In today's Information Age, learning in the business environment is no longer confined
within the four walls of a corporate classroom. Learning resources are readily accessible
from knowledge repositories worldwide. Information is everywhere and the challenge for
educational and training organizations is to develop the tools for managing the knowledge
resources and providing appropriate access to this information. The emerging corporate
learning environment is envisioned as a system for connecting learners with these
distributed learning resources anytime anywhere.

According to the IDC, U.S. companies spent $62.5 billion on training and educating
their workforces last year. More than $3 billion of that was spent on technology-delivered
training. That number is expected to increase to $11.5 billion in 2003. The growth of
learning technology solutions is expected to reach 111.4B in 2004. It is widely recognized
that the acceleration in the development and deployment of innovative e-Learning systems
will be astonishing in the next few years. In fact, John Chambers CEO of Cisco Systems,
a recognized leader in the expansion of the Internet, told the New York Times in November
of 1999 that learning will be the next "killer application" for computer technology. He went
on to say that e-Learning "will make email look like rounding error." In other words, the
impact and scope of e-Learning will be huge.

Because of the exponential growth of the importance of information and continuous
learning in our society, corporations are creating new and more powerful ways to manage
knowledge resources and provide distance learning experiences. Corporations are migrating
from stand-alone teletraining, distance education and knowledge management initiatives to
comprehensive e-Learning solutions. There are many definitions for e-Learning today. The
Webster dictionary defines "e-" as a prefix that can mean among other things "thoroughly"
as in <evaporize>. I define e-Learning as "a comprehensive strategy for connecting learners
with distributed knowledge resources. Simply stated e-Learning can be viewed as the
integration of Distance Learning (DL) and Knowledge Management (KM) (See Figure 1).

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DL + KM = e-Learning
Figure 1. e-Learning
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Because the discipline of e-Learning is so new it is best studied and understood through
the examination of exemplary case studies. One of the most innovative e-Learning solutions
that I am familiar with is the Avaya Solutions Knowledge Center or ASK Center. The ASK
Center is the single most powerful and dynamic resource for Avaya sales and marketing
expertise. It is an internal knowledge portal that provides a wealth of knowledge, ranging
from information and news to marketing materials, sales collateral, training and various
support services. And the ASK Center also enables employees to share their knowledge
and experience with other employees worldwide through communities of practice.

The ASK Center gives Avaya's worldwide employees access to all of Avaya's channel
marketing knowledge and expertise in a way that makes most sense to them. There are
several ways to find what they need. The Map function provides a menu of case studies,
presentations, white papers, competitive information, training programs etc.

The Search function can focus a search on a solution, author, topic, or date and delimit
the results to slides, documents, applications and video media types. The Guide function
tunes into what people are working on at the time. The Guide asks questions and then
retrieves items most relevant to the task at hand.

The web site provides shortcuts to get quick access to background on Avaya solutions,
collateral, customer references, performance support tools and etc. Spotlights are included
to call attention to unique strategic events, learning and updates on Avaya alliances. Each
selection includes a brief abstract that helps users decide whether to dig deeper, or to
continue a search. Some items provide a list of related training courses that have been
recommended by education experts at Avaya. There are affinity links that allow users to
check out related content that colleagues are using.

The ASK Center includes powerful tools like the "Presentation Chunker", an innovative
feature that makes it easy to access and share PowerPoint content. At a glance, users can
view all the slides from any PowerPoint presentation, can add slides to their SlideBasket
from different presentations, and download them to their PC with a single click. The
Presentation Chunker can also be employed during live sessions to conduct online
meetings and presentations to large groups.

Ask Center supports knowledge sharing and self-nomination of content for the web
site. Users can easily share their own files and web links with other users - by clicking
the add/update content. Users receive valuable feedback and information on how their
content is being accessed, and rated, by other Avaya associates. The ASK Center facilitates
collaboration with a growing number of communities of practice. These groups share a
dynamic library of information, threaded discussions and downloadable materials, securely,
for members only. Local program administrators can update content, manage who has
access and send courtesy messages to group members informing them of what's new.

Users can further personalize the ASK Center to fit the way they work. When users
identify their organizational function, the interface adjusts to their job context. From here,
they set personal preferences to customize their own ASK Center home page. If users are
new to the ASK Center, they are invited to visit us and get acquainted. A quick start for
first time users and an online tour are always available from the home page. The ASK
Center is dynamic, growing and improving all the time, making Avaya expertise and
knowledge accessible, usable and useful to employees worldwide.

Distance learning and knowledge management are the building blocks for the 21st
Century e-Learning Environment. Businesses like Avaya Inc. have been addressing the
needs of their employees through the establishment of next generation e-Learning
systems and e-Learning methodologies. For over three years the ASK Center has been
an extremely valuable resource for distance learning, knowledge management and
e-Learning for the internal employees of Avaya. In 2001 the ASK Center recorded over
eight million hits from Avaya users, with 6.8 terabits of data accessed which is equivalent
to 20 million pounds of paper. More importantly the web site utilization was responsible
for impacting $140 million in new revenue. If you are interested in browsing a commercial
version of the ASK Center that is available to other organizations feel free to the visit the
home page of the qCenter http://www.aboutq.net

With the explosion in the amount of information and knowledge resources available
today and the constant advances in the state of the technology, educational institutions and
business organizations alike will need to find new and more powerful ways reach out and
connect with learners. Our challenge will be to make e-Learning programs and knowledge
resources available anytime, anywhere and in a form that is relevant to the specific needs of
the learners.