‘Outside resourcing’ or Outsourcing as it’s popularly known, has been around since the 1980s. However, ‘eLearning Outsourcing’ gained prevalence in the 2000s, and has increased over time with the growth of the Internet, the extensive use of computers and later on with that of other devices in different spheres. We, at Upside Learning, have been involved in eLearning Outsourcing since 2004, helping clients in the USA, the UK, Australia, Singapore, and Middle East benefit from the advantages it delivers.
I believe every organisation should explore eLearning outsourcing. As per the recent Brandon Hall report on eLearning Outsourcing, titled ‘The Buyer-Provider Partnership – The Key to High-Quality Custom Content’, about 77% of organisations are already availing eLearning outsourcing. However, not all of them are getting the real benefits which they deserve. The report delves into what’s working and what’s not for organisations on the eLearning outsourcing front. We will be analysing the report in our upcoming ebook and be discussing some of our experiences in this domain.
For those who haven’t yet explored eLearning outsourcing, the key benefits from the activity are Cost Savings, Scalability, Quality, Innovation, Reduced Risk etc. These are covered in more details in our 2010 blog post, titled ‘eLearning Outsourcing: Why Consider It?’. All of these factors are still relevant, but the speed of technological change and the consequent changes to how we view the process of learning itself has impacted the eLearning outsourcing landscape greatly over the past few years. For instance, some of the stuff that was outsourced earlier can now be done in-house with the help of specific authoring tools. This trend is expected to continue; what’s unique and requires high skills today will become more routine/automated in future, and can be more easily done in-house. What’s key then in the buyer-supplier relationship is innovation. A supplier that can invest in innovation to create new/unique solutions, helping you stay ahead of the curve, is what you should ideally look for.
Check out how we help organisations with their eLearning outsourcing requirements.
Also, feel free to get in touch if you have any questions related to eLearning services, or eLearning outsourcing requirements.
