Those of us who work in the industry already understand the effectiveness and cost savings of integrating elearning into a training program — and that elearning can even lead to better grades for students — but what about the environmental impact?
Jenna posted this blog entry back in January, but with gas prices here in the U.S. at record levels ($4 or more per gallon in most of the country) , it’s as relevant today as it was at the beginning of the year — and will only become even more important as the cost of energy continues its upward trend:
Consider the energy consumption that occurs whenever employees travel to attend training sessions, seminars, conventions, and face-to-face meetings. Environmental impacts include fuel for transportation (plane, train, bus, car, taxi); electricity to light and heat (or cool) conference rooms, training facilities, and hotel rooms; electricity and water to launder sheets and towels; and gas and electricity for restaurants to cook meals. Imagine also the mounds of paper used for all the training manuals, brochures, business cards, and handouts that are distributed at these events. On top of it all, add in the rising costs of fuel and travel.
So if you’re here in the U.S. and traveling this Independence Day weekend, at least you can feel good knowing that all that elearning content you’re creating is helping to conserve our limited resources.
Open University’s study found that producing and providing distance learning courses consumes an average of 90% less energy and produces 85% fewer CO2 emissions per student than conventional face-to-face courses. Wow! Double wow!
So let’s continue creating great content to help people learn — and making the planet a better place in more ways than one.
Happy 4th of July!
Hi Gabe,
Thanks for referencing one of my blog articles. Actually, I wrote this blog post in May 2006 on my Corporate Training & e-Learing Blog (http://www.cramersweeney.com/cs_id/trainingblog/index.html) and the blog you link to here is a blog that references my blog and this particular article. Oh, the tangled wordwide web of blogs!! Thank you!
Jenna Sweeney
President
CramerSweeney Instructional Design
http://www.cramersweeney.com
jsweeney@cramersweeney.com
Jenna Sweeney | Posted at 05:06 pm on July 3rd, 2008 | #