Ideas on e-Learning from January Meeting

Here are some of the ideas that emerged from our Café Conversation on e-Learning at Panera Bread last Thursday. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions about these notes, please click the comment link below and share your thoughts on this blog.

Definitions:

• e-Learning has two principal forms: synchronous which uses electronic media to help learners learn at the same time and asynchronous which uses electronic media to enable learners to learn independently at their own pace.
  
  
• Blended learning is a new term for courses that are delivered using more than one delivery method. While not completely original, this term is helpful in that it encourages course designers to think about how they can "deconstruct" a course into smaller components, say knowledge transfer and role playing, and then use the best delivery method for each one.
  

Key success factors for effective e-Learning include:

• Interactivity
• A focus on the essential information
• Avoidance of distracting elements (both content and graphics - no fluff)
• Encourage users to proceed at their own pace
• e-Learning offers consistency in both content and delivery that classroom courses often lack.

During our discussion we identified the types of learning activities that would be good for e-Learning delivery and those that would not work as well. Here's what we came up with.

Good for e-Learning:

• Knowledge transfer
• Role playing (for virtual types of work activity)

Bad for e-Learning:

• Settings where not everyone has access to a PC (e.g. factory floors)
• Need for practice with real people or real equipment (although some advanced e-Learning courses with sophisticated multimedia can simulate both human and machine interactions)

One other important consideration is that the new generation of employees coming into the workplace today are very familiar with PCs and so they will expect that much of their training can be delivered by computer and the Internet.

Finally, we discussed the disappointing fact that most e-Learning initiatives in companies today seem to be driven by a desire to lower costs, reduce training time, or both. While these goals are fine as far as they go, it would be nice to hear some top manager say, "I really want my people to learn something!"

Your thoughts? (Please click the "Comments" link below to share your thoughts with others in our chapter. Thanks!)

Submitted by: D. Verne Morland, Managing Partner, ROI Learning Services