The issues

Four issues are most likely to influence your selection – cost, availability, relevance and quality.

Cost. With so much of your budget already spent, cost could well be uppermost in your mind. But comparing the options on the grounds of cost is not that simple. At face value, in-house development looks the attractive option, but only because it consumes the least direct cost. To make a fair comparison, you need to look at all the costs – direct and indirect – from all stages of development through to delivery and evaluation.

Availability. The development of content of an acceptable quality, even with experienced personnel and the best tools, could never be called a quick process. We are definitely talking months and not weeks. Sometimes you simply don’t have that luxury. You’re implementing Office XP in three months’ time and all 5000 staff must be trained before then. No way will you be able to develop your own product or have it made outside. You go with what’s available.

Relevance. Yes, you say, but we can’t go outside for an off-the-shelf product because we are going to be using a slightly modified version of Office XP. Not only that, but we’re also launching a new appraisal system and we need training for that, too. It’s our own unique system (they all say that) – we don’t do things like other companies. If this is the case, it really might mean you‘ll have to design your own training programme from scratch. But there’s also the possibility of finding an off-the-shelf product that can be customised or supplemented with your own material, a feature that the best publishers are increasingly making available.

Quality. There’s a lot of rubbish talked about the quality of e-learning materials, mostly by people who have never worked right through an online course and probably never will. The only meaningful definition of quality is ‘fitness for purpose’ – if it does the job, then it’s a quality product. If a Volkswagen Polo meets your needs for getting from A to B reliably, in reasonable comfort and a little style, then it’s a high quality car, at least for you. If an e-learning product helps your employees to meet their learning objectives, then that’s a high quality product too. Along the way, all this probably means it conforms to accepted usability guidelines, technical standards and principles for effective adult learning.

So which method will best meet your needs for controlling costs, availability, relevance and quality? It’s time to look at the strengths and weaknesses of each in turn.