Things that make me crazy: The Mythical e-Learning Hour.

I am working with a writer whose article addresses a typical project management problem: estimating development time for e-Learning applications. He's doing a good job with the article, and I'm looking forward to publishing it in The Journal.

The issue that sparked his article is one that has bothered me for about twenty years now, ever since I began developing e-Learning. That is the mythical e-Learning Hour. There is no such thing, but I keep seeing writers, project managers, and e-Learning entrepreneurs wasting time with it.

This is a rant, ok?

Why do otherwise rational professionals keep getting sucked into this? Learning is not measured in time, other than in grade school (and it's a bad idea then). Why do executives and managers who put development out for bid persist in focusing on what amounts to a measure of activity, not of results? Why do developers keep falling for it? Here are some reasons that occur to me. Do they seem as misguided to you as they do to me?

• Because we are used to thinking of "learning" as "training," as "something you do in a classroom for x hours or days in order to get finished."
• Because business doesn't know how to measure results at the micro (individual or small team) level.
• Because we as developers and designers persist in confusing "easy" with "simple."
• Because we don't really understand results or value, no matter how much lip service we give to them, if we don't take the time to understand the problem(s) we are trying to solve.

Our internal meter is set to measure hours of instruction. Unfortunately, an hour of instruction does not lead to a consistent quantum of learning. For that matter, a consistent quantum of learning (if we could come up with a metric for it) does not, cannot, lead to a consistent quantum of performance, and a consistent quantum of performance (if we could come up with a metric for that) does not and cannot lead to a consistent quantum of results. This is a complex world. The nice measures for "work" from physics or economics most of the time do not apply to what happens in the workplace or in business.

Start with defining the outcome you want and the value of the problem that is to be solved. Figure out the steps involved to get to the outcome and to solve the problem (not all of which necessarily involve instruction and practice), the time and cost to achieve each of the steps, and base your estimate on that, not on the fictitious "hour of e-Learning." If you are going to create a series of Flash modules to simulate performance, base your estimate on what it will take to create the series, not on how long you wish it will take the learner to interact with the modules in order to arrive at the outcome.

I know that isn't as coherent as it needs to be, but it's a start.

12:51:12 PM    

Industry Week notices e-Learning.

This is a pretty shallow profile, but it might give practitioners some idea of where we are in the minds of the people who read Industry Week (middle managers and C-Levels). If the article is correct, then that consciousness is still focused on one-way, lecture-oriented, make-sure-everybody-gets-the-same-message, mass instruction. Very Industrial Revolution thinking (which, given the publication, fits).

But maybe this is what sells right now to your clients. Yes, it's dangerous to get too far ahead of your market. The problem is that if your market thinks the three best areas for e-Learning are the three identified in the article, then maybe you need to do some consciousness-raising. These three areas are (a) not value-adds, (b) easily sent to offshore groups that will underbid you every time, and (c) deadly boring to do. -- BB

Industry Week profiles e-Learning. Industry Week magazine has a half decent overview of e-Learning with brief case studies from Cisco, IBM, Intel, Rockwell Collins, Autodesk, and National Assn of Manufacturers.

Industry Week: Click and Learn

Industry analysts cited include: IDC, WR Hambrecht, LogicBay, Centra, and Wayne Hodgins.

"What types of corporate training seem best suited for e-learning? Three areas seem to be emerging: new-hire training, new-product information, and situations where knowledge needs to be transferred to a large group of people or to a group of people who are geographically dispersed. " [e-Learning Eclectic]

11:40:00 AM    

Where does "blog" fit in your business plan?

Al Nucifora gives a great summary of what weblogs are and how to use them in your business marketing.

[Tampa Business Journal]

11:01:11 AM    

Lecture format ironies.

This isn't really about lecture. Read far enough to find ""learning is a social process"- not a procedural one, not a technical one. The more we focus on the technology, ... the more we miss the mark." -- BB

This Week RSS Winterfest - Same Old, Same Old Format or Not?.

I am curious to "be" at the January 21-22 online conference, RSS Winterfest. Most conferences, in person or online, I generally approach with low expectations-- mainly out of frustration over the years that the only format for professional communication that seems to be used is the 50 minute lecture to a passive audience.

I have been at educational conferences where presenters use this format to talk about the need to change the mode of interaction in education, that lecture format must go- the old saw about "Sage on the stage becoming guide on the side...." Their next step is to dim the lights, cue up the powerpoints (and the audience head bob starts). It has happened a million times.

Online conferences seem to push the old format the farthest away from its stale equilibrium position and ones where the tools are left open, they continue to have a life of their own long after the event passes.

But I digress from this week's event, my words triggered by the email reminder for the RSS Winterfest would be in "45 minute sessions" (lecture?), followed by intermissions of open wiki-posting and weblog activity. Therefore, the most interesting allegory of those dull conferences, the hallway informal conversation, is shoved into the interstices of the online lectures. Better type fast.

By setting low expectations, I leave room to be pleasantly surprised. The list of RSS presenters is full of weblog/RSS technorati indeed, but at this glance terribly weighted towards talking about the technology, and less about the process of using these tools, the outcomes, the stories of what people do with them.

As well stated by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid in the Social Life of Information, "learning is a social process"- not a procedural one, not a technical one. The more we focus on the technology, the Atoms, XMLs, meta-data, the more we miss the mark. It is not to say the technology is not important, not exciting (as my profession is creating and using it), but often the acronym soup takes center stage when really it should be in the wings. Weblogs are much more a social technological phenomena than a technical one. Wikis are even a simpler technology.

But I am curious to see the interstitial social interactions at this online RSS Winterfest- and the first time I have been at an online event where wikis are used in real time. Show up and cause a ruckus.

10:49:28 AM    

Choose Your Words Carefully.

Spam Filters Grab Good With Bad. The growing use of antispam filters that weed out messages containing words commonly used by junk e-mailers is forcing legitimate e-mail senders to choose their language carefully. By Michelle Delio. [Wired News]

10:38:56 AM