Learning the eWay in India -- Making a Business Strategy.

Education in India has been a thrust area for several centuries. Right from Gurukul system where the guru had the choice of selecting a virtuous student and imparting knowledge, to the current day situation where student has the freedom to select the mode of education- the underlying desire to learn remains the same only with changes reflecting on what is learnt and how?. Education is a fundamental right up to matriculation in India. However, off late the pursuit of higher education is turning out to be an expensive activity. In recent times, there is a trend to measure investment in education using the same yardstick as the ones used in other types of investments. This has led to a cautious investment or a wait and watch mode among most institutions in India leading to a conservative approach. It is possible that in a given period of time, institutions offering eLearning may not be rewarded with returns to their expectation by using IT in educational system. In this paper, we shall discuss the challenges that have to be faced in implementing eLearning in India by pursuing a theoretical approach for discussing the various factors that must be used in estimation of Return on Investment (ROI) and also touch upon some models that play a key role in ROI analysis. An appropriate ROI analysis helps the venturing institutions to evaluate properly the cost and benefits. Identification of courses that are useful to learners providing employability and recognized by the industry plays an effective part in decision making process of the organizations. The estimation of ROI is dependent on various factors such as process involved in developing the technology, people and how the technology is implemented to achieve the expected benefits. Measuring the costs that is invested into software and the benefits acquired through such investment has to be dealt with carefully. Awareness of the costs involved helps the service provider (here, educational institutions) make a knowledgeable decision. The ROI analysis will be successful through activity based costing. We conclude the paper by discussing certain factors that have to be discounted from the ROI analysis as they can be considered as the cost of handling business and how ROI analysis may help institutions in India to participate in imparting eLearning projects that could help the students in remote locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]