eLearning Towards Organizational Success

Champion creative risk taking and engage learners 

and link performance to organizational and individual success.

Our company has been involved in developing eLearning since 2004, when we developed our first full-featured eLearning module. Since then, adoption of eLearning has been slow as companies and organizations have continued to invest in less efficient traditional classroom-style or lecture style training, with predictably poor results. Recently, we have witnessed an increase in the adoption rate of eLearning as a primary tool in training and development; but often the planning and implementation are tactical, and little consideration is given to the most important aspect of learning, comprehension. We thought we would take a moment out to share our insights into eLearning implementation pitfalls.  

• Over the past several years we have observed many RFPs from companies and organizations and in almost every circumstance, the RFP were often primarily designed around the purchase of a Learning Management System (LMS).  Content and comprehension are generally viewed as an afterthought.
•  eLearning content, as we have witnessed in many programs across Canada are often a patchwork of legacy content. Programs often include legacy web based content, video snippets, documents, PDFs and PowerPoint. In the rare circumstances where organizations are producing content they often do not have the expertise to product content for today's media savvy sophisticated professional worker.
• Most organizations do not enforce a vibrant testing and reporting eLearning process.  In some circumstances this may be a result of mixed union and non-union environments, in others it’s a lack of commitment to developing a comprehensive learning strategy and in still other circumstances it is the result of not including learners in the learning strategy development process.
• Many compulsory or compliance eLearning courses are simple and lack any creativity, and most skilled workers try and skip the content and go directly to the questions to get through the process with as little focus as possible. Most will cheat on the test portion given the chance, since there is little in the content to challenge them and programs often lack incentive to achieve and opportunities to share knowledge are virtually non-existent.
• eLearning technology, while generally sophisticated from an administration and reporting point of view are rarely utilized to their full extent to understand the learner experience. Administrators stick to the same basic reporting criteria, pass/fail, completion score, name and department. Often learning programs are under-resourced and performance in learning programs is not tied directly to organizational and individual success.  
• Many eLearning programs fail to incorporate the learner in the process. The system often does not include gathering consistent learner feedback on the experience in terms of their engagement or their ability to share knowledge among peers, as is the case in traditional learning environments. This is often a result of designing eLearning as an adjunct to existing training programs. They are thought of as a cost cutting measure rather than a new form of learning that is persistent.
• Leaders in management groups, teams and committees often see and understand the value of eLearning and create mandates for implementation but implementation becomes a logistical or tactical implementation plan rather than a larger strategy linked to performance. Cost reduction becomes the number one driving factor in eLearning design and implementation rather than comprehension and organizational success.
• Most organizations take a very traditional approach to a learning process by not championing creative "risk-taking" in the design and implementation of eLearning programs.  Little in the way of testing unique programs, lateral learning opportunities, or innovation is occurring in eLearning, primarily due to cost.  Creating management teams that consider efficacy as well as creativity, can have a profound effect on individual performance and organizational success.
• Failure is an important part of learning. In most eLearning curricula and modules, the possibility of failure is either absent or minimized. Creating learning from failure can be realized  by creating higher threshold achievement levels, more complex information, more difficult questions, random test questions or checkpoint questions that allows the learner to gauge their understanding. Do not be afraid to challenge the learner but create additional incentives to succeed as well.

These thoughts and observations are designed to challenge thinking on current eLearning strategies. Just implementing eLearning is not enough …organizations and businesses need to implement learning strategies that are tied to individual and organizational performance results.

Calling All E-Learning Champions

Video, for many years and even in this day and age was and is considered, somehow, to be the preferred means for transferring information or teaching.  Video is a static presentation offering little opportunity for the leaner to interact but it does do some things well in that it is able to illustrate things very succinctly and that is why it remains so successful.

MacDonald’s has made an empire based on consistently delivering the same product and customer service to its customers while consistently trainings their employees using video. This is an example of a training video from 1972 … seems antiquated but you might be surprised to learn that many organizations continue to use some form of video to inform customers and train staff.  

As training has progressed over the years, interactivity has been added through such programs as PowerPoint, and in-classroom instructors which offer greater learner engagement and comprehension but at a significant cost in terms of labour and time.  While the comprehension levels have increased with more hands-on  or in-classroom training  the real cost of learning has continued to escalate in recent years since learning incorporates new and different kinds of media, increasing labour costs and more in classroom technology.

. E-Learning has been around for some time, and the technology has matured and become cost effective  when compared to traditional in-classroom training  but most organizations remain entrenched in the use of legacy learning practices  and tend to defer to the IT gatekeepers to help rationalize the initiative rather than champion  its merits. Surprisingly, most organizations, who have significant learning needs such as in health care, continue to use in-classroom training, along with their video and/or PowerPoint presentation and some handouts even though they know that this method is not cost effective nor does it result in enhanced comprehension.

Recent studies have shown that E-Learning is 40 % more cost effective than in-classroom training.  This was proven by researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of Washington who confirmed that a 30 minute multimedia CPR training program was more effective at training adults between 40 and 70 years of age than the traditional 4-hour instructor led classroom training.

My own experience has taught me that one hour of E-Learning is equivalent to about 4 hours of in-classroom training.  This is a result of removing the social interaction that typically occurs in a classroom that does not contribute directly to the learning process, disruption caused by people entering or leaving the classroom, instructor’s lack of focus or preparedness and lack of consistency in the lesson plan and testing process.

By enlarge most company and organizational leaders will agree with the concept that E-learning is more cost effective and more efficient as a learning strategy …yet there seems to be little appetite by professionals organizations and businesses to employ E-Learning. True self-paced learning (E-learning) learning has been slow to be adopted despite its many advantages. This has largely been due to the demand for significant initial investment required and the ongoing need to administer and manage learning.  This boils down to the  investment in time and effort by administrators in setting up policies, procedures and long term benchmarking practices that will guide the evolution of E-Learning and maintaining records and updating content within an organization.  

Today’s E-Learning utilizes the best of video, so-called speaker support, audio narration, interactive forums, chart functions, questions & quizzes and simulations to present concepts and test your comprehension.  Video has become a tool set within the E-learning environment as have the PowerPoint presentation and other forms of media information presentation. E-learning has become fairly easy to implement and there are plenty of flavours to help organizations manage and administer E-Learning through Learning Management Systems where there isn’t a significant investment required in hardware or software and organizations can evolve into E-Learning strategy that works for them at an affordable price.

Want to learn more ..stay tuned or give me a call.