Who s doing what?

Who’s doing what?

According to a survey conducted in February 1999 by Epic Group, for Technologies for Training and the DfES, all three ways of sourcing content have a part to play:

	Doing now	Planning to	Expect to
In-house	35%	63%	63%
Out-source	26%	44%	50%
Off-the-shelf	41%	51%	56%

At an IITT e-learning seminar, delegates were asked which methods they were considering implementing or had already decided to implement in the next twelve months, for a variety of subject types:

	IT skills	Soft Skills	Mandated subjects*
In-house	65%	65%	94%
Out-source	47%	77%	41%
Off-the-shelf	53%	65%	41%
* Health & Safety, Data Protection Act, etc.

What is interesting here is the way the balance shifts depending on the subject. It also looks like there’s a market opportunity for anyone developing new off-the-shelf products on health and safety and other mandated subjects!

Clearly all three methods – in, out and off – have their part to play, and most e-learning libraries will contain a mixture of content sourced in all three ways. With a little pragmatism, invention and plenty of hard work, you should be able to find content that’s ready when you need it, meet’s your organisation’s own, specific needs, won’t break the bank but will do the business. If not, your virtual university will be virtually useless and e-learning will never be given another chance.