In their report titled “Forecast: E-Learning Software, Worldwide, 2002-2008,” Gartner - the world's leading provider of research and analysis about the global information technology industry – predicted that “Revenue from business-focused e-learning software will grow 16.7 percent annually worldwide from 2003 through 2008. This market will more than double in size, to $619.4 million in new license revenue, by 2008.” Such astonishing figures are a motivation for an in-depth inspection of that field: eTraining.

When operating in a massive global economy, your corporation or institution definitely needs to ensure having highly skilled workforce on board. At the same time, it needs to face the increasing cost and time needed to provide learners with adequate training, assessment and follow-up on their progress. Also, the highly competitive nature that characterizes today's market means that your staff should be instantly updated with all required training and development tools. Being the first to know is vital in order not to waste important opportunities that come their way before other corporations grasp them.

Given all these new circumstances, conducting a cost-benefit analysis of traditional training and learning methods followed by many organizations shows a need for revising these methods. The classroom model of training, based on having a tutor for a number of attendees, has serious disadvantages.

For example, to set a course for staff, consider the drain on the organization's time and money for sourcing the venue, the tutor, developing the course content and maybe even arranging travel and accommodation. You should also consider the amount of working time foregone by all employees to attend the course. In the end, the course goes at one pace that might not suit some learners' capabilities, and there would be no future reference for the learners as there would be no access for the course's content.

This dilemma initiated the development of alternative and more efficient method of acquiring knowledge which is eLearning. It is defined to be the process of delivering remote training over the Internet or a corporate intranet via a Web browser. By avoiding all the problems associated with traditional learning, eLearning provides you with a customized, personalized, cost-effective and time-saving learning process.

The benefits you can reap from eTraining include:

• Cost Effectiveness: It is much cheaper to e-train employees than to use traditional classroom method because of the savings in travel costs, instructor fees and training material
   
• Time-saving: Saves great amounts of time since learners can get "just in time and just enough" training
   
• Individualization: Gives the opportunity for individualized training where trainees increase their potential and absorb the material at their own pace
   
• Centralization: which makes it easy to update the information that all users use only once and in no time at all
   
• Knowledge retention: as material are made easier to recall than other methods
   
• Efficient assessment: provides a means of assessing skills and competence gaps of trainees in addition to assessing instructors' performances
   
• Connectivity: for geographically dispersed users
   
• Access to a vast scope of virtual learning resources
   
• Distributable, inclusive, collaborative, and interactive
   

So, even if your organization is doing better with traditional learning methods, you should consider the dramatic effect that adopting eLearning will have on your performance and excellence.