Research reveals public sector leading the way in eLearning

Public sector organisations are leading their private sector counterparts in the uptake of eLearning tools and instruments, according to a new study commissioned by IMC Learning.

The study, ‘Staff training during an economic downturn – opportunities and threats’, was designed to establish the views of HR professionals, in both the public (35%) and private (63%) sectors, regarding the importance of training and learning in uncertain economic times.

It also sought to discover what eLearning tools and instruments organisations are already using and what they are planning to use in the future.

The research found that four in five (80%) respondents from the public sector state their organisation is using bespoke eLearning content, with 67% using eLearning authoring tools and 65% using learning management systems.

These results are significantly higher than those from respondents in the private sector, which were 58%, 44% and 46% respectively.

When asked which training instruments respondents’ organisations already use, again the public sector leads the way.

Whereas there was little significant difference between the public and private sectors for the use of online communities (28%; 26%) and virtual classrooms (24%; 20%), the same cannot be said for audio/visual content (59%; 44%), web based training (59%; 43%) and podcasts (20%; 8%).      

Dr Dirk Thissen, managing director at IMC Learning comments:

“Training in the public sector seems to be bounding ahead of the private sector when it comes to eLearning. The use of bespoke eLearning content and rapid authoring tools within the public sector is encouraging.

"It allows organisations in the sector to develop and adapt content quickly and efficiently to meet its changing needs.

"Perhaps most importantly in the current economic climate, these tools provide a cost effective way to train staff, despite budget cuts.”