E-learning is making a comeback. Companies which produced e-learning training programs in the past, and those companies which purchased them, have learned important lessons. Today, companies are looking for programs with less bells and whistles and more direct application.

Express Personnel Services is the world's largest privately held staffing firm. They invested in an expensive streaming-video training system that used up so much band-width that none of their franchise owners could download it on their computers. They soon discovered that managers benefit from online material that focuses on principles, but need the face-to-face to practice those principles.

IBM has 320,000 employees in 76 countries and it needs programs which will train its employees quickly and efficiently. IBM conducts 48% of its training electronically and has found that "blending" e-learning with classroom training is the most effective.

The problems with early e-learning systems were many. Some of these seven figure learning management systems took years to implement. When the employee went online they were faced with a mountain of choices. Much of the material went unused because the material was too dry or too difficult to figure out. People became disillusioned and there were too few results to measure. The lack of interaction among employees made it difficult to practice techniques or bounce ideas off others.

As a result, companies have found that "blending" of e-learning and classroom techniques is the answer for key results. Companies are still looking for the best match of e-learning technology and classroom instruction and some have come up with creative solutions.

For any training program to be effective employees need to understand what is expected of them during and after the training process. Kathy Harris of the Gartner Group recommends that companies provide incentives to using the e-learning programs. The incentive can be simple such as a letter from senior management which tells the participants why the information is important to their jobs and the future of the company.

When Windsor Foods introduced self-paced modules discussing different aspects of management, they made a point of informing participants that there would be follow-up meetings. These sessions went over the information that they had learned and how it could bridge to their jobs. Windsor reported greater focus and a sense of accountability on the part of the employees once the follow-up meetings were announced.

The American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) reports that among the Fortune 500 companies, e-learning makes up 25.5 percent of all training. That is up from 18.7 percent two years before.

Measuring training effectiveness is still a controversial subject. All parties interviewed believed one thing: if the only reason the company is going to e-learning technology is to cut expenses then it is the wrong reason. The best reason to conduct e-learning training is to think through the training initiatives.