ELearning Education from your Desktop

One of the newsiest trends in business learning is the e-learning craze that is sweeping the Internet. This is a recent innovation that allows for users to learn new information from a variety of fields right from their own PC. Available in CD-rom or online form, consumers can learn about anything from health care to accounting through these courses. Courses can be measured in hours or weeks, depending on the content and the level of study. Generally, students of these courses can choose to be part of an instructor led (directed) or self led (self paced) course.

E-learning courses allow students to learn in a more convenient environment than classroom courses and gives them the ability to do so at their own speed. Since there are no classrooms there are no class times, allowing students to control when and where they learn. In fact, in some cases it is possible to by-pass information that the student may already know allowing them to move on to all new material. Quizzes, demos and exercises are included and some may contain encyclopedias or glossaries for easy reference. Also, a few courses may offer the ability to connect with other "classmates" to ask questions or get together and study. Business, along with technology, is one of the most popular topics among e-learning courses.

Found online at business resource sites such as Amanet or Thomson Gale's Goliath, these can be used to jump start a business with information on how to run businesses and the latest trends in the business world. New employees can be trained easily through these courses, eliminating the need to use training teams on such activities. If a business is already up and running, e-learning courses can be used to improve it by sharpening old skills and adding new ones. Business courses can also be utilized to bring together different areas of a company and make sure that all divisions are on the same page.

Due to the growth of e-learning courses, many online e-learning magazines have been set up. On these sites one can find columns on e-learning products, current e-learning trends, interviews with big names in the e-learning industry, and analysis of current products and services. Also, users are kept up to date on conferences and seminars focusing on e-learning.

Users may be provided with material to research different e-learning courses in order to assess what would be best suited for them. Discussion boards and newsletters also provide a place for user feedback. Each site may be specific to a certain type of e-learning course, but most are open to all genres. Product demos are available on some to give users a chance to test out products before they buy them. Also, tutorials may be made available so that users can know how to use a program before they receive it. Sites offer tips on where problem areas occur in e-learning programs and how to fix them, as well as links to different program providers.

A final helpful part of these e-learning sites are blogs devoted to explaining e-learning products. These blogs provide editorial comments on e-learning products and answer blogger's questions concerning products and usage. Using these sites in conjuncture with the e-learning programs will allow for a fulfilling experience from student who can now gain new knowledge in a quick, easy way.

Sarah Deak is a contributing business writer for http://goliath.ecnext.com. Goliath is one of the Internet's largest collections of business research, news and information.