Intellectual capital has become more valuable than hard assets. Networks are replacing hierarchy. Time has sped up. Cooperation edges out competition. Innovation trumps efficiency. Flexibility beats might. Everything's global. The past no longer illuminates the future. We need fresh thinking. E-Learning is the answer. Time to move from Corporate Training Schools, classrooms, courses, curricula and the campus. We’re going to chat about e-Learning. The world is transforming from Academic to Corporate E-learning.
What is learning?
Before we take dive to depth of e-Learning, let’s have a little insight of learning. We really know very little about the process of learning, how the mind works when learning. Learning remains one of the life’s great mysteries. Learning is that which enables you to participate successfully in your life and in the environments that matter to you. Learning involves meshing new material into what you already know. Learning is a series of course corrections to keep you headed in the right direction. Try, fail, succeed, and try again. Learn. It doesn’t stop until you die.
The same goes for organizations. When you stop to think about it, organizations are no more or less than a loosely knit collection of brains. In a very real sense, corporations have a Corporate IQ. It goes up and down. Regardless of the number, the organization learns the same way you learn. Hopefully, the successes outnumber the failures, and the Corporate IQ increases every year.
Universal Truths about Learning
All our thinking is based on three more or less universally accepted truths about learning:
1. Adults learn differently from children: There is general agreement that this is true. Andragogy, the science of adult learning, shows that there are valid approaches which are specifically valuable when designing learning for adults. These include a focus on learner-centred design, layering knowledge development, signposting throughout content, and making strong emotional connections between learning content and the application of that knowledge.
2. Individuals learn differently at different times with different content and different motivations: All learning should be designed to embrace a range of content styles wherever possible, to accommodate personal preferences.
3. Learning can be accelerated and retention improved through the application of specific techniques and strategies: In our learning design we use diagnostic tools, information layering and quick reference tools to accelerate learning. I recommend color theory, image, text, audio combinations and gaming theory to improve retention.
What was eLearning?
Before anyone called it eLearning, in late 1997, e-learning guru Elliott Masie said, “Online learning is the use of network technology to design, deliver, select, administer, and extend learning.” “e-Learning is learning on Internet Time, the convergence of learning and networks. eLearning is a vision of what corporate training can become. eLearning is to traditional training as eBusiness is to business as usual.” In 1999, Cisco told us, “eLearning is Internet-enabled learning. Components can include content delivery in multiple formats, management of the learning experience, and a networked community of learners, content developers and experts.”
What is eLearning?
Today, we live in an e-world. Networks facilitate virtually all learning. Most corporate learning today is at least in part eLearning. It has become trite to point out that the “e” doesn’t matter and that it’s the learning that counts.
If you ask me, I don’t think the learning counts for much in corporate world. What’s important is the “doing” that results from learning. If workers could do their jobs well by taking smart pills, training departments would have nothing to do except order the pills and pass them out. Executives don’t care about learning; they care about execution. I may talk about “learning” with you, but when I’m in the leading business, I’ll substitute “improving performance.”
Learning/Training
Executives and Managers are always eager to learn but there are many times they don’t want to be trained. Training is something someone does to us; learning is something we do for ourselves. To illustrate the difference, I sketch a typical training situation with the trainer in the center with the trainees aligned around him. We know who makes the rules, manages the activities, chooses the subject matter, and administers the tests. In the corporate eLearning scenario, the worker sits at the middle, surrounded by an array of tools, or learning opportunities: web, peers, instructor, CBT, mentor, FAQ, help desk, etc.
There is a shift from trainee to worker with the e- phenomenon. Democracy champions the individual and rules the world. It is about promoting the individual. People matter.
Benefits to an organisation of e-learning
Is it just a cut price way of delivering training, or a means of facilitating new types of organisational learning?
Reducing learning costs:
There is very strong evidence that e-learning reduces the total cost of training when compared to instructor led training. E-learning’s ability to significantly reduce costs by providing more efficient delivery of learning is well documented. This stems from:
Delivery of learning to the desktop: This results in less downtime to travel and attend learning events, and lower travel and subsistence costs.
Delivery of learning material online: Online delivery rather than in printed form results in less printing and distribution costs and lower maintenance/updating costs.
Delivery of learning online with less tutor support: This results in lower tutor and classroom costs. For example, the conversion of a two day course to a one day course plus e-learning for 30,000 staff, results in 3,000 fewer tutor days and fewer classroom facilities being required while e-learning can be more expensive to develop, these costs are normally outweighed by lower delivery costs. Generally, the larger the target audience the greater the benefits as the development costs can be spread over a larger number.
Reductions in travel and subsistence costs: Delivery to the desktop or local PC means that there are significantly reduced travel and accommodation costs associated with training.
Reductions in printing and distribution costs: In our recent work for a large finance organisation, the printing costs alone for training materials were in excess of £2m per annum. This is now drastically reduced.
Easier, cheaper and faster to update
E-learning can be updated more quickly and easily than classroom or paper based training. New regulations, for example, can be incorporated quickly into an e-learning programme and made available instantly to staff. Faster learning through e-learning also means staff is more productive more quickly.
The objective of reducing costs through the use of e-learning is gathering more and more importance, particularly as spend on training per employee dropped.
Why e-learning compresses learning time
People learn faster through interactive learning than classroom learning. These suggest that learning compression can be achieved because:
· Learners can go at their own pace, not at the pace of the slowest member of a group.
· Time in classrooms may be spent on questions or topics introduced by other delegates that are irrelevant to the needs of the individual learner.
· It takes less time to start and wind up a learning session.
· There is less travel time to and from a training event.
· Learners learn what they need to learn - they can skip elements of a programme they don’t need.
· Some concepts can be explained more easily and quicker using computer based instruction than would traditionally be done in a classroom.
· The presentation of content in online material tends to be more concise than classroom delivery.
These factors can add up to an average compression (saving of learning time) of 35-45% when a course is taken out of the classroom and delivered as e-learning.
Experience also suggests that in many cases a classroom based event is best replaced by a blended solution, with part in the classroom and part e-learning. The learning time is compressed for the elements that are converted to e-learning. Thus when a two day (12 hour) classroom course is converted to a one day classroom and e-learning event, the learning time is reduced by over two hours. Of course, that time is saved in the office, which allows the learner to do more productive work.
Improved Performance through learning
E-learning has been seen by many organizations as a cost effective way of delivering learning content to learners. However, whilst it may be cost effective, is e-learning as effective in terms of knowledge retention and embedding real learning as other forms of learning, primarily classroom based instruction? A significant amount of academic research into the effectiveness of e-learning says it is.
Learners learn more using computer based instruction than they do with conventional ways of teaching, as measured by higher post treatment test scores.
Retention of learning
One reason for the improved effectiveness seems to be the increased level of participation through the interactivity of well designed e-learning programmes. This leads to higher levels of cognitive engagement and therefore higher levels of retention.
The self-paced nature of the learning experience also leads to higher retention as the learning content is digested at the pace which suits the learner, and not the pace at which it happens to be delivered by the trainer. The learner can stop, reflect, repeat and integrate the learning into existing structures in a way that is difficult in the classroom.
The ability for students to use a range of material in their own time and in their own environment has created more and deeper learning. The use of e-learning has produced significant improvements in corporate learning.
Consistency of learning
One of the major benefits e-learning can offer large and dispersed organisations are consistency of learning. With e-learning everyone gets the same content, presented in the same way.
Faster rollout of learning
E-learning has faster delivery cycle times than traditional classroom based instruction. In essence, there is a physical restriction upon how fast learning can be rolled out with classroom based instruction, as the capacity to deliver learning is limited by the number of classrooms and trainers. E-learning is very scalable and can be undertaken when staff is available, rather than having to make sure staff are available when the training is planned.
More accessible, less disruptive learning
Delivery of learning to the desktop or mobile devices means there will be less disruption in the workplace and a substantial reduction in backfill costs. Less time spent traveling and attending face to face courses will mean work activities are not interrupted and delayed through absence from the workplace. E-learning gives users greater control over how and where they learn.
E-Learning as performance support
E-learning can make a marked impact on business performance by being used as a performance support tool, giving staff the ability to dip into performance support programmes when the learning is needed and is tailored to the learner’s availability. In fact, there’s a narrowing divide between e-learning and performance support.
Monitoring and evaluation of learning
E-learning, particularly when combined with the use of a Learning Management System, can be used to track and evaluate learning by providing:
· Closer monitoring of what learning is provided
· Confirmation that appropriate pre-course work is undertaken
· Easier student assessment
· Monitoring of course materials and effectiveness
· More efficient administration and control of learning
Tracking and reporting of progress is becoming more and more important due to increased legislation.
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