topic area 

respondents were offered 4 options: the organisation does not offer the topic, the topic is 

offered but without using e-learning, the topic is offered with some component of e-learning 

or the topic is offered by e-learning alone. The only topics not offered by more than half of 

respondents are foreign language, literacy and numeracy. By comparison of the 2 sets of 

figures we can indicate the likelihood of a particular topic being delivered by e-learning. 

Figure 4.1 Range of topics offered by organisations 

Leadership and management 

Induction 

Health and Safety 

Communication 

Teamworking 

Technical (non IT) 

General IT skills 

Company specific 

Industry specific 

Customer handling/service 

IT professional 

Equality and diversity 

Problem solving 

Office admin 

Sales and marketing 

Foreign language 

Literacy 

Numeracy 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 

Offered by organisations 

Offered with e-learning component 

Ref: See also Figure 29 in Towards Maturity: Insights for Employers and Training Providers 



As expected general IT skills heads the list, with an 80% probability of an organisation offering 

this with some e-learning component. There is a relatively high probability of e-learning 

being used for both company specific and industry specific training; topics unlikely to be 

offered through generic skills packages. The relatively high probability that numeracy and 

literacy are offered with an e-learning component, results from the low probability of 

organisations offering any learning in these topics. 

Table 4.1 Likelihood of skills being delivered by e-learning 

Skills area 

Percentage of 

respondents 

General IT skills 79% 

IT professional 70% 

Company specific 63% 

Industry specific 61% 

Numeracy 59% 

Induction 53% 

Literacy 53% 

Office admin 51% 

Communication 51% 

Health and Safety 51% 

Technical (non IT) 51% 

Equality and diversity 49% 

Sales and marketing 48% 

Foreign language 48% 

Customer handling/service 45% 

Problem solving 45% 

Leadership and management 45% 

Team working 35% 

The probability of topics being offered is analysed by sector in Table 4.2. A study of these 

percentages indicates that the education sector is least likely to offer training in any of the 

topics listed. Not surprisingly the topics in which they do lead the field are those in literacy 

and numeracy, but for both topics approximately half of respondents in the education 

sector provide learning in these topics. Similar tables have been calculated for organisations 

providing the topics via e-learning and e-learning alone. The number of organisations who 

selected this option (e-learning alone) was extremely small. Of the total number of possible 

responses in where a topic is offered there are only 5% of responses for e-learning alone. This 

shows no particular pattern by topic, maturity, business or staff impact. However, it is no 



surprise that the IT and telecommunications sector was the one most likely to use e-learning 

alone and the topics most likely to be delivered by e-learning alone were general IT skills, 

company specific training, industry specific skills and equality and diversity. The very low 

number of responses in this category indicate that almost every user prefers to use e-learning 

as a component within a training programme, rather than for the totality of the delivery of a 

particular topic. Most of the analysis in this paper, therefore, concentrates on the use of e- 

learning irrespective of whether it is on its own or a component within a training topic offered 

by an organisation. 

Table 4.2 Percentage of organisations offering skills by sector 

Manufacturing 

Transport 

Financial 

Business Activities 

Public sector 

Education 

Health 

IT / Telecoms 

Others 

Leadership & Management 93% 100% 100% 100% 97% 87% 94% 94% 88% 

Induction 93% 100% 100% 100% 100% 83% 94% 94% 86% 

Health & safety 100% 100% 95% 100% 100% 77% 88% 75% 86% 

Communication skills 93% 100% 100% 92% 90% 70% 82% 75% 83% 

Team working 93% 100% 100% 92% 83% 77% 76% 75% 79% 

Technical or practical skills 

(non-IT) 93% 88% 85% 100% 83% 77% 82% 88% 83% 

General IT user skills 93% 100% 90% 100% 100% 63% 82% 81% 71% 

Industry specific 93% 81% 95% 100% 76% 53% 94% 88% 90% 

Company specific (not 

included above) 79% 88% 100% 83% 86% 67% 82% 88% 86% 

Customer handling/service 86% 81% 90% 83% 90% 67% 76% 75% 76% 

IT professional skills 79% 94% 85% 75% 90% 67% 59% 94% 79% 

Equality and diversity 86% 81% 80% 83% 97% 70% 94% 56% 48% 

Problem solving 86% 100% 90% 75% 72% 67% 59% 75% 64% 

Office/admin skills 86% 50% 80% 75% 86% 73% 71% 63% 71% 

Sales and marketing 93% 81% 95% 67% 28% 57% 29% 100% 62% 

Foreign language skills 57% 63% 55% 50% 31% 30% 12% 44% 38% 

Literacy 21% 44% 20% 25% 48% 37% 41% 13% 40% 

Numeracy 29% 38% 10% 8% 48% 37% 35% 13% 43% 



Table 4.3 shows the breakdown of organisations offering specific topics by sector. Sectors 

with only a few respondents have been included in the column labelled ‘Others’. One or 2 

sectors stand out as doing something different. The IT and Telecommunication sector, for 

example, does more induction training and sales and marketing training using e-learning 

than other sectors. The financial sector does more company-specific training and health 

and safety training using an e-learning component. The sector most likely to use an e- 

learning component is the financial sector, whereas other sectors have a more or less even 

chance of e-learning being a component in a programme. 

Table 4.3 Percentage in each sector who use e-learning for each skills area 

Manufacturing 

Transport 

Financial 


Public sector 

Education 

Health 

IT / Telecoms 

Others 

Leadership & Management 36% 44% 55% 25% 55% 37% 29% 44% 33% 

Induction 50% 50% 70% 42% 48% 37% 41% 81% 48% 

Health & safety 57% 38% 80% 25% 41% 40% 35% 56% 48% 

Communication skills 29% 50% 45% 42% 52% 47% 29% 50% 43% 

Team working 29% 44% 45% 8% 31% 23% 18% 44% 17% 


(non-IT) 43% 38% 60% 75% 34% 30% 24% 81% 24% 

General IT user skills 71% 81% 75% 58% 93% 47% 65% 63% 55% 

Industry specific 64% 50% 80% 67% 31% 33% 59% 63% 43% 


(not included above) 36% 63% 90% 50% 48% 37% 47% 69% 33% 

Customer handling/service 36% 38% 65% 17% 41% 20% 24% 56% 29% 

IT professional skills 64% 56% 65% 50% 69% 50% 35% 75% 40% 

Equality and diversity 21% 38% 65% 25% 48% 33% 35% 31% 29% 

Problem solving 36% 63% 40% 33% 31% 30% 18% 44% 14% 

Office/admin skills 50% 19% 45% 33% 38% 40% 18% 56% 36% 

Sales and marketing 43% 38% 50% 8% 7% 33% 12% 75% 31% 

Foreign language skills 14% 19% 25% 17% 17% 23% 6% 31% 14% 

Literacy 7% 31% 10% 17% 21% 17% 18% 13% 29% 

Numeracy 7% 31% 10% 8% 21% 23% 18% 13% 29% 



Selection of topics in which an e-learning component was included was also analysed 

according to the e-learning maturity of the respondent as shown in Table 4.4. 

Table 4.4 Respondents offering topics with an e-learning component 

Novices 

Sporadic 

users 

Developing 

Users 

Established 

Users 

Embedded 

Users 

Innovators 

Literacy 0% 20% 18% 31% 10% 11% 

Numeracy 29% 23% 15% 28% 20% 11% 

General IT user skills 17% 51% 74% 84% 100% 56% 

Communication skills 33% 17% 42% 69% 50% 56% 

Team working 17% 3% 26% 53% 60% 33% 

Problem solving 0% 6% 29% 56% 80% 44% 

Induction 14% 31% 40% 66% 90% 74% 

Leadership & Management 0% 14% 29% 66% 80% 70% 

Customer handling/service 14% 9% 34% 66% 50% 41% 

Sales and marketing 29% 6% 24% 53% 60% 48% 

Office/admin skills 14% 23% 31% 56% 70% 44% 

Technical or practical skills (non-IT) 0% 26% 32% 56% 90% 67% 

IT professional skills 14% 37% 58% 66% 100% 63% 

Industry specific 29% 40% 35% 72% 90% 67% 


(not included above) 0% 26% 39% 78% 100% 78% 

Foreign language skills 0% 14% 18% 22% 50% 19% 

Equality and diversity 0% 26% 29% 56% 60% 52% 

Health & safety 29% 14% 45% 75% 70% 52% 



The probability of topics being offered with an e-learning component when compared by 

maturity shows 4 distinct patterns. 

a) IT skills show an adoption pattern that rises rapidly in the early stages of maturity. It 

can be seen that for developing users 74% use e-learning for general IT skills and 58% 

for professional IT skills. 

b) 1. Topics increasing with maturity (communication skills, induction, leadership and 

management skills, health and safety, office and administration skills and non-IT, 

technical or practical skills) and 

2. Topics increasing with maturity which are little used by novices (team-working, 

problem solving, customer handling or service skills, sales and marketing skills,, 

foreign language skills and equality and diversity training). For the topics in both 

this list and the previous one we can expect companies to use e-learning 

increasingly as a component within these topics as they increase in maturity. 

c) For industry and company specific skills, thee-quarters of the more mature 

organisations using e-learning components in these topics, rising from a third for those 

organisations which are not amongst the most mature. 

d) Two topics, literacy and numeracy, show no consistent change with the maturity of 

the organisations delivering them. 

Figure 4.2 plots the average of the averages for the groups listed above and therefore is only 

indicative of the changes. 

Figure 4.2 Adoption patterns by topics as organisations become more mature 

80% 

70% 

60% 

50% 

40% 

30% 

20% 

10% 

0% 

Less Mature Becoming Mature More Mature 

IT skills 

Industry specific 

Topics increasing with maturity 

Topics increasing with maturity little used by novices 

Topics independent of maturity 



For those organisations that wish to develop in maturity and e-learning, IT skills are a good 

starting point. 

The adoption curve for literacy and numeracy may be influenced by the availability of free 

courses through learndirect. Nineteen percent of all respondents state that they deliver 

these programmes. Of those respondents who selected learndirect as a supplier this rises to 

53%. However, of all those respondents who deliver literacy and numeracy programmes with 

an e-learning component, only 25% indicated that learndirect is a supplier. This indicates 

that respondents are obtaining this material from other suppliers, or alternatively are not 

aware that their supplier was using learndirect material. 

Overall we can see that early on in an adopting e-learning user organisations rely on e- 

learning using IT skills and then switch to other topics as they gain confidence. It is also clear 

that industry-specific e-learning becomes as important as the delivery of IT skills once 

organisations have gained the confidence that comes with maturity. 

There are few differences seen when the survey results are analysed by geographic location. 

Sixty percent of global companies provide foreign language training compared to an 

average 30% for all other companies; a blinding glimpse of the obvious perhaps. Global 

companies also supply less literacy and numeracy programmes, approximately 25%, 

compared to 35% of other organisations. Two other possible areas of difference emerge: 

that of industry-specific and company-specific training. For both these topics global 

companies and those on a UK site, approximately 80% of those respondents who deliver 

those training programmes do so with a component of e-learning; for companies in the other 

2 geographic segments this drops to approximately 55%. Companies with many branch 

locations are also more likely to use e-learning for equality and diversity; 80% of those who 

deliver these programmes are likely to use e-learning as opposed to approximately 50% for 

companies in the other geographic segments. Global companies and those in many 

branch locations are also more likely to deliver induction programmes via e-learning, 60% as 

opposed to 50% for companies with either a single UK site or only a few sites (Figure 4.3). 

Companies with many branch locations are less likely to use e-learning for sales and 

marketing training, 33% of companies in these segments as opposed to approximately 50% 

for other companies. Several of these differences may be based on logistics, induction 

training is clearly popular for those organisations with many dispersed locations and possibly 

availability of generic e-learning material. The fact that companies in all geographic 

segments are equally likely to deliver health and safety with an e-learning component but an 

increased penetration of equality and diversity training via e-learning is only apparent for 

those with dispersed UK operations. 

4.2 Topics learners are interested in 

Learners were asked which topics they studied using technology. The question asked “have 

you used technology (on-line courses, CDs or other technology learning tools) in any of your 

formal training in the past 12 months”? For each topic respondents were offered 2 choices: 

yes – in work or arranged by your employer, or yes – outside of work. The assumption in this 

latter case is that positive responses to this option indicate that respondents will have 

completed such learning either at their own expense, as part of a funded educational 

programme not sponsored by their employer, or as part of a voluntary activity. We know 

that a significant number of charities for example do provide e-learning to volunteers. 



Figure 4.3 The range of topics studied by learners 


Health & safety 

Company specific (not included above) 

Communication skills 

General IT user skills 

Management skills 

Equality and diversity 

Industry specific compliance 

Team working 

IT professional skills 

Customer handling/service 

Induction 

Problem solving 

Office/admin skills 

Sales and marketing 

Basic skills training (literacy/numeracy) 

Other (please specify) 

Foreign language skills 

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 

n=1183 

Arranged by employer 

Outside work 

Ref: This graph appears as Figure 30 from Towards Maturity: Insights for Employers and Training Providers 

Table 4.5 Provision and usage of e-learning programmes 

Programme areas Provided by % of employers Used by % of employees 

Technical or practical skills 49% 54% 

Health & safety 34% 37% 

Company specific 33% 34% 

Communication skills 30% 36% 

General IT user skills 28% 35% 

Management skills 25% 31% 

Ref: This table appears as Table 3 from Towards Maturity: Insights for Employers and Training Providers 

Table 4.5 compares the percentage of employees studying particular subjects with a 

percentage of employers offering that subject, although this must be viewed with some 

caution. The employee respondents came from 14 of the companies who responded in 

stage 1 of the survey. Ninety-nine percent of the employee respondents were confident 

computer users, whereas for 20% of the employer respondents less than half of their 

workforce used computers regularly. What is interesting to note is the extent to which 



employees are using e-learning in some form to find out about topics of direct relevance to 

work, technical practical skills for example. We might expect learners to be interested in 

transferable skills such as those of communication, general IT and team working. This only 

seems to be the case for foreign language skills. The fact that a significant amount of foreign 

language skills are acquired using e-learning outside work is no surprise. The market for 

foreign language training has, for a long time, used various forms of technology. 

The number of respondents who state that they do use e-learning outside of work is an 

indication of the extent to which e-learning has become available in what might be 

described as the retail learning market. 

4.3 Programmes offered 

Employer respondents were asked to select programmes from the list provided. These 

included programmes for individuals outside their direct workforce. Figure 4.4 shows the 

percentage of organisations stating that they offered programmes and those that offer 

programmes with an e-learning component 

Figure 4.4 Programmes offered by organisations 

Industry certification 

Learning for customers 

Professional body qualification 

Basic skills 

Learning for suppliers 

N/SVQ 

Community or CSR 

Foundation Degree 

Employee family and friends 

Apprenticeship 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 

n=173 

Offered with no e-learning component 

Offered with e-learning component 

Ref: This graph appears as Figure 31 in Towards maturity: Insights for Employers and Training providers 

The occurrence of the use of e-learning on its own was extremely infrequent. The highest 

percentage occurrence is for basic skills where 4% of respondents indicated that they 

provided this via e-learning alone. The majority of respondents in this 4% did not select 

learndirect as a supplier and would not have been making use of the basic skills programme 

that is funded through learndirect. We can see that the penetration of e-learning remains 

low for programmes many of which are designed to lead to qualifications. 



Table 4.6 shows the percentage of respondents offering training to support these 

programmes by sector. 

Table 4.6 Work-based programmes offered 

Manufacturing 

Transport 

Financial 


Public sector 

Education 

Health 

IT and Telecoms 

Others 

Industry recognised 

certificate/qualification 67% 76% 78% 76% 88% 73% 75% 55% 62% 

Learning for our customers 60% 62% 50% 71% 47% 73% 50% 65% 57% 

Professional body training 50% 56% 70% 75% 55% 43% 41% 38% 57% 

N/SVQ 53% 67% 26% 47% 62% 49% 65% 25% 48% 

Basic skills/Skills for Life 60% 43% 35% 47% 56% 59% 50% 40% 48% 


programmes 60% 57% 52% 47% 32% 39% 30% 40% 33% 

Apprenticeship 53% 71% 17% 29% 41% 41% 25% 35% 57% 

Learning for our suppliers 53% 57% 30% 47% 21% 41% 20% 50% 33% 

Foundation Degree 47% 43% 30% 29% 44% 51% 35% 30% 19% 

Employee friends and family 

programmes 53% 48% 22% 41% 32% 37% 15% 25% 29% 

N= 15 21 23 17 34 41 20 20 21 

The demand for industry-recognised qualifications is led by the public sector closely followed 

by transport, finance and business activities. We know that compliance training is more 

important for the finance sector, which may explain the high percentage of programmes in 

this sector seeking industry recognised certificates. E-learning is frequently used for IT 

professional skills but about half of organisations in the It and telecommunications sector 

include an e-learning component within industry recognised qualifications. It would appear 

that the IT and telecommunications industry uses e-learning for individuals to acquire specific 

job-related skills rather than a coherent qualification programme. Differences between the 

education sector and others are reported elsewhere. Apart from learning for customers and 

industry recognised qualifications the use of e-learning in the education sector to support 

programmes is on a par with or behind many other sectors. We can expect the 

manufacturing sector to lead on apprenticeship training in general and the 2 sectors that 

use e-learning most for apprenticeships are manufacturing and transport; the 2 sectors most 

likely to offer training to apprentices are manufacturing and transport. 



The following table shows the penetration of e-learning by programme and sector. This is 

calculated from the percentage of respondents who offer a programme and the 

percentage who offer that programme with an e-learning component. 

Table 4.7 Penetration of an e-learning component into work-based programmes 

Manufacturing 

Transport 

Financial 


Public sector 

Education 

Health 

IT and Telecoms 

Others 

Professional body training 32% 41% 64% 33% 27% 32% 39% 23% 42% 


certificate/qualification 33% 31% 100% 25% 69% 37% 40% 39% 50% 

Basic skills/Skills for Life 67% 34% 6% 0% 27% 45% 49% 13% 17% 

N/SVQ 25% 21% 50% 0% 14% 20% 8% 0% 30% 

Apprenticeship 22% 33% 0% 0% 0% 17% 10% 13% 30% 

Foundation Degree 22% 8% 17% 0% 18% 44% 17% 25% 0% 

Learning for our suppliers 50% 20% 25% 0% 7% 18% 0% 71% 17% 

Learning for our customers 63% 17% 71% 38% 97% 88% 25% 70% 86% 


programmes 43% 33% 14% 0% 7% 14.3% 0% 17% 25% 


programmes 38% 10% 80% 0% 27% 20% 67% 20% 17% 

All the industry recognised qualification programmes in the finance sector use e-learning. A 

pattern that emerges is that learning for customers tends to use a greater proportion of e- 

learning than other programmes. Undoubtedly this is because such programmes are cheap 

to deliver at the point of use and once the initial investment is completed there are no 

additional costs incurred dependent upon the number of users. Although the question was 

not asked, it clearly makes sense for organisations to offer such learning free at point of use. 

The business activities sector is least likely to use e-learning for programmes and only does so 

for professional body training, industry qualification and customer programmes. Even here 

the penetration is approximately one-third. Almost all the training the public sector provides 

for its customers is delivered through e-learning. The sector that is most likely to use e- 

learning in its programmes is the manufacturing sector. Appendix B describes the nature of 

the respondents comprising this sector in this study. Many of them were pharmaceuticals 

and thus not representative of the manufacturing sector at large. The above differences are 

all relatively small given the small number of respondents in each sector. 

Table 4.8 explores the percentage of respondents offering topics with an e-learning 

component by e-learning maturity. Given the segmentation based upon the question in the 

survey it is difficult to see patterns emerging. 



Table 4.8 Respondents offering skills with an e-learning component 

Novices 

Sporadic 

users 

Developing 

Users 

Established 

Users 

Embedded 

Users 

Innovators 

Professional body training 0% 26% 21% 31% 50% 33% 


certificate/qualification 29% 26% 27% 56% 50% 30% 

Basic skills/Skills for Life 0% 23% 18% 19% 20% 11% 

N/SVQ 33% 17% 42% 69% 50% 56% 

Apprenticeship 29% 11% 3% 13% 10% 4% 

Foundation Degree 0% 6% 5% 16% 20% 19% 

Learning for our suppliers 0% 0% 8% 22% 40% 11% 

Learning for our customers 29% 17% 26% 38% 50% 41% 


programmes 0% 9% 6% 13% 10% 4% 

Community or CSR programmes 0% 11% 10% 16% 0% 11% 

If we collapse the segments slightly into the less mature, becoming mature and more mature 

and categories the programmes into types then a much clearer trend emerges. The original 

10 programmes offered have been reduced to a group of 6 in Figure 4.5. Job related 

qualifications include professional body training and industry recognised qualifications. 

These only increase penetration of delivery with the most mature organisations, similar to the 

growth of industry and company specific topics. The wider community learning programme 

(includes friends and family of employees), and introductory qualifications (includes 

apprenticeships and foundation degrees) change little with maturity. 

The probability of organisations offering basic skills programmes with an e-learning 

component is independent of the maturity of the organisation. Two programmes do stand 

out which are increasingly more likely to be delivered by more mature organisations. As 

organisations mature there is a significant increase in the probability of delivering Vocational 

Qualifications with an e-learning component. Traditionally, because of the requirements for 

assessment and workplace monitoring, these programmes are relatively expensive for 

employers to deliver. The benefits of administration may be the driving force behind the 

increased probability of these programmes using e-learning as organisations become more 

confident and mature about how e-learning should be deployed. The other growth area 

with maturity is providing learning for suppliers. As companies become more confident in 

their use of e-learning they may realise that, because delivery costs are effectively zero, it 

requires no additional investment from them to provide their employee programmes to their 

suppliers. By doing this they are able to enhance the quality of the supply chain. 



Figure 4.5 Programmes offered with an e-learning component 

0.7 

0.6 

0.5 

0.4 

0.3 

0.2 

0.1 

0 

Less mature N= 41 Becoming mature N = 62 More mature n = 69 

Job related qualifications 

Introductory qualifications 

N/SVQ 

Wider community learning 

Basic skills/Skills for Life 

Learning for our suppliers 

Respondents are also segmented by geographic location to see if that has any impact on 

the probability of e-learning being used in any particular programme as shown in Table 4.9 

below. Companies with a few sites are more likely to use e-learning within apprentice and 

foundation degree programmes, but even here the penetration is about a quarter and 

about 10% of companies overall. Neither globalisation nor a dispersed branch operation 

significantly increases the probability of e-learning being used in any qualification 

programme. Indeed for Vocational Qualifications the probability of these programmes using 

e-learning, globally or in branch locations, is less than for those companies who operate from 

a few UK sites. 

Table 4.9 Penetration of e-learning 

Worldwide A few sites Single UK site 

Many branch 

locations 

Professional body training 50% 53% 46% 52% 


certificate/qualification 38% 39% 41% 32% 

Basic skills/Skills for Life 21% 30% 32% 39% 

N/SVQ 15% 23% 13% 19% 

Apprenticeship 17% 23% 18% 6% 

Foundation Degree 14% 29% 27% 18% 



Worldwide A few sites Single UK site 

Many branch 

locations 

Learning for our suppliers 26% 21% 27% 18% 

Learning for our customers 43% 39% 44% 36% 


programmes 21% 12% 33% 10% 

Community/CSR programmes 17% 32% 18% 18% 

262% 300% 299% 248% 

4.4 Services provided to learners 

Respondents were asked to select from a list of both formal and informal learning services 

that they provided. The list of formal offers is shown in Figure 4.6 

Figure 4.6 Types of formal online services offered 

Electronic learning materials 

Assessment 

Adminstration 

Collaboration between learners 

Competency management 

E-tutor support 

Evaluation of business impact 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 

Is used now Is planned by 2010 

Ninety percent of respondents report using electronic learning materials. For many users e- 

learning is defined as the delivery of content and therefore this is no surprise. We deliberately 

chose a wide definition of e-learning, particularly to explore the future use of on-line facilities. 

This approach is justified by the significant number of respondents who are using e-learning 

for learning services other than the delivery of electronic learning material. The pattern of 

learning services provided might be expected to change with maturity and more mature 

organisations do deliver a wider range of learning services on-line as shown in Figure 4.7. 



Figure 4.7 Formal online services offered changes with maturity 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 

Innovators 

Embedded 

Users 

Established 

Users 

Developing 

Users 

Sporadic 

users 

Novices 

Competency management 

E-tutors 

Collaboration between learners 

Adminstration 

Assessment 

Business evaluation 

Every learning service included in the survey question is more likely to be delivered by more 

mature organisations. The delivery of electronic learning materials is not shown here as this 

changes little with maturity. The average response rate between novices and sporadic users, 

for example, is 80% and it remains between 80% and 95% for all segments of maturity. The 

service reported in the figure above show similar growth rates with maturity but different 

probabilities of being used; on-line business evaluation being least likely and administration 

services most likely. 

Respondents were also offered a selection of 4 informal learning services (Figure 4.8). 

> Communities of practice/mentoring/coaching. 

> On-line access to company expertise. 

> Simplify access to relevant on-line resources (e.g. through improved search engines). 

> On-line books/job aids. 

A later question asked respondents how they supported learners after learning back in the 

workplace. This included a response for on-line job aids. Only 17% of respondents selected 

that option in that part of the survey. It is therefore highly probable that the 64% selecting 

on-line books/job aids are in fact referring to on-line books rather than job aids. If that is the 

case this high percentage indicates a growth in e-books and the delivery of text 

electronically perhaps through portable document formats. The 2 informal services most 

likely to be offered, on-line books and search portals, are both designed to enable learners 

to find things out for themselves from a large source of information made available to them. 



Figure 4.8 Types of informal online services offered 

Online books 

Search Portals 

Online company experts 

On-line communities 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 

Is used now Is planned by 2010 

Personal contact through email to experts or through on-line communities is slightly less likely 

to be offered although still by more than 40% of respondents. The probability of these 

services being offered is compared by grouping maturity segments as shown in Figure 4.9. 

There is a clear increase in the probability of informal services being offered with maturity. 

Figure 4.9 Use of informal techniques increases with maturity 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 

Less mature Becoming mature More mature 

Search portals 

On-line communities 

Online company experts 

Online books 

See also Figure 33 Towards Maturity: Insights for Employers and Training Providers 

As more organisations become more mature we can expect a significant growth in these 

types of services. Based on a comparison of maturity versus experience (Chapter 1) we 

might expect organisations to move from less mature to more mature within 3 to 5 years. The 

future of informal learning and forecasts for the tools that will support it are discussed in more 

detail in Chapter 9. However we see technology supported social learning will represent an 

increasingly important part of learning provision in organisations over the next 3 years. 


6 IT capability 

5 Take-up of software tools in support of e-learning 

Overview: This chapter explores the range of learning technologies used in support of e- 

learning and looks at the trends emerging with e-learning maturity. 

Respondents were asked a number of questions relating to the technology they use as listed 

in Figure 5.1. They were asked how many they were using, or planning to use in the next 3 

years. Respondents were offered 4 choices; I’m not familiar with this term, this is not used 

here, this is used in some programmes, this is used in most programmes, this will be used in 3 

years’ time. 

Figure 5.1 Current and planned use of learning technologies 

Learning Management System (LMS) 

63% 

17% 

Video conferencing 

Content Management Systems 

Games/simulations/intray excercises 

45% 

46% 

52% 

6% 

15% 

8% 

Virtual classroom 

Unmoderated chat rooms/discussion groups 

Moderated chat rooms/ discussion groups 

36% 

32% 

38% 

17% 

13% 

14% 

Competency Management System 

23% 

19% 

Open source e-learning tools 

Rapid application development tools 

33% 

32% 

6% 

6% 

Mobile learning 

Blogs/wikis 

Electronic Performance Support Systems 

Podcasting 

e-portfolios 

Video on demand 

22% 

19% 

20% 

13% 

23% 

15% 

15% 

15% 

12% 

17% 

6% 

14% 

n=164 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 

Currently in use 

Planned within 3 years 

Ref: This graph appears as Figure 54 in Towards Maturity: insights for Employers and training Providers 

5.1 Technologies used to support e-learning 

Figure 5.1 shows the technologies in the order most likely to be used. In the majority of cases 

only 3% or 4% of respondents selected the “I am not familiar” box for the technologies listed. 

Exceptions were, competency management systems (14%), open source e-learning tools 

(16%), rapid application development tools (18%), electronic performance support systems 

(24%) and e-portfolios (26%). The concept of electronic performance support systems or 


5 Learning technologies 

tools is more than 20 years’ old and the high percentage not familiar with the term indicates 

that this is a style of application that is likely to be of less interest to most people; certainly 

one that is not talked about in literature to any significant extent. By contrast on-line books or 

job aids are known about by 98%. It would appear that the simpler electronic job aid is likely 

to be more popular than EPSS. 

Respondents are asked about study support and helping learners consolidate their learning; 

in these questions they were asked if they used electronic help and job aids (17%) and online 

web reference materials (27%). These latter figures are more in line with the 20% of 

respondents who currently use EPSS. On the other hand both rapid application and open 

source tools are relatively new and have reached a stage where approximately 4 out of 5 

respondents were familiar with these terms. It is less of a surprise that only 4 out of 5 

understand the term Competency Management System. Although this has been available 

as a concept for 15 years it is perhaps more the province of HR managers than learning and 

development managers. Competency management does show one of the largest growth 

rates in comparison to its current usage. Almost as many respondents will plan to implement 

competency management by 2010 as are currently using it. 

The high percentage of users who are not aware of e-portfolios and the low probability of 

them being used is disappointing bearing in mind the importance these are likely to assume 

in the education system. Only 3 out of 4 respondents recognise the term and of those only 

one-third actually deploy e-portfolios. 

The lead position occupied by Learning Management Systems is reflected in all the 

segmentation analysis used in this study and is perhaps related to the importance of 

administration and compliance reporting as drivers and benefits of e-learning. When 

structuring the questions the category labelled content management systems actually said 

“Content Management Systems (CMS, VLE)”. A Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) 3 has 

some similarities with a virtual classroom. Students are able to communicate synchronously 

or asynchronously with each other and with their tutors. Tutors can prepare and store 

content for access by students. This may be a category that respondents have interpreted in 

a variety of different ways. Differences have been noted between responses in the 

education sector and others; reported in more detail elsewhere. Unfortunately we cannot 

determine how many respondents considered this choice as a development tool or as a 

collaborative learning tool. If the latter this follows a pattern of collaborative learning tools 

being an area of expansion from a user base of approximately 25%. Collaborative tools are: 

video conferencing, virtual classroom, chat rooms (both moderated and unmoderated), 

blogs/wikis and virtual learning environments (content management systems). Collectively 

they are in the bottom half of the figure reported previously and least likely to be in use, or 

planned. 

3 Wikipedia: Components of these systems usually include templates for content pages, discussion forums, chat, 

quizzes and exercises such as multiple-choice, true/false and one-word-answer. Teachers fill in these templates and 

then release them for learners to use. New features in these systems include blogs and RSS. Services generally 

provided include access control, provision of e-learning content, communication tools, and administration of the 

user groups. 



5.2 Impact of maturity on the use of software tools 

The various responses have been analysed in accordance with a number of other factors. 

Table 5.1 lists the responses by maturity segments. 

Table 5.1 Software tools used vary with maturity 

Novices 

Sporadic 

users 

Developing 

Users 

Established 

Users 

Embedded 

Users 

Innovators 

LMS 40% 65% 81% 97% 67% 92% 

Video conferencing 60% 47% 59% 58% 89% 73% 

CMS 0% 59% 52% 58% 78% 88% 

Chat - unmoderated 20% 38% 41% 48% 78% 88% 

Virtual classrooms 20% 38% 50% 52% 67% 73% 

Chat rooms- moderated 20% 35% 40% 55% 67% 81% 

Games 0% 38% 52% 55% 78% 69% 

Mobile learning 60% 26% 26% 32% 67% 65% 

Open source tools 20% 44% 28% 39% 56% 58% 

Wikis / blogs 40% 24% 31% 29% 56% 58% 

Competency management 0% 38% 36% 45% 67% 50% 

Video on demand 60% 18% 28% 16% 56% 50% 

Rapid development tools 0% 21% 29% 52% 44% 69% 

Pod casting 20% 21% 21% 32% 33% 62% 

EPSS 0% 21% 26% 42% 44% 50% 

E-portfolios 0% 26% 26% 16% 44% 58% 

N=163 5.00 34.00 58.00 31.00 9.00 26.00 

An increase in probability of use is shown in the table moving to more mature segments. The 

table shows the percentage of respondents in each segment who selected that particular 

technology to be one that they were currently using. All these technologies have been 

plotted against maturity. They are grouped as information and production tools, as delivery 

tools and as collaborative tools and plotted against 3 levels of maturity 



Figure 5.2 Information and production tools 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 


LMS (17%) Competency management (19%) 

E-portfolios (6%) Rapid development tools (6%) 

Open source tools (6%) 

In Figure 5.2 the percentage of respondents who selected the option for planning to use the 

tool by 2010 is shown in brackets after the title of the software tool. This figure shows that in 

almost every case for information and production tools more mature respondents are more 

likely to use these tools; the exception being open source tools. A possible explanation is that 

less mature organisations select the use of open source tools as an inexpensive entry point to 

e-learning, to enable piloting and experimentation prior to a formal business case being 

established. For example, 44% of sporadic users selected this option. It is very clear that the 

availability of such open source tools provides an entry point for training functions in the 

absence of a strategy or business case. 

If we assume that it takes 2 to 3 years for organisations to move from being less mature to 

more mature then we can estimate the growth in the use of these tools by 2010 by 

comparing current use for organisations of different maturity. For example, 17% of 

respondents said that they will be implementing Learning Management Systems in the next 3 

years but the difference in market penetration dependent on maturity is 30%. With 91% of 

more mature users selecting LMS it is more likely that, for the less mature, there will be a 

growth rate nearer 30%. With more or less equal numbers in each category the estimate of 

future use balances with a prediction by maturity. The figure for rapid development tools, 

however, is likely to be different to the 6% reported in Figure 5.1. It is far more likely to assume 

a growth rate of 30 to 35% based on the comparison of the use of rapid development tools 

by maturity. Using the same estimating principle the growth rate in competency 

management tools of 19% is optimistic, as only 50% of more mature respondents use these 

products. With only a third of more mature organisations using e-portfolios then a growth 

rate of 6% seems reasonable. The prediction for the Government therefore is that by 2010 

only a third of companies will be adopting e-portfolios. 



Figure 5.3 Delivery tools – change of use by maturity 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 


Mobile learning (15%) Video on demand (14%) 

Podcasting (17%) EPSS (12%) 

Games (6%) 

Figure 5.3 shows the change in use of a number of delivery tools; again in every case more 

mature users are more likely to be using these tools. A growth rate of 6% in the use of games 

is predicted from the overall question, however, there is a 30% difference between the 

probability of use by more mature and less mature organisations. Based on the data in this 

figure it seems more likely that the use of games/simulations/in-tray exercises will grow by 

15%. Although the shorthand title ‘Games’ has been used when reporting these results it is 

essential to understand that respondents were given a much wider definition. In addition the 

project has emphasised a very broad definition of e-learning. Therefore a management 

game played electronically between participants, based on in-tray exercises could have 

been included in a respondent’s answer reported here as ‘Games’. Some of the delivery 

tools listed here are still very early in their technological adoption curve. Pod casting and 

video on demand, for example, require both bandwidth and software infrastructure in place. 

Although changes in the domestic market will make these more widely available these 

technologies are likely to face significant corporate barriers. 

The same may be said of mobile learning, although the definition offered to respondents 

included both laptops and tablet PCs. Such platforms are already widely in use for learning 

and work. It is perhaps disappointing that only half of the more mature respondents said that 

they delivered mobile learning; although this is significantly greater than the 22% who said 

that they made e-learning available when travelling. 

Figure 5.4 lists the software and tools that enable collaborative working between learners. 

The CMS/VLE has been included in this list here. The older but established technology of 

video conferencing achieves the second highest penetration for more mature users. A fuller 

discussion of the possible growth in collaborative tools is left until a later chapter when the 

views of learners and their preferences have been considered. 



Figure 5.4 Use of collaborative tools increases with maturity 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 


Video conferencing (8%) Chat - unmoderated (14%) 

Virtual classrooms (13%) Chat rooms- moderated (17%) 

Wikis / blogs (15%) CMS / VLE (15%) 

The likelihood of a respondent using one of these tools may be linked to the maturity of the 

tool itself. Video conferencing has been available for longest and wikis/blogs is the newest 

technology on this list. In general collaborative tools achieve a higher penetration in use with 

more mature users than all the other technologies, with the exception of Learning 

Management Systems. 

5.3 Differences due to geography and size 

Figure 5.5 plots major differences between the penetrations of specific technologies by 

geographic circumstances. Overall those with many branch or office locations are less likely 

to use the technologies listed in the legend (only differences for any one segment over 15% 

have been plotted). The results for organisations with a few UK sites are not shown, they are 

slightly less likely to use a range of technologies, least likely to use rapid development tools 

but otherwise the probability of a particular software application being used in organisations 

with this geographic distribution is very close to that of the overall average. 

The differences that emerge are that those with many locations are less likely to use software 

tools and those on one UK site are more likely to use software. It might be supposed that this 

difference arises from a cost barrier; the cost of implementing technology in many locations 

is greater than that in one UK site. However, this is not borne out when respondents listed 

their perceptions of barriers, as 43% of those with many locations selected cost as a barrier, 

as did 44% of those with one UK site. What may be a greater influence is the nature of the 

segment who stated that they operated from one UK site; many of them were part of larger 

organisations, for example NHS and education. Others were smaller more innovative 

companies typically in the e-learning sector itself. 

Global companies are more likely to choose the collaborative tools of video conferencing 

and virtual classrooms. Clearly with global travel costs to consider the ability for people to 

meet and conduct both business and learning will pay for the investment rapidly. 



Figure 5.5 Differences from average take-up of technologies by geography 

40% 

20% 

0% 

-20% 

-40% 

Global One UK site Many locations 

Video conferencing Virtual classroom Chat- not moderated 

Chat- moderated e-portfolios Mobile learning 

EPSS Blogs/wikis Podcasting 

An interesting difference emerges with EPSS, more likely to be used in global organisations 

but less likely to be used in organisations with many UK locations. Whilst the potential 

improvement in efficiency for both styles of organisations would be the same, those with 

many UK locations do seem more reluctant to adopt e-learning technologies. What is 

surprising is that those with one UK site are much more likely to take on the collaborative 

working tools of chat and blogs and wikis. They are equally likely to be using virtual 

classrooms as global organisations are. Perhaps those on a single site find it easier to 

experiment with new technologies than those with many branch and office locations, as the 

amount of investment will be less and the project management and deployment of new 

technology will be easier. Those with a single UK site are also more likely to provide e- 

learning at home (67%) as opposed to 45% of those with many locations. The percentages 

for the other geographic distributions are 67% for those with a few relatively large sites and 

70% of global companies. 

Use of technology was also compared by size of organisation, but few patterns emerged. 

The only notable differences were the adoption of LMS, which rises more or less evenly from 

52% of the smallest companies (less than 280 staff) to 88% of the largest companies (more 

than 10,000 staff). Not surprisingly the use of video conferencing was related to size, with a 

third of the smallest companies having it available, as compared to 67% of the largest. This 

may also reflect the fact that the larger companies were much more likely to be global 

operations. The probability of games simulation as an in-box exercise being used also 

changes with size of organisation but the pattern is not consistent. Thirty-eight percent of 

smaller organisations use games compared to 58% of the largest. However this drops to 30% 

for middle-sized organisations. Apart from video conferencing, the other collaborative tools 

do not show consistently more use amongst larger organisations. 




Overview: This chapter considers the effect that improving organisational IT capability has on 

the key dimensions. IT capability also influences where learning can be offered and the 

types of support provided to learners. 

6.1 Key differences observed with IT capability 

In most organisations e-learning has to rest on a foundation of IT capability. Two of the self 

perception questions behaved in a similar way and may be considered to relate to the IT 

capability of an organisation. These are: our learners are familiar with PCs and need little 

technical support; and our technology infrastructure is capable of delivering e-learning to 

places convenient to staff. Taking the average of these 2 questions and using a cut-off with 

a value of 7 means that the employer respondents could be segmented into 79 (termed IT 

not capable) and 68 (termed IT capable). The results on these 2 segments are analysed in 

relation to a number of factors seeking noticeable differences. The definition of IT capability 

therefore rests on the 2 questions that have been used to make this segmentation. In one 

case: IT infrastructure; employer responses have much greater similarity with other factors 

relating to availability and it is included in that dimension. The confidence and ability of 

employees to use PCs is independent of most other dimensions. 

Figure 6.1 Effect of IT capability on key dimensions 

8 

6 

4 

2 

0 

Business 

Impact 

Staff Impact Availability Takeup Financial 

Impact 

IT capable (n=68) 

IT not capable (n=70) 

Ref. This graph appears as Figure 22 in Towards Maturity: Insights for Employers and training Providers 

Figure 6.1 shows the main differences in the dimensions. In every single case a respondent’s 

perception is in closer agreement with the positive statements associated with business 

impact, staff impact, availability, take up and financial impact, if they work for an 

organisation which is measured as being more IT capable. Because the same factor (IT 



infrastructure) is used both to segment by IT capability and to calculate the dimension 

“availability”, the difference in scores between averages 5.4 and 7.1 for this dimension must 

be viewed with some slight caution. Even taking this into account organisations which are IT 

capable make e-learning more available. We may conclude that having the appropriate IT 

infrastructure and IT confident staff increases the probability of e-learning being successful. 

Figure 6.2 Key differences associated with IT capability 

Training function capability 

Services offered 

Average number of drivers 

Directors / Senior managers using e-learning 

Technologies used 

Average number of roles using e-learning 

Barriers cited 

0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 



Training function capability has been defined in Appendix A, Table A.2. This definition 

includes having good links with the IT department and a clear understanding of the 

capability of internal IT to support e-learning. Clearly there is a link between the capability of 

the training function to use and deploy e-learning with the delivery system and also with the 

confidence of users of the technology. The assumption is that training functions and, to a 

lesser extent, learners, improve their capability and expertise in response to improved IT 

infrastructure. 

The services offered are defined by questions 15 and 16 of the questionnaire, which included 

a list of formal and informal on-line services. The possible maximum total for any one 

organisation is 11. In this graph above the value has not been re-based to 10 and therefore 

is not compatible with the measure of training function capability, scored out of ten. 

Nevertheless it gives a true comparison between IT capable and IT non-capable 

organisations. On average, those organisations that perceive themselves to be more IT 

capable, offer about one and a half more on-line services in support of learning. 

The total number of drivers that can be selected by a respondent is 15. On average IT 

capable organisations select 7 drivers as opposed to 5½ drivers for those who are not IT 

capable. Those organisations which have more confident staff and a better IT infrastructure 

see more opportunities for using e-learning. The technologies considered are defined in 

question 17 of the questionnaire, which included a total of 16 technologies that could be 

selected. Again this has not been re-based to 10, indicating that most IT capable 

organisations select about one-third of the technologies in the survey but those lacking 

confident staff and appropriate infrastructure select a quarter. 



For the average number of roles who use e-learning the possible maximum is for users to 

select all 9 roles, this average has not been re-based to 10. This is the score which 

demonstrates the least difference between IT capable and not capable organisations. 

Neither the infrastructure nor user confidence make a great deal of difference to the number 

of roles that organisations deliver e-learning to. A far greater difference is observed when we 

compare whether directors use e-learning or not, as shown in Figure 3.7. Here there was a 

difference of 5 roles in terms of the average number of roles who used e-learning when 

directors did so and when they did not. The behaviour of role models within an organisation 

matters more than having the right infrastructure, or having PC confident staff. 

Respondents could select from a list of 13 barriers. Those who are IT capable select, on 

average, one less than those who are not IT capable but in either case the number of 

barriers that are selected is few. 

We may conclude from this pattern that training functions rise to the challenge of an 

adequate IT infrastructure and confident users by offering more services, seeing more 

opportunities and using more technologies. They also see fewer barriers. 

More than half of IT capable organisations deliver e-learning to their directors or senior 

management. Bearing in mind what we know about the significance of directors as a 

leadership role, it is perhaps surprising that they have less of an impact on organisations 

lacking IT capability, when only 41% of such organisations deliver e-learning to directors. 

6.2 Influence on success 

Figure 6.3 Variation in influence of roles with IT capability 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 

Head of 

Finance 

Head of 

IT 

Head of 

HR 

Business 

sponsor 

Local Board 

champions executive 

Line 

managers 

Learners 

Training 

department 



The pattern that emerges is that support departments, finance, IT and HR are of less 

significance to IT capable organisations than those that are not. We may assume that it is 

more difficult to deliver e-learning in the environments which are less IT capable and 

therefore training functions need more support from other support functions, either practical 

help or financial endorsement. One of the biggest differences noted is the role of the 

business sponsor, who becomes more frequently cited as a key influence in those 

organisations which have adequate IT infrastructure and confident users of PCs. 



We may assume that business sponsors in these organisations are more likely to perceive e- 

learning as a suitable route for achieving their business aims. 

We can also see differences in where e-learning is delivered and the range of topics offered. 

Figure 6.4 IT capability affects where learning can be offered 

% of topics offered by e-learning 

At the desk 

At home 

Internal Learning Centre 

In a quiet area 

Travelling 

External Learning Centre 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100 

% 

IT capable (n=68) IT not capable (n=70) 

This figure plots the percentages of organisations who state that they deliver e-learning at a 

desk, at home, in learning centres, in quiet areas or when travelling. 

The biggest difference between the 2 segments we are considering are in delivery of e- 

learning to a quiet area or when travelling. It would appear that when e-learning is available 

in these areas and, to a lesser extent at home, respondents are more likely to agree that they 

have an appropriate and convenient IT infrastructure. 

The figure labelled percentages of topics offered by e-learning is calculated as follows. The 

total number of times that e-learning is available for a topic is divided by the total number of 

times training is provided irrespective of delivery method. Thus this percentage represents the 

extent to which e-learning has penetrated a particular market. For all organisations e- 

learning is likely to be available half the number of times that training in a topic is available. 

This penetration of the market is shown by topic in Table 4.1. For IT capable organisations this 

penetration rises to 60%. 



6.3 Supporting learners 

Figure 6.5 Learner support mechanisms change with IT capability 

Line management coaching 

Web study support 

Web technical support 


Printed job aids 



0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 




This figure shows the effect IT capability has on the way that learners are supported. There is 

a significant difference in the probability of line management coaching being available. This 

is cited as an e-learning support mechanism by 60% of organisations having an infrastructure 

and confident PC staff and 40% of organisations that do not. This may be because staff are 

more confident about requesting such support from line managers, or line managers 

themselves are more confident about delivering it. 

Using the web for study support, technical support and job aid support is more prevalent in IT 

capable organisations. The reasons for this are self-evident, as is the probability that IT 

capable organisations are far less likely to use printed job aids. What is surprising is that IT 

capable organisations are more likely to provide reference books. It is unlikely that 

respondents interpreted this as on-line reference books, as the option selected states 

“reference books” and is in the same sequence as a selection described as; electronic 

support mechanisms for learners. IT capable organisations are twice as likely to consider 

virtual classrooms with approximately one in 5 respondents making that selection. 

We may observe even greater differences in the way that feedback is sought from learners. 

Figure 6.6 shows that 60% of IT capable organisations will consider surveys of user satisfaction, 

almost twice as many as those organisations which are not IT capable. 



Figure 6.6 Seeking feedback from learners 

70% 

60% 

50% 

40% 

30% 

20% 

10% 

0% 

No feedback Team meetings Follow up at work Surveys of user 

satisfaction 



It is possible that these surveys may be on-line; the question that was asked does not 

differentiate between paper surveys and on-line surveys. It is perhaps disturbing to note that 

organisations lacking IT capability seek much less feedback than those with IT capability and, 

indeed, 13% collect no feedback from learners at all. 

Figure 6.7 Sourcing and managing production of e-learning 

% with e-learning dedicated training team 

% demanding e-learning to exact specs 

% demanding Training Analysis skills 

% not using suppliers 

Commercial products 

In-house rapid development 

In partnership with vendor 

In-house expert tools 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 

IT capable N=68 IT not capable N=70 



In Figure 6.7 we can observe that IT capable organisations are more likely to use commercial 

products and in-house development, either with a vendor or for themselves. The remaining 

methods of sourcing show little difference and are not shown. IT capable organisations are 

more likely to have part of their training function dedicated to e-learning, this undoubtedly 

reflects on their perceived capability reported in Figure 5.2. We can also see that they are 

slightly more likely to be demanding, requiring e-learning to exact specification, although this 

difference is less than others. They are less likely to be using suppliers; 30% of IT capable 

organisations selected that option compared to 21% of IT not capable organisations. 

These differences are also indicative of the confidence and capability of the training 

function. Clearly there are a number of related factors linking the trainers, the infrastructure 

and the learners. Greater capability in all 3 areas increases the number of ways in which e- 

learning can be used, who it is delivered to, what technologies are used and its impact on 

the business and on staff. 


7 Supporting learners 


Overview: We examine the range of study support options provided to learners from both the 

employer and the learner perspective. 

Respondents were asked a number of questions concerning the methods they used to 

support learners, including study support, technical support and methods to help them apply 

learning in their jobs. This includes both on-line material and resources and help by people, 

either in person or remotely via some electronic means. Respondents were given a list of 

possible options and were able to select as many as appropriate in response to the question: 

“What study support do you provide to your learners?” 

Learner respondents were asked an identical set of questions. 

Figure 7.1 Study support provided to learners 

With on-line web reference materials 

With a tutor in email contact 

In person before e-learning starts 

With a tutor in telephone contact 

In person during the course 

Through a learning resource centre 

In person for review and evaluation 

With a virtual learning classroom system 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 

Ref. This graphs appears as Figure 36 in Towards Maturity: Insights for Employers and Training Providers 

Figure 7.2 shows the responses of learners when asked whether the study support they had 

was useful or not useful. Learner respondents were also given the option of indicating 

whether such resources were available or not available. Hence the 2 options that learners 

select and are presented here do not add up to 100%. Although learner responses give an 

indication of what learners think of the support provided these are for a limited number of 

organisations, rather than the 200 employers who participated in the employer survey. 

Therefore we are not directly comparing like with like. 



Figure 7.2 Learner support – the learner perspective 

On-line web reference materials 

Electronic help and job aids 



Job related assignments 

Through a learning resource centre 



In person to review/evaluate 

W ith a virtual learning classroom system 

With a tutor in telephone contact 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 

Available and useful 

Available but not useful 


The questions asked of learner respondents covered both support whilst studying and also 

help provided to consolidate and apply what they had learnt on the job. 

The most frequently provided method of study support, on-line reference materials, is highly 

regarded by learner respondents with 82% saying that it was available and they found it 

useful, although 15% said it was available and they did not find it useful. The proportion of 

learner respondents who found a support service useful when it was available is shown in 

Figure 7.3. Of the 15 options offered to learner respondents at least 69%, of those where it 

was available, found all forms of study support useful. Proportionately the most useful, at 

88%, is job related assignments provided by 38% of employers. We can contrast this with 

email contact from a tutor, provided by 42% and useful to 74% of those where it was 

available. An interesting point to emerge is the high value placed upon support in the 

workplace, with both job related assignments and electronic help and job aids, valued by 

more than 80% of those to whom it was available. 

The data supporting Figure 7.3 is grouped into help provided in person, electronic help, help 

delivered electronically from individuals and print based help. The proportion of respondents 

who consider this valuable where it was available was calculated for these groups. There is 

no significant difference between the method of delivery and the proportion of recipients 

who considered it useful. The percentages varied from 85% for print based help and 88% for 

electronic help. 



Figure 7.3 Learner support- what is most useful when it is available 




Print based help 

Electronic help 


With web reference materials 


In person to review and evaluate 

Help in person 


Help in person delivered electroncally 

By a learning resource centre 

With a virtual classroom 

With a tutor by telephone 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 

The conclusion is that all help delivered directly to learners is considered valuable. Learner 

respondents were not asked their view of the most frequently provided form of help, that of 

line management coaching, although they were asked to select the one individual who was 

most influential in encouraging them to learn. Fifty-two percent of learner respondents chose 

their manager and 59% of employer respondents said they provide line management 

coaching and feedback to support the application of learning for the job. Even those 

support mechanisms only rarely available, for example virtual learning classroom systems 

available in 16% of employers and to 17% of learner respondents, are considered useful by 

72% of those to whom it is available. 

It appears that the method used to deliver support is less important to learners than the fact 

that it is available. For example the 3 methods of support least valued by learners (although 

70% of them do value these methods of support) are, the learning resource centre, the virtual 

classroom and telephone support from a tutor. Telephone contact by tutors is offered by a 

third of organisations, learning resource centres by 30% and virtual learning classroom 

systems by 16%. When making investment decisions about support to be provided 

organisations should bear in mind the perceived value to recipients. It would appear that 

telephone contact with tutors, learning resource centres and virtual classrooms are providing 

the least benefit to those they support. If we compare all methods of support that are 

synchronous with those that are asynchronous, the proportion of respondents for whom they 

are available and who perceive the support mechanism to be useful is 74% for synchronous 

methods of support and 83% for asynchronous methods. This adds weight to one of the main 

conclusions emanating from this report, that convenience as to time and place for learners is 

one of the most significant attributes of e-learning in all its forms. 



7.1 Difference in support provided by maturity segments 

The responses to the questions concerning the support provided to learners are analysed 

against maturity. No particular pattern emerges. Whilst in general there is growth with 

maturity there is no consistent pattern for any one of the methods of support. No particular 

pattern emerges if we group the methods of support as requiring personal contact, personal 

support provided electronically or electronic support. There is a slight pattern emerging, 

shown in Figure 7.4, which seems to imply that more mature organisations will use more 

methods of support. However, bearing in mind that there were very few novices in the 

respondents, Figure 7.4 must be viewed with caution. All that it really says is that most 

respondents use on average, 2 or 3 different types of support. 

Figure 7.4 Number of different types of tutor support 

5.00 

4.00 

3.00 

2.00 

1.00 

0.00 

Novices 

Sporadic 

users 

Developing 

Users 

Established 

Users 

Embedded 

Users 

Innovators 

Similarly no particular pattern could be detected for different sizes of organisations. 

However, segmenting via geographic distribution, as shown in Figure 7.5, does produce 

some differences. 

Organisations with relatively few numbers of UK sites are far more likely to provide learner 

support in person, either before, during or after learning has been delivered. Worldwide 

companies are least likely to do this; they are more likely to provide electronic support 

through reference sites. Organisations with a single UK site are more likely, even than global 

companies, to provide this type of electronic support. Again companies with one UK site are 

more likely to provide personal support through email, telephone or virtual classrooms. Of 

the 36 employer respondents with a single UK site, 19 placed themselves in the education 

sector, 5 placed themselves in the health and social work sector, of which at least 3 were 

within the NHS. Others included Local Authorities. This particular segment is dominated by 

organisations who are in fact part of much larger structures and who would have been more 

inclined to seek help and support outside their own organisation but within their 

organisational support structure; DfES for education, Strategic Health Authorities for health 

and central government for local authorities. 



Figure 7.5 Learner support compared by geographic characteristics 

Many small sites 

1 UK site 

A few sites 

Worldwide 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 

Support provided in person 

Electronic support 

Personal support provided electronically 

Five of the opinion based Likert scale questions relate to the support provided to learners. 

Figure 7.6 Workplace learners support by maturity 

8.0 

7.0 

6.0 

5.0 

4.0 

3.0 

2.0 

1.0 

0.0 

Novices Sporadic users Developing 

Users 

Established 

Users 

Embedded 

Users 

Innovators 

Appraisal used Managers coach Access to mentor 

Off-site learning allowed 

Empowered staff 

See also Figure 40 Towards Maturity: Insights for Employers and Training Providers. 



We found a consistent improvement in agreement for all 5 of the learner support offers as 

organisations become more e-learning mature. This is supporting evidence that more mature 

organisations put more effort into supporting learners using a greater range of support 

mechanisms. 

7.2 Learning support and business impact 

The various support mechanisms are analysed and compared with changes in business 

impact. In Chapter Two differences related to business impact were reported, this analysis 

was based upon dividing employer respondents into quartiles based upon 6 of the Likert 

scale questions which define the dimension business impact. Figure 7.7 plots the percentage 

of respondents in each one of those segments that provide the support and consolidation 

processes listed in the figure. 

Very clearly, those organisations that put more effort into supporting learners in the 

workplace are more likely to be found in the upper quartile for business impact. Other 

support mechanisms not shown in the graph do not show such a distinct relationship with 

business impact. The key message for those inside organisations seeking to support learners 

and maximise their business impact is to concentrate on these 4 methods of support. 

Figure 7.7 Business impact increases when learning is consolidated 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 




Re-assessment 


Line manager coaching 



7.3 Learners’ view of support 

Learner respondents were also asked a number of questions concerning the support they 

received. 

Figure 7.8 reports the percentage of learners who agree with the statements; that is their 

score was in the top third of the 1-10 agreement scale. From the learners perspective the 2 

most valuable features of e-learning are that it is convenient to their work schedule and they 

are able to quickly put into practice what they learn from e-learning. The learner 

respondents are not an exact match with the employer respondents. The majority of the 

learner respondents worked for just 14 of the employers who completed the employer survey. 

Appendix B reports on the demographics of the learner respondents. However, over 40% of 

respondents agreed that their managers appraised them at regular intervals and provided 

coaching feedback support. The analysis earlier in this chapter shows the link between this 

and e-learning maturity and the business impact of e-learning. 

Figure 7.8 Support received by employees 

Convenient to work schedule 

Ability to put learning into practice 

Elearning relevant to my job 

Appraisal from line manager 

Provision of coaching from line manager 

Time to learn at work 

Time to learn elsewhere 

Commitment of senior management 

Access to a mentor or buddy 

0% 20% 40% 60% 

A group of additional questions are shown in Figure 7.9 which plots a further 7 responses to 

questions asked of employees that are related to the support they receive. 

These are related to attributes that are valued by learners and related to e-learning. The 

most positive agreement is to the statement: “I am empowered to request my own training 

and to take ownership of my own development”, with 65% of respondents agreeing. 

Over half agree that e-learning is valuable because it gives them additional opportunities for 

development and 43% do e-learning without prompting. A third state that they are more 

interested in professional qualifications since using e-learning and half regard it as important 

that e-learning contributes to a recognised qualification, 52% wish to receive some 

recognition for succeeding at e-learning irrespective of whether qualifications are involved. 



Figure 7.9 Attributes valued by employees 

Empowerment to take charge of my own 

development 

Recognition for success 

Additional opportunites for development 

A recognised qualification 

Do e-learning without prompting 

A more personalised approach 

Professional qualifications 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 

The importance of empowerment becomes even more significant following the completion 

of an additional analysis. Appendix B discusses, in detail, the factor analysis approach, 

which enables us to group the opinion-based questions asked of learners into six key 

dimensions. Learner’s responses within these dimensions are reported in Figure 7.10. 

This figure shows the percentage of learner respondents who feel positive (that is their 

average responses are in the top third of agreement) about the dimensions listed. Fifty-four 

percent feel positive about the empowerment that e-learning gives them. 

Figure 7.10 Learners’ views by dimension 

Learners are empowered 

Job relevance 

Learners have control over their 

opportunties 

Need for recognition 

Detachment 

Management support 

0% 20% 40% 60% 

Percentage with positive view of dimension 



Appendix A defines what we mean by empowerment. It is derived from the factor analysis 

of the statements, rather than having an inherent definition of itself. In the context of this 

report it means that learners are confident about using PCs, they know what training is 

available, they do e-learning without prompting, they are able to do it at a place and time 

that is convenient to them and feel empowered to ask for what they need. 

Twice as many respondents feel empowered as feel they are supported by their 

management. Management support being defined as: commitment of senior management, 

coaching and feedback support, appraisal, freedom to work at home or locally and time to 

learn at work. It would appear that for the target group of learners who responded to this 

survey it is easier for them to take charge of their own development than to feel supported 

by their management. This general positive view, that empowerment brings to learners, is 

more clearly demonstrated in Figure 7.11. 

Figure 7.11 Relative importance of dimensions to learners by segment 


Job relevance 

Control over learning 

Recognition 

Detachment 

Management Support 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 

Empowerment Control over learning Management support 

Job relevance Recognition Detachment 

This graph shows the percentage of learners who feel positive about the key dimensions 

segmented by those dimensions themselves. For example, the set of percentages shown 

against empowered learners is the percentage of those learners who feel empowered who 

also feel positive about the control they have, the management support they receive, the 

relevance of e-learning to their job, their need for recognition and disagreement with feeling 

detached from e-learning. 

Detachment is defined by those respondents who agree that they only do e-learning when 

told to do so and find the choices offered confusing. In Figure 7.11 the responses to this 

question are therefore shown for those respondents who disagree with those 2 statements. 

Figure 7.11 shows that learners who feel empowered also feel more positive about all 5 of the 

other dimensions, that is more positive than learners who feel positive about those other 

dimensions. 



This segmentation is not exclusive as empowered learners are clearly well represented in 

each one of the other 5 segments or groupings. As well as clearly demonstrating the positive 

reinforcement supplied to learners who feel empowered it is also interesting to reflect that 

those learners who feel supported by management are least likely to feel positive about the 

other 5 key dimensions. 

7.4 Technical support 

Employer respondents were also asked how they provided technical support to their learners 

(Figure 7.12). 

Figure 7.12 Provision of technical support to learners 

Telephone help desk 

By email 

In person 

Through a web resource 

n=139 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 

An interesting difference emerges between the way technical support is provided and the 

way learning support is provided. Thirty-three percent of respondents provided telephone 

tutor support although 79% provide technical help via the telephone. Forty-five percent 

provide study support through Web reference materials but only 33% provide technical 

support through a Web resource. This demonstrates not only the very different nature of the 

support required but possibly that technical support is easier to provide by telephone with a 

24/7 coverage, whereas more specialised learning and subject support is more difficult to 

provide to learners by telephone at the time they require it. We should also bear in mind that 

50% of employer respondents said that more than 90% of their employees were regular PC 

users; by assumption requiring less technical support as individuals but more technical 

support as a population; because they spend more time using computers. 


8 Promoting e-learning 

8 Promoting and sustaining e-learning 

Overview: A range of communications techniques are used by organisations to promote new 

e-learning initiatives and to sustain learner interest. We focus on the approach used by 

mature organisations realising the greater impact from their e-learning. 

Both employer and learner respondents were asked a number of questions related to 

sustaining interest in e-learning. Employers were asked the methods by which they promoted 

and launched e-learning and those they used to sustain interest in it. Learners were asked 

how they first heard about e-learning and the various ways in which their interest was 

sustained. Figure 8.1 shows the methods used segmented by the maturity of the 

organisation. 

Figure 8.1 Promotion of e-learning – what mature organisations do differently 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 

e-mail 

Manager Newsletter Posters Open days Peer 

briefings 

testimonies 

Video Giveaways SMS 

Less mature (n=33) Becoming mature (n=49) More mature (n=54) 

Respondents could select all the methods that applied but were given the option of 

selecting none; that is they used no communication or promotion method to launch e- 

learning. This was selected by 9% of those less mature organisations and 2% of those 

becoming mature. The more mature organisations use more channels to promote and 

communicate about e-learning. The use of email is independent of maturity and is the most 

frequently used method of communication. Manager briefings are least used by less mature 

organisations, indeed almost half as frequent for the least mature as opposed to the most 

mature organisations. This pattern is repeated for both newsletters, posters and open days, 

all of which are less likely to be used by the less mature. Open days are more likely to be 

used by the more mature (a third of such organisations) as opposed to one in 5 of those 

becoming mature and one in ten of those less mature. Peer testimonies are equally likely to 

be used by organisations irrespective of maturity and approximately one out of 5 do so. 



Figure 8.2 shows the same communication methods, this time in response to the question 

“Following the launch what communication methods do you use to maintain interest?” 

Figure 8.2 Sustaining e-learning – what do mature organisations do differently 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 

e-mail Newsletter Manager 

briefings 

Posters 

Open 

days 

Peer 

testimonies 

Video Giveaways SMS 


There is less difference in frequency of use of email, newsletters and management briefings 

with maturity, particularly between the becoming mature and the more mature. The less 

mature are less likely to use email, briefings and posters. Less mature organisations use fewer 

communication methods at launch, they are less likely to use communication to sustain 

interest; indeed 4% of the less mature organisations use no such communication and 2% of 

those becoming mature do not communicate to sustain interest. What is the potential 

business return from this promotional activity? 

Figure 8.3 Sustaining interest in e-learning according to business impact 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 

e-mail Newsletter Manager 

briefings 

Posters Open days Peer 

testimonies 

Video Giveaways SMS None 

Take-up of e-learning 

Top quartile 3rd quartile 2nd quartile Lower quartile 

Ref: This graph appears as figure 48 in Towards Maturity: Insights for Employers and Training Providers 



Again, email is equally likely to be used irrespective of the business impact achieved from e- 

learning. However, both newsletters and management briefings are least likely to be 

deployed by those organisations that achieve least business impact. Posters are most likely 

to be used by those organisations that achieve the most business impact. The remainder of 

the differences reported are relatively minor. 

To achieve business impact organisations should sustain their use of email, add in first 

management briefings, then newsletter input about e-learning and finally posters. 

The influence exerted on success by different categories of individuals is reported in Chapter 

2. It’s worth reflecting that the more mature organisations do regard learners as much more 

significant to the success of e-learning; 64% of the more mature organisations selected 

learners as key influences, as opposed to 23% of the less mature. Likewise with managers, 

these were selected as a point of influence by 46% of the more mature and 19% of the less 

mature. The best means training departments have of communicating with these 2 target 

groups is through email, briefings, posters, open days and newsletters. Since the more 

mature organisations believe line managers and learners have a greater influence on the 

success of e-learning it is hardly surprising that they put more effort into communicating with 

these 2 groups. 

The analysis explores the effect the various methods of communication have on take-up. 

Respondents are segmented into quartiles dependent upon the take-up of e-learning. The 

take-up of e-learning is defined in Appendix A and is a result of the factor analysis of the selfrated 

questions. 

Figure 8.4 Promoting and sustaining take-up – action to achieve take-up 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 


Take-up of e-learning 

e-mail Newsletter Manager briefings Posters Open days Peer testimonies 

Email is the most frequently used communication method. Figure 8.4 shows the return in 

greater take up from increased effort into newsletters, management briefings and, to a lesser 

extent, posters and open days. There is a consistent increase in the probability of newsletters, 

management briefings and posters being used with an increase in take-up. Both open days 

and peer testimonies show less difference with take-up and, it may be assumed, will show less 

of a return in increased take-up than other methods of communication. 



Whilst we also asked employers about the use of give-aways and SMS messages, numbers in 

use are very small and the differences are less. However, 16% of organisations in the top 25 th 

percentile for take-up use give-aways and SMS; for organisations in the bottom 75 th 

percentile approximately 5% will use these 2 methods of communication. Both these 

methods go someway to pushing take-up towards the upper limits. Ten percent of 

organisations in the bottom half for take-up use no communication methods to promote and 

sustain the use of e-learning, compared to about 5% in the top half for take-up. 

8.1 Learners response to the communication methods 

Learners were asked how they first found out about e-learning and what types of 

communication kept them interested. For the first question they were only allowed to select 

one response. 

Figure 8.5 Learner response to communications about e-learning 

Email 

Line manager briefing 

Company newsletter 

Peer testimonies 

Open days 

Poster 

Giveaways 

SMS 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 

Finding out 

Sustaining interest 

The use of a video by a senior executive was only offered as an option for the ‘finding out’ 

question and no learners selected this option; this is not shown in the figure above. It is very 

apparent that the least effective methods of launching e-learning are SMS, give-aways, 

posters and open days. Peer testimonies are only marginally effective, being selected by 5% 

of the population. Almost twice as many respondents (38%) selected email as the method 

by which they found out about e-learning, as opposed to line management briefings (22%), 

with 12% selecting a company newsletter. The pattern remains very similar for the types of 

communication to which learners respond and that keep them interested in e-learning. 

However, open days, posters and give-aways become significantly more important than at 

launch, with about one in ten learners selecting these as communication methods that keep 

them interested. The learner responses were segmented by age, education levels, gender, 

management responsibilities, where people worked and where and when they learnt. There 

were no significant differences by either gender or education levels. One or 2 other 

differences have been identified and are reported in the following figures. 



Figure 8.6 Communication about e-learning – effect of age of learner 

70% 

60% 

50% 

40% 

30% 

20% 

10% 

0% 

Company 

Newsletter 

Line 

Manager 

Briefing 

Giveaways Poster Company 

Newsletter 

Line 

Manager 

Briefing 

Email 

Finding out 

Sustaining Interest 

Age is = 55 N = 126 

Younger learners are far more likely to respond to line management briefings than older 

learners. One third of those 25 or under found out about e-learning through a line 

management briefing, as opposed to one in ten of those 55 or over. On the other hand 

company newsletters were more effective with older learners, with about one in 5 selecting 

these as a means by which they discovered about e-learning as opposed to one in 20 for 

younger learners. 

For sustaining interest email proves slightly more effective with older learners (63% of those 

over 55 as opposed to 54% of those under 25). Line management briefings continue to be 

effective as a means of sustaining interest for younger learners and again company 

newsletters more effective for older learners. It would appear that younger learners also 

respond to give-aways and posters more than older learners. Where there is little difference 

in the responses by age to a method of communication this is not shown. A similar analysis 

was completed for management responsibility. 

Respondents were asked if they managed their own time, or if it was managed for them; 

they were asked if they had responsibilities for others or not. Those who are responsible for 

managing others are slightly more likely to respond to company newsletters, both as a 

means of finding out about e-learning and sustaining their interest. They are much less likely 

to respond to line management briefings or give-aways. Those who do not manage their 

own time are more likely to respond to give-aways, although less likely to respond to email. 

The pattern that emerges is that those who are able to work independently are more likely to 

respond to remote methods of communication and those who are more directly managed 

are more likely to respond both to their own line managers and to actions such as giveaways 

which make them feel more valued. 



Figure 8.7 Communication about e-learning – effect of management responsibility 

70% 

60% 

50% 

40% 

30% 

20% 

10% 

0% 

Company 

Newsletter 

Line Manager 

Briefing 

Company 

Newsletter 

Giveaways 

Email 

Finding out 

I do not manage my own time (n=57) 

No responsibility for others (n=459) 


I manage my own time (n=778) 

Responsible for others (n=376) 

A similar analysis is completed based upon where respondents work. Although the majority 

of respondents work at a regular place, 35 worked from home and 52 on site at a customer. 

For these small groups there are some noticeable differences. 

Figure 8.8 Communication about e-learning – effect of where learners work 

70% 

60% 

50% 

40% 

30% 

20% 

10% 

0% 

Company 

Newsletter 

Line 

Manager 

Briefing 

Email Open Days Poster Company 

Newsletter 

Line 

Manager 

Briefing 

Finding out 


All Work at a regular place N = 740 

Work from home N = 35 Work On site at customer N = 52 



Those who work at a customer’s site are, not surprisingly, much more likely to select email as 

the method by which they found out about e-learning. They are much less likely to select a 

company newsletter and slightly less likely to select a line management briefing. Those who 

work at home, on the other hand, are more likely to select a company newsletter and less 

likely to select email as the means by which they find out about e-learning. They are slightly 

less likely to select a line management briefing. For sustaining interest open days and 

company newsletters are valued by those working at home. Those working at a customer’s 

site are less likely to respond to open days, posters, company newsletters and line 

management briefings. Their probability of responding to an email is similar to other 

respondents. Where there are no significant differences in the responses this is not reported. 

Figure 8.9 Communication about e-learning – effect of when learning occurs 

70% 

60% 

50% 

40% 

30% 

20% 

10% 

0% 

Company 

Newsletter 

Line 

Manager 

Briefing 

Email 

Open Days 

Giveaways 

Poster 

Peer 

Testimonies 

Company 

Newsletter 

Email 

Finding out 

Learn in a quiet spot away from the desk (n=32) 

Learn at home (n=132) 

Learn in company time (n=668) 


Learn at the desk (n=643) 

Learn in own time (n=167) 

Those who learn in a quiet spot away from the desk show a marked difference to the 

majority of respondents. Some caution should be exercised as only 32 respondents placed 

themselves into this segment. However, they are much less likely to use company newsletters 

or open days as a means of finding out about e-learning. They are more likely to select line 

management briefings as the communication method which worked for them. This may 

have something to do with either learners’ preferences or working environment although we 

cannot tell why they do not learn at their desk; possibly a preference for being away from a 

busy office, possibly they have a customer service role and need to be out of sight of 

customers, possibly they need to be away from ringing ‘phones in a call centre, possibly 

exercising a personal preference for a space in which they can reflect quietly as part of the 

learning process. These preferences could be explored in a further study. 



There is a similar pattern of responses from learners about communication that keeps them 

interested. They are less likely to select any of the communication methods except posters, 

being slightly more likely to respond to posters than other segments. They are least likely to 

respond to give-aways. 

About 4 times as many respondents selected the ‘learn at home’ option (132) against the 

‘work at home’ option (35). It is possible that those who learn in their own time are in the 

same group as those who learn at home. If so, this will explain the similarity in the 

percentage of respondents selecting the various different methods of communication in 

both these segments. 

Based on this analysis we can see that in general e-mail is both the most frequently used 

method of communication and also the one learners are most likely to respond to. There are 

learners in special situations and perhaps with personal preferences who are more likely to 

respond to other methods of communication. Location is undoubtedly a factor, as is 

management responsibility. The successful organisation uses multiple channels of 

communication and based upon the evidence of this report, should also direct different 

styles and types of communication to learners in different situations. However, increasing the 

use of management briefings, newsletters and posters are effective ways of increasing takeup 

and improving the probability of e-learning being successful. 

8.2 Convenience of e-learning 

Providing learners with the freedom and information to manage their own development is a 

significant factor in influencing the impact e-learning has on them and their attitude about 

all other aspects of e-learning. Delivering e-learning, therefore, at locations which are 

convenient for them makes a significant difference. 

Figure 8.10 Availability and access to learning 

Technology allows me to learn in a place 

that is convenient for me 

I am empowered to request my own training 

and take ownership of my development 

I know what is available to me and how to obtain it 

I find e-learning convenient for my work schedule 

My manager makes time for me to learn at work 

e-learning gives me with more control 

of my own development 

My manager allows me work time to learn 

at home or locally 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 




Learners feel most positive that technology allows them to learn in a place that is convenient 

for them. Seven out of 10 learners agree with this statement. In general there are equally 

positive feelings concerning the majority of the other statements reported above all of which 

relate to the ability of learners to take charge of when and where they learn. 

Respondents are less likely to agree that their manager gives them the freedom to learn 

where they want and more likely to agree that the technology delivers that capability. So, 

where do organisations make learning available? Employer respondents were asked where 

they made e-learning available from a choice of six locations. 

Figure 8.11 Where is e-learning offered and where is it done? 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 

At the desk At home In-house 

learning 

centre 

A quiet 

spot away 

from desk 

When 

travelling 

External 

learning 

centre 

Where is e-learning offered (n=174) 

Where is it done (n=1072) 

Ref: This graph appears as Figure 44 in Towards Maturity: Insights for Employers and training Providers 

Employers extending the range of locations in which learners can study. The majority of 

employer respondents make e-learning available at the desk; 93%. Half provide an in-house 

learning centre. Sixty percent make e-learning available at home. It would appear that 

learners do not respond by making use of these locations. However, the comparison must 

be viewed with some caution as the majority of employee respondents are drawn from just 

14 organisations that completed the employer survey. Whilst the employer survey was 

anonymous some of the respondents left either a name or an email address, from which it is 

possible to determine that at least 9 of the employer organisations deliver e-learning at the 

desk and 8 make it available at home, 3 at an in-house learning centre, 5 in a quiet space 

away from the desk and 3 when travelling. Four of the 14 employer respondents are 

anonymous which means we do not have a complete picture of the facilities offered to the 

learners who completed the employee survey. However, we can reasonably estimate that 

three quarters of the learner respondents would have been able to study e-learning at home 

but only 16% did so. A much smaller proportion, perhaps a quarter, would have had access 

to an in-house internal learning centre but only 3% used this as a location in which to learn. 



8.3 Who influences learners? 

Learner respondents were asked who encouraged them to learn. They were given a list of 6 

individuals and asked to one. The list included managers (chosen by about half of 

respondents), a colleague (chosen by about a quarter), a training manager (chosen by 

about 10%), a senior executive (chosen by about 5%), a friend (chosen by about 3%) and a 

learning centre co-ordinator (chosen by about 1½%). The responses of learners are analysed 

against a number of factors. There is little difference based upon education or age 

differences; although there are differences dependent upon where learners work and where 

and when they learn. 

Figure 8.12 Who encourages learning varies with work and learning location 

When I 

learn 

in my own time 

in employer's time 

Where I learn Where I work 

on customer's site 

a regular place 

at home 

at home 

at my desk 

a quiet spot away from the desk 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 

Manager Colleague Training Manager Senior Executive Friend 

These responses reflect the findings about promotional and communication methods. Those 

who learn at home are more likely to select friends and senior executives as the individual 

who is most likely to encourage them to learn. Those who work primarily on a customer’s site 

are least likely to respond to their line manager and most likely to respond to their training 

manager. Those who work in their employer’s time are more likely to be encouraged by their 

line manager than those who learn in their own time. 

There are some slight differences with age, in that younger members of staff are likely to be 

more responsive to line managers. This supports the information reported about 

communication; younger employees are more likely than older employees to find out about 

e-learning from their line manager. 



Figure 8.13. Who encourages learning varies with age and responsibility 

Age is Management time 

Responsible for others (n=376) 

No responsibility for others (n=459) 

I manage my own time (n=778) 

I do not manage my own time (n=57) 

55 or over (n=126) 

40 to 54 (n=314) 

26 to 39 (n=292) 

25 or under (n=103) 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100 

% 

Manager Colleague Training Manager Senior Executive Friend 

8.4 Obtaining feedback 

Responding to learners and being seen to respond to learners is an important part of 

influencing the workforce. Respondents were asked to select from a list of methods those 

that they used to obtain feedback from learners. Respondents were given a choice of 5 

methods of collecting feedback plus the option of saying they did not do so. 

Figure 8.14 Methods used to gather learner feedback 

Feedback sheets following each course 

70% 

Regular surveys of user satisfaction 

48% 

Focus groups 

Follow up once they are back at work 

Team meetings 

29% 

23% 

31% 

We do not gather learner feedback 

7% 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 




It is no surprise that feedback sheets, the so-called ‘happy sheet’, are the most frequently 

used method of collecting feedback. This data is analysed against maturity (Figure 8.15). 

Figure 8.15 Mature organisations gather more feedback from learners 

80% 

70% 

60% 

50% 

40% 

30% 

20% 

10% 

0% 

Focus groups 

Regular surveys 

of user 

satisfaction 

Follow up once 

they are back 

at work 

Team meetings 

Feedback 

sheets 

following each 

course 


It is very apparent that more mature organisations put more effort into collecting feedback 

from their learners. A significant difference is the regular surveys of user satisfaction, where 

more mature organisations are twice as likely to use this method of collecting feedback. The 

only method that shows little difference and no consistent difference with maturity is 

feedback sheets following each course. These are equally frequently used by organisations 

irrespective of their e-learning maturity. 

Although feedback following a course shows no link with business impact, the collection of 

feedback via focus groups, team meetings, follow-up at work and regular surveys are all 

more likely to occur in organisations who achieve the highest business impact from their e- 

learning. It is worth noting that the probability of regular surveys being used increases 

consistently with business impact, whereas other methods of feedback collection only show 

a significant difference for organisations in the top quartile for business impact. 

We can see a similar difference with staff impact (Figure 8.17). A similar pattern emerges in 

that those organisations who achieve greater staff impact from e-learning are putting more 

effort into collecting feedback from learners. There is one noticeable difference in the 

analysis of feedback methods against staff impact and business impact. The probability of 

feedback sheets being used is independent of business impact but may influence staff 

impact with a slight dependency in that the organisations in the lower quartiles are slightly 

less likely to be using feedback sheets. However this method of feedback is least effective in 

terms of influencing the success of e-learning. Probably the most effective in achieving 

change are regular surveys of user satisfaction. 



Figure 8.16 Business impact is enhanced by effective follow up 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 



Focus groups 

Team meetings 

Follow up once they are back at work Regular surveys of user satisfaction 


Ref: this graph appears as Figure 51 in Towards Maturity: Insights for Employers and Training Providers 

Figure 8.17 Staff impact is enhanced by effective follow-up 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 


Staff impact 

Focus groups 

Follow up once they are back at work 

Regular surveys of user satisfaction 

Team meetings 




8.5 Key actions that influence the success of e-learning 

The business impact, take-up and staff impact ratings are calculated for each respondent by 

the average of the individual ratings for the factors that make up the dimensions. The takeup 

rating also includes a calculation based upon the number of roles within the organisation 

who use e-learning. The correlation between each of these ratings and all the individual 

factors are calculated across data from 150 respondents. The following tables list those 

factors where the correlation index exceeds 0.4. The order enables organisations to prioritise 

those actions that are likely to make the biggest impact on e-learning success. 

Table 8.1 Enhancing Business Impact 

Factors correlated with Business Impact > 0.4 

Correl 

-ation 

We can provide access to a wide range of learning opportunities 0.68 

The visible demonstration of e-learning success within the business has helped us 

maintain resources allocated to learning 0.66 

We have a clear understanding of what types of e-learning our internal IT systems can 

support 0.53 

We are able to personalise the learning experience for each learner 0.53 

Change management is an integral part of our e-learning deployment and planning 0.50 

We regularly communicate e-learning successes to managers 0.50 

We provide line managers with training and briefings relating to specific e-learning 

courses 0.49 

Senior Management regularly demonstrate commitment to e-learning 0.49 

We provide each new e-learning initiative with a specific identity and brand 0.48 

Staff can access e-learning at any time 0.46 

We have achieved enterprise wide connectivity and collaborative working between 

work groups in different locations 0.45 

We have the skills to manage external e-learning providers effectively 0.45 

e-learning is helping our talent management and succession planning 0.44 

When we implement a new e-learning initiative we start with a pilot project before 

embarking on a company wide rollout 0.42 

Staff can access e-learning from anywhere 0.42 

We have audited the skills of those in the training function against the skills required 

for e-learning 0.42 

We use assessment tools to target skills needed to match work practices 0.42 

Our internal training team is willing to embrace new ways of working with technology 0.42 

Managers coach their own teams 0.41 



Table 8.2 Enhancing staff impact 

Factors correlated with Staff Impact > 0.4 

Correlation 





e-learning is helping our talent management and succession planning 0.54 


We identify and train local champions to act as change agents 0.50 



When we implement a new e-learning initiative we start with a pilot project before 

embarking on a company wide rollout 0.47 

Change management is an integral part of our deployment and planning of e- 

learning 0.46 

Staff can access e-learning at any time 0.44 

We achieve external recognition of our e-learning achievements (such as 

conference/seminar presentations, awards, quality marks) 0.44 

Learners have regular access to a mentor, coach or buddy with whom they have a 

personal relationship for the duration of a course 0.43 


We have achieved enterprise wide connectivity and collaborative working 

between work groups in different locations 0.41 



Table 8.3 Enhancing take-up of e-learning 

Factors correlated with Take-up of e-learning > 0.4 

Correlation 






Change management is an integral part of our deployment and planning of e- 

learning 0.47 


We have a clear understanding of what types of e-learning our internal IT systems can 

support 0.45 

There has been an increase in customer satisfaction since staff have had more 

access to e-learning 0.43 

We provide line managers with training and briefings relating to specific e-learning courses 0.43 

We use assessment tools to target skills needed to match work practices 0.43 


Tracking e-learning progress is essential for compliance purposes 0.43 


In completing the correlation calculations there was one factor that was close to zero in its 

correlation with the impact ratings of business, staff and uptake. This was the statement 

“Staff only study courses that are relevant to the work they are doing now or will do in the 

short-term future”. All other correlations exceeded 0.2, however the correlation for this factor 

was below 0.1. This is a strong indication that this particular factor is completely independent 

of the success, or otherwise, of e-learning. The implication is that those organisations who 

invest in learning credits so that employees can study content not directly relevant to their 

work, are unlikely to make a difference to the success of e-learning by this action although 

neither is it a detrimental activity. The correlation between this factor and positive changes 

in the behaviour and attitude of staff is 0.04. There are a number of other activities that 

would appear to be of uncertain value because of these lower correlation scores. Access to 

a mentor, coach or buddy also shows a weak relationship with any of the impact measures. 


9 The changing face of e-learning 

9 Towards Maturity – The changing face of e-learning 

Overview: This Chapter considers the increasing provision of informal learning opportunities 

and the uptake by learners. It explores the various types of provision and the degree to 

which learners find them both helpful and useful. 

9.1 Informal learning and the views of learners 

Finding things out for themselves is an important part of learning for all learners. Respondents 

were asked to agree with the following 2 statements: “I learn most by finding things out for 

myself”; “I learn most from Courses provided to me”. Specifically they were asked: “Please 

consider the following 2 statements and score your agreement with each statement out of 

10. Please note that you cannot agree with both but you might mark both as 5 if you learn 

equally in both ways. Ideally the 2 scores should add up to 10, or close to 10.” Inspection of 

the scores indicates that only 2 or 3 learners failed to allocate a score of 10 between each 

one of these statements. The average agreement with the first statement is 6 and the 

average agreement with the second statement is 4. We may interpret from this that 60% of 

what is learnt is done so when learners find things out for themselves. 

Learner respondents were asked a number of questions relating to their use of informal 

learning methods. One is “Outside of the formal training programmes, how else do you go 

about learning things in relation to your work?” This question has a choice of 8 categories 

and the option to describe other ways in which they learn. Respondents could state whether 

the method was very helpful, helpful, used by them and not used by them as shown in Figure 

9.1. 

Figure 9.1 How learners are building their skills and knowledge 

Searching the web 

Conversations 

Online reference 

Books 

Industry publications 



Participating in online communities 

(discussion groups) 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 

n=736 

Frequently used & very helpful Used and helpful Used Not used 




Learners were offered the opportunity to include additional methods of informal learning; 

10% did so but almost all of those are specific examples of methods listed above. Three 

comments stood out; 2 mentioned CPD and professional institute support and one 

mentioned “experimenting”, a healthy approach to learning from mistakes. 

The responses are analysed by age, gender, education level, management responsibility 

and work circumstances. The difference in the percentage of users for each of these 

informal methods varies across these segments. The 2 methods which varied least were 

electronic help and printed job aids where variation between all segments do not exceed 

10%. The 3 informal methods showing the greatest variation were amongst the ones most 

likely to be used: searching the Web, conversation and books, all of which showed a 

variation of about 30% between being least likely and most likely, depending on segment. 

9.1.1 Searching the Web 

Male respondents are slightly more likely to search the Web (56%) than female respondents 

(46%). Variation by age is less distinctive, with respondents aged 26 to 39 being most likely to 

search the Web (56%) and older learners least likely (47%). Location for where people learn 

shows a bigger difference; 62% of those who learn at home will search the Web, compared 

to only 30% at an internal learning centre. About half of those who learn in other locations 

will search the Web. Those who learn in their own time are slightly more likely to search the 

Web (58%) than those who learn in company time (50%). Not surprisingly work location has 

an impact with those working from home who are more likely to search the Web at 59%, than 

those who work in other locations (about half). Education level shows a consistent 

difference; those who achieve a higher standard of education are more likely to search the 

Web - 55% of graduates compared to 38% of those educated to 16. 

9.1.2 Conversations 

Those with a higher educational attainment are more likely to say they use conversations to 

learn from. Work location makes a difference, with only 41% of those working at home able 

to use conversations to learn from compared to about half in other work locations. Of those 

who learn in a quiet space 71% selected conversations as a means of learning, however 

there were only 32 respondents in this category so this difference should be viewed with 

some caution. Gender makes a small difference, with 45% of males and 52% of females 

saying they learn through conversations. 

9.1.3 Books, on-line reference and industry publications 

These 2 sources of informal learning show a similar pattern in probability of use by 

segmentation. Those who learn at home (28%) are more likely to use both sources, those 

who use an internal learning centre least likely (10%). This is mirrored by: those who work at 

home, where over a third use books and on-line references. This difference should be 

viewed with some caution, as there are only 35 respondents in this group. Books, unlike online 

reference, do show a significant and consistent change with education levels. Six 

percent of those educated to 16 will use books as a source of learning, compared to 26% of 

those educated to graduate level. Education levels affect the use of industry publications 

but this is not so exaggerated, with 6% of those educated to 16 using such publications and 

23% of those educated to graduate level. Those who learn in their own time are also more 

likely to use books, on-line reference and industry publications than those who work in 

company time. 



9.2 Technologies supporting informal learning 

Learners were asked their views of a range of technologies, some of which specifically 

support the type of informal learning shown in Figure 9.2. 

The 4 technologies that are most likely to be considered useful by learners are all associated 

with searching facilities. That is, learners who use technology to find out information for 

themselves in the absence of others. Over half of all respondents find this type of tool useful. 

The number of learner respondents who say that discussion boards and blogs and wikis are 

useful (27% and 17% respectively) is slightly more than those who say that participating in online 

discussion is both helpful and very helpful, a total of 18%. 

Figure 9.2 Technology supporting informal learning – learners’ views 

Search engines 

General web reference source 

Specific web reference source 

Searchable online books 

Discussion Boards 

Blogs/wikis 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 

Useful Not Useful Not Available 

Participating in on-line communities is the least used method of informal learning, used by 

only 34% of learner respondents. Age, education and work and learning circumstances all 

impact upon learners’ views. On-line communities are apparently a greater asset to those 

who work from home and to the older learner. Female learners and those of lower 

educational attainment are less likely to find on-line communities very helpful. 

Discussion boards on the other hand do not seem to be placed in the same category as online 

communities in the perceptions of users (Figure 9.3). Younger people have a preference 

for discussion boards, 33% perceive these to be helpful or very helpful as opposed to on-line 

communities where only 14% perceive them to be very helpful or helpful. It may be that an 

on-line community is perceived to be more formal than a discussion board or blogs/wikis. 

Work and learning circumstances have a big impact on the use of these informal tools. 

Those who work from home are the group most likely to be part of on-line communities, use 

discussion boards and contribute/learn from blogs/wikis. 



Figure 9.3 Discussion boards – which learners find them most useful? 

Learn at home 

Work on site 

Age is 25 or under 

Responsible for others 

Learn in own time 


Age is 55 or over 

Education to Graduate level 

Female 

Work from home 


Work at a regular place 


My time is managed for me 

Learn in company time 

Male 

Learn at the desk 



No management responsibility 

Education to Post 18 

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 

The use of blogs and wikis shows a similar usage pattern to that of discussion boards although 

with overall less frequency; as expected for a relatively new technology. Education levels 

seem to have a greater impact on the probability of learners using blogs and wikis than it 

does for discussion boards. It is somewhat surprising to see that those who work from home 

are amongst the group most likely to use discussion boards but least likely to use blogs and 

wikis. Users do not perceive these software tools as comparable or serving the same 

purpose. Neither do users directly relate participation in on-line communities with the use of 

discussion boards or blogs/wikis. 



Figure 9.5 Use of blogs/wikis – which learners find them most helpful? 

Learn at home 

Education to Graduate level 

Learn in own time 

Age is 55 or over 

Work at a regular place 





Female 

Male 

Learn at the desk 

No management responsibility 

Learn in company time 

Work on customer site 


Age is 25 or under 


Education to Post 18 


Work from home 

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 

9.3 Learners’ willingness to contribute 

Learner respondents were asked: “Are you willing to use technology to share your knowledge 

to help others learn (e.g. contributing to discussions rooms, etc.)? They were allowed 4 

possible responses as shown in Figure 9.4. 

The bottom line in this figure reports the responses from all learners who participated in the 

survey. Eighty-four percent of respondents were either already using technology to help 

others learn or would do so if they had the opportunity. The 26% who already do so is a close 

match to the 27% who find discussion boards useful and the 17% who find blogs/wikis useful. 

As on-line communities are only considered to be helpful by 18% of respondents it would 

seem that learners have a preference for using other forms of collaborative technology 

rather than on-line communities. Some differences emerged based upon the management 

responsibility of the respondent. Those who manage their own time are more likely to be 

willing to contribute to the learning of others through technology as are individuals with 

management responsibility for others. 

Responses to this question were also segmented on work circumstances, where a number of 

differences emerged. Those who work from home are most likely to be already using 

technology to help others learn. They are also most likely to say they would feel 

uncomfortable doing so, possible because their working relationships with others are not 

sufficiently social. Those who learn in their own time are also more likely to help others. 



Figure 9.4 Willingness to use technology to help others learn (by responsibility) 


No responsibility for others 



All 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 

I already do 

I would feel uncomfortable 

If I had the opportunity 

I don't have the time 

Figure 9.5 Willingness to use technology to help others learn (by time/location) 

Learn in company time (590) 

Learn in own time (148) 

Work on customer site (49) 

Work from home (32) 

Work at a regular place (653) 

Learn in a quiet spot (28) 

Learn at the desk (570) 

Learn at home (119) 

Learn at an internal centre (20) 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 

I already do 

I would feel uncomfortable 

If I had the opportunity 

I don't have the time 

Not surprisingly a picture emerges that those who are in a position to take more control over 

their learning, because they work at home, or because they manage their own time, are 

more likely to wish to contribute to the development of others using remote methods. 



9.4 Informal methods and tools – the employers view 

If employees are willing to help other people and use a wide variety of informal learning 

methods and supporting software tools, how are employers intending to respond? 

Figure 9.6 Informal methods in supporting technologies 

On-line books / job aids 

64% 

3% 


Content Management Systems 

Search Portals 

On-line company experts 

52% 

45% 

49% 

49% 

8% 

15% 

4% 

3% 


Unmoderated chat rooms/discussion groups 

Moderated chat rooms/ discussion groups 

Communities of practice 

38% 

36% 

32% 

43% 

13% 

14% 

17% 

4% 

Blogs/wikis 

19% 

15% 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 

n=164 

Currently in use 

Planned within 3 years 

The percentage indicating that they are planning to use particular technologies is 

consistently greater than that for planning additional informal services or methods. It seems 

as if employer respondents think about the technology first and its application to learning 

second. It may also be indicative of the fact that publications and conferences tend to 

focus on the technologies that are being developed rather than the service that may be 

provided as a result. 

It is apparent from this that the tools which support social learning (blogs/wikis, moderated 

chat rooms, un-moderated chat rooms, virtual classrooms and, possibly content 

management systems/virtual learning environments) indicate a 30% growth rate; almost 80% 

in the case of blogs/wikis. This possible 30% growth rate must be balanced by an 8% growth 

in communities of practice and it may well be that organisations yet have to define how they 

will use social software and the types of services they will be delivering through them. 

However, almost 70% of the more mature organisations are using communities of practice; 

this drops to between one-third and one-fifth of organisations that have not yet reached a 

high level of maturity. This would indicate a much faster growth in communities of practice 

than is indicated by the previous figure. On the assumption that it takes between 2 to 3 years 

for an organisation to become mature we may predict a growth in communities of practice 

of 80%. 



Figure 9.7 Informal services and supporting technologies by maturity 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 

Search 

portals 

On-line 

experts 

Communities 

of practice 

Online 

books/job 

aids 

CMS / VLE 

Virtual 

classrooms 

Unmoderated 

chat rooms 

Moderated 

chat rooms 

Video 

conferencing 

Blogs/wikis 

Less mature (n=54) Using 

More mature (n=83) Using 

Becoming mature (n=75) Planned 

Becoming mature (n=75) Using 

Less mature (n=54) Planned 

More mature (n=83) Planned 

Based on this maturity analysis, search portals and the availability of on-line company experts 

show a 30% growth rate as opposed to about 10% predicted from the previous graph. 

Combining the 2 methods of forecasting indicates a growth rate of closer to 20% by 2010. 

The provision of on-line books and job aids may well be close to saturation, with 64% of all 

respondents providing this service, 74% of more mature users. Video conferencing may well 

have peaked as well, although 8% of organisations predict they will be using this technology 

by 2010 in addition to the 56% already using it. There is less difference with maturity (45% to 

56%) indicating that this is not a technology whose use is linked to maturity although planning 

to use it may be with 13% of the more mature doing so compared to 5% of the less mature. 

Growth rate of this technology is more difficult to predict from this survey; perhaps because 

its use is driven by corporate goals not associated with learning. 

The collaborative tools of virtual learning environments, virtual classrooms and both 

moderated and un-moderated chat rooms show a significant difference between usage by 

the more mature and the less mature. 

Approximately half of the more mature organisations will be using these technologies 

compared to about one-third of the less mature. With the exception of VLEs/CMS, a greater 

percentage of the more mature organisations are planning to introduce these technologies 

within the next 3 years; typically 10% as opposed to about 18%. For VLEs/CMS the results are 

reversed with 20% of the less mature planning to introduce CMS/VLE compared to 12% of the 

more mature. The CMS/VLE has a number of different functions, at one extreme it may be 

considered primarily as a means of managing and delivering content. At the other extreme 

it may be considered as a means of facilitating groups and teams of people working 

together to create both learning content and conducting and collaborating on learning 

activities. Whatever the reason for this difference an analysis of use by maturity indicates a 

growth rate of 100%. 



For the majority of social learning and social software tools more mature organisations are 

almost twice as likely to use these tools as the less mature. The exception to this is blogs and 

wikis, which are used by 25% of the more mature and approximately 17% of others. However, 

these are new technologies and concepts and, even the more mature organisations will 

have had little time to assess their capability of delivering learning and consider the best way 

of deploying them. Wikipedia was created in 2001 and is the best known example of a wiki, 

The use of this type of collaborative Web site took 2 to 3 years to move from a mainly 

academic purpose into various types of corporate applications. We see almost as many of 

the more mature organisations planning to use blogs and wikis as are currently using them. 

This indicates a growth rate of 100% amongst the more e-learning mature organisations. 

Employer respondents were segmented into quartiles based upon both staff impact and 

business impact. Organisations in the top quartile for both business impact and staff impact 

are more likely to be using various informal techniques for enabling learning. It would appear 

that the use of on-line books/job aids has the greatest effect on business impact; 47% of 

those in the bottom quartile of business impact will be providing this service, compared to 

85% of those in the top quartile. The availability of both on-line communities and search 

portals appear to have the greatest effect on staff impact. Of those who achieve least staff 

impact 21% will deliver on-line communities and 26% make search portals available. For 

organisations that achieve the greatest staff impact from e-learning this rises to 65% for online 

communities and 75% for search portals. 

Investment in on-line books and job aids is likely to show the greatest business return and 

investment in search portals and on-line communities is likely to show the biggest change on 

staff motivation and behaviour. The inference is that on-line books and job aids are focused 

directly at job performance, whereas alternative methods of informal learning bring greater 

satisfaction to users but the effect on the business may be slightly diluted because such 

services enable learners to explore and learn topics not directly related to their immediate 

job performance. 

Figure 9.8 Use of informal techniques compared to staff impact of e-learning 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 


Staff Impact 


Online communities 

Online company expertise 

Online books/job aids 



Figure 9.9 Use of informal techniques compared to business impact of e-learning 

100% 

80% 

60% 

40% 

20% 

0% 




Online communities 

Online company expertise 

Online books/job aids 

9.5 Spend on e-learning 

One hundred and thirteen respondents provided information about the budgets they spent 

on e-learning. Respondents were asked what percentage of their overall training budget 

was currently spent, by what percentage of the current budget this was expected to 

increase and an estimate of the overall training budget for their organisation. In some cases 

respondents withheld overall budgets. The average percentage of total training budgets 

spent on e-learning is 17%. The average forecast growth in this expenditure is 70%. 

Combining these 2 pieces of information we may assume that by 2010, 26% of training 

budgets will be spent on e-learning. This forecast is comparable to one in 2004 predicting 

that between 30% and 33% of learning inside organisations would be delivered by e- 

learning. 4 

There is considerable variation in these figures when compared by sector and maturity. 

Figure 9.10 reports the current and projected percentage of total training budgets spent on 

e-learning for those sectors where at least 10 respondents completed usable budget 

information. Two sectors stand out as being leaders in investment in e-learning; education 

and IT/telecommunications spend a greater part of their budget on e-learning than 

organisations in other sectors. 

More mature organisations spend a greater proportion of their training budget on e-learning 

(23%) than do the least mature (6%). Less mature organisations do expect to double their 

budget to 12% and the more mature expect to increase their budget to 36% (Figure 9.11). 

4 Report on Embedding e-learning in large Organisations, Hills (2004) published byUfi. 



Figure 9.10 e-learning budget plans vary with sector 

50 

40 

% budget 

30 

20 

10 

0 

Health (10) 

Manufacturing 

(11) 

Transport (11) 

IT & Telecoms 

(12) 

Finance (15) Education (20) Public admin 

(21) 

n=100 

Current spend on 'e' Planned spend on 'e' in 2010 

Ref: See also Figure 57 in Towards Maturity: Insights for Employers and Training Providers 

Figure 9.11 e-learning budget plans very with maturity 

70% 

60% 

50% 

40% 

30% 

20% 

10% 

0% 

n=113 

Novice Sporadic Developing Established Embedded Innovators 

% Spend Predicted increase 




Figure 9.12 Percentage of budget spent on e-learning 

8.00 

7.00 

6.00 

5.00 

4.00 

3.00 

2.00 

1.00 

0.00 

Budget > 30% 

n=25 

Budget 20 - 30% 

n=12 

Budget 10 - 20% 

n=23 

Budget < 10% 

n=53 

Take up Availibility Business Impact Staff Impact 

Organisations who responded with budget information were segmented by the proportion of 

their budget they spent on e-learning. The segments used were those who spent less than 

10%, those who spent between 10 and 20%, those between 20 and 30% and those who spent 

more than 30% of their total training budget on e-learning. This does not produce equal 

numbers of organisations in each segment and, as can be seen, almost half of all 

respondents supplying budget information spend less than 10% on e-learning. This graph 

does show that those who spend a greater proportion of their budget on e-learning achieve 

improved take-up, availability, business impact and staff impact. Average agreement with 

the various statements that are used to describe staff impact rises from 4.3 to 6. This is closely 

mirrored by the measurement of take-up from 4.4 to 6.3. 

The greatest difference with increasing budget is on business impact, which rises from an 

average agreement of 5 to an average agreement of 7. The change in availability shows 

least difference. Those organisations who spend more must therefore be channelling this 

expenditure into areas that have a greater effect on business impact than on the availability 

of e-learning. Given the analysis so far completed, it is likely that this increased budget 

spend goes towards change management and promotional activities and it is this that 

increases the business impact, staff impact and take-up of e-learning. Global companies 

spend a greater proportion of their budget (18%) than other organisations, except for those 

operating from one UK site. Global companies also predict that they will increase their e- 

learning spend by a greater amount (20%) than other companies. Elsewhere in the report 

the anomaly of the single UK site companies is discussed and can be seen reflected in the 

budget spend, as their average is 27%. This seems to be influenced by the small number of 

education companies in this particular segment who seem to be investing in e-learning as a 

delivery platform for the future. 


10 The education sector 

10 Comparison of education sector with other sectors 

Overview: This section investigates differences between the education sector and other 

sectors. There is a probability that organisations in the education sector do things differently 

to others. There may be opportunities for other sectors to learn from the education sector, the 

opposite may also apply. 

An initial comparison for the principal dimensions is shown in Figure 10.1. Organisations not in 

the education sector rate themselves one point higher than organisations in the education 

sector for all 4 dimensions. It would appear that non-educational organisations are more 

successful at e-learning than those in the education sector. They achieve greater 

availability, more business impact, a greater uptake and e-learning has a greater impact on 

employees. 

Figure 10.1 Differences in dimensions – education sector versus others 

7.00 

6.00 

5.00 

4.00 

3.00 

2.00 

1.00 

0.00 

Uptake Availability Business Impact Staff Impact 

Others (n=127) 

Education sector (n=22) 

Table 10.1 lists those factors with a difference between the education sector and others of 

more than 10%: where the education sector has a higher self perception this is never more 

than a 3% difference. The first and third items listed are both associated with change 

management and promotion of e-learning. The education sector uses fewer communication 

methods when launching e-learning than other sectors. Less than a quarter use posters, as 

opposed to almost half of others. The education sector makes no use of giveaways at 

launch, compared to 10% of organisations in the other sectors. However, 10% of 

organisations in the education sector do use SMS messages. The education sector does use 

giveaways to maintain interest but makes less use of line management briefings. 



Table 10.1 Significant differences in self-perception ratings 

Other Sectors 

Education 

Sector 

Recorded 

difference 

Change management used 6.13 4.26 1.86 

Impact on record keeping 5.85 4.00 1.85 

Brand and identity for e-learning 5.51 3.95 1.56 

Information easy to use 8.33 7.00 1.33 

Appraisal used 6.95 5.74 1.21 

Manager's coach teams 6.00 4.79 1.21 

Skills to manage providers 6.82 5.63 1.19 

Skills audit completed 4.79 3.68 1.11 

Importance of compliance tracking 6.82 5.74 1.08 

Staff know what is available 6.50 5.53 0.98 

It would appear that the education sector could learn from other sectors as regards 

promotion, marketing and change management for e-learning. The fact that non-education 

sector organisations do more marketing will explain the difference of almost 20% in the self 

rating perceptions of change management and branding. 

There is a 20% difference in the impact e-learning has on record keeping. Companies in the 

education sector tend to disagree with the statement ‘e-learning has improved our record 

keeping for compliance purposes’. Education sector respondents may feel compliance is 

not relevant or they may feel that proper attention is paid to record keeping for compliance 

purposes so e-learning has less of an impact. 

Managerial support through appraisal and coaching appears to be less successful in the 

education sector. Although as reported later in this section it does occur more often. 

The education sector perceives itself to be slightly less likely to have the skills to manage e- 

learning providers and will tend to disagree with the statement that they have audited their 

training function for the skills required to deliver e-learning. If the results of implementing e- 

learning in the education sector are different to those of other sectors perhaps the drivers are 

different. 



10.1 Comparison of probability of drivers being selected 

Figure 10.2 Drivers for e-learning 

Increase access to learning 

Increase flexibility in providing staff training 

Better manage or administer work-based learning 

Develop a better qualified workforce 

Reduce training costs 

New regulations and legal requirements 

Demand from workforce 

Maintain public image of a progressive and 

innovative organisation 

Organisational change 

Pressure from senior management 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 

Others N=171 Education Sector N=41 

Figure 10.2 shows the probability of respondents selecting from one of the 14 drivers (only 

displayed where there was a difference of more than a few percentage points between the 

education and other sectors). About half of those in the education sector are interested in 

increasing flexibility through the use of e-learning, compared to almost three-quarters of 

those in other sectors. Only a third are influenced by a need to reduce training costs 

compared to a half of those in other sectors. They appear to be less driven by a need to 

respond to new regulations and legal requirements; only 10% compared to over 25% in other 

sectors. Access and flexibility do remain the 2 most frequently cited drivers, as they do for all 

other sectors. However, administration and qualifications are slightly more likely to be 

selected than a need to reduce costs. 

Those in the education sector are more likely to be driven by organisational change and the 

requirement to maintain the image of a progressive and innovative organisation. They also 

experience more pressure from senior management, although this remains an infrequently 

selected driver even for the education sector. 

The pattern emerges where image and organisational change matter to a much greater 

extent for this sector and cost, qualifications and administration matter less. Whilst the 

emphasis for e-learning is different; does this translate into different results? 

Companies in the education sector are less likely to provide training in every topic area 

except that of literacy and numeracy, although less than 40% offer these topics. Where 

training is offered in a particular topic e-learning is used less than by other sectors, except for 

foreign language training; 24% use e-learning for foreign language training in the education 

sector, as opposed to 19% in other sectors. 



For programmes leading to qualifications the picture is different. Educational organisations 

are marginally more likely to use e-learning in apprenticeship training, foundation degrees 

and learning programmes for customers, suppliers and community programmes. The 

education sector is leading the way in deploying e-learning for programmes which lead to 

qualifications. However, less than a quarter of organisations in this sector are deploying e- 

learning in this way. 

Companies in the education sector are less likely to deliver e-learning to as many roles as 

those in other sectors. This is most noticeable at a senior level, where only 40% of 

organisations deliver e-learning to directors and senior management, compared to 53% in 

other sectors. Bearing in mind what we already know about the importance of the 

leadership role for directors in setting an example in the use of e-learning, it may be that this 

is one of the main influences on the reduced performance of the education sector reported 

in Figure 10.1. Possibly the most important item that the education sector can learn from 

others is that directors and senior managers should use e-learning personally. 

Companies in the organisation sector also deliver e-learning to fewer places than others, 

most noticeably only 17% deliver e-learning in a quiet area (43% in other sectors) and only 

13% make it available when travelling (23% in other sectors). 

Educational organisations are also more likely to have a strategy (42%) than others (31%). 

The training function is less likely to be a decision maker in deploying e-learning (35% in 

education and 65% in others). 

10.2 Sourcing and development of e-learning 

Only 15% of those in the education sector use rapid development tools designed for users, 

compared to 50% in other sectors. They prefer to use tools designed for Web experts and 

programmers (54%) compared to other sectors (27%). They are less likely to work in 

partnership with an e-learning vendor (47% for other sectors compared to 27% for the 

education sector). They are more likely to work in partnership with other educational suppliers 

(23% as opposed to 16% for others). A picture emerges where the education sector develops 

more complex and less procedurally based e-learning, more likely working with others in the 

same sector. 

10.3 Funding 

Educational organisations make more use of public funding than others with a much greater 

likelihood of pursuing European and RDA funding. Only 60% use their own budget for e- 

learning, compared to 76% in other sectors. Those in the education sector clearly take a 

much wider view of where they can obtain funding from; whether they are private or public 

funded organisations. They demonstrate a better understanding of the various routes used to 

fund education and training, both in the UK and the European Union. 

10.4 Learner support 

The education sector makes significantly more effort to support learners than those in other 

sectors. Figure 10.3 shows the probability of organisations supporting learners. 



Figure 10.3 Support provided to learners 

Techncial 

support Study Support 

With a tutor by email 

With a tutor by phone 

In person before 

on-line web reference 

In person during study 

Virtual classroom system 

In person after study 

Through a resource centre 

By email 

Telephone help desk 

In person 

Web resource 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 




Apart from support through a resource centre, the education sector is more likely to support 

learners by any one of the options offered by the survey questions. They are almost twice as 

likely to use telephone and in-person support as those in other sectors. This is also true, in the 

main, for technical support. It is equally likely that organisations in either of the sectors being 

considered will provide support through a telephone help desk or a Web resource. It is more 

likely that that companies in the education sector provide support either by email or in 

person. The education sector puts more effort into supporting learners and makes a greater 

provision for personal contact for technical support. 

Does this increased support also apply to help in consolidating learning? 

The education sector makes more use of line manager coaching and feedback. However 

this conflicts with earlier evidence, where those in the education sector were more likely to 

disagree with the statement ‘managers coach their own teams’. They are more likely to say 

that line manager coaching and feedback support is provided to help learners consolidate 

and apply what they have learnt but marginally less likely to agree that line managers coach 

their teams. The difference is small, nevertheless only one-third of organisations agreed with 

the Likert self-perception question that managers coach their own teams and 50% 

disagreed. This compares to 48% of non-educational organisations who agree that 

managers coach their own teams and only 13% disagree. What appears to be a positive 

attribute of the education sector; greater occurrence of line managers coaching support 

after learning may not fully translate to effective coaching as normal practice. The 

education sector makes less use of periodic re-assessment as a line management function. 

The education sector makes less use of electronic help and job aids, which are normally used 

for procedural tasks in which the education sector may be less interested. 



Figure 10.4 Help in consolidating learning 

Line manager coaching and feedback support 



Periodic re-assessment 



0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 



10.5 Technologies used and considered 

Respondents were asked questions about the formal and informal software tools and 

resources they knew about, they used or planned to use. 

Figure 10.5 Learning technologies in use 

Content Management System (CMS, VLE) 

Moderated chat rooms / discussion groups 

Blogs/wikis 

Podcasting 

Video on demand 

Non-moderated Chat rooms / discussion groups 

Mobile learning 

Games & simulations 

Open source tools 


Rapid development tools 

Competency Management System 

Learning Management System (LMS) 


Electronic Performance Support Systems 

e-portfolios 

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 





Figure 10.5 plots the probability of organisations in either sector stating that they currently use 

the technologies listed. The upper part lists technologies that those in the education sector 

are more likely to use, the lower those they are less likely to use. The education sector is more 

likely to use the collaborative tools of social learning; that is chat rooms, virtual classrooms 

and blogs/wikis. They are also likely to make more use of open source tools and podcasting. 

Noticeable differences between the two sectors concern electronic performance support 

systems (EPSS) and competency management. EPSS is specifically designed to support 

procedural or system use applications and lends itself to quite complex cognitive tasks such 

as diagnostics and fault finding. It does not necessarily reinforce understanding. Additionally 

EPSS may be quite expensive to develop and therefore require a very robust business case in 

a subject area showing significant revenue return. Competency management systems are 

primarily used to monitor and assess the capability of individuals, or a group of individuals, 

against defined competencies for a specific job or jobs. Its most significant application is in 

managing the HR capability of an organisation as represented by the people it employs. 

The education sector are twice as likely to be using e-portfolios, approximately half of 

respondents in the education sector selected this as a technology they were deploying 

compared to a quarter of those in the non-education sector. 

10.6 The future - do educational organisations have a different view? 

In terms of the main barriers to the increasing use of e-learning by 2010 there are only 3 of the 

barriers where the view of the education sector is significantly different to that of others. 

Unreliable ICT is considered a barrier by relatively few educational organisations (8%) 

compared to 26% of those in other sectors. Additionally access to PCs is cited by fewer 

educational organisations, 4% as opposed to 9% of others. Half of them perceive a lack of 

skills to manage e-learning in the future as a barrier and this compares with only 31% of those 

in other sectors. This is somewhat supported by Table 10.2 which shows the difference in 

agreement on a variety of statements related to Training Function capability. 

Table 10.2 Capability of the training function 

Education 

sector 

Other 

sectors 

We have the skills to manage external e-learning providers effectively 5.6 6.8 

We have good links/relationships with the IT department 6.7 6.9 

We have a clear understanding of what types of e-learning our internal IT 

systems can support 6.4 7.3 

Our internal training team is willing to embrace new ways of working with 

technology 6.5 7.3 

We have audited the skills of those in the training function against the 

skills required for e-learning 3.7 4.8 



This table compares the average agreement with the 5 statements that were grouped within 

the survey under the heading ‘Capability of the training function’. As reported in Appendix 

A 4 of these statements have a close agreement in the way they behave. We can see from 

the ratings that the education sector does have a more pessimistic view of the capability of 

its training function than those in other sectors. The 2 largest differences relate to the skills of 

the training function, both audit and perceived capability to manage external providers. It 

would appear that the ICT capability within the education sector is greater than that in other 

sectors but that the training functions have not yet risen to the challenge presented by the 

opportunity that this infrastructure presents. 

This barrier does not prevent the education sector being more enthusiastic about the future 

of e-learning than other sectors. 

The upper half of Figure 10.5 lists those technologies that the education sector is more likely 

to plan for than others. In the majority of cases these are the technologies they are already 

making more use of. The education sector intends to do more of what it is currently doing. 

The greatest difference in expected growth is the use of content management systems, 

currently in use in almost 75% of respondents in the education sector. A response of 25% 

indicates that 100% of the education sector will using content management systems by 2010. 

It is worth pointing out that the question included VLEs (Virtual Learning Environments). For 

many in the education sector these will be interpreted as an environment in which students 

and tutors can exchange content in a safe and secure environment. Some current VLEs 

implemented in the education sector are in fact devoid of content; such content being 

provided by the users which include tutors as well as learners. When we also see that the 

education sector expects to make more use of chat rooms and blogs and wikis the pattern 

that emerges is one that is of significantly greater use of social learning software tools. 

The growth of open source tools within the education sector is set to continue, however it 

would appear that the education sector is likely to take a greater interest in rapid 

development tools in the future. 

It is likely that the education sector will continue to take the lead in collaborative learning, 

evidenced by its greater interest in the technology tools that support social learning and the 

greater effort they put into supporting learners, before, during and after study. 


11 The future of e-learning 


Overview: This chapter looks at the plans organisations are making for the future, particularly 

in relation to maturity, and explores how barriers to increasing uptake of e-learning are 

changing. 

Respondents were asked the extent to which they agreed with 5 statements about e- 

learning within the next 3 years. A specific question was “How do you see e-learning in your 

organisation in 3 year’s time?” Their responses are shown in Figure 11.1. 

Figure 11.1 Predictions for the future of e-learning 

We will place greater emphasis on 

supporting informal learning within the 

organisation 

The organisation will have electronic access 

to the training records of every employee 

All employees will have learning records they 

can access and an electronic learning plan 

e-learning will replace all traditional methods 

of corporate training like classroom training 

e-learning will be part of all training and 

development programmes 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 

Agree Don't know Disagree 

Four out of 5 employer respondents agreed that they would place greater emphasis on 

informal learning, they would have access to electronic training records and employees 

would have access to those records and an on-line learning plan. For informal learning 80% 

exceeds the percentage of organisations planning and using informal services. The 

increasing importance of electronic records explains the high current and planned usage of 

Learning Management Systems. There is less universal agreement (66%) that e-learning will be 

part of all training and development programmes. This slightly exceeds the current 

penetration based upon respondents’ answers concerning the use of e-learning by topic. 

Based upon the results from all respondents 53% of the total possible occurrences of training 

taking place do so with some element of e-learning included. Every topic includes the use e- 

learning, in whole or in part, from at least one of the employer respondents. e-learning alone 

was selected as an option for a topic in just 5% of cases (3% if programmes and topics are 

included together). 



Only 6% of respondents agree with the statement that e-learning will replace all traditional 

methods of corporate training. It is very clear that the significance of a blended approach, 

in which e-learning forms part of an offer, is now widespread. The majority of topics and 

programmes are delivered, either with no e-learning component, or with e-learning as part 

of the mix. Furthermore, about half of all training by topic and respondent contains some 

element of e-learning. These predictions are compared by the maturity of the respondents. 

Figure 11.2 Predictions of e-learning futures by maturity 

Greater emphasis on informal learning 

77% 

electronic access to the training records 

All employees will have learning records 

58% 

e-learning will replace traditional 

methods 

12% 

e-learning will be part of all training 

programmes 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 


Note the numbers included in the above figure are results from a 2004 study. 5 

More mature organisations are more likely to agree with the statements that there will be a 

greater emphasis on informal learning and that training records will be used, which 

employees have access to. Interestingly, one in 10 of more mature users believe that e- 

learning will replace traditional methods. 

The greatest difference reported in the figure above relates to the statement that e-learning 

will be part of all training programmes. Less than 2 in 5 of the less mature organisations agree 

with this statement compared to 4 out 5 of the more mature. This indicates one of the 

changes that maturity brings about is an appreciation that e-learning can be used for a 

greater range of topics. 

In 2004 77% of respondents agreed that organisations would have electronic access to the 

training records of every employee (now 82%.) Then 58% agreed that employees would have 

access to learning records (now 76%). In 2004 12% of respondents believed that e-learning 

would replace traditional methods of corporate training, like classroom training, now in 2006 

5 Embedding e-learning in large Organisations, Hills (2004) 



only 6%. In 2004 35% agreed that e-learning would only be used for a few specialist 

applications and in 2006 21% disagree with the statement that e-learning will be part of all 

training programmes although this changes with maturity; 40% of the less mature, 16% of 

those becoming mature and 13% of the more mature. This reinforces the view that maturity 

brings with it a more wide spread realisation that e-learning is suitable for more than just 

specialist application and that this realisation has become more wide spread since 2004. 

The 2004 study did not include any discussion or collection of data in regards to informal 

learning. 

11.1 Challenges for e-learning 

Respondents were asked what they thought were the main barriers to their company 

increasing the use of e-learning over the next 3 years. They were asked to select the 3 most 

significant from a list although no limit was applied. They were also given an opportunity to 

comment on additional barriers not provided in the list. Many respondents selected up to 6 

barriers (average number selected by all respondents is 3.3, including the ‘other’ option). 

Figure 11.3 Barriers to e-learning in the next 3 years 

Cost 

Staff resistance 

Lack of knowledge about potential 

Lack of e-learning management skills 

Lack of relevant, quality material 

Available content too generic 

Inadequate ICT infrastructure 

Poor past experience 

Staff ICT skills 

Hype from suppliers 

No staff access to PCs 

No need to change 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 


More mature organisations are less likely to perceive cost, staff resistance, lack of knowledge 

of potential and lack of e-learning management skills as barriers. As these are the 3 barriers 

most likely to be selected by less mature organisations (both less mature and becoming 

mature in the figure above) this indicates that maturity brings with it the appreciation and 

skills to reduce the barriers, as they are first perceived. Cost is perceived as less of a barrier as 

organisations become more mature, as does the resistance of staff. Less mature 



organisations are slightly less likely to say they have a lack of knowledge about the potential 

of e-learning, as those who are becoming mature. This may indicate that early exposure to 

e-learning increases the realisation that it requires some skill and knowledge to bring out its 

full potential and that the less mature do not yet have this appreciation. Of those who are 

less mature and becoming mature about 40% select management skills as a barrier, but this 

drops by half to 21% for the more mature organisations. 

Lack of relevant quality material remains an issue more or less independent of maturity, 

although the importance of this barrier does reduce at an early stage of e-learning 

development. Almost half of less mature organisations are concerned that available 

content is too generic for their organisation and this drops to 17% for the most mature 

organisations. The inference is that this demonstrates a growing confidence with maturity 

that bespoke e-learning that is industry and company specific can be readily created. 

Poor ICT infrastructure remains a barrier for about one-fifth of all organisations, irrespective of 

their maturity. The more mature are less likely to allow poor past experiences, if any, to 

impede the development of e-learning. Staff ICT skills also drop off as a barrier very sharply 

as organisations become more mature. Only 5% of the most mature organisations perceive 

this to be a barrier. The report does find that IT user skills are most likely to be delivered at an 

early stage of adopting e-learning and an assumption is that this quickly impacts on staff ICT 

skills, the lack of them sharply reducing as a barrier as organisations gain experience. Access 

to PCs also reduces as a barrier with maturity; however, this may be because more mature 

organisations are more innovative and flexible about the locations at which they make e- 

learning available rather than a wider availability of PCs. More mature organisations are 

more likely to make e-learning available in a wider range of locations thus making it easier for 

staff to gain access to PCs. 

Figure 11.4 Barriers to e-learning over the next 3 years by business sector 

Cost 

Staff resistance 

Lack of knowledge about potential 

Lack of e-learning management skills 

Lack of relevant quality material 

Available content too generic 

Poor past experience 

Inadequate ICT infrastructure 

Hype from suppliers 

Staff ICT skills 

No staff access to PCs 

No need to change 

0% 50% 100% 150% 200% 250% 300% 350% 

c) Manufacturing h) Transport, storage and communications 

i) Financial intermediation j) Real estate, renting and business activities 

k) Public admin and defence l) Education 

m) Health and social work o) Computing 



This figure has been assembled by adding together the percentage occurrence of each 

barrier by each sector. With an average number selected of 3.3 the possible maximum of this 

graph is 330%. The public admin sector has greater staff resistance than other sectors and is 

more likely to cite inadequate ICT as a barrier. The manufacturing sector is more likely to cite 

lack of staff IT skills and the lack of skills to manage e-learning. Not surprisingly the sector that 

reports fewest barriers is IT and telecommunication, followed by education. The sectors most 

likely to report barriers are health, public administration and manufacturing as shown in 

Figure 11.5. This ranges from an average of 2.6 to 3.7 and includes the selection of “others”. 

Figure 11.5 Propensity for organisations to report barriers 

m) Health and social work 

k) Public admin and defence 

l) Education 

j) Real estate, renting and business activities 

c) Manufacturing 

i) Financial intermediation 

h) Transport, storage and communications 

n=150 

o) Computing 

11.2 Geographic differences 

The barriers selected were analysed by geography. Those with many branch locations are 

more likely to cite poor access to PCs (13%), poor ICT skills (22%) and inadequate ICT 

infrastructure (27%). Not surprisingly those operating from a single UK site are least likely to 

select poor ICT as a barrier (6%) but most likely to select a lack of e-learning management 

skills (33%) and a lack of relevant quality material (39%). They are slightly less likely to select 

lack of knowledge about potential (22%) or staff resistance (25%). Organisations operating 

from a few large sites are least likely to select a lack of relevant quality material as a barrier 

(16%). There were no other major differences based upon the geography. 

11.3 Progress since 2004 

In 2004 respondents were asked what main challenges they faced. The question specifically 

said: “What would you consider to have been the main challenges for your organisation, 

either in implementing e-learning or in building a case for it?” Responses are grouped as 

follows: 



Challenges faced 2004 

Percentage selecting 

this barrier 

Responses 2006 

Culture change and user objections 42% 42% 

Poor ICT infrastructure 28% 23% 

Difficult to prove financial potential 15% 38% 

Convincing management 9% Not applicable 

Insufficient relevant quality content 8% 34% 

Cost 7% 44% 

Web access 7% 8% 

No need to change 7% 7% 

Lack of ICT management skills 7% 23% 

Learning has a low priority 4% Not applicable 

Lack of resources 4% Not applicable 

Lack of user ICT skills 4% 17% 

The data in 2004 was collected by telephone survey; users were not prompted for the 

categories but their responses were placed in the categories as appropriate. The data from 

2006 required users to select responses from a list provided. Making allowances for the 

difference in the way the data has been collected valid comparisons can still be made. 

Cost is seen as a far more significant barrier in 2006 than it was in 2004. This may be because 

organisations are seeking to implement e-learning far more widely across organisations or this 

may be because increased experience has shown that the process is not as inexpensive as 

first considered. 

Culture and staff resistance remain the most frequently cited barrier, as significant in 2006/7 

as it was in 2004. Clearly organisations have to put considerably more effort into winning the 

hearts and minds of learners if e-learning is to become a significant offering of corporates to 

their employees. 

The lack of relevant quality material is now much more significant as a barrier than it was 3 

years ago. Poor ICT skills amongst staff is less of a barrier than it was in 2004 and this is 

supported by further evidence collected and reported on elsewhere in this study. 

ICT continues to be a problem for about a quarter of organisations, little changed over the 

last 2 years although this conflicts with other data in this report. A comparison of the Likert 

scale opinion based question reveals that ICT is significantly less of a problem in 2006 than it 

was in 2004 (see the next Table). 

Respondents in both 2004 and 2006 were asked to make a self-assessment judgement 

against a number of key statements. The average ratings and percentage agreeing for this 

and previous studies are shown in Table 11.1. 



Table 11.1 Comparisons in e-learning implementation 2004-2007 

Towards 

Maturity 

Mean 

% 

agree Mean 

Embed 

ded 6 LL2B 7 

Staff can access e-learning at any time 7.40 70% 6.3 59% 

Staff can access e-learning from anywhere 7.09 68% 6.3 59% 

We have a clear understanding of what types 

of e-learning our internal IT systems can support 7.17 67% 5.7 50% 

Our internal training team is willing to embrace 

new ways of working with technology 7.16 64% 8.5 88% 

Managers appraise staff at regular intervals and 

plan their development 6.73 63% 7.7 77% 

Tracking e-learning progress is essential for 

compliance purposes 6.67 58% 6.4 61% 

We have the skills to manage external e- 

learning providers effectively 6.66 58% 6.2 55% 

Front 

line 8 

% 

agree Mean Mean 

When we implement a new e-learning initiative 

we start with a pilot project before embarking 

on a company wide rollout 6.50 57% 7.2 

Staff are empowered to request their own 

training and take ownership of their 

development 6.48 57% 6.9 64% 

We can quickly implement new learning 

programmes across the organisation 6.08 52% 7.3 

Staff know what training is available to them 

and how to obtain it 6.37 51% 7.4 73% 

Managers coach their own teams 5.79 46% 6.5 64% 

Change management is an integral part of our 

deployment and planning of e-learning 5.87 45% 6.5 62% 

Managers make time for staff to learn at work 5.41 41% 5.5 

6Embedding e-learning in large Organisations, Hills et al (2004) see www.e-skills.com\work-based-elearning/research-and-policy\989#education. 

7 Linking learning to Business, Overton (2004) published by Bizmedia. 

8 Frontline case study report, Library Workforce Development, published by e-skills UK, see www.e-skills.com\cgibin\go.pl\wbel\case\index.html. 



Towards 

Maturity 

Embed 

ded 6 LL2B 7 

Front 

line 8 

Staff quickly put into practice what they learn 

from e-learning 5.67 36% 8.4 

e-learning has made a positive contribution to 

changing attitudes to learning and training in 

our organisation 5.55 34% 30% 

Managers allow staff work time to learn at home 

or locally 5.00 33% 5.5 50% 

Senior Management regularly demonstrate 

commitment to e-learning 4.82 31% 5.8 

We regularly communicate e-learning successes 

to managers 4.70 31% 6.4 

We have audited the skills of those in the 

training function against the skills required for e- 

learning 4.61 29% 4.1 28% 

We provide line managers with training and 

briefings relating to specific e-learning courses 4.54 26% 5.8 

e-learning has made us focus better on business 

requirements 4.72 25% 6 

Staff are more interested in professional 

development since the introduction of e- 

learning 4.47 18% 5.5 

This table shows the mean ratings in the Towards Maturity study together with the 

percentage of respondents who agreed with the statements. Where the information is 

available this is shown for previous reports (see Footnote). The Frontline case study was 

written in 2005 and is a comparison from an isolated sector reviewing a single 

implementation of e-learning. A quick review of the figures in the table above indicates a 

disappointing lack of progress in almost all aspects of e-learning implementation. The 

Frontline case was a particularly effective implementation of e-learning as demonstrated by 

the impact on staff with mean scores significantly in excess of those collected from the 

Towards Maturity respondents. The Frontline case study mean scores indicate a level that 

organisations should aspire to. 

The importance of compliance in relation to the implementation of e-learning has not 

changed in the preceding 2 years. Sixty percent of respondents, both now and then, 

indicate that tracking progress is a required feature of e-learning implementation. As 

reported in this study, compliance is a driver linked to the financial return of e-learning. It is 

less strongly linked to both the take-up and impact on staff within organisations. 



There has been an improvement in the last 2 years in the availability of e-learning, coupled 

with an increased understanding of the capability of internal IT systems. 

The willingness and capability of the training function shows little change and perhaps a 

rather disappointing drop in their apparent willingness to embrace new ways of working. 

One possible explanation may be that a much greater proportion of the internal training 

teams are required to change their working practices in 2006 than were required to do so in 

2004. Neither management support through appraisal and coaching nor the empowerment 

of staff show any significant change, indeed a slight reduction in both the percentage of 

respondents agreeing with the statements and the mean ratings. 

The observation that e-learning makes a positive contribution to changing attitudes was 

identified as a one of the main successes for e-learning by 30% of respondents in 2004 but 

was not included as a self rated questions. A very similar percentage of respondents in 2006 

now agree with that statement. 

In general this table shows a rather gloomy picture with little evidence of any significant 

improvement in the last 2 to 3 years. However an analysis by maturity reveals a slightly more 

optimistic situations. 

Figure 11.6 Changes in managerial commitment and availability of e-learning 

8 

7 

6 

5 

4 

3 

2 

1 

0 

Novices Sporadic Developers Established Embedded Innovators 

Commitment of Senior Managers 

Availability of e-learning 

2004 benchmark 2004 benchmark 



Figure 11.7 Changes in skills and IT capability 

9 

8 

7 

6 

5 

4 

3 

2 

` 

1 

0 

Novices Sporadic Developers Established Embedded Innovators 

Training skills audited Skills to manage providers Good IT infrastruct 

2004 benchmark 2004 benchmark 2004 benchmark 

The good news in both these figures is that more mature organisations do better against the 

2004 benchmarks, so progressing towards maturity does enable organisations to improve 

their performance compared to the average of 2 years ago. Figure 11.7 shows the particular 

positive improvement in the good IT infrastructure as almost all maturity segments now rate 

their IT infrastructure better than the mean of all respondents in 2004. What is perhaps 

disappointing is the much poorer rating in relation to organisations auditing their training skills. 

It is not until organisations have become embedded users and innovators that they are more 

likely to audit the skills of their training team than they were in 2004. Although auditing the 

skills of the training team falls within the sphere of the training function capability, this action is 

part of the change management process for moving towards maturity in e-learning. The 

small percentage of organisations who agree with this statement and the fact that even 

those in a middle ranking for maturity report a low mean rating, indicates that many 

organisations are making a poor start to the change management process by not auditing 

the skills of their internal training teams. 



11.4 Sources of advice 

Figure 11.8 Sources of advice used by respondents 

Websites 

Exhibitions and conferences 

On-line newsletters 

Suppliers of e-learning systems 

Books/journals 

Other Users 

Training providers 

E-learning communities 

Industry bodies (trade associations) 

Independent advisers 

Academia 

Sector Skills Councils 

Business Link 

Chambers of Commerce 

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 

Frequently use Sometimes use Never used 

Respondents were asked which sources they turned to for advice on learning and 

development. They were offered the list shown in the figure above and made a selection 

based on: they never used that source, they had used it, or they were regular users. They 

were also offered the option of entering other sources of advice, 3 did so but named 

organisations that may be included in the above figure. It’s very clear from this that users 

tend to select sources of advice that they can go to reasonably anonymously, most 

noticeably Web sites, exhibitions and conferences. They are more likely to seek advice from 

suppliers of e-learning systems than training providers. Newsletters and journals are slightly 

more frequently used than other similar organisations to themselves. Government funded 

sources such as SSCs and Business Link are used by less than one out of 5 respondents. 

Respondents were also asked what type of additional support would be helpful. Given the 

low probability of respondents having audited the skills of their training team it is also 

disappointing to see that from the figure below only one in 5 request help associated with 

implementing and managing e-learning. 



Figure 11.9 What type of additional support would be helpful? 

Method of evaluating the effectiveness of e-learning 

Examples how others have implemented e-learning 

solutions successfully 

Examples of how to promote e-learning to staff 

Information on how to analyse costs/benefits of e- 

learning 

Database/website of typical e-learning applications 

for our sector 

Training in implementing e-learning solutions 

Identifying training needs 

Training in using e-learning solutions 

Defining the skills required by the workforce 

Defining the skills required by IT users 

Training in specifying components of e-learning 

solutions 

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 

Given the issues surrounding the evaluation of the effectiveness of training in general, it is no 

surprise to see that help in evaluating the effectiveness of e-learning is most frequently 

selected by respondents as support required. Indeed, the top 4 most popular choices for 

additional support are associated with: promotion, implementation and evaluation. 

Respondents were offered the opportunity of adding additional support but no respondent 

added anything that cannot be included in the above list. 


12 Conclusions 


12.1 Introduction 

An analysis of the factual responses by segmentation against maturity supports this concept 

of e-learning maturity and the validity of its application by self-assessment. There are 5 

objective measures which show a consistent difference across maturity segments. The 

category of innovator attracts respondents for reasons that do not fit into a pattern of 

maturity. This is not the most mature category and its use in the report has disrupted several 

patterns discernible in the rest of the data. The survey has too few responses from novice 

users. We are not able to make reliable conclusions about this segment. 

12.2 Chapter 2 – Investment 

The most significant benefits as perceived in 2004 but not listed as drivers then have emerged 

as the most significant drivers in 2006. This indicates a more widespread appreciation of the 

benefits of e-learning and its specific contribution to business impact: flexibility and 

accessibility. 

The pattern of which drivers are selected changes with maturity, primarily in that more 

mature organisations select more drivers. This indicates that maturity brings with it an 

appreciation that e-learning delivers additional benefits other than those commonly 

perceived by the less mature. Reduction in costs and administrative benefits are less 

important to the more mature. More e-learning mature organisations are more likely to 

select response to regulatory and legal requirements and the need to improve quality as 

important drivers, than do the less mature. 

The financial sector is more likely to be driven by the need to meet regulatory requirements 

and the education sector more likely to be driven by the need for organisational change 

and the requirement to maintain a public image of a progressive organisation. 

More mature organisations are more likely to agree they get financial impact and business 

impact from e-learning. Those organisations that put learners and line managers first as 

sources of influencing success are more likely to gain business impact from e-learning. 

The groups most likely to have e-learning delivered to them are administrators, professionals 

and line managers. They seem to be the easiest group to market e-learning to or the easiest 

to develop or buy material for, perhaps by virtue of the nature of their jobs. Those 

organisations which increase their use of e-learning by directors, technician grade staff and 

those in skilled roles are most likely to improve their perception of business benefit. 

Organisations can improve their success at e-learning by focusing development and delivery 

of e-learning towards these 3 roles. 

An analysis of learner responses and a comparison with employer responses supports a view 

that the business impact of e-learning is due in part to the quick application of learning to 

the job in hand by learners. If the rapid response and roll out by employers is added to the 

picture this becomes a compelling argument that the business impact of e-learning is related 

to its speed of application to job performance through a chain of circumstances, moving 



from speed of delivery to speed of application by learners. The speed of response as an e- 

learning benefit is surfacing in this report as a statement with which a significant proportion of 

both learners and employees agree with in relation to e-learning from their different 

perspectives. 

Those who achieve more business impact from e-learning are more likely to agree that they 

have the skills within the training function to manage e-learning. About 15% of respondents 

agree they do not have the capability in the training function to manage e-learning (this is 

3% for those in the top quartile for business impact and 39% for those in the bottom quartile). 

An implication is that training function capability is an essential foundation for achieving 

business impact from e-learning. 

Improving line management coaching increases the probability of achieving business 

impact, as does the provision of reference books, reassessment and electronic job aids as 

support to learners. These latter 3 methods of support are less frequently used than line 

management coaching. Those organisations who achieve more business impact are more 

likely to provide these 4 types of support to learners. 

Organisations driven by compliance are more likely to achieve financial impact with e- 

learning but not as likely to achieve staff impact or be more e-learning mature. Compliance 

is a driver for business and financial impact but makes less of an impact on staff. 

Those who achieve greater staff impact from e-learning are more likely to perceive an 

improvement in customer satisfaction, greater take-up and better financial impact. Staff 

who feel e-learning makes a greater impact on them seem to perceive an improved 

satisfaction by customers as a result. 

Organisations make a greater impact on staff if the implementation of e-learning includes 

change management procedures, if they ensure learners are empowered and increase the 

availability of e-learning both for place and time. The evidence shows that flexibility by 

place (at home, at the desk, travelling or in a quiet area) has a greater impact on staff than 

flexibility by time. Only 41% of line managers are likely to make time available for e-learning 

but 57% of organisations can deliver e-learning to places convenient to staff. For learners 

42% agree that managers make time for them to learn at work, but 69% agree they can 

learn at places convenient for them and 51% say e-learning is convenient for their work 

schedule. The benefit of flexibility delivered by e-learning is more important in relation to 

place than to time. 

The particular target group of learners responding were all regular PC users, 92% felt they 

managed their own time and 60% were graduates. Of this group about 6 out of 10 felt they 

were empowered by e-learning and 4 out of 10 felt detached from it. 

12.3 Chapter 3 - People and organisational capability 

Making decisions about e-learning based upon a Board strategy improved the probability of 

achieving successful business impact from 25% to 55%. Only a third of respondents agreed 

they had such a strategy. Those that did were 10% more satisfied with the business impact 

they achieved. 

Ensuring directors personally use e-learning improves the probability of business impact, staff 

impact, take-up of e-learning, its availability and the commitment of senior managers. 

Ensuring directors use e-learning and that a Board strategy is in place are 2 actions that 



increase the probability of e-learning being successful. An example relates to the speed of 

application of learning to the job. When directors use e-learning half of all organisations 

agree that what is learnt is quickly applied, as opposed to a quarter of those organisations 

where directors do not use e-learning. More significant is the number of organisations who 

agree that learning is not quickly applied; this changes from 4% of organisations where 

directors are users to 29% for those where directors are not users. Leadership from the top is a 

key element that influences a number of factors relating to the success of e-learning. Aiming 

to involve directors and being successful in doing so pays significant dividends. Where 

directors set an example organisations are twice as likely to perceive take-up as successful 

and the number of roles who use e-learning will treble. 

For individuals their own manager has a greater influence than do directors or senior 

executives. For learner respondents half select their line manager as the person most likely to 

influence their take-up of e-learning. Just over a quarter select a work colleague. This 

pattern changes slightly with age (60% of those under 25 will select their manager as the 

prime influence on them for doing e-learning, as opposed to 45% of those over 55). 

Colleagues become more important for older learners. Senior executives are more likely to 

influence those who work away from a regular place (approximately 15% in those situations 

will select senior executives, as opposed to 9% of those in regular workplaces). Managers are 

less likely to influence those without the freedom to manage their own time (44%). 

Comparing the results for who influences you, we may assume that managers with direct 

hands-on contact with staff are less likely to encourage learning than those where learners 

have a greater responsibility to manage their own time. It would appear that an individual 

learner is not significantly influenced by a senior executive and yet the behaviour of senior 

executives significantly influences uptake. It is not unreasonable to suggest that there is a 

chain of impact commencing with directors. Directors set a Board strategy and personally 

use e-learning; as a result senior managers show commitment; managers then encourage e- 

learning at a local level and make it more available to learners, encouraging them to learn. 

An analysis by sector in relation to those who use e-learning shows that the manufacturing 

sector directs more e-learning effort at the less skilled employees. The financial sector puts 

more effort into training knowledge workers and senior management than do other sectors. 

The business activity sector puts less effort into providing e-learning for less skilled and more 

junior staff. The education sector is least likely to train all roles other than those of professional 

grade staff. 

The majority of organisations use their own internal budget to fund the majority of their 

expenditure on e-learning. The exceptions are the health and education sector, although 

organisations in these sectors actually seek funding from within their sectors (strategic health 

authorities within the health sector and learning and skills council funding within the 

education sector). Regional development authorities are not used to any significant extent 

as sources of funding and the only sector to seriously consider European funding is the 

education sector. 

The principal ways in which organisations source e-learning are through commercial boughtin 

products, in partnership with e-learning vendors, or in-house with simple rapid 

development tools or slightly less probable in-house with development tools for experts. 

Fifteen percent of all respondents use only in-house development tools with the implication 

that they are not seeking to source e-learning externally. More e-learning mature 

organisations are more likely to use in-house development but more likely to work in 

partnership with an e-learning vendor. 



The attributes of suppliers that purchasers regard as most important are those of: value for 

money, expertise and proven reliability; which are regarded as important by 4 out of 5 

purchasers. However the attributes that are least likely to be selected: knowledgeable, 

innovative, long-term partners, good after sales support, a wide range of products and an 

experienced needs analysis, are still regarded as vital by one in 5 purchasers. This is a 

marketplace in which purchasers have high expectations and a wide variability in the criteria 

for choosing suppliers. 

A total of 139 suppliers were mentioned by employer respondents, of whom only 5 were 

mentioned by more than ten respondents. The market is dominated by many small suppliers, 

characterised as a cottage industry; with only 5 large suppliers apparent in the marketplace. 

12.4 Chapter 4 – E-learning – technology, software, and topics delivered 

Respondents were offered a list of 18 topics and asked whether they delivered these topics 

with or without a component of e-learning. All but 3 of the topics are delivered by 3 out of 

five respondents; the exceptions being foreign language, literacy and numeracy, delivered 

by about a third of respondents. Eleven of the topics are delivered by more than 4 out of 5 

respondents. All but 3 of the topics are generic in nature and may be delivered with off the 

shelf products or generic face-to-face courses. The exceptions are company-specific skill, 

industry-specific skills and induction. These latter 3 topics require companies to invest in 

development, either of content or customised delivery through specialised trainers. 

The penetration of e-learning within these topic areas varies, with IT skills (both general and 

professional) having a penetration of more than 70%. Company and industry-specific skills 

are the two topics with the next greatest penetration; approximately 60%. The penetration 

for e-learning components within induction is approximately 50%. The implication is that 

organisations are able to create e-learning content for these non-generic topics; either by 

internal development or purchasing external development. Based on this analysis about half 

of organisations have the capability to develop specific e-learning content that meets their 

particular business needs. 

The IT and telecommunications sector does more induction and sales and marketing training 

using e-learning than other sectors, the financial sector does more company-specific and 

health and safety training using e-learning and is the sector most likely to use an e-learning 

component within the topics offered. 

The penetration of e-learning is analysed by maturity. All but 2 topics show an increased 

probability of being delivered by more e-learning mature organisations; these 2 topics are 

literacy and numeracy. For the remainder, 3 adoption patterns can be seen. 

1. IT skills are rapidly adopted by organisations at an early stage of maturity and reach a 

penetration in excess of three quarters; that is where these topics are offered, three 

quarters of organisations doing so will include an e-learning component. 

2. Company and industry-specific skills show little increase in e-learning penetration at 

early stages of maturity but this penetration rises steeply at later stages of maturity, 

achieving a similar probability of being delivered with e-learning as IT skills. 

3. All the other topics, mainly interpersonal and generic skills, show a steady growth in 

penetration as organisations become more e-learning mature. One group of topics 

starts from a low probability of use (close to zero) whereas another group starts from a 

penetration of approximately 20%. 



Companies deliver a wider range of topics as they gain confidence and at later stages of 

maturity use this confidence to develop specific content that meets their particular business 

needs. For those organisations that wish to develop in maturity, the experience of delivering 

e-learning IT skills are a good starting point, concentrating later on other topics, particularly 

industry and company-specific skills. 

Programmes supporting industry certification are offered by 3 out of 5 companies, learning 

for customers and professional body qualifications being offered by about half and all other 

programmes offered by less than 2 out of 5 organisations. There is less use of e-learning in 

programmes leading to qualifications than in the delivery of stand alone topics. Learning for 

customers is the style of programme most likely to include an e-learning component; possibly 

because of the low cost of delivery. All programmes for industry qualifications offered by the 

finance sector use an e-learning component. The business activities sector is least likely to 

use e-learning within any training programmes. The penetration of e-learning by 

programmes has been analysed by maturity. As organisations become more mature there is 

a greater probability that they will use on-line resources to deliver N/SVQ programmes. The 

penetration rises from 20% to 60%; only 2 other styles of programmes show an increase in 

penetration with maturity; learning for suppliers, rising from zero for the least mature to 20% 

penetration for the more mature and job related qualifications rising from 25% to 40%. As 

with e-learning being delivered to customers, the driving force behind delivering e-learning 

for suppliers may be the low cost of delivery and an increased perception of the potential for 

increasing the quality of the supply chain. The significant growth in N/SVQ programmes using 

e-learning is likely to be driven by the benefits of reducing the cost of administration since 

these programmes have a requirement for assessment and workplace monitoring, which 

without electronic support is relatively expensive for employers to deliver. 

Ninety percent of respondents deliver electronic learning material. This is frequently the 

narrow definition of e-learning accepted by many. Four out of 5 respondents use, or will use, 

e-learning for assessment and administration; almost half for collaboration between learners, 

competency management and e-tutor support; with 2 out of 5 using, or planning to use, e- 

learning for the evaluation of business impact. As organisations become more mature they 

deliver a greater range of formal learning services on-line. Each one of these services is 

delivered by more than half of the most mature organisations. This demonstrates that 

maturity brings with it a greater appreciation of the capability of e-learning to offer a wider 

range of formal learning services. 

More than 3 out of 5 respondents offer on-line books and approximately half of respondents 

offer search portals, on-line company experts and on-line communities. The two informal 

services most likely to be offered, on-line books and search portals, are both designed to 

enable learners to find things out for themselves from a large source of information made 

available to them. This is appropriate as learners report that 60% of what they learn is by 

finding things out for themselves, as opposed to the delivery of content through Courses. 

More mature organisations offer more informal services. Although the number of 

organisations currently planning to offer e-learning services is relatively small (approximately 

10% of those currently offering these services) the probability of organisations using these 

services increases from about 25% to 70% as organisations move from less mature to more 

mature. 



12.5 Chapter 5 – Take-up of software tools in support of e-learning 

We can predict the growth of the use in various software tools that support e-learning by 

combining an analysis of users’ plans from the survey with the change in probability of use 

with maturity. All software tools are more likely to be used by more mature organisations. 

However, open-source tools are more likely to be used by the less mature than those 

becoming mature. An assumption is that the availability of open-source tools provides an 

entry point for training functions to experiment with e-learning in the absence of a strategy or 

business case. A comparison of use by maturity their growth is unlikely to be significantly 

different from the 18% predicted on the basis of organisation’s plans up to 2010. The most 

frequently occurring e-learning software is the Learning Management System, for which a 

growth rate of 30% is predicted. Based upon users’ plans, competency management 

appears to be growing at 83%. However, the difference in maturity indicates a lower growth 

rate, perhaps nearer 40%, from its current usage level. Rapid development tools on the other 

hand show a greater difference between the less and more mature, indicating a growth rate 

of 30 to 35% rather than the 19% predicted from users’ plans. E-portfolios show one of the 

smallest differences between the less and the more mature, supporting the probable growth 

rate of 20% of current usage, with a prediction that by 2010 only a third of companies will be 

adopting e-portfolios. 

Mobile learning is the only delivery tool that does not consistently increase with greater 

maturity, being used by slightly more of the less mature than those becoming mature. The 

definition of mobile learning included laptops and tablet PCs and we can make a 

reasonable assumption that mobile learning will increase perhaps by a third. Twice as many 

of the more mature organisations use pod casting than the less mature. This together with the 

forecast of future use by all respondents, indicates that the use of pod casting will more than 

double by 2010. The use of games/simulations/in-tray exercises will grow by 15% based on 

combining the differences between more mature and less mature users, with the forecast of 

13% growth based upon users’ plans. The definition of games includes simulations and in-tray 

exercises which is a wider definition than might be understood by the term ‘computer 

games’. Video on demand shows a modest change with maturity and we can expect an 

overall growth rate of 50%. The electronic performance support systems are twice as likely to 

be used by the more mature as compared to the less mature, which supports an overall 

growth prediction of 60%. 

The majority of software tools supporting collaboration show an adoption curve that rises 

more steeply at later stages of maturity. The exceptions are video conferencing and virtual 

classrooms, both of which show a steady growth rate, with a difference of 20% in their 

probability of use between the less and the more mature organisations. Video conferencing 

is a relatively mature software tool with a reasonably high penetration and a predicted 

growth rate, based on these figures, of 10%. Virtual classrooms have a much lower 

probability of being used and therefore have a higher growth rate of perhaps 25%. 

Wikis/blogs are least likely to be used and show the smallest difference between the less and 

the more mature. We may expect a growth rate by 2010 of at least 80%. Both moderated 

and un-moderated chat shows a similar difference in usage between the less mature and 

the more mature, being twice as likely to be used by the more mature. Comparing users’ 

plans with current levels of use and change with maturity, we can expect a growth in both 

types of chat of 60%. However, un-moderated chat may grow at a slower rate. The 

CMS/VLE is likely to be used by 70% of the more mature but only 50% of the less mature. 

Based upon a comparison of maturity and users’ plans we might expect an actual growth 

rate closer to 25% somewhat less than the 30% predicted from user’s plans. 



Global companies are more likely to choose the collaborative tools of video conferencing 

and virtual classrooms together with electronic performance support systems, so are likely to 

lead the growth in these technologies. Companies with many locations are less likely to be 

using almost all of the technologies listed so far. Larger companies are more likely to be 

using Learning Management Systems (88% compared to 52% of SMEs). Video conferencing is 

more likely to be used by the largest companies (67% compared to 33% of SMEs). Apart from 

video conferencing the other collaborative software tools discussed in this report are not 

more likely to be used by larger organisations. 

12.6 Chapter 6 - IT capability 

Organisations were segmented on IT capability, the definition of which is that learners are 

familiar with PCs and need little technical support and technology is capable of delivery e- 

learning to places convenient to staff. Organisations which have greater IT capability, based 

on this definition, achieve greater business impact, staff impact, improved availability and 

greater take-up. 

IT capable organisations 

IT not capable organisations 

More likely to have capable IT functions 

Offer about seven online services 

Offer about 5.5 online services 

Select seven drivers for e-learning 

Select 5 ½ drivers for e-learning 

More likely that directors use e-learning Less likely that directors use e-learning (41%) 

(62%) 

Offer more topics using a component of e- 

learning (60%) 

Offer fewer topics using a component of e- 

learning ( 50%) 

Offer e-learning in more locations (3.1) Offer e-learning in less locations (2.6) 

More likely to offer virtual classrooms and 

reference books (20%), electronic job aids, 

web support (about 40%), line manager 

coaching (60%), 

Less likely to offer virtual classrooms and 

reference books (10%), electronic job aids, 

web support (about 25%), line manager 

coaching (45%), 

Less likely to offer printed job aids (12%) More likely to offer printed job aids (25%) 

Twice as likely to use regular surveys of user 

satisfaction (61%) 

Less likely to use regular surveys of user 

satisfaction (35%) (13% collect no feedback 

at all) 

Given the significance of directors using e-learning IT capability may be a response to 

directors using e-learning rather than vice versa. Training functions rise to the challenge of an 

adequate IT infrastructure and confident users, by offering more services, seeing more 

opportunities, using more technologies and seeing fewer barriers. 

The role of support functions is more important for those organisations lacking an IT capability; 

we may assume that it is more difficult to deliver e-learning in such organisations and 

therefore training functions need more support from the other support functions, either 

practical help or financial endorsement. Business sponsors appear less likely to perceive e- 

learning as a suitable route for achieving their business aims in organisations which lack IT 

capability. 



The difference in probability of line manager coaching being offered may be because staff 

are more confident about requesting such support from line managers when they are also 

confident about using PCs, or line managers themselves are more confident about delivering 

coaching. Bearing in mind that half the employer respondents have more than 90% of their 

staff using PCs regularly confidence in using PCs is a critical element for job performance for 

the employer respondents in this survey. 

IT capable organisations are more likely to have capable training functions, more likely to 

have part of their training function dedicated to e-learning, more likely to demand e- 

learning to exact specifications, less likely to use suppliers, more likely to use in-house 

development tools but also more likely to be using commercial products. There are a 

number of related factors which link the capability of the training function, the infrastructure 

and the confidence of learners. Greater capability in all 3 areas increases the number of 

ways in which e-learning can be used, who it is delivered to, what technologies are used and 

its impact on the business and on staff. 

12.7 Chapter 7 – Supporting learners 

Learners appreciate the availability of study and consolidation support. Of the 15 options to 

learner respondents at least 69%, of those where it was available, found all forms of study 

support useful. The most useful, at 88%, are job related assignments, provided by 38% of 

employers. Email contact from a tutor, provided by 42% of employers, was useful to 74% of 

those where it was available. Learner respondents place a high value upon support in the 

workplace with both job related assignments, electronic help, job aids and reference books 

valued by more than 80% of those to whom it was available. There is no significant 

difference between the method of delivery, either electronic, in person or in print in the 

proportion of recipients who considered it useful. All help delivered directly to learners is 

considered valuable. Even support mechanism only rarely available, (for example: virtual 

learning classrooms, available in 16% of employers and to 17% of learner respondents), is still 

considered useful by 72% of those to whom it was available. The method used to deliver 

support is of less importance to learners than the fact that it is available. 

When making investment decisions about support, organisations need to balance the cost of 

that support against the perceived value to recipients. For example, a virtual classroom 

which may be expensive to implement, is valued by only 72% of those to whom it is available, 

compared to Web reference valued by 81% of those to whom it is available. 

There is a consistent difference between synchronous and asynchronous support. The 

proportion of respondents who value synchronous methods is 74% and 83% for those who 

value asynchronous methods. This supports a conclusion developed elsewhere that 

convenience as to time and place for learners is one of the most significant attributes of e- 

learning, irrespective of its form or method of delivery. On average most respondents use 

about two and a half different methods of support. 

Worldwide companies are least likely to offer learner support in person, whereas those with a 

relatively few number of UK sites are most likely to offer such support. Global companies are 

more likely to provide electronic support through reference sites, organisations with a single 

UK site do not fit into the pattern since they make a greater use of electronic support, 

however this sector is dominated by the education and health and social work sector, who 

are most likely to seek learning support from other organisations also within their sector. 



Those organisations that put more effort into supporting learners in the workplace are more 

likely to be found in the upper quartile for business impact. The support mechanisms that are 

most closely linked with business impact are reference books, electronic job aids, 

reassessment and line manager coaching. Investing effort into these support mechanisms is 

likely to show the greatest impact on potential business return from e-learning. 

Almost half of learner respondents find e-learning convenient, and are able to put it into 

practice and 65% feel empowered and able to take charge of their own development. 

Forty percent are interested in recognition and qualifications, the same proportion who 

regard e-learning as relevant to their job. Ensuring learners feel empowered and take action 

to manage their own development is a significant benefit from e-learning. Twice as many 

learner respondents feel empowered as feel they have support from management. Learners 

who are empowered also feel they have greater control over their learning, that e-learning is 

more directly relevant to their job, they are less likely to feel detached and more likely to feel 

supported by management. 

12.8 Chapter 8 – Promoting e-learning 

The most frequently provided method of promoting e-learning is via email, with newsletters, 

management briefings and posters frequently used. Differences emerge with maturity in that 

the more mature organisations are more likely to use any one particular communication 

method except email and newsletters. The more mature organisations are more likely to use 

a greater range of communication methods, both at launch and to sustain interest. 

Organisations in the upper quartile for business impact are more likely to use a wider range of 

communication methods significantly newsletters, where three quarters in the top quartile will 

use newsletters compared to half or less in the 3 lower quartiles, half will use posters 

compared to less than 40% of those in the lower quartiles. 

Similar differences emerge when we analyse the use of communication methods based 

upon the take-up of e-learning. Increased effort into promotion by email, newsletter, 

management briefings, posters and open days results in improved take-up. The greatest 

difference comes from the use of posters, management briefings and newsletters. Learners 

themselves report that email is the communication method most likely to sustain their interest, 

with line management briefings, company newsletters and peer testimonies all being 

important. Posters were only selected as important for sustaining interest by 10% of the 

population and do not appear to be effective for launching e-learning, as less than 2% said 

they found out about e-learning from a poster. Email, line management briefings and 

company newsletters are the most likely ways in which learners find out about e-learning. 

Some slight differences emerge by age, with older learners more likely to respond to email 

and younger learners more likely to respond to line management briefings. Those who work 

at customer sites tend to find out from emails, those who work from home find out from 

newsletters. Line management briefings are least effective for these 2 groups. 

In general email is both the most frequently used method of communication and also the 

one learner’s are most likely to respond to. There are differences by age and working 

pattern. There are learners in special situations and perhaps with personal preferences who 

are more likely to respond to other methods of communication. A successful organisation will 

use multiple channels of communication, using different styles and types of communication 

to learners in different situations. The use of management briefings, newsletters and posters 

are effective ways of supporting email and increasing take-up and improving the probability 

of e-learning being successful. 



Delivering e-learning at locations which are convenient for learners makes a difference to 

the impact e-learning has on them as does giving them the freedom and information to 

manage their own development. The aspect that learners feel most positive about e- 

learning is that it allows them to learn in a place that is convenient for them. Seven out of 10 

learners agree with the statement that technology allows them to learn in a place 

convenient for them. Although the provision of e-learning at home is convenient, we may 

infer that about a quarter of those who could study at home did actually do so. About 15% 

of those who could have used an in-house internal learning centre did so. It would appear 

that a quiet place at work is a key enabler for convenience to learners as to place. Learners 

were asked who motivated them to learn and about a half chose managers, a quarter 

colleagues, training managers 10% and senior executives 5%. There are some differences 

that emerge based upon age and management responsibility. Those who do not manage 

their own time are least likely to respond to their line manager and younger members of staff 

are more likely to respond to their line manager, from whom they are also more likely to find 

out about e-learning, as previously reported. 

More mature organisations put more effort into collecting feedback from learners. Most 

organisations use feedback sheets following each course so this method of collecting 

feedback shows little difference with maturity, business impact or staff impact. The 

probability of regular surveys being used increases consistently with business impact, maturity 

and staff impact. 

The self-rated perception questions help us identify a number of key actions that correlate 

strongly with improved success at e-learning. These are: demonstrating e-learning success 

within the business, enabling staff to quickly put into practice what they learn from e- 

learning, personalise the learning experience for each learner, quickly implementing learning 

across the organisation, communicating success to managers, the demonstration of 

commitment to e-learning by senior management, deploying change management 

methodologies to implement e-learning, providing e-learning with a specific identify and 

brand and having a clear understanding of what type of e-learning internal IT systems 

support. Business impact can also be improved by providing line managers with training and 

briefings related to specific e-learning courses and ensuring that staff can access e-learning 

at any time. 

12.9 Chapter 9 – the changing face of learning 

Learners were asked how they went about learning outside of formal programmes and 4 out 

of 5 search the Web and use conversations with others, 3 out of 3 use on-line reference 

materials and books, 2 out of 5 use industry publications, a quarter use job aids, either printed 

or electronic, and 18% participate in on-line discussions. All these methods enable learners to 

find things out for themselves (60% of what they learn is by finding things out for themselves). 

The 4 technologies that are most likely to be considered useful by learners are all associated 

with searching facilities: search engines, general Web reference sources, specific Web 

reference sources and searchable on-line books. 

It appears that users perceive on-line communities, discussion boards and blogs/wikis as 

serving very different purposes. For example, it may be that on-line communities are 

perceived as formal structures, it may be that those working from home have difficulty 

accessing company-specific internal sources and therefore are more likely to resort to 

external resources. In general those of lower educational attainment are less likely to use 

any of the informal services offered, although this changes when users are specifically asked 



if they use Web reference sources, as those of lower educational attainment are more likely 

to use these resources. It may be that those of lower educational attainment are less 

comfortable about participating in collaborative tools, but more comfortable about using e- 

learning as a reference source. 

Learners were asked if they were willing to use technology to share their knowledge with 

others and 84% of respondents agreed that they were either already doing so, or would do 

so if they had the opportunity. Twenty-six percent of respondents who already provide this 

help is a close match to the 27% who find discussion boards useful. As on-line communities 

are only considered helpful by 18% of respondents, it would appear that learners have a 

preference for using other forms of collaborative technology rather than on-line 

communities. It would appear that learners are willing to work collaboratively but that 

existing tools are not giving them the type of collaboration they would prefer. In all cases 

reference sources are considered more valuable and helpful to learners than collaborative 

services. 

A comparison of employer’s plans clearly demonstrates that there is a greater interest in the 

particular technologies that support informal learning, rather than the services delivered 

through those technologies. It appears that employer respondents think about the 

technology first and its application to learning second. Given the possible lack of enthusiasm 

by learners for the particular collaborative tools offered, it may be that organisations have to 

define more clearly how they will use social software and the types of services they will be 

delivering through them. In both cases there is a need to consult users so that the services 

and technology provided are attractive to learners ensuring that organisations can benefit 

from the willingness of learners to help others learn through an application of technology. 

The current and planned provision of informal services and supporting technologies is 

analysed by maturity, based upon this we may predict the following growth rates: for 

communities of practice 80% by 2010, for search portals and on-line company experts a 20% 

growth rate by 2010 and for on-line books and job aids a growth rate of perhaps 10% by 

2010. 

The provision of these informal services is linked to business impact, with those in the top 

quartile significantly more likely to be delivering those services than the bottom quartile. The 

use of on-line books/job aids has the greatest effect on business impact: 40% of the bottom 

quartile providing this service compared to 85% of those in the top quartile. The availability 

of on-line communities and search portals, on the other hand, has the greatest effect on staff 

impact. Therefore the investment on on-line books and job aids will give greatest business 

return and investment in search portals and on-line communities will give the biggest 

changes in staff motivation and behaviour. 

Of the 113 respondents providing information about budgets, on average 17% of overall 

training budgets were spent on e-learning with an estimated forecast growth of 70% to 26% 

as a proportion of training budgets to be spent on e-learning by 2010. Although all sectors 

forecast some growth the largest expected growth occurs within IT, telecommunications, 

education and transport. Education and IT/ telecommunications already spend more of 

their budget on e-learning than organisations in other sectors. The more mature 

organisations spend more of their budget on e-learning; almost a quarter compared to 

approximately 5% of the less mature. The proportion of budget spent on e-learning does 

have an impact on take-up, availability, business impact and staff impact. Those who spend 

a greater proportion of their budget on e-learning achieve improved take-up, availability, 

business impact and staff impact. Increasing spend from 10% of budget to 30% of budget 

improves the self-rating of staff impact from 4.3 to six, take-up from 4.4 to 6.3, business impact 

from five to seven and availability from 5.9 to 6.8. The change in availability shows least 



difference with an increased proportion spent on e-learning. Those organisations that spend 

more must therefore be channelling this expenditure into areas that have a greater effect on 

business impact than on the availability of e-learning. The assumption is that this goes 

towards change management and promotional activities and it is these activities that 

increase the business impact, staff impact and take-up of e-learning. 

12.10 Chapter 10 – Comparison of education sector with others 

The education sector achieves less business impact, staff impact, availability of e-learning 

and take-up than do other sectors. It would appear that non-educational organisations are 

more successful at e-learning than those in the education sector. Significantly the education 

sector perceives itself to be less successful at using change management, improving record 

keeping, applying a brand and identity to e-learning, providing information that is easy to 

use, using appraisal, having managers coach their teams, having the skills to manage 

providers, completing an audit of their training functions, paying attention to compliance 

and tracking and ensuring that learners know what is available for them. It would appear 

that the education sector could learn from other sectors as regards the promotion, 

marketing and change management for e-learning. The education sector is less likely to 

select any of the drivers listed except for the requirement to maintain the public image of a 

progressive and innovative organisation (selected by 35% in the education sector, 15% of 

others), organisational change (35% in education, 23% of others) and pressure from senior 

management (10% in education, 4% of others). Image and organisational change matters 

more to those in the education sector and cost qualifications and administration matters less. 

Companies in the education sector are less likely to provide training in every topic area 

except that of literacy and numeracy. Where training is offered e-learning is less likely to be 

used than by any other sector, except for foreign language training. However, educational 

organisations are more likely to use e-learning to support programmes leading to 

qualifications. The education sector is leading the way in deploying e-learning for 

programmes which lead to qualifications. The education sector is less likely to deliver e- 

learning to every role except professional grade staff; this is most noticeable at a senior level. 

Given the importance of the leadership role for directors it may be that ensuring senior staff 

use e-learning personally is the most significant lesson educational organisations can learn 

from other sectors. 

Educational organisations are more likely to have a strategy (42%) than others (31%). Useful 

lessons other sectors can learn from the education sector is to have an e-learning strategy 

and to seek ways in which e-learning can be used to support qualification programmes. 

The education sector is less likely to use rapid development tools and more likely to use tools 

designed for Web experts and programmers. This may be because rapid development tools 

are most appropriate to training procedures and IT practices and the education sector has 

less need of this type of training and a greater need for training that requires more 

interactive and innovative e-learning, which is better developed with the use of more 

sophisticated development tools. Educational organisations are less likely to work in 

partnership with an e-learning vendor, possibly because they perceive they have the e- 

learning expertise themselves, although this is not borne out by the responses to the selfperception 

questions. It would appear that the education sector develops more complex 

and less procedurally based e-learning and is more likely to work with others in the same 

sector rather than seek support from elsewhere. 



The education sector makes more effort to support learners than those in other sectors. They 

are twice as likely to use telephone and in-person support than other sectors and this is also 

true for technical support. The education sector puts more effort into supporting learners 

when studying e-learning, particularly when the personal touch is required, and makes a 

greater provision for personal contact for technical support. 

Apart from the provision of line management coaching in general the education sector is 

less likely to provide support to consolidate learning on the job. An apparent difference in 

two sets of questions relating to line management coaching may be that the greater 

occurrence of line management coaching support after learning does not translate to 

effective coaching as normal practice. 

The education sector is more likely to be using the collaborative tools of chat rooms, VLEs, 

virtual classrooms and blogs and wikis. They are less likely to be using the more procedural 

tools of LMS, Competency Management Systems and EPSS. It is probable that the education 

sector recognises the value and importance of collaborative learning and takes steps to 

provide the on-line tools for this to occur. They make more use of open-source tools, perhaps 

because of probable budget constraints. 

The education sector is less likely to perceive unreliable ICT as a barrier and slightly less likely 

to perceive access to PCs as a barrier. They are more likely to perceive that a lack of skills to 

manage e-learning in the future will be a barrier. They are also in general less positive about 

their view of their own training function capability. 

They are more enthusiastic about the future of e-learning than other sectors and more likely 

to be making plans. They are more likely to be planning to introduce CMS/VLEs, chat rooms, 

blogs/wikis, pod casting, video on demand, games and simulations, open-source tools and 

rapid development tools than those in other sectors. In other words, what they are already 

doing more of they intend to continue doing more of; if anything, opening the lead over 

other sectors. However, they are less likely to be planning the use of Competency 

Management Systems, LMS, EPSS, e-portfolios and virtual classrooms. This latter software tool 

is the only one to show a discrepancy since the educational sector already makes a greater 

use of this tool but in fact the non-educational sector is more likely to be planning for its 

future use. An analysis of the various responses in relation to CMS/VLE indicates that most of 

the education sector will be using Content Management Systems by 2010. However, this 

question did include the definition of Virtual Learning Environments and the education sector 

may be interpreting these as environments in which students and learners can exchange 

content in a safe and secure environment. The education sector will continue to take the 

lead in collaborative learning, evidenced by its greater interest in the technology tools that 

supports social learning and the greater effort they put into supporting learners, both before, 

during and after study. 

12.11 Chapter 11 – the future of learning 

Four out of 5 employers will place greater emphasis on informal learning in the future. There 

will be an increase in the availability and use of electronic learning records and e-learning 

will continue to be considered as a component in the learning on offer, rather than a sole 

delivery method. However, many organisations are likely to continue to perceive that e- 

learning will not be suitable for every topic. Sixty percent of the less mature do not think this 

will happen. At an early stage organisations primarily use e-learning for IT skills. As they 

become more mature they increasingly use e-learning for a wider range of topics. 



Since 2004 there is a wider appreciation of the importance of training records and a greater 

understanding that e-learning is not a sole delivery method. There is slightly less change in 

the view that e-learning will be suitable for all applications, although as previously discussed 

this does change significantly with maturity. 

The most frequently selected barriers were: cost, staff resistance, lack of knowledge about 

the potential of e-learning, lack of e-learning management skills, the lack of relevant quality 

material and, for the less mature, the content that is available is too generic and that their 

staff lack IT skills. Maturity is therefore linked to a greater appreciation that content can be 

created, or that generic content can be modified to make it more specific and relevant. 

Maturity also brings with it a reduction in the probability of staff ICT skills being a barrier, most 

likely because generic IT skills are part of the e-learning offer and most likely to be provided 

by the less mature organisations. The more mature organisations are also significantly less 

likely to select a lack of e-learning management skills as a barrier. 

The public administration sector is more likely to report staff resistance and inadequate ICT 

than other sectors. The manufacturing sector is more likely to cite a lack of staff IT skills and 

lack of skills to manage e-learning as barriers. The sector that reports fewest barriers is IT and 

telecommunication, followed by education. The sectors most likely to report barriers are 

health, public administration and manufacturing. 

A comparison with 2004 shows that culture change, user objections and staff resistance 

remain as one of the most frequently cited barriers. In 2004 cost was selected by only 7% of 

respondents and this has risen to 44% in 2006. This may because organisations are seeking to 

implement e-learning far more widely across organisations, or it may be because increased 

experience has shown that the process is not as inexpensive as first considered. Part of the 

cost may be the increased effort organisations have to put in to winning the hearts and 

minds of e-learners to overcome user resistance. The lack of relevant quality content is a 

much more significant barrier than it used to be, perhaps because there is a greater 

understanding that company and industry-specific skills are an area where organisations 

have to create material and that there is a greater interest in doing so. ICT remains a barrier 

for about a quarter of organisations, although much of this report indicates that the barrier is 

significantly less of a problem in 2006 than it was in 2004. This latter view is principally 

supported by respondents having a significantly more positive view about e-learning and its 

availability and implementation now than they did in 2004. More respondents perceive that 

it is difficult to prove the financial return now than did in 2004; more than twice as many. 

There has been an improvement in the availability of e-learning and ICT infrastructure but 

otherwise there does not appear to have been much improvement since 2004. More 

mature organisations do better against the average of the 2004 results, so progression 

towards maturity does enable organisations to improve their performance compared to the 

averages reported in 2004. 

Employer respondents tend to seek advice from sources where they can be reasonably 

anonymous, Web sites, exhibitions and conferences being top of the list. Government 

funded sources, such as SSCs and Business Link, are used by less than one out of 5 

respondents. Additional help that employer respondents seek are associated with 

promotion, implementation and evaluation of e-learning. Given the low probability of 

respondents having audited the skills of their training team and the part that this plays in the 

change management process it is disappointing to see that only one in 5 of respondents 

request help associated with implementing and managing e-learning.

Towards Maturity

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