Part of the mission of Poynter’s News University was to provide research on the whether e-learning would be an effective method of training journalists.  NewsU launched in April 2005 after a short beta period, with 1961 registered users.  In April 2006, the e-learning platform had more than 13,500 users.

NewsU’s success was detailed in its first report: The Explosive Growth of Journalism E-Learning.  Here’s the overview:

The growing reach of the Internet has changed the nature of job training and career development. Training no longer is limited to in-person contact, either by trainers coming onsite or by managers and employees traveling to seminars and conferences.

The Internet is increasingly popular as a delivery system for training – through Webinars, online courses that use instructors, Webcasts and readings, as well as interaction among participants in discussion groups. In addition, many companies such as Cold Stone Creamery, Cisco Systems Inc., and Canon Inc., are turning to online training games on corporate Web sites.

Those in the media industry are also embracing this form of training, with thousands of journalists turning to e-learning to supplement conferences, seminars and in-house training programs. One of the fastest-growing sites for journalism e-learning is News University (www.newsu.org), a project of The Poynter Institute funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.