ELearning: The “Testing Effect”

“2010 New York Times article reported on a scientific Study
that showed that students who read a passage of text and then
 took a test asking them to recall what they had read retained
 an astonishing 50% more of the information a week later than
 students who had not been tested.”

The “Testing Effect” describes the power of retrieval. Its most common application can be seen in testing in school exams; to help measure learning and assign grades. In the corporate world, this process is often shunned as a facile means of overcoming employee resistance or circumventing policy & procedure issues.

Testing as a whole has come under fire in recent years. Various elementary, secondary and post-secondary learners and academic bodies have cited that testing in the traditional manor is not an effective means of determining comprehension and this notion has carried over into corporate learning to some extent. Testing has gotten a “bad rap” and it is often related to memorization.  

In their book “Make It Stick”, authors Peter C. Brown, Henry L Roediger III and Mark A. McDaniel cited that a “2010 New York Times article reported on a scientific Study that showed that students who read a passage of text and then took a test asking them to recall what they had read retained an astonishing 50% more of the information a week later than students who had not been tested.”

 The book, Make It Stick,  suggests that the New York Times article would seem like good news, but here’s how it was greeted in many online comments:

“Once again, another author confuses learning with recalling information.”

“I personally would like to avoid as many tests as possible, especially with my grades on the line,. Trying to learn in a stressful environment is no way to help retain information.”

“Nobody should care whether memorization is enhanced by practice testing or not. Our children cannot do much of anything anymore.” 

  eLearning can be an important component of learning new skills, enhancing product knowledge, reinforcing policies and procedures or changing behaviour, but only when a well-defined testing process is associated with any given topic or group of topics.  This process enhances retrieval of information and can have an important influence on work practices; but only when content is coupled with a well thought out testing process that is extended over time. 

I suppose the next question is how? How does the process of retrieval of information enhance memory?  The basic concept is this - the act of retrieving information from memory makes it easier to retrieve later. We retrieve information from memory every moment of every day; how to tie a knot, how to start your car, how to program your remote (well maybe not this one), how to add and subtract, etc. These may seem common and mundane but they are made thus through the repetition of retrieving information repeatedly, thereby embedding knowledge more permanently.

I think many of us can bare witness to the effects of retrieval strength in our daily lives, for example, if we go away for an extended trip, our minds would be far away from the normal processes and routines we follow daily. As a result, when we return, we have lost some information, perhaps:  passwords, log in procedures, actions that we may undertake less frequently but typically would recall when retrieved periodically. This can be described as the ebbing of retrieval strength. We are not reminded of the information and gradually we forget.

What does it all mean for eLearning? I think we have to re-consider how we perceive testing, its frequency and the veracity of the testing process. In designing learning programs within corporate environments, we often view learning as a one-time event or a one-time window. We tend to design testing around that event or window but do not plan repeated opportunities to review content, refresh knowledge and enhance retrieval strength through a more rigorous testing process over the long term.

The process need not be onerous. We recommend offering shorter and more persistent testing on information. Make sure the information is prioritized, meaning focus on topics of greater importance to your organization’s mission. For example you may evaluate your learning calendar for a given year and consider reintroduction of key learning principles along with repeated testing opportunities. This can be coupled with the introduction of new content each calendar year. 

Making the process fun and “not boring” will have an important effect on learning and embedding information making it easier to retrieve, however and perhaps more importantly, designing an ongoing process of presenting the prioritized information through multiple channels while reinforcing the learning process with testing is essential to effecting change through learning in your organization.

Learning: Not A One-Time Event

The upshot of all this is that spaced out intervals of 
study reinforces learning and learned practices.

Learning in general, and eLearning in particular are largely regarded as a onetime events in most organizational settings today. The ever increasing pace of change, the avalanche of information, the increased activity within any given job responsibility have created a need to develop an ever-green strategy for learning within an organization.

The evergreen approach to learning should result in a lifelong process of learning within an organization that periodically reinforces existing information, along with new concepts and skills that relate to a particular topic. Yes…it does demand additional resources and funding to dedicate learning as a core concept within an organization. This has not been particularly high on the list of budget items for most organizations. 

Why do I make a case for an evergreen approach? - well because through my experience in developing eLearning for various organizations over the past 25 years I have found that most if not all organizations I have worked with have tended to look at developing learning and eLearning on a project by project basis? While costs have not increased dramatically, the pace of change, the scope of content has – which leaves me wondering why new and more strategic approach to learning have not been implemented.

Common sense tells us we are not doing a very good at creating effective learning environments. When I refer to this I am referring to learning outside the traditional school system. Research tells us that spaced learning produces superior test scores. The question becomes for developing any learning strategy, “What is the typical interval of spaced learning that produces good storage and retrieval strength” (see my article on How We Learn). There is no real handbook or definitive data on this but there is some research that provides a pretty reliable guide to how we can space eLearning and learning in general to improve retention, comprehension and application.

In 2008, a research team led by Melony Wiseheart a psychologist at York University, Toronto and Harold Pashler, a psychologist at the University of California, San Diego, conducted a large study that provided the first good answer to this question. The book “How We Learn” explains that the team enrolled 1354 people from all ages from across the US. The team had them study 32 obscure facts. The participants studied the facts at different intervals –some only 10 minutes apart and others as much as 6 months apart. In total there were 26 different study intervals. The researchers also varied the timing of the final exam.

The study produced an optimal interval chart to help us better understand the relationship between spaced learning and remembering what you have learned.  

Time To Test	First Study Interval
Week	1-2 days
1 Month	1 week
3 Months	2 weeks
6 Months	3 weeks
1 Year	1 month

The further away the exam the more the time you have to prepare - the larger the optimal between sessions one and two. This study included a test to validate the learning process. In most organizational learning (as opposed to traditional school learning) and even eLearning where testing is relatively easy, testing is not always a part of the process.

The upshot of all this is that spaced out intervals of study reinforces learning and learned practices in eLearning. ELearning is usually implemented as a one off and there is rarely follow up through eLearning or other learning methods. This results in poor adoption of learned skills or practices.

In a well-designed “evergreen learning approach” the reintroduction of concepts will help under-write a spaced out study process creating a continuum of learning. This will result in the better application of learned skills and processes, while exposing the learner to new information. In a planned approach to learning this might include spaced out eLearning programs where existing concepts are reexamined and new or revised content is added to create depth of knowledge. Testing is also an important part of the process to ensure that learners take the process as seriously as those who have planned out the learning program.

Finally, based on the previous article “How We Learn” - using different delivery methods of knowledge will help improve “storage and retrieval strength.” For example you may utilize eLearning as a core component, offering  versions of the same eLearning modules with new questions, which can then reinforce with scheduled events, webinars, activities, and print based elements throughout a one year learning cycle. Often, these are not costly; they just demand planning an evergreen approach to learning.

How We Learn: Storage & Retrieval Strength

" Learning is rooted very much in the mind’s ability  to 

extrapolate a broad range information linked to external stimulus..."

A common thread that affects learning and our comprehension is “How We Learn”. Funny, isn’t it - that this is perhaps the single most important factor in developing learning programs –yet it is the least understood and often least considered aspect of skill development and behavioural change.

 Learning programs, and in particular eLearning programs demand that an individual focus on a set of learning objectives we have set out for that learner. We seek to entrench comprehension and change behaviour through such learning programs. Most learning strategies within organizations and corporations are based on cost and availability of resources with little concern for long term implementation strategies and a need to validate learning.  Effective eLearning involves understanding how our brain works to store, recall and apply knowledge. If we don’t understand how that takes place and how we can best create an environment that will allow this to happen, how can we hope people will apply what they have learned.

Traditional classrooms and their learning strategies are built on historical experiences in organized learning regimens and do not create a connection between learning and understanding. The foundational learning strategies we currently use in most of our business learning environments date back to the 19th century. Experiential learning or the classroom based learning in a one to many environment is the primary means of teaching/learning.

This strategy is entrenched in teachers and learners who focus on a learning formula that suggests: creating a link between memorization, repetition and application equals comprehension and learned skills. It is my contention, based on the existing data sets resulting from many learning studies, that there is significant evidence that this is not the most effective way to teach or learn, however, it may be the cheapest. I wonder of cheaper is better if nothing is learned?

Learning is rooted very much in the mind’s ability to extrapolate a broad range information linked to external stimulus, thus creating links in our ability to store, recall and apply knowledge based on how that knowledge gets embedded.  Creating unique environments, delivering a message in a memorable way and allowing the learner to learn in a way that suites their abilities and capacity to paramount to learning. Check out the Godden & Baddeley study on the effects of context cues on recall.

Robert Bjork of UCLA and his wife, Elizabeth Ligon Bjork also of UCLA can be said to have developed the theory of “Forget To Learn” in the 80’s. The principle theory is this “Any memory has two strengths, a storage strength and a retrieval strength.”  

“How We Learn”, author, Benedict Carey, tells us that storage strength is just that, a measure of how well learned something is. It builds up steadily with studying and more sharply with use.”   He goes on to say, “According to Bjorks theory, storage strength can increase but never decrease”…and, “The brain holds onto only what is relevant, useful or interesting - or maybe so in the future.”   Casey tells us that “Retrieval strength…is a measure of how easily a nugget of information comes to mind. It too, increases with studying and with use.”

Retrieval strength can be a matter of how quickly we can bring things to mind, while storage strength is a matter of how familiar something might be. ELearning is affected by this learning philosophy. If an eLearning program, for example has 6 modules, and each is about 45 minutes long which we take only once, than the storage strength and retrieval strength are both low.

How do we improve on this? Each module can be followed up with questions. This serves as repetition of content and improves retrieval. Adding case studies and interactive scenarios helps improve storage strength as we apply and use the knowledge. We can further improve storage and retrieval with follow up meetings and one-on-one sessions that extend our learning of the concept, by creating a series of demands on our memory that recall and apply the principles learned.

Spreading out the learning process over a longer period of time, changing the delivery medium and varying the time and place in which we learn are all hall marks of eLearning. This creates an environment where the knowledge can become more embedded in our memory, improving our storage and retrieval strength and allowing us to recall information more readily. This is especially true if we continue to follow up and extend the learning process through a variety of additional learning opportunities. These complementary learning opportunities that complement eLearning can be simple and low cost including; group meetings, one-on-one simulations, learner surveys, reading assignments, learner feedback, follow up evaluation of implementation strategies, etc.  

ELearning is an ideal medium for knowledge transfer, but on its own it’s is far less effective. Learning strategies, that use eLearning as the primary learning medium, delivered over longer periods while including multiple learning opportunities and multiple mediums create the best outcomes.

elearning Wrong Thinking

Our company has been developing e Learning since the 90's, before it was ever thought to be "cool" or "effective" in training. During that time we have encountered many implementation strategies that bear close examination for their ineffectiveness and their inability to actually achieve any true measure of comprehension among learners. 

Most e Learning administrators ignored or overlooked the important lessons taught by traditional learning. For example, you must have an administrative infrastructure in place with allocated resources, its OK to expect results from learners, its OK to set high achievement levels in testing, and adult learning is a shared enterprise that includes learners, teachers and administrators. 

Here are a few e Learning thought processes that can potentially result in poor comprehension and boredom among learners.

,  

1. Our first priority is to try and buy the most seats for the lowest price
2.  Let’s focus on purchasing an LMS solution before we consider content 
3.  We’ll try and use content we already have. PowerPoint is better than nothing.
4.  Let’s be cost effective and buy off-the-shelf-content without evaluating its effectiveness
5.  Don’t bother involving learners in e Learning program design....that’s too complicated
6.  Isn’t self-paced e Learning fully automated? … no need to develop a management plan
7.  Do not make completion of the e Learning mandatory – people might complain
8.  Don’t set up a program to promote the idea of e Learning – it’s too much work and money
9.  Don’t include a firm completion date – I am sure it will be get done in due course
10.  I am managing the e Learning program,….I don’t have to actually take it myself
11.  Don’t track and include e Learning results in employee records – it’s too hard to put in place
12.  Training is important but it’s not core to our business or organization 
13.  Let's start our e Learning program with low cost mandatory learning 
14.  I’ll make the e Learning optional – that way it won’t be difficult to implement
15.  We already do workshops and conferences…e Learning isn’t that different 
16.  Let’s implement self-paced e Learning...and then we can set it up in a classroom
17.  We want a certificate e Learning program …but we should make it easy to get
18.  We can implement an e Learning program …no need to plan for any updates at this point
19.  Let’s create an e Learning program…I’m sure learners will participate without reward or encouragement 
20. Content is expensive ...let's see of somebody else has the custom knowledge we need

PS....fell free to respond with your own observations on e Learning implementation ....

Why Do Soft Skills Matter to Employers

Why do many employers still view training as superfluous, dispensable or peripheral to success? In this modern age where we have a cohort of young, educated people entering the workforce, the need for strategic  learning within companies and organizations is more important than ever.

Unorganized, on-the-job training remains the preferred method of preparing new hires and existing employees seeking to take on new responsibilities. Employers often cite the demands of day-to-day business as the primary reason that they just don’t have “time” and “money” to train and integrate employees into their workplace effectively.  They rely on the availability of skills in the open marketplace, planning that new hires will be able to step directly into the workplace and perform specific tasks.

In a broad cross section or companies and organizations I am hearing more and more that employees able to take on specific tasks, undertake increasing responsibility, work independently and conduct themselves professionally are is short supply. Employers are finding it increasingly difficult to hire specific skills for increasingly complex jobs. While the marketplace is producing a well-educated workforce, the largest part of entry level employees remain unemployed or underemployed, and as such, are not gaining experience and a practical knowledge of Soft Skills required in most workplaces today.

 The anemic employment rate is partly to blame, given the fact that in Canada and around the world the employment among young people is at epidemic levels.  Current average unemployment levels in Canada are hovering around 7.1% while youth unemployment is at about 13.5%.  This suggests that young people, and in particular, those new hires that employers are counting on to step right into their workplace are not getting the experience they need to transition their abilities into skills.

 Developing Soft Skills within this new cohort of entry level employees is increasingly important. As an example, a regional Labour Market Partnership Study ( Simcoe County)  has identified on-the job training and soft skills development as some of (over 2000, surveyed employer’s)  the most important concerns of businesses in meeting businesses future competitive and economic growth challenges.

What are Soft Skills and why do they matter? Soft Skills encompass topics like communications, leadership, problem solving and project management.  These skills provide a base of knowledge that allow employees to communicate effectively with co-workers, management and clients, understand their responsibilities in the life-cycle of projects, prepare to take on increasing responsibility and how to bring unique innovation and problem solving skills to everyday workplace challenges.

E Learning that teaches Soft Skills is designed to address many of these issues and provides learning in a way, at a time and through a medium that young learners can access readily and are familiar with. E Learning also addresses employer’s most pressing concerns by offering training programs that are flexible, accessible, cost effective and individual results can be tracked over time.

Most employers, whether they are willing to admit it or not, are not prepared to set up comprehensive learning in the workplace and often approach it with a patchwork of learning scenarios that may include costly meetings, presentations and workshops or poorly conceived eLearning that often amounts to nothing more than PowerPoint presentations.

Employers may not have the resources or commitment to understand the real value of learning in their organizations since the existing programs are cobbled together each year with no long term strategy and no clear understanding of the financial impact on their organization.   Only when a high-risk event forces action, or government intervention in monitoring compliance with workplace learning does an organization of company respond in an organized fashion.

I believe that Soft Skills development and in particular eLearning Soft Skills development can be an important cornerstone in an organizations success. It sets the ground work for employees to understand what is expected of them and helps fulfill their desire to grow, learn and take on new responsibilities and roles.

“Fulfilling an employee’s desire to grow and learn” is essential in the retention of good employees. It offers employees an opportunity to fulfill their ambition by understanding that there are opportunities for growth and advancement and as an employer you are willing to support them in their personal growth as well as their professional growth. It is a “win - win “scenario”, where the employer gets a motivated and an increasingly capable employee, and perhaps an innovative thinker, a leader that will contribute in a meaningful way to an organization's success in the future.

 If you want to learn more about soft skills online training or gain access to our unique Soft Skills eLearning program on Communications, Leadership, Project management and Problem Solving you can visit our web site at www.ycommunicate.com or contactus@ycommunicate.com or simply call 416-271-5259.

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.

Blended Learning Strategy– Cost Effective Training

If you've not satisfied with continual staff turnover, escalating salary bidding wars and the quality of your current workforce skills you may want to consider a Blended Learning Strategy for your company. With the advent of eLearning, a cost-effective blended learning strategy for a small business employers can now be developed to train a workforce for both soft skills and practical skills. The formula might include a syllabus of off-the-shelf eLearning for soft skills, on-the-job training for practical skills, a process for filtering likely successful candidates, a means of testing milestone comprehension and a good benefits package to attract and retain the best possible candidates. 

It is an investment, for sure, but it can be very cost effective when you measure this against all the time and effort you dedicate to managing your workforce, the quality of work preformed, the cost of developing leadership and communications skills, the cost of retaining good performers and the effect that "churn" has on productivity, Developing a focused Blended Learning strategy pays long term dividends for businesses and organizations that are focused on growth. The changing economy and the rise of the too-skilled worker demographic has led to an unusual segmentation in the available labour force. This is borne out by the many discussions I have had with small to medium size employers who experience on ongoing shortage of talent. Many companies we work with could actually grow more rapidly if they could count on a skilled workforce to meet their demands.  

Pundits and experts point to the lack of training investment, economic uncertainty, poorly designed government programs and lack of employer vision in developing training programs - as the main culprits in this seeming shortage of qualified labour. Hard to lament a shortage in labour when the economy as a whole continues to sputter and unemployment continues to be an issue.

I believe, however, the employment shortage is real and not just imagined. In recognizing this shortage - I have identified three distinct groups of unemployed which can help us create solutions. The first group is the over –qualified university “Educated Worker” with eyes on a middle management position and little or no experience, the second is the “Employed” that has the skills and are actively being pursued by competing companies, while the third group, in this over simplified model, is the unemployed who may have little or no post-secondary education, not a lot of experience and are seeking opportunities with a future in a marketplace filled with service industry and part time positions.

A recent Labour Market Partnership (LMP) study (over 2,000 small businesses participated ) identified the following 10 learning requirements for small businesses, including: people skills/relationship-building, communication skills, problem solving skills, analytical abilities, leadership skills, industry-specific knowledge & experience, functional knowledge, technological literacy, project management skills and creative thinking.  

Accessing available online training for the bulk of the skills required and implementing a structured on-the job-training program can address the need for skilled labour in an organized and cost effective way. Adding a means of filtering recruits, testing for milestone comprehension and developing a strategy for ensuring they stay with the organization over the long term can make this training initiative a very cost effective means of acquiring and retaining a skilled workforce.

In today’s workplace it’s no longer good enough for employers, particularly in the manufacturing and industrial marketplace, to simply hope that there is a qualified talent pool, outbid competing companies or count on government initiatives that will address the need for unique skill sets. Employers need to invest in their own training program that leverages available low cost learning solutions for soft skills coupled with an on-the-job training program for practical skills. The magic additional ingredients in such a program are: the ability to benchmark test applicants, filter and select only the best potential applicants and develop a strategy for retaining these skills with a strong company vision and a good benefits package. Contact us to learn more.

Onboarding - Business Building Strategy?

E-Learning - the Future of Onboarding

New hires, staff turnover, lateral moves, promotions and existing employees all need one thing…a consistent vision and understanding of an organization’s values and mission. We espouse these business mantras to our customers through a variety of online tools, yet we omit delivering these important principles to our most valued asset, our employees.

Using your orientation or onboarding program as a means of motivating, creating skills and creating a common vision can be a powerful tool for growth when used effectively. History, mission statements, product evolution & growth, core values, roles & responsibilities, acquisitions, commitment to opportunity, customer service and more, are all important components in the narrative behind an organization’s success. This process helps bond a prospective employee to an organization and prepares them to be successful.   

Many organizations use outdated & inconsistent information, legacy technology and redundant means of communication to integrate a new hire into the organization and as a result they are not exposed to customer expectations, core values and branding narratives and much more.  Additionally, the existing process offers organizations no understanding of the comprehension and commitment of the new hire with few ways of tracking or evaluating their participation.

While we have leveraged almost every possible channel to market to our customers, we have missed a significant opportunity to allow our employees, (what I would describe as a key stakeholder)  to contribute to the growth of an organization through a deeper and more consistent understanding of an organization’s vision.

Today we see fewer employees entering at the bottom of the employment ladder and working their way up. We no longer “start employees in the mail room” and expect them to work their way to the top.  What we do see, is well educated, entitled employees coming into the workforce with no experience and being placed in increasingly important roles, with little or no guidance. When they fail we have been able to quickly replace these prospective employees – with someone from the over-abundant ranks of the unemployed. That strategy is beginning to dry up and those companies who have strong recruitment and retention programs in place are skimming off the cream of the crop.

So far we have been able to withstand the costs associated with “churn” and the resulting turmoil because of a stagnant economy which has created low expectations, and the continued availability of skilled baby boomers to take up the slack.  This has left the ranks of many organizations and companies thin, with insufficient customer service, product or organizational knowledge, resulting in middle managers who are poorly equipped to take on “next level” job responsibilities and remain loyal to an organization.

Onboarding as it’s called today is the process of forging employees and introducing them to the vision and mission of an organization. It helps define company loyalty by ensuring that they understand organizational goals and carry the collective memory of an organization’s successes and failures forward in decision making.  This is valuable information for “would be” middle managers within any organization seeking to manage change and growth in the trenches. It also speaks to a new hire’s recognition that an organizations is willing and committed to invest in growing its employee’s skills.

Onboarding today is often an outdated "mish-mash" of videos, workshops, documents, lectures - that are not effectively organized. This is surprising given that the E-Learning technology offers Human Resource departments a tool set uniquely equipped to be cost effective, easily updated, self-paced, and contain a variety of visual mediums that can easily integrate legacy organizational knowledge as well as espouse an organization’s vision - and its plan for the future.

 E-Learning is an ideal solution for Onboarding yet few organizations truly understand its value and impact on success. A simple 30 - 45 minute self-paced E-Learning module can offer new hires a history of the organization, its customer service strategies, its service delivery model & partners; and an understanding of its customers, products and plans for the future. Such a module can replace repeated, one-off workshops or training sessions that can drain several day of manpower for each new hire. The best part about E-Learning is that each employee can be tested to track comprehension -  and additional important information about a prospective new hire can be gained from a closer examination of each employee’s interaction with the content.

The most difficult part of this process is often the need to create onboarding subject matter and the time and commitment needed by the organization to develop the information and its objectives properly. The great news here is that most organizations already have the basic information in place…it’s the delivery mechanism and performance tracking that can make this a more productive method of onboarding.  The content is easy to update and can be accessed 24/7.

Onboarding needs to step into the future by leveraging new technologies to  grow its skill base from the inside out and create a skilled, and loyal workforce.

Building A Sound E-Learning Strategy

I guess it is not surprising that companies and organizations simply throw up their hands and choose E-Learning that is free or low cost and generally not very effective. They have been forced by government regulations to comply with such mandated training as Health & Safety, Accessibility (AODA) Privacy and more. Most organizations have not seen the writing on the wall yet...that training, will become increasingly important to their survival.

Getting mandatory training at a low cost makes good business sense today, especially when you consider the limited likelihood of government regulators knocking on your door to check up on you or the fact that the recent recession has created a labour glut with many university skilled workers available at low wages.

The lack of learning strategy within most organizations  has reinforced  the lack of importance that training has in North American businesses. Managers and employees don't really have a vested interest in training until it is something that effects their livelihood (from an employee point of view), or it represents unacceptable risk (from an employers point of view).  As long as the information is accurate, who cares if employees and employers actually understand the concepts and can put them into action. The reasons for poor training implementation and support range from, "I can get that for free on the interment" to "I don't understand the Technology" or "lets do a webinar."

Training and in particular E-Learning in the coming years will be a clear point of differentiation for successful companies who build a long term strategy  that values knowledge and learning. New skills, upgrading existing skills, alternate skills and compliance training will all become an important part of a more flexible and diverse workforce for any company.

A well trained workforce will have to be cost effective as a result of a more transient workforce. Cost and demands of training workers will increase with greater staff turnover. Looming shortages in skilled workers, increasingly complex skills sets and greater  knowledge requirements for technology solutions will place great demands on worker skills. This along with an aging population to service will create increasing shortages in skilled labour.

An organization's  success will be measured by its ability to adapt, grow and learn in a rapidly changing free-market economy. Employing an "early days" sound learning strategy will add to the value of an organization and allow it to outperform its competitors.

What does a sound learning strategy look like today? It will take the form of "baby steps", or pilot projects where companies and organizations identify key topics that require rapid learning, complex learning or flexible learning to respond to changing client demands. Developing a pilot project based on an identified need and seeking turn-key solutions will allow organizations to test their learning and grow that solution over time to address its ongoing needs. It also involves  the learners who will play an important role in shaping the strategy with their feedback.

Many organizations today, because of their lack of understanding of E-Learning, are seeking a "technology" solution rather than a "content" solution. Its my opinion that E-Learning technology, as it stands, is reasonably mature from a technical stand point since most companies providing such services are large and well equipped to develop the required technology and tools sets. What is lacking for the most important part ...a focus on content  and ensuring that what is being taught..is what's being learned! This demands a very different skill set that most organizations  do not understand, a media savvy production partner that has an in-depth understanding of the technology wrapper for E-Learning, and who can consult on a wide range of E-Learning strategy issues..

PDFs, web sites, webinars, online videos and simple E-Learning content are generally ineffective as primary content in E Learning because they approach learning in a traditional way and seek to use linear media. An E- Learning strategy must build its content from the ground up. It may use existing media and content  under the guidance of a subject matter expert but whether its blended learning or self paced learning a sound strategy seeks to take advantage of the best that E-Learning has to offer.

Product Knowledge & Training as a Marketing Strategy

Educating existing and potential clients on the unique benefits of a product or service or simply creating awareness for your brand is poorly understood by many companies and organizations. The process of offering your clients information that for free - they can benefit by - without a clear ROI has long been considered a benefit that only large scale organizations can afford to entertain.

This has changed dramatically as new online technologies make the process more cost effective to implement in a broader geographical marketplace. The one thing , however, that has not changed is the focus and investment that has to be made on the part of the delivering organization to ensure that the information is professional, responds to clients needs and is valued by clients.

The most cost effective manner to implement “Knowledge Training as a Marketing Strategy” is to create an interactive “on-demand” presentation or “live-event” online event.  These events help your customers understand how your products benefit them and helps recognize their unique needs through such ancillary assets as case studies, frequently asked questions and live interactive question opportunities.  Once such a marketing tool is developed it can be delivered repeatedly with little cost and can be revised to respond to changing customer needs.  In this discussion I will focus on the “Live Event:” scenario but many of the same steps apply to the “on-demand” scenario.

The 11 steps to “Knowledge Training as a Marketing Strategy” are as follows:

1. Define one product or service that will define your brand in the marketplace
2. Write it down in a brief overview - the features and benefits and the “how-to’s”
3. Develop one statement defines the unique selling feature or allows the client to relate to your message best
4. Visualize: how this story can be made easier to understand through video, images, simulations, etc.
5. Determine if this can be passive interactive information or live interactive information online
6. Consider a budget for marketing channels: this tends to be online - complemented by other mediums
7. Create a marketing plan & database for the live event:  PR, e-mail, print awareness, follow-up, etc
8. Create a database to capture contact info: use existing database, online invitations, meetings, calls, etc.
9. Define who are the players in implementing a live event online: script the event from beginning to end
10. Determine what assets: such as images, video, documents, interactivity, questions, etc
11. Pre-plan and implement follow up on the event with phone calls, e-mails, in person presentations

The only drawback to producing such “Knowledge Training as a Marketing Strategy” events is that you do have to focus resources on developing a complete professional presentation to maximize effectiveness. However, this is an elegant solution that allows small and medium sized businesses to reach into the marketplace like never before. The cost of acquiring (qualified) contacts, developing the media event and following up can be managed easily and can be very cost effective.

The Evolution of E-Learning

E-Learning, particularly in the business world, has long been praised by many as the final solution to the challenge of continual learning. Administrators in government and industry see it as a cost effective way of sharing valuable information; learners see it as a means of flexible learning, and content/media developers see it as a new service opportunity. Each demanding taskmaster exacts a compromise from the process of creating E-Learning while few understand the complex nature of this information sharing process.
In reality, the learning process is much less predictable and more complex than most people realize. Effective learning utilizes body language, the cadence of rhythmic audio and visual communications, subject matter comprehension, intellectual engagement, technical facilitation and a comfortable learning environment. Just as some teachers are masters at keeping the focus and attention of the students through their teaching techniques in the classroom … E-learning must weave a web of challenge and intrigue that allows the learner to transcend the medium, manipulate the technology with ease …all while working at their own pace in an easy to comprehend format.
Each of the partners involved in developing today’s E-Learning tools and environments has an agenda. Each has their own task master in the private or public sector, where cost-efficiency, regulations and guidelines and counter intuitive processes that have nothing to do with content, often figure significantly in determining the type and quality of the E-Learning administered to learners. The means by which E-Learning is administered often sets up the learner’s expectations and ultimately their level of engagement and enrichment. By not introducing learner expectations, the learner often envisions sitting back and absorbing a one-way theatre style presentation that will contain all the information they need.
To understand how we have arrived at this current state of affairs in E-Learning we can examine the evolution of “corporate training”, as it was once called. There are many parallels between current E-Learning practices and corporate training. Corporate training in the early 1980’s advanced significantly with the advent of video as a learning medium. We can learn a lot about implementing Internet based E-Learning from the video training revolution of the 80's.
When video learning was introduced there was a lot of uncertainty around the technology as a conflict between technologies formats - VHS and Beta – similarly today we are undergoing similar conflicts between various software solutions and delivery technologies. Video learning was difficult and costly to implement because the infrastructure was either non-existent or problematic – Internet based learning continues to be troublesome and laborious to implement as access and implementation are in the domain of the technology guardians - the IT Department.
Strategic business planning did not truly understand the significance of developing effective learning and how it might affect the bottom line. Today we have a more mature business-planning model for learning but many organizations continue to implement Internet Learning on a project-by-project basis with little understanding of the long-term impact or legacy training strategies.
The content was also problematic in video learning as pedantic and boring content was delivered to learners with little understanding of their learning needs, their ethnic make up, ability to comprehend English effectively and their aptitude for use of technology.
Learning focus remained on the content, subject matter specialist and the medium; instead of the learner. Learning strategies also lacked the creation of a long-term plan that considered updating content, new technologies implementation, knowledge migration and the changing face of the learner. As in the classroom we can control the content, the environment and even the learning process but we have a much poorer understanding of the learner and how they learn in unique environments such as E-Learning.
Many E-Learning development companies today are well versed in the standard implementation of E-Learning. They understand the deployment technology (web programming and the Internet) but not the implications of using a broad spectrum of media tools that make up an effective Learning scenario such as video, audio, animation, role-playing, simulations, music, sound effects and perhaps most of all how each of these interacts. Each of these plays an important role in the learning process as research has indicated. Learners use a number of clues and “learning factors” and each person learns by placing somewhat different importance on each of these “media elements.”
Also an important part of the process is the need to encourage a heightened engagement in E-Learning by the learner and to set out critical achievement standards for the leaner from the outset. Many learners, especially those educated during the 70’s and 80’s were indoctrinated into the “theatre” style learning process where the learner would simply sit back and learn or be fed the information. Today’s learner needs to be engaged in the process, this starts with the selection of the subject matter expert, developing long term learning strategies, producing engaging & interactive presentations but ends with a change in the expectations we have of E-Learners and the need for each to understand the subject matter.
During the video learning evolution of the eighties the learner was not considered central to the process; we had little knowledge of how people learn and under what circumstance we learn more effectively. Internet learning or E-Learning as it is commonly called today has not considered the learner any more effectively than did the video learning of the eighties. Many companies and organizations have used the same existing training infrastructure or “legacy learning systems” and tried to implement E-Learning. Even though the technology is more complex, yet ubiquitous; even though learners have become more sophisticated and their ethnic make-up has become more diverse, even though knowledge is now considered a much more important factor in the success of an organization and even though the costs are increasing dramatically. Little thought has been given to developing a unique infrastructure and administration process for E-Learning that places the leaner at the head of the class!
Today there is little left of the video-learning systems of the eighties – the only legacy that remains is the administrative process. We have gone through a number of technologies, from Laser Disks, CD ROMs and DVDs to dial up Internet, high speed Internet and now High Definition. I am sure that the future of learning will continue to become more complex as the body of information we need to know continues to grow and the need to inform and refresh our information demands that we keep pace.
The delivery mechanisms will continue to change but the learning strategies, once put in place, will form an important base upon which organizations can leverage knowledge to deliver products and services more effectively.