Why do e-learning projects fail?

33 causes of failure (& what to do about them!)

A Towards Maturity Briefing Paper

March 2010

Howard Hills and Laura Overton

www.Towards Maturity.org
Introduction
Far too many work place learning technology projects fail, far too frequently.
Everyone has an unofficial war story of ‘where it all went wrong’ but very few are
willing to talk about it. When national projects fail, we may get to hear about it, but
mostly the failures get swept under the carpet. Few lessons are learned as a result.

New technologies come and go and still the full benefit of e-Learning is not
adequately exploited by the majority. In the CIPD 2009 learning and development
survey, 74% of participants were using e-learning, 42% were using it more than the
year before yet only 7% ‘deem e-learning to be one of the most effective learning
and development practice’.

For some time, Towards Maturity has been looking at why we are not achieving the
full potential of e-learning in the workplace. We have been researching the behaviour
organisations that are successful in their use of learning technologies to help others
deliver similar results. However we feel that as much can be learned from failure as
success.

This short paper is our attempt to bring those failures out in the open, to identify
some warning zones and highlight how to avoid them using some examples from our
bank of independent case studies.4

Finding the causes of failure

In preparing this paper we looked at two sources of information:

1. Information was collected online from a number of prominent e-learning

experts and practitioners who were asked the following questions:

• Please tell us about the top things that prevent organisations gaining
benefit from their investment in learning technologies.
• Please provide a brief description of the most negative workplace e-
learning implementation that you have been involved with. What was the
organisation trying to achieve? What did it achieve? What went wrong?

2. We also completed some desk research to look at causes of failure within

large scale implementations. The major study that we drew on was the
Megatrends in E-Learning Provision a pan-European study completed as part
of the Leonardo da Vinci research programme.

4
All case studies referenced in this paper can be found in appendix 1 or can be accessed by clicking
on the hyperlink in the main text.

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33 causes of failure
From our investigations, we identified 33 reasons why e-learning initiatives fail in the
both public and private sectors:

1. Failure results from wrong priorities for content; typically driven from
within HR or L&D who execute training because it is a “good thing to do”
2. No strategic match between eLearning activity and business goals and
targets. ELearning does not support the change agenda of top
management; no formal sponsorship of top management.
Poor alignment to 3. Lack of focus on business outcomes, there is no clear measure of
needs targets for projects
4. The e-Learning project competes with alternative providers instead of
enhancing their product and delivery method. Typically it competes with
a face-to-face training provider delivering to the same community
5. Previous poor experiences of eLearning that is boring or not relevant to
individual and business needs.
6. Cost and volume benefits of online delivery do not influence tactical
decisions on implementation or content choice.
7. No marketing approach both with learners and line managers. L&D
professionals ill-equipped to get out there and sell.

Communication 8. Recognition and publicity not given to early adopters or enthusiasts who
might become champions at a local level
9. E-Learning project teams don’t manage the expectations of business
managers.
10. Weak or ineffective ICT competency in the e-Learning project
management.
11. Content creation by teams who lack an understanding of learning
processes and design issues. Content creation by teams who lack an
understanding of the potential of IT and web resources.
12. Over estimation by the project team of their own expertise, leading to
inappropriate (or bad) choices of development partners and system
Lack of solutions
implementation
skill 13. Involvement of training teams who are inadequately trained in either on-
line content development or formal on-line collaboration support
14. Errors in key administrative tasks which give a bad impression to
learners, insufficient or inadequately trained staff or badly executed
systems
15. Resistance from Trainers. Existing trainers do not integrating ICT into
their educational practice and have difficulties adapting to new
requirements of technology.
16. Course content and delivery is too rigid, fails to give individual learners
choice and flexibility and fails to respond to sudden business change;
the syllabus is too rigid and too difficult to change.
17. Not learning from other’s experience (no benchmark comparison of
success taken against other organisations elsewhere).

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 18. Over reliance on synchronous events after the early stages of
introduction

Poor 19. No pilot process for step-by-step development leading to large scale roll-
out.
Implementation
20. There is no in-built e-assessment, usage measurement, record keeping,
Process evaluation recording, and links to competency measurement or business
evaluation.
21. Development and deployment too slow for the business who finds other
solutions perceived to be faster.
22. Senior management do not sponsor projects and fail to encourage and
lead adoption
Management
23. Users of social networks and collaborative learning tools run out of
Commitment
enthusiasm and there is a lack of senior organisational sponsorship.
24. Project driven (and sometimes managed) from the wrong place, for
example from IT or HR
25. Changes in personnel at key stage of project development leading to
lack of continuity/vision of the original goals
26. IT departments who fail to understand and manage the issues of web
use, IT policy, location and support leading to access and firewall
problems.
27. Early content implementations are heavily customised and insufficient
attention paid to the future amendment and updating leading to rigid
Scalability
course content that is expensive to change.
28. Scalability and robustness of technology is not considered at an early
stage development.

29. Introduction can result in unplanned increases in workload of existing

training staff; i.e. e-tutoring, content development, lesson preparation
(virtual classrooms), learning to use LT tools or providing a help desk
Support
30. There is no plan for the substantial human support services that are
needed to blend e-learning into the mix of delivery options. Too much
reliance is placed on e-learning as a stand-alone solution.
31. Resistance by line managers and other key stakeholders for whom the
learning technology imposes apparent increased responsibility or
workload.
32. The use of bespoke or experimental software rather than tried or tested
tools can result in failure.
Technology
33. Over reliance on the technology tools alone with insufficient attention
paid to getting the right blend of learning methods and learning tools.

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6 Warning Zones and How to Avoid Them
If we take a closer look at the 33 reasons above, they break down into 6 warning
zones that any project needs to consider:

Warning Zone 1 – Poorly defined business need

This is by far the most common cause of failure with:

• projects not matching to business need;

• no targets for successful outcomes(or targets poorly defined);
• abdication by senior management (who don’t wish to get involved in
something they may not understand or feel is peripheral to the business)
• Activity often ‘a cottage activity’ driven by local enthusiasm for technology
rather than centrally by top management.

Lack of alignment does not just occur at a local level - tragically for many publically
funded initiatives early investment is also directed at technology without adequate
strategic market analysis.

How to avoid this

In business - a very senior line manager must endorse each course or series of
courses (as Richard Branson did for Virgin Atlantic Airways induction training).
Ideally senior managers should be users themselves (as Richard Hammond of
Hammonds Furniture is).

Successful e-Learning projects should have objective targets for learning outcomes
and report on them, as Doctors.net.uk did for training doctors in hospitals in Infection
Control.

L&D must engage with senior line management and challenge them to define what
they need to achieve. This leads to the essential setting of targets without which
success cannot be measured.

In the publically funded sector, successful e-learning initiatives end to be those with
strong links to employers, the ultimate customer. Good examples include Hibernia
College and Walsall College, both of whom have used technology to deliver learning
solutions that are more closely aligned to their customers’ needs. These links
provide the business direction to the content whilst the education provider
contributes the required academic rigor and qualification structure.

Professional and academic institutions can also provide the same rigor and
standardisation ensuring alignment between the needs of the employer and the
solution of the provider. For example the Institute of Revenues, Ratings and

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Valuation helped to ensure that the provider was better aligned to needs of local
government did with local government and the Royal College of Radiologists
ensured that a online new qualification delivered results within the NHS.

Warning Zone 2 – Lack of hybrid skills for learning professionals

Successful outcomes of good e-Learning include improved staff performance; a
change in behaviour. Project developers have to grasp issues related to learning, to
technology, to marketing, to change management and to design. Many of the experts
we consulted gave examples of projects where one or other of these facets was
misunderstood, creative teams who fail to grasp IT issues, developers who failed to
understand that learners would not rush to use their course unless attention was
paid to marketing and change management.

The lack of hybrid skills also shows up in poor relationship with other internal
departments, particularly IT where IT policies may limit access to websites critical to
learning.

There are projects attracted to new untried technologies that cause endless
problems in implementation; project teams who did not know what they didn’t know
and learnt by their mistakes instead of seeking advice or benchmarking their
approach with others.

How to avoid this

For business, much can be learned by working in partnership with good suppliers.
For example, staff within the Yorkshire and Clydesdale bank worked in partnership
with their suppliers to build the hybrid skills needed for their e-learning projects.
Organisations (such as Xerox and AXA ) radically re-engineering their traditional
approaches to learning by building new skills within the team.

Warning Zone 3 – Poor Project Planning and Management

Although this cause of failure is linked to poorly defined business need (a good
Project Manager would force the sponsor to define targets before any initial
investment) it also contributes to failure even when the business need is clear.

Examples described to us included :

• ‘projects set up to be competitive with the very functions whose co-operation

is required to be successful’;
• ‘early development focused on what is most interesting, not what will make
the most difference, projects that fail to plan for success (being overwhelmed
when demand shoots up – either the technology can’t cope or the people in
support can’t manage the volume of demand)’;

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 • ‘Short term initial choices for learning outcomes are selected on the basis of
what’s interesting and not what will make the greatest difference’.
• large scale interventions are not piloted so any initial teething problems are
magnified across the whole target group of learners;
• Support staff not adequately trained leading to minor administrative errors that
put learners off.

Many project management causes of failure can be seen in hindsight; too little
attention is paid to:

• risk analysis;
• force field analysis;
• influence strategy; and
• communication/marketing plans.

Many projects are managed by those who understand performance problem

analysis and training needs analysis or the detail of the content, but fail to grasp the
need to spend time considering straightforward project risks.

Although an understanding of learning is vital to success, e-learning also fails when

the learning blend is unbalanced with too much reliance placed on technology.

Typically a project starts with high hopes with a team of learning specialists who
become excited by the project and lose sight of its positioning either in the
organisation or within the wider market place.

How to avoid this

Allocate responsibility and authority to an individual for overall project management

(Coventry Building Society is a good example of this). Choose wisely; someone who
will challenge the sponsor, build cooperation with stakeholders, manage costs,
encourage creativity and understands marketing, IT and learning.

Spend time analysing risk. This a key point made by SabMiller who were new to e-
learning. They emphasise the point that understanding risk is not enough “Identify
risks up front so that you can build proactive strategies to mitigate against them”,
plans must be in place both to reduce the probability of an adverse event but
mitigate against its effect.

The top tips from the Care Management Group’s successful implementation of e-
learning provides a list of contingency plans for many of the generic risks of e-
learning projects.

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Warning Zone 4 – Lack of involvement with key stakeholders

Whilst many groups of stakeholders may unintentionally sabotage e-learning

classroom trainers can have the biggest negative impact (and may do so
deliberately), “Oh it’s not real training” is so often the refrain. They may influence
learners to the view that e-learning is “only for the masses”, “cheap because that’s all
the learner is worth”, ineffective” and generally disliked as it is lonely. This will make
learners dissatisfied with the experience even when they were enthusiastic originally.

Line managers are excluded both from the content and the launch. They are unable
to add value to the learning experience. The training department (or whoever is
responsible for delivering learning) side tracks the line manager.

Projects do not take advantage of early success, they do not promote early adopters
and publicise individuals and departments who have gained real success form e-
learning. They do not use pilots as a means of influencing a wider take up; a key
element of successful marketing.

Projects fail because senior and line managers are unwilling to support them, not
only do they regard it as peripheral to their business but they resent the increased
workload as it appears to take the training responsibility out of the learning centre
into the work place – of course it does!

How to avoid this

There is no substitute for involving trainers, as designers and subject experts during
the development phase and as facilitators and operators at the launch and
implementation phase.

At BUPA trainers had a key role to play in quality control of the e-learning and were
able to heavily influence the design.

e-Learning for Health involved both line managers and classroom trainers as
designers during development and then gave additional support to classroom
trainers so they could use the e-learning as a tool.

The Irish supermarket chain, Superquinn, provided launch packs for line managers
with advance information so they launched the e-learning in branches and took the
credit for its success.

The Royal Naval School of Marine Engineering used e-learning as direct support to
classroom trainers, a tool that made engineering principals much easier to
understand and enabled both remedial and advanced study available outside the
classroom. Giving tools to trainers that supports the e-learning is a proven method of
turning detractors into advocates.

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Warning Zone 5 - Failure to understand the learner’s environment
We heard one example of e-learning supposed to provide 24/7 learning supported by
trainers with employment contracts for a normal five day week and a project
designed for home study where line managers gave no time off or credit for learning.
The modern digital world conflicts with employment contracts designed for a
traditional workplace and entrenched working practices prevent the flexibility of
technology being fully exploited.

Frequently e-learning project teams, even internal teams are disconnected from the
work environment of the learners they are supporting. Learning design and launch
implementation fails to take account of the need to be interrupted, that PCs are
shared, that delivery systems are old and slow. or that managers are not supportive.

Social Networking is a prime area for growth. Our own research predicts that peer-
to-peer and informal learning will grow significantly. However, one of our experts in
outlined concerns voiced by many “the vast majority of social networks will fail
through a) lack of organisational legitimacy b) lack of incentive to contribute. “

It is clear that we will have to understand learners (not just the generic learner but
the individual that the learning is designed for) and appreciate their personal context
in terms of motivation, opportunity and available support.

Frequently e-learning is designed as “the teacher teaching” and not “the learner
learning”. This leads to a rigid design that directs the learner along a specific path.
We found that e-learning designed in this way can fail for two reasons; 1) the
business need changes and but the learning intervention is too rigid to respond; and
2) the learner would prefer to learn in a different way or already has acquired some
of the knowledge, they feel alienated and patronised by the didactic.

How to avoid this

At Kirklees Metropolitan Council when a new IT system was rolled out personal
support available to employees for more than the standard working day.

UKI partnerships, when rolling out a new programme to improve retention and
productivity of their contact centre staff, predicted and managed the risk of providing
support outside normal working hours.

The Priory Group took time to understand the work situation of learners, set out to
make sure it was supportive and created e-learning that fit into that environment.

e-Learning for Health designed over 600 hours of learning to be flexible in its use
and flexible in updating. The development team took full account of the fact that
learners used different learning strategies, were at different stages of knowledge, ,
and had a variety job roles and different working conditions. They took account of the

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fact that the body of knowledge learners studied was constantly changing and
evolving and the e-learning had to keep pace with that change.

As regards social networks, BT and IBM have both started to demonstrate how
facilitating peer to peer learning can really add value to the business by creating
frameworks and structure to allow learners to interact with each other.

Warning Zone 6 - Failure to demonstrate value

It may seem ironic but a significant cause of failure is attributable to not reporting our
successes.

We found that the outcome of an e-learning project is often nebulous and therefore
too easy for sponsors to feel worried that it shows no return or is not hitting targets.
Once that happens, it then becomes vulnerable to cut backs or cancellation by those
controlling the budget.

Demonstrating that learning has been successful learning can be difficult but
technology has made it possible to gather information and measures that can act as
indicators of success.

However some of the causes of failure were linked back to a lack of e-assessment,
usage measurement, record keeping, evaluation recording, and links to competency
measurement or business evaluation. Recording and reporting hard numbers it
seems is challenging for many5.

How to avoid this

Build in measurement and assessment systems into the project at the outset. Xerox
provides a good example of how this can be done.
Look for natural opportunities to demonstrate quick wins. Boots UK had a rolling
programme to provide e-learning to all of their stores and were able to demonstrate
the impact of the programme by comparing the customer and employee satisfaction
scores of staff
Use other companies’ success stories to help build management buy in - the
Towards Maturity Evidence for Change initiative is an ongoing programme to bring
together case studies that all report quantifiable and objective benefits. Becta’s
Delivering Results report summaries the business benefits of 48 private and public
sector organisations.
Use the metrics in the independently researched Towards Maturity Impact Indicator
to help you identify how your solution may add bottom line value – metrics include
• Reducing time to proven competency
• Increasing volume of learning

5
Reluctance to record hard numbers was backed up in Towards Maturity Impact Indicator research
with over 200 organisations www.towardsmaturity.org/indicator/.

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 • Decreasing cost
• Decreasing time spent learning
• Decreasing rollout time for new products, services, systems and processes
• Increasing revenue

Learning from failure – building on success

We have concentrated in this paper on the causes of e-learning failure but over the
past 6 years, we have been investigating what successful organisations are doing to
deliver results. The Towards Maturity Model (see below) outlines 6 strands of activity
that consistently help projects to deliver business impact, staff motivation and take-
up of e-learning.

You can find out more about how to benchmark your projects against this proven
model at www.Towardsmaturity.org.

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Appendix – case studies and resources
Case studies
AXA http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/06/15/harnessing-team-
strengths-and-ld-evolving-axa/

Boots http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2010/01/04/increasing-sales-
improving-business-performance-e-/

BT http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/03/20/bt-dares-share/

BUPA http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2008/02/04/blended-cheers-
programme-brings-good-health/

Care Management http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/12/14/award-winning-e-learning-

Group’s care-management-group/

Coventry Building http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/09/08/coventry-improving-

Society effeciency/

Doctors.net.uk http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/11/30/doctorsnetuk-deliver-
infection-control-training/

e-Learning for Health/ http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2008/03/10/nhs-expanding-training-

Royal college of radiologists/
Radiologists

Hammonds Furniture http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2010/03/05/impact-leadership-

hammonds-furniture/

Hibernia college http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2008/08/18/master-class-hibernia-

college-and-pfizer-breaking-/

IBM http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/12/31/improving-sales-
delivering-value-and-managing-tale/

Institute of Revenues, http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2008/10/16/professional-institute-irrv-

Ratings and Valuation improves-local-authori/

Kirklees Metropolitan http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2008/01/17/kirklees-metropolitan-council/

Council

Royal College of http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2008/03/10/nhs-expanding-training-

Radiologists/ E- radiologists/
Learning for health

SabMiller http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/06/18/introducing-e-learning-
sabmiller/

Superquinn http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2008/04/11/superquinn-new-skills-

12 | Towards Maturity Briefing Paper - Why do e-learning projects fail?

 irish-supermarket-staff/

The Priory Group http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/09/25/building-foundations-

growth-priory-group/

The Royal Naval School http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2008/11/12/royal-navy-revolutionises-

of Marine Engineering engineering-training/

UKI Partnerships http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2007/05/13/uki-partnerships-introduce-

envqs-contact-centre-st/

Virgin Atlantic Airways http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2008/03/03/virgin-atlantic-airways-

induction training excellence-induction/

Walsall College http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/07/21/local-employers-benefit-

walsall-college-workplace/

Xerox http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2010/02/17/re-engineering-ld-
effective-performance-xerox-euro/

Yorkshire and http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/03/13/clydesdale-and-yorkshire-

Clydesdales bank banks-save-compliance/

Additional resources

Delivering Results An independent study by Becta that consolidates existing evidence and case
studies that demonstrate the impact of learning technology to support
business priorities

http://www.becta.org.uk/feandskills/employerefficiencies

Towards Maturity A study with 200 organisations to understand how technology is adding
Impact Indicator business value and improving efficiency.

http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2010/03/12/towards-maturity-impact-
indicator-looks-e-learning/

Evidence for Ongoing collection of case studies highlighting how employers have
Change Programme successfully implemented learning technologies
http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/09/12/evidence-change/

Driving Business Detailed study with 300+ organisations looking at how they use and benefit
Benefits from different types of e-learning, it identifies critical success factors for e-
learning success, and considers future trends.

http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/01/28/driving-business-benefits-
towards-maturity-researc/

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 This briefing paper has been supported by Becta who are leading Next
Generation Learning in the workplace.

Through Next Generation Learning in the workplace, Becta aims to

support employers who are under pressure to up-skill faster and improve
business agility with fewer resources.

We would like to acknowledge the following individuals who have contributed from
their experience to this paper:
• Kirstie Donnelly , Director Products & Marketing, Learndirect

• Phil Green, Director, Onlignment

• Paul Jagger, IBM

• Nick Shackleton-Jones, Manager, Online & Informal Learning, BBC Academy

• Clive Shepherd, Jay Cross, Chairman, Internet Time Alliance

• Karen Velasco, Deputy Chairman, the BILD.

• David Wilson, Managing Director, Elearnity

• Kevin Young, Managing Director, SkillSoft

• We would also like to thank those of you who contributed the insights from your own mistakes and
asked to remain anonymous!

Find out more about Becta’s Next Generation Learning in the workplace
at www.nextgenerationlearning.org.uk/work

Further copies of this paper can be downloaded at

www.towardsmaturity.org/

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