EContentMag.com: KM and Elearning: A Powerful Combination

KM and Elearning: A Powerful Combination

"In two years, KM will be a subset of elearning. Or elearning will be a subset of KM."

That Gartner prediction, cited in Rosenberg's book e-Learning, was made three years ago. Neither variation has come to pass.

Instead, the interactions of the two fields continue to increase and there seems to be a widespread agreement that KM and elearning are converging. And, perhaps more importantly, consensus is growing that this convergence is a good thing, that it should continue and intensify, and that both fields can benefit from a greater partnership. There have a been a number of works and articles exploring how and why elearning and KM are converging, including the Rosenberg book cited earlier, and a number of very good articles in KMWorld by Judith Lamont and others.

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There are also numerous examples of this growing convergence. One place KM and elearning are merging for a more powerful result is in the pharmaceutical industry according to Paul Sparta, CEO of Plateau Systems, a vendor of LMS infrastructure software. According to Sparta, "The pharmaceutical industry was an early adopter of both elearning and KM technology and is on the leading edge of their convergence because of the industry's rigorous regulatory requirements."

Other areas seeing a great deal of activity at the intersection of KM and elearning are call centers and technical support. Sparta also sees energy, aviation, transportation, chemical, and financial services as growth areas for this convergence. He says, "Any industry where knowledge must be delivered to people in real time, and then tracked and assessed, must consider strategies that merge KM and elearning."

Separate and Not Equal
It is clear then that there is a great deal of activity at the intersection of KM and elearning, but that raises the next set of questions: Which of the two possibilities that Gartner raises should it be? Who should lead the integration of KM and elearning and how best to achieve that integration?