E Learning – If It Doesn’t Work, Just Press Continue …

E-Learning by definition of it’s flexibility and ease of access, is seen as a major enabler for lifelong learning in the 21st century especially among SMEs, which account for around 99% of all businesses and employ over 70 million in Europe alone. E-Learning is surely not unknown to almost everyone, although recent studies carried out in Europe have shown that it has had little or no impact on SMEs in Europe due to several reasons, including the lack of planning of a training in culture in the majority of cases, attitudes of senior management to E-Learning and technical problems such as bandwidth limitations in some areas. On one hand we have ideas of technology being embraced as THE way forward for training and learning and on the other an almost complete disregard of individual learning goals, aims and objectives. Broadly put, E-Learning is a nice buzz word that sounds modern, technological and convenient but the outcomes are often debatable. Senior trainers must remember the nervous flutter in the stomach at the advent of the CDROM – The trainer is dead, long live the trainer. Broadcast statements were uttered as to how the CDROM based learning would replace trainers. A similar opinion was (is still, in some cases) spouted about E-Learning – how easy it is to learn on-the-go, cutting down on absenteeism and traveling expenses as people would no longer have to leave home or the office to attend training and learning events. What has often been underestimated is the need for self-direction in learni ng that E-Learning can surely encourage – if it is already a feature of the learner’s make-up. E-Learning does n ot create self-direction, it often stifles it in place of reliance on the content. Yes, it can in some cases capitalise on down-time and it can be carried out in the time that the learner travels to the seminar.

However, we can’t guarantee that this will be the case and it is often that a learner partakes of E-Learning when they have nothing better to do but not necessarily at their peak-learning period. How can we explain the dramatic drop-out rates from E-Learning courses? The courses that are established with the best will in the world but gradually peeter out in time? Learning must be perceived to be useful in order for any learning to occur, it cannot be used as a stop-gap to eat up lost time. It must be attractive in order to attract learners and must also provide opportunities for ‘success’ and not failure or Game Over! The materials must be pertinent, realistic, authentic and answer a real need whilst remaining thought provoking and engaging in order to foster active learning. Modules must be set-up to guide learners and help them to track their progress and to help them to objectively self-evaluate their progress and to continuously improve learning experiences and outcomes. E-Learning, in all but some isolated cases, cannot be seen as a stand-alone entity. Effective E-Learning must be well situated within a structure and more importantly, within a blend whilst enabling knowledge sharing, collaborative learning and teaming.

E-Learning cannot be deployed as a famous fast-food hamburger – Cheap, Quick, Convenient as it is not always appropriate —- but we will also see the bad effects of the “snacking-learning” culture in years to come. E-Learning need not be all-singing, all-dancing, bells and whistles if it doesn’t address real learning needs – but often this is the case. Perhaps this accounts for the volume of ‘e-drop-outs’ in companies today and the vast ammonts of money wasted on E-Learning packages that ammount to little more than a standard bookcase of content online. What do you think? Do you have experiences of E-Learning that you would like to share? © Active Learning 2009.  All rights reserved. Reproduction by permission only.

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