E-learning sector regroups after years of uncertainty.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.

As technology has matured and requirements have been more clearly defined, online learning gradually has gained acceptance in military training and career-enhancing school programs for service members.

This is good news for the Internet-based education industry, which oversold the benefits of its products in the early days of the information age. The much-ballyhooed distance learning technology did not revolutionize training to the degree that advocates has predicted a decade or two ago.

The emerging consensus among experts today is that "e-learning" is opening a whole universe of educational opportunities for government and military agencies. But without clear guidance and focused management, these experts caution, distance-learning programs can waste lots of money and fail to produce tangible results.

Industry studies estimate that the global distance-learning technology market will exceed $30 billion by 2005. About 6 percent of those sales are to government customers.

During the past 10 to 15 years, "people have gained a deeper understanding of what they can build with technology," said Howard W. Fletcher, director of business development at IBM Mindspan Solutions Group, in Cambridge, Mass.

The company develops software tools that are used to create online universities or in-house corporate training centers.

In the world of online learning, lots of people have learned hard lessons about what can or cannot be done with technology, Fletcher noted. "We are learning the things we shouldn't do with it." One obvious conclusion that has emerged in the industry, he added, is that Internet or computer-based training merely complements--but cannot replace-classroom-based training. "The classroom training is always important," Fletcher said. "The need for face-to-face interaction is never going to go away."

The secret to success in this business, he said, is "finding the right technology and marrying it with the appropriate content."

Ten or 20 years ago, "people thought e-learning would replace everything," he said. "But that has not been the case."

In many cases, "A lot of the higher-order social-based skills--such as negotiation skills--require the ability to interact with people."

Computer-based training is suitable for specific types of learning. But when it comes to management training, for example, "There comes a time when people need to get together and figure out how to solve problems in real time."

The easy availability of electronic mail...