I have been involved in learning, skills development and business performance for well over a decade. In this time I have seen fads come and go – but there have also been some true, and lasting, innovations. My first exposure to eLearning, for example, promised a great deal but delivered very little. And, to be honest, it left me feeling more than a little frustrated. Since that time, the processes and technologies that allow us to produce, deliver and track learning over the web have matured. And our own personal and professional usage and acceptance of the web has matured – we now reasearch products and make significant purchases over the web, find long lost friends via various "reunion" sites, share our knowledge with the world via wikipedia, blogs or podcasts, and maintain our networks via Facebook and LinkedIn – and a thousand other sites. It has been and continues to be a journey of discovery.
But where does learning fit in amongst all of this? Obviously there is a tremendous amount of freely available content on the web – and sites like iTunesU have done much to change the way that we think of learning. How does this apply, however, to the needs of corporate educators? For example, what about the specific knowledge required by the independent consultants who populate the SAP Ecosystem?
Well, today, SAP Education invites you on a journey of discovery too. From today, members of the SAP Community Network will have access to a new site called Learning on Demand by SAP. In this first phase of our journey, we are making available over 500 eLearning titles, whitepapers and thought leadership materials – and more will be added on a weekly basis. There are no purchase orders required – you can browse our free content or you can simply purchase our premium elearning with a valid credit card.
And just as we see learning as a process – something that evolves over time – we also see Learning on Demand by SAP as a service and a site (and platform) that will evolve over time. We have plans over the next six months to dramatically extend the functionality of the site, adding significant additional partner materials and eLearning content as well as a host of "Web 2.0" features that will complement and extend the learning environment with social elements such as blogs and wikis. We will also offer additional purchasing options such as "bundles" and "subscriptions". So this is our first, but important, step in the journey!
The next steps, however, cannot be made without you! We are keen to know what your needs are - what works for you and what doesn’t. We want to make sure we are identifying and making available the eLearning titles and other content that is useful to you and helps in building your skills and career. As you will see on the site, we have made it easy for you to reach us – there is a Facebook page, a Twitter account (which you can subscribe to for updates) and we have even shared our Delicious bookmarks.
We look forward to collaborating with you on this journey!
