The e-learning journey – are we there yet? - John Lawton’s e-learning blog

The e-learning journey - are we there yet?

E-learning has come a long way, but where is it going and when will we get there?

A good instructor will always facilitate active discussion and review within his or her classroom, ensuring that all participants are fully engaged and committed to the learning process and passionate about the subject.

In the early days of e-learning development (now often referred to as e-learning 1.0) the instructional design community were keen not to lose this student/instructor interaction, but the technologies just weren't around to help facilitate it. So we knuckled down and created courses that were as engaging as possible, but they were always pretty one-way in their communication. I remember within one client organisation, trying to implement a facility whereby students could e-mail the subject matter expert (SME) with queries, but was thwarted by a combination of an SME group who didn't really want to engage with the students and a company policy that mandated that e-mail could only be used by certain staff and even then could only be used for certain prescribed message types - how things have changed!

Then came the "Dot COM bubble" and for around 4 years the Net exploded with technologies and techniques that exploited the availability of seemingly limitless communication between communities of users. It was an exciting time for online instructional designers. All of a sudden we could offer a more embracing learner experience incorporating synchronous and asynchronous discussion forums, web-whiteboards, shared spaces, resource libraries and a plethora of other technologies that would support the learner in acquiring new knowledge beyond the simple self-study material that we were able to put in front of them. This was the dawning of an age of collaboration where learners started to drive the learner experience. We can see this as e-learning 1.5.

During this phase it was assumed that if the tools were in place and incorporated into the learning solution that the SMEs and learners would share knowledge, collaborate and create utopian learning organisations. Fabulously we actually witnessed this take place within many of our client organisations. Colleagues started to share lessons learnt in the field and the organisations grew as a result. The catalyst for this change was three-fold - we needed champions passionate about the sharing of knowledge, we needed simple tools to allow lessons to be shared and we needed management to permit staff the time to collaborate.

Simply put, (subject area passion + collaborative tools) x available time = fulfilling learning and corporate growth

Learning was becoming democratised as individuals and corporate communities generated their own learning content using readily available and accessible tools.

In more recent years e-learning has been transformed into a much less formal and more democratised and pervasive beasty - but in a good way! The advent of blogging, wiki's, social-networking, streaming and mobile technologies has meant that learning and knowledge sharing opportunities have broadened tremendously.

The range of tools and techniques that we can now bring into play when designing learning solutions has dramatically improved learner acceptance, lesson retention and knowledge demand. Learners find it easy to share lessons and experiences and subject matter experts now have tools at their disposal to quickly disseminate key knowledge.

This is the age of e-learning 2.0. An age when it might be considered that instructional designers have had their day, but from my experience, we are in more demand than ever before. Businesses are recognising the value of knowledge and are empowering the organisation to share. Our job is to stimulate the learner, focus their study and facilitate knowledge sharing - just as it has always been. It's just that the arsenal of technology has matured and the passion to embrace knowledge has grown.

So what's next for e-learning? It's a question that's been posed quite often - I just Googled "the future of e-learning" and was given over 52 million pages to read!

My own view is that we'll see an emergence in the following styles that will suit the expectations of a generation brought up on the X-box, MTV and the Net:

M-learning - we are already starting to see mobile learning solutions and services delivering content to handheld devices such as smart phones and I can only see this trend growing.
Active reference - reference material is traditionally static. It sits there waiting to be read, if you can find it and understand it - great, if not, you are none the wiser. Active reference offers the reader the opportunity to delve a little deeper and expand upon key subject areas, they can even add and share their own thoughts with other users. Think of a cross between The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Wikipedia!
Immersive simulations - learning by doing is a great way to learn, but can often be an inefficient, damaging or dangerous to the participants. Creating a simulation, whether it's to teach you how to fly a plane or handle an interview can be a great teaching tool, allowing participants to practice and try different approaches without fear of failure.
Virtual classrooms - and by that I don't mean web casts and shared whiteboards I mean classrooms in a virtual world. Second Life is already starting to be used for conferences and exhibitions, training sessions and tutorials. It makes sense that it, or something like it, becomes a place where corporations can hold conferences, meetings and training sessions.
Social learning - we already do this at work and at home, as a child we sat and watched big bruv make a go-kart, then we copied him and made our own, we watched mum do her make-up and then we had a go, and now, we chat to mates in the pub and share all the latest news and views. E-learning seldom embraces this form of social learning, preferring instead to deliver precise prescribed content. Using social networking and collaborative tools such as Twitter, Ning, DimDim, LinkedIn and Skype we are already starting to see social learning take place. I believe that in the near future more and more e-learning will embrace this notion of shared connections with like-minded people all connecting and communicating ideas, resources and experiences.

It's always fun to future-gaze, and wonder what might be coming next, I guess the trick is to go and make it happen. One thing is for sure though, even when the next generation of e-learning hits our desktops, the journey won't be over.

Comments

0 comments · add a comment · this blog is moderated

Harlequin: putting the e into e-learning

John Lawton’s e-learning blog