Why do so many e-learning initiatives fail?

I missed this 152 page report [2.7 MB  PDF] by Per Arneberg, Lourdes Guàrdia, Desmond Keegan, Jüri Lõssenko, Ildikó Mázár, Pedro Fernández Michels, Morten Flate Paulsen, Torstein Rekkedal, Albert Sangrà, Jan Atle Toska and Dénes Zarka when it was published in November 2007. Thankfully a reader sent me this link to a well and independently written review of the report by Ingrid Schönwald. The report (several of whose authors are anything but recent arrivals on the e-learning scene) is based on analysis of a large number of e-learning initiatives from different parts of the world, including a handlful from the UK.

The recommendations section, on pages 127-143 contains a comprehensive series of practical guidelines for success. The seven that flowed from the report's analysis of 10 failed initiatives - headlined below - and on pages 139-143 of the report, are particularly interesting, as much because of their obviousness as anything else:

1. Realize that hard-nosed market research is essential for the success of any e-learning initiative;
2. Plan carefully for and control carefully the revenue and expenses. Seeding funding dries up quickly;
3. Choice of courses and their accreditation is crucial;
4. Define precisely the relationships of your initiative to existing providers and define precisely the institutional model you will adopt;
5. Plan carefully to manage both educational and business activities;
6. Avoid top-down political and boardroom initiatives;
7. Avoid consortia of institutions that compete with each other and the consortium.