In this economic downturn, training staff through eLeaning is a cost-effective way for SMEs to ensure them work more productive and efficiency to increase profit.

1. ELearning - Helping SMEs Through Economic Downturn
The evidence that sales at many companies are struggling and that companies have to lay off
employees to maintain companies' running. Dell Inc, the world's No. 2 PC maker, will cut about
1,900 of 3,000 jobs at its manufacturing plant in Limerick. DHL Express cut almost 15,000 people,
and so on. This number is only the tip of the iceberg. To companies, laying off employees is not
the only way to get through the economic crisis. The pivotal issue is to consider how to ensure
your staff works more productive and efficiency to increase profit?
The other day, I read one report on web. It says: "Train to Gain has ploughed £2.4 million into an
advertising campaign in a bid to highlight the importance of training to small to medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) during the recession." This drives me to doubt the necessity of this
investment. The SMEs don't realize the importance of training staff, do they? I don't think so. In
my opinion, it's the high cost and time recoil from their steps. Maybe it would be better to invest
such money to SMEs for their training plan.
Most Companies know that investing in training is essential to their business but it is more
important than ever in the current economic climate. But the issue is that they cannot afford
the training programs. In the traditional face-to-face training, you should have to pay huge
amounts of money to the trainers, in-class instructors, or experts. Moreover, you also have to
pay for the expenses, such as travel and meals. Not to mention of the cost of time.
As a matter of fact, there are some good training solutions for the SMEs, such as eLearning - a
type of Technology Supported Education/Learning (TSL) where the medium of instruction is
computer technology. ELearning is used interchangeably in a wide variety of contexts. There are
many outstanding advantages about eLearning. To be simplified, it is overall money-saving and
time-saving. To be elaborated, here are some advantages:
• Anytime. Learner can access the course at any time that is convenient - not just during
the specific 1-3-hour period that is set for a conventional course. The episodes can be
quick snatches at odd times or long late-night sessions. Cross-time-zone
communication, difficult to arrange in real time, is as easy as talking to someone across
town when using the Internet.
• Anywhere. Eliminate the need for the physical presence of the teacher or learners in
the learning process. That means they can be anywhere. International sharing is
feasible. Individuals can log on at work, home, the library, in a community learning
centre or from their hotel when travelling.
• Substantial cost savings. ELearning eliminates the expense and inconvenience of
getting the instructor and students in the same place. The expenses, such as travel and
meals will reduce to minimum.
By taking a holistic approach, SMEs can arrive at a training process that is more engaging and
effective through eLearning at an economical cost. In the circumstance, how to make eLearning

2. for SMEs more feasible from cost and time? Many eLearning solutions are available for SMEs to
adopt. Using Open Source, free authoring tools and Learn management system (LMS) would be
the most money-saving way.
The combination Moodle & CourseLab would be a good solution for SMEs to carry out eLearning
plan. And it's FREE. Especially, it is an ideal way in this economy downturn. Moodle
(http://www.moodle.org) is a free and open source e-learning software platform (also known as
a Course Management System (CMS), or LMS). It is designed to help educators create online
courses with opportunities for rich interaction. Its open source license and modular design
means that people can develop additional functionality. CourseLab (http://www.courselab.com)
is a powerful e-learning authoring tool that offers programming-free WYSIWYG environment for
creating high-quality interactive e-learning content which can be published on the Internet,
Learning Management Systems (LMS), CD-ROMS and other devices.
Further more, if you want some advanced eLearning solution to create more high impact yet
effective training plan, you could choose some cost-effective commercial tools. The combination
Moodle & PPT2Flash would be recommended. PPT2Flash
(http://www.sameshow.com/powerpoint-to-flash-pro.html#110) is powerful eLearning tool to
let non-technical users create compelling Flash presentations and eLearning courses from
PowerPoint with rich media, quizzes and simulations. PPT2Flash content could run on any Web
server, any LMS.
'Our future. It's in our hands'. "SMEs' future. It's in your investment on ELearning".
About the Author:
Sarena Cary is a senior expert in eLearning who works at Wondershare E-Learning department.
Wondershare Software is an industry-leading learning and training software application provider.
You could get more eLearning tool for your teaching and training at: http://www.sameshow.com