E-Learning–‘Off the shelf‘ or customized

E-learning has been around for quite some time now. We see a lot of organizations adopting this "new" technology more and more, as they clearly see that the benefits far outweigh the cost. The growth of e-learning, especially in the local scene, has also spurred the need – or want – to "customize" e-learning courses versus choosing readily available content, "off the shelf."

The simplest meaning, yet ironically, the most complicated form of customization is the creation of one’s own e-learning content and/or system from scratch. Another form of customization is the revision of already existing content to tailor-fit to an organization’s needs (or wants). On the other hand, "off the shelf" would be implementing available courses and modules in the market to target specific learning needs of an organization.

The decision to choose one method over the other is rather difficult. There are a few things to consider. And we all know it should boil down to the benefits versus costs. Here they are:

Pros: Customization

Perfect fit

Since courses are developed to the specific requirements of the organization, all the learning needs of the employees are addressed. There are no spaces to fill; the content is exactly what the organization wants.

Copyright ownership

Although a school or company may contract a third-party organization to storyboard and fulfill the actual course development, the content materials will still come from the school or company itself. This gives it copyright ownership to the final, developed e-learning courseware.

Cons: Customization

High cost of development

Things to consider under development cost would be the project team, technology tools necessary, and of course, timetable.

a) Project Team – Depending on how complicated the content is, it could take up to four to five full-time consultants to develop just one hour of e-learning content.

b) Timetable – Again, depending on the content’s complication, four to five full-time consultants working on one hour of e-learning content will take at least 20 full working days to complete.

c) Technology Tools – Depending on how sophisticated the organization wants the content to be, the technology tools necessary might be as simple as an authoring tool that costs a few thousand pesos or multimedia software that costs millions.

Availability of LMS

If an organization wants to have capabilities of a Learning Management System available, customization means developing courses that must comply with international standards such as AICC (Aviation Industry CBT Committee) and/or SCORM (Shareable Courseware Object Reference Model) as all good and functional Learning Management Systems comply with these standards.

Pros: "Off The Shelf" Content

Low cost

Usually, "off the shelf" e-learning content include general topics like Accounting Basics or Microsoft NT Server that are applicable to any and most companies or schools. Economies of scale allow the cost of creating the content to be spread across more companies and more students. Thus, the cost of "off the shelf" content then only becomes approximately one-tenth of classroom training and one-twentieth of customized content.

Content readily available

Since "off the shelf" content is already available in the market, organizations that require training can have access to chosen courses in as quick as a click of a mouse. In addition, this also allows schools and companies to save on opportunity cost of people who are otherwise tasked to do other responsibilities. Thus, saving on time and overall cost.

LMS readily available

"Off the shelf" content is also always partnered with Learning Management Systems that can perform capabilities, from the simplest to the most complica-ted, depending on the organiza-tional needs.

Availability of options

"Off the shelf" content makes up around 70 percent of an organization’s training requirement. This is because approximately 70 percent of what companies and schools need are similar – they are general content applicable to any organization. And because of this, companies and schools have the option to choose from several suppliers and a handful of course catalogues that offer, if not the same, at least similar "off the shelf" content.

Accredited content

"Off the shelf" content is almost always aligned with accreditation from a known agency or a certain standard. For example, most "off the shelf" Microsoft courses are accredited from the vendor – Microsoft itself. This allows organizations to ensure that courses delivered to their employees or students come from a good source and are internationally recognized. ]

Cons: "Off The Shelf" Content

Adoption

Those responsible for implementing an e-learning system in an organization must take into consideration how its students and employees will adopt to an already existing system. This does not only mean the content, but the technical and learning methodology as well. Although "off the shelf" content does not demand high technical specifications, most just require an Internet browser to run.

May not address all areas of needs

Since "off the shelf" content is implemented "as is," it may address only a portion of the learning needs of a company or school.

Because most of it is non-customizable and may not address all the needs of an organization, "off the shelf" content must undergo proper evaluation by people in charge of choosing e-learning to ensure a smooth and easy-sailing implementation process. Five important things to consider when evaluating are reliability of the supplier, content (accreditation and standard), learning methodology (how the courses are arranged and taught), how user-friendly the system is, and instructional design (availability of learning tools, assessment, practice, etc).

And the bottom line is...

Looking closely at the pros and cons of customization versus choosing "off the shelf" content, it is not an easy decision to make. At the end of the day, there has to be a mixture of both to satisfy all the requirements of an organization’s learning needs cost-effectively. The lesson we have learned over the years is not to reinvent the wheel, unless you have to. Translating this into e-learning terms: if "off the shelf" courses satisfy a good portion of your students’ or employees’ learning requirements, go ahead with "off the shelf" content. Save "customization" for learning needs that are company/school-specific, or those that are not available in the market, i.e. Florante at Laura and the like.

The bottom line is not whether you have chosen to implement "off the shelf" or to customize, it is providing an e-learning system that will address all the requirements of your organization yet will keep the overall investment project cost at reasonable levels.

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Arlene K. Yap-Tan is CEO of Yapster e-Learning, Inc., a member of Yapster e-Conglomerate Inc. You may contact her at [email protected].