A message posted in one of the NACOL forums.
Just came across this report/book, which can be downloaded, researched by members of the European Distance and E-learning Network (EDEN). Perhaps it has been mentioned here before, but even it has been, it is worth reading again.
Website is: http://nettskolen.nki.no/in_english/megatrends.The researchers analyzed why 10 different e-learning initiatives failed including several in the U.S. Although they focus on higher ed examples, the lessons learned are easily generalized to any level of e-learning. Well worth reading.
Their conclusions are:
- Realize that hard-nosed market research is essential for the success of any e-learning initiative;
- Plan carefully for and control carefully the revenue and expenses. Seeding funding dries up quickly;
- Choice of courses and their accreditation is crucial;
- Define precisely the relationships of your initiative to existing providers and define precisely the institutional model you will adopt;
- Plan carefully to manage both educational and business activities;
- Avoid top-down political and boardroom initiatives;
- Avoid consortia of institutions that compete with each other and the consortium.
One of the people who commented, wrote:
The comment to the original post reminded me of an article I read at digg.com recently listing 10 reasons why new businesses fail.
http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/blog/2008/02/06/the-top-10-mistakes-people-make-when-starting-a-business/
The products didn’t fail - per se, but the managers made key mistakes.
Interesting…
One of the biggest reasons I see elearning fail or at least fail to reduce time to proficiency is that what was there originally wasn’t written down anywhere and it can’t be transferred without a lot writing and instructional design.
As a result, elearning ends up as a lot of electronic page turning
Comment by Steve Rosenbaum — February 9, 2008 @ 7:45 pm