eLearning

ROI on Education

By Erica Rascón on Jun 9, 2016 in Technology

If you are still conducting live training courses, you are missing out on the opportunity to save time, save money, and customize the learning experience for your employees.

Why eLearning? 

The 2014 State of the Industry report states that the real estate industry experienced a reduction in classroom training at 51%, down from 55 percent in 2013, and an increase in eLearning to 19%, up from 16 percent in 2009. This industry-wide shift away from costly classroom education in favor of eLearning is partially due to the perceived and calculated costs of live training courses.

With Yardi eLearning, organizations can save on learning and development costs in four key areas:

* Personnel This category includes the cost of all people involved in producing the training such as content designers, IT professionals, reviewers and approvers. eLearning software significantly reduces administrative costs through the introduction of technology. The software also allows users to eliminate travel and lodging expenses.

* Technology The cost of the eLearning solutions, computers, web conference system, and any other technology involved in conducting the training are included in this category. These costs are the primary reason many companies choose to invest in eLearning.

* Content This category includes the cost of content production and the cost of acquiring content from a vendor. By recording an instructor once and delivering the recorded course online, organizations can maximize the use of content and decrease costs associated with instructors.

* Administrative Such factors are some of the most time-consuming and overlooked features of live training programs. Significant time is spent recording training activities, setting up training opportunities, and communicating with trainees and instructors before and after the event.

Decreasing administrative costs offers benefits throughout the organization. In two recent polls conducted at Yardi’s bi-annual Training Roundtable in 2015, over 90% of the training professionals polled indicated that their career includes split duties that prevent them from focusing on the organization’s training needs full time. By reducing the time dedicated to educational courses, training professionals can allocate their time more efficiently to other duties.

Employees can improve efficiency and productivity as well. eLearning reduces the time that employees spend in class by up to 60 percent. The software also allows users to proceed at their own pace and revisit content as needed, without the need for additional training courses.

Organizations can eliminate variances in the quality of training received from one experience to the next. Streamlined educational courses promote consistent results throughout the organization.

With these factors in mind, eLearning can help organizations reduce their employee training and development costs for events of many sizes.

Cost Savings 

What do these savings actually look like in a real world, real estate example?

Let’s take a sample client who is in the middle of converting to Voyager 7S Software. This client has 150 employees who need to learn about the new AR functions in Voyager 7S.

Let’s assume the cost of sending a learner to training is $500 per day and the classroom version takes two days. With eLearning, employees can learn the same content in half the time and schedule it into their workday.

Research conducted by The Chapman Alliance found that it requires an average of 79 hours to produce one hour of “Level 1” e-learning content, with Level 1 defined as “Content pages, text, graphics, perhaps simple audio, perhaps simple video, test question.”

 

Descriptions	Classroom Training	eLearning
Trainee costs	$150,000	$75,000
Course development/acquisition	$2,000	$3,000
Trainer costs	$1,000	0
Food and beverages	$600	0
Equipment and supplies	$300	0
Travel expenses	$1,000	0
Hotel	$500	0
Total	$155,400	$78,000

Within the first year, the organization experiences a savings of $155,400 (60.5%) percent).

The needs of each organization are different, but the shift towards cost-effective eLearning can produce notable results. To learn more about Yardi eLearning, join one of our upcoming webinars.