When you’re exploring professional training services for your company, it can be a difficult and arduous process to finding the right “fit” for your needs and goals. Hiring an e-learning consultant to help you in this process is very similar to hiring a realtor to find the right house. You have to establish a sense of trust with the consultant, and more importantly you want them to understand what you want in your “training house.” If you don’t want vague training material for instance, then it’s up to you to detail that in clear terms to your e-learning consultant. Online training initiatives are only as successful as the time a company invests in making sure they are specifically meeting a company need and fostering integration with knowledge already acquired. Employees are a diverse “student population” and the more your e-learning consultant knows about your company and its employees the better off your training offering can be. A very strong and respected e-learning consultancy company is Academy Internet.

The first step is to outline in-house what you want your training offerings to meet. What content must be in your program and how can your employees best access that content? Will there be a classroom, a virtual classroom, an e-mail curriculum, or Web based programs such as conferencing and Web-based training? Similar to buying a house, you’ll need to know what your company will be able to devote to training initiatives. You don’t want to have your e-learning consultant showing you a mansion, when a two bedroom house will do.

One of the best manager’s resource books on e-learning is The AMA Handbook of E-Learning Effective Design, Implementation, and Technology Solutions by George M. Piskurich, editor. This book was published in 2003 and is filled with best practices from 30 leading experts including Brandon Hall, Elliott Masie, Clark Aldrich, Vicky Phillips, Carole Richardson, and John Hartnett. It has been called the definitive sourcebook and decision-making tool for companies making the transition to (or already using) e-learning. This remarkably useful book details how top companies are implementing and using this crucial employee development tool and addresses topics like these:

• Analyzing organizational need

• Selling e-learning to the organization

• Learning management systems

• Synchronous collaboration

• Learning portals

• Repurposing materials

• Outsourcing and vendor relations.

Other chapters focus on motivation and retention, technological and software options, measuring ROI, and more.

Using this book as a source can truly help you identify what you want your company’s e-learning initiatives to be and more importantly what you want in an outsourced e-learning consultant. It can provide you a strong reference base for use when finding the right e-consultant.

Another important site to access and familiarize yourself with is The Masie Center. The Masie Center’s founder, Elliott Masie, is widely considered the foremost expert and father of e-learning initiatives and his site is invaluable in its resources. The Masie Center is an international e-lab and ThinkTank located in Saratoga Springs, NY. The Center is dedicated to exploring the intersection of learning and technology. The Center focuses on key areas of e-learning and follows trends in e-learning: 

• How will people and organizations leverage technology as a tool for learning, knowledge and performance?
• What are the best practices for implementing e-Learning and other models of digital collaboration?
• How do people REALLY learn? And, what are the behavioral and cultural assumptions behind learning?
• How does learning change around the globe?
• How do organizations absorb technology into their culture?
• What makes technology work from a behavioral point of view?

The Masie Center provides its services to major corporations and technology providers throughout the world. The Center provides research, perspectives, training, learning products and consulting on these above issues.

And finally, there are so many e-consultants to choose from. NOEL – The National Organization for E-Learning is a good place to start. Their links page provides a research base from which to choose your e-learning consultant.

Now, best of luck on your e-learning journey!