Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, Dec 03, 2007
E-Learning, but without high costs? That’s what learners on the move, who cannot attend regular courses, would like. And that’s why ideas like ALISON are welcome.
This Web site’s starting point is basic skills for the workplace so that makes it (at http://alison.com/free-training/About-ALISON) perfect for the fresher on his first job or an intern entering the office environment for the first time.
But as the http://alison.com/individuals page proudly states, “Our current offering consists of globally popular IT literacy courses such as ECDL/ICDL, e-Citizen, and Touch Typing, as well as courses on diverse subjects such as Financial Literacy (IFLC Level One) and Psychometric Testing. A wide variety of courses on subjects such as Internet Marketing, English, and Workforce Readiness will soon be available.” Developed by a for-profit social enterprise based in Galway, Ireland, ALISON enables anyone, anywhere, to educate themselves via interactive multimedia for free, according to the site. As its makers say, “ALISON provides high-quality, interactive, certified and standards-based learning free to the individual learner.” Advertisement dependent, the system can offer free learning because “When a learner clicks on an advertisement, ALISON earns revenue. That revenue is then shared with content publishers and used to invest in new ‘free to the learner’ offerings.”
The courseware is designed to meet international certification standards, according to the site. No previous knowledge of computers is required to use and benefit from the site. And in case you have expert knowledge you would like to share, contact the volunteers page and do your bit for the project.
