e-Learning News Weblog

E-Learning For Short Attention Spans

Penny Lunt Crosman — Transform Magazine

"E-learning saves Dow $34 million a year by eliminating travel expenses, reducing course materials costs and automating recordkeeping. When employees complete a course, their records are automatically transferred to their employee training files in PeopleSoft. Responsive training is another big benefit. For example, when the company encountered inappropriate employee e-mails, Learn@dow was used to train more than 20,000 employees within 30 days on the company's e-mail policy." more...

via www.weiterbildungsblog.de

posted by Laragh at 1:17 PM

The Future of e-Learning Models

The executive summary of Mark Oehlert's November 2003 report, The Future of e-Learning Models and the Language We Use to Describe Them, shines a light on darkness more than it charts a course for e-learning.

The goal of this report was not to provide a clean ending to the story of this research but rather should be viewed as a progress report. There is still a world to be covered. Recently the BBC has recently released plans to digitize and make public its entire archive of content. Programs like ‘bit torrent’ are offering new ways to distribute content while minimizing the impact on bandwidth. Movements like machinima are re-writing the precepts of content production. The surface has also just been scratched on such technologies as RSS, wiki, augmented reality, IM, and the power of an iPOD as a learning device.

More than ever, what you say about the future of e-learning depends on how you define it. Seemingly for the traditional attempts to replicate classrooms and courses online, the future is fairly bleak. If however, you define e-learning as an environment, rich in context, interaction and opportunities for collaboration - then the evidence seems to point to a bumpy road but with a worthy destination. more...

Emphasising the fluid nature of e-learning, the trend to M-learning, and cultural ignorance bedevilling organizational, vendor and user experiences, the report offers a clear, cogent synopsis of the "...danger and opportunity represented in the future of e-learning."

posted by Laragh at 11:49 AM

e-Learning Notes

• MIT's OpenCourseWare, a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world, now offers 500 courses comprising educational materials from 33 academic disciplines and all five of MIT's schools.
  
• C|Net reports: "...for all the rhetoric behind the high-tech revolution, relatively little evidence backs the idea that computers improve learning in readily measurable ways, such as producing higher grades."
  
• Register to view educational sessions and keynotes from the 2003 Online Learning Conference and Expo in Los Angeles.

posted by Laragh at 1:23 PM

What's the value in e-learning?

Risen Jayaseelan | The Edge Daily

On paper, e-learning or web-based tertiary education offers myriad advantages. It provides quality education at low prices and is able to reach large numbers of people. It is particularly suited to the working individual who is able to log on for 'lectures' or chat with his lecturers or course mates without having to disrupt his career.

In reality, however, tertiary education via e-learning is perceived as second rate. Reasons: The quality of e-learning graduates has yet to be proved; institutions providing e-learning aren't as established as traditional universities; and there is a school of thought that reckons that in education, technology tools cannot and should not replace the face-to-face experience gained from a classroom environment.

more...
posted by Laragh at 10:44 AM

Canadians Ready for E-Learning

Robyn Greenspan | CyberAtlas

"Canadians are furthering their educational efforts through online courses, an Ipsos-Reid report reveals. Based on 2,000 interviews via telephone and Internet, the survey indicated that 59 percent of the Canadian respondents were likely to take an online course in the future. "The level of interest in online education is significant when compared to more traditional online activities such as online banking, downloading music, e-commerce, and online travel," says Marcie Sayiner, senior research manager at Ipsos-Reid.

"The survey revealed that 26 percent have already searched the Internet for online courses, and have either taken an online course (8 percent), or have taken an in-person course that includes a significant online component (7 percent). Furthermore, 90 percent of the group that have already taken courses online said that they would recommend it to others mainly because it saved them a significant amount of time, it improved their employability, and it provided them with a means to take courses they likely wouldn't have taken otherwise."

Pointing out that fully a quarter of the Internet population has searched the Web for information on e-learning courses, Robyn Greenspan highlights the growth of likely learners in contrast to other spheres of Internet and Web activity. Significantly, a virtual doubling of the the number of broadband subscribers coincides with the surge of interest in e-learning. more...
posted by Laragh at 12:57 PM

Are You Blogging Yet?

"What's more, and this is key, there's built-in motivation for people to participate in blogging: They get credit for their ideas. A blog is essentially a repository of a person's intellectual capital--a record of their thoughts, observations, contributions. People may switch employers, but they'll take with them electronic journals of their best ideas. Blogging is a way to protect the most important brand of all: yourself."

Are You Blogging Yet? | Informationweek

But when the same tools are put to productive use, weblogs can trigger a rich chain reaction of ideas and possibilities, which is why they hold such great potential for the workplace. Give individual employees within a company their own weblogs, encourage them to document their best ideas and personal experiences, link them, add search capabilities, and it's easy to imagine that at least some innovation will arise from the ordinary. "Blogging is a train-of-thought technology," says Scott Dinsdale, executive VP of digital strategy at the Motion Picture Association and a blog reader. "In corporate environments that are creatively oriented, there's probably some use for it." A potential application, he says, would be for newly hired employees to come quickly up to speed by reading the blogs of colleagues.

We can see how weblogging has expanded the influence of the individual and envision the transformational effect it can have on the employees of a company and the company itself. Put those three dynamics together--the empowered consumer, the connected professional, and the collaborative business--and it's easy to see why there's so much buzz about weblogging. What professional wouldn't benefit from being part of a loose-knit virtual community that helps people share ideas and experiences? Already, the software-development community provides a model. more...

posted by Laragh at 12:32 PM

Learning Circuits Blog a Must Read

Besides the wonderfully simple but comprehensive glossary for those new to e-learning, Learning Circuits' collaborative blog is a necessary daily stop for all involved in the e-learning industry. It has been up and running since the end of April. Featuring posts by Jay Cross, Margaret Driscoll, Clark Aldrich, Tom Barron, Ellen Wagner, Kevin Wheeler, Peter Isackson, and Clark Quinn, Learning Circuits points to a recent interview with Evan Williams of Blogger [scroll to the foot of the page to view an exerpt from the interview or select the link provided here and run a search on "evan williams"].

Two small gripes. In fact, mere quibbles. Learning Circuits' template is set for those with a screen resolution of 1024x768 and does not include permalinks, which would make it easier for visitors to refer others to specific posts. A comment feature would be an added bonus. Otherwise, a great blog proving the value of online synergy.
posted by Laragh at 9:44 AM

A Blended E-Learning Approach Ensures Success

Madelise Grobler, Director, CS Holdings

While Web-based e-learning has proven largely successful, effective knowledge transfer can only be achieved if e-learning is blended with instructor-led training. This is the view of CS Holdings director Madelise Grobler, who believes that the key to mixing and matching these two approaches to training is to identify those that are best handled by e-learning technology and those that can be maximised using more traditional methods.

"E-learning has its roots in computer-based training (CBT), which appeared in the early 1980s and used CD-ROMs to teach mostly technical skills to technically-minded people," Grobler explains.

"CBT showed limited success, however, primarily because it didn't address the psychology of learning. Firstly, all the work was left in the hands of the learner and secondly, people learn best when placed in a stimulating environment where they are encouraged to learn and ask questions. Similarly, e-learning on its own is questionable and should be combined with instructor-led training, workshops, and even on-the-job training to ensure that the required business outcomes are delivered."

Today, e-learning has evolved into a tool that is widely used in both the corporate and academic worlds. According to Online Learning Magazine, the percentage of companies using e-learning to train employees jumped from 16% in 2000 to 24% in 2001. Traditional instruction still leads as it is used in 57% of organisations in 2001, down from 65% last year.

Additionally, research done by IDC shows that as late as 1997, US companies were spending virtually nothing on online training. By 2004, however, IDC predicts that corporate spending on e-learning will increase dramatically to $14.5 billion.

"E-learning is convenient in that learning can be done any time, anywhere and at the learner's own pace," says Grobler. "Consequently, course completion rates are generally higher."

more...


posted by Laragh at 1:57 PM

e-Learning - Does It Face A Bleak Future?

"Is e-learning as we know it a failure? According to Forrester Research (www.forrester.com), 70 percent of those who start an e-learning course never complete it."

Kaliym Islam | Is E-learning Floundering?

"From customer to analyst to investor, the consensus is that E-learning still has a few things of its own to learn."

Elisabeth Goodridge | E-Learning Struggles To Make The Grade

posted by Laragh at 1:52 PM