What impact?

In what aspects of the organisation do you want to understand the impact made by e-Learning?

The effective identification of the full impact of e-Learning needs to be included in the planning stages for the implementation. You will need to identify what impact you want to assess. To help plan the identification of impact you will need to consider the reasons for wanting to understand the impact of e-Learning.

• Do you understand the financial impact?
• Are you able to understand the impact on organisational performance?  
• Are you able to understand the impact of e-Learning or blended learning compared with other methods of learning?

In addition you need to think about:

• the impact of e-Learning for the learner
• what the e-Learning experience was like for the learner
• whether or not the e-Learning met the learners’ needs
• what can be done differently as a result of the e-Learning.

Once you have identified the reason and the impact you need to select appropriate methods.

How to identify impact?

The impact of e-Learning will be identified as a result of the evaluation process. Impact is identified as level 4 evaluation in the Kirkpatrick model of evaluation.

Impact evaluation cannot be undertaken until e-Learning has been established for a reasonable period of time. This time needs to be long enough for a change to have happened. An example would be a change of behaviour to have taken place. This needs to be more than just a few days. You need to be able to witness a consistent change. It will then be possible to identify the impact that this change of behaviour has had on the organisation. An example would be an improvement in patient care.

How will you use level 4 evaluation to identify the impact of e-Learning?

Look at the section in the Toolkit on Kirkpatrick.

Related Resources

•  
  Kirkpatrick Model of evaluation on businessballs
  

  A useful overview of Kirkpatrick's learning and training evaluation theory on the businessballs web site. There are explanations of the four levels of learning evaluation.

  http://www.businessballs.com/kirkpatricklearningevaluationmodel.htm
•  
  Kirkpatrick model of evaluation in the Toolkit
  

  A summary of the four levels of the Kirkpatrick model of evaluation in the e-Learning Readiness Toolkit.

  page_82.html
•  
  The impact of information technology on the quality and safety of health care
  

  A presentation by Dr Claudia Pagliari, University of Edinburgh eHealth group on the impact of information technology on the quality and safety of health care Edinburgh University ehealth group. Systematic literature overview and synthesis.  Presented at the Connecting for Health Evaluation Conference, Royal College of Physicians, London, March 2008

  http://www.pcpoh.bham.ac.uk/publichealth/cfhep/events/Claudia_Pagliari_Impact_of_eHealth.pdf