The launch of a new, dedicated and mostly free, e-learning portal to go live when the NHS Connecting for Health Essential IT Skills (ECDL) portal closes on March 22nd has just been announced.

Course-Source has provided the software, hardware and IT services behind the NHS ECDL programme since the outset 5 years ago, and the new 'Health e-Learning' site at www.HealthELearning.net will work in a very similar way, but will be able to manage any e-learning, not just ECDL.

The new site will incorporate valuable additional features and offer far more choice to NHS users. More importantly Trusts will be consulted as to what they want in the system and can each have their own version of the portal fully customised to their needs. Managing director, Ken Wood, explains:

"The idea is to build a community of NHS training professionals that share ideas and resources. Our philosophy is to work from the bottom up, not the top down, enabling each Trust to do their own thing, but take advantage of economies of scale".

For Trusts that are continuing with ECDL, they will be able to import all the historical data from the old portal, finish the licenses for materials that have been subscribed, and keep running Health and Elite Materials, using the same Login ID's and password that they had before.

In addition to continuing access of the existing ECDL course materials, free services at www.HealthELearning.net will include: -

• Hosting, tracking and reporting for NHS CFH's Health and ELITE materials
• Hosting, tracking and reporting of any e-learning developed in-house
• Online forums and communication tools at Trust, SHA and National levels
• Online search and booking tools for classroom-based training
• Ability for Trusts to share (or sell) e-learning they have developed to other organisations within the portal.

The new portal will also offer a unique low-cost 'per enrolment' pricing model for hundreds of off-the-shelf e-learning courses from leading UK publishers.

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