In the early 90s the World Wide Web was born, and like
many others I immediately saw its potential for learning.
However, not everyone fully grasped what it had to offer. For
instance, my Head of Department in the university where I was
working at the time, actually called the Web “a load of old
hype”. I learnt very quickly, that as with all innovation, it
can take time for some people to fully appreciate it.
But this didn’t deter me from “spreading the word”, and over the
next few years I spent a lot of time helping other universities
and businesses understand the potential of the Web, and in 1997
I decided to set up my own consultancy practice to work
full-time as an online learning consultant.
My early contracts involved helping organisations dip their toes
into these new waters. I spent the first year helping one
multi-national organisation set up and operate a global Online Learning
Centre, underpinned by a very early learning management system.
During that year I encountered many problems and issues with
creating, delivering and managing online learning, but I also
identified solutions as how to address many of them. I really find it
sad to hear, 10 years on, that people are still having to find
out the hard way by working through the very same problems; we
all need to share our experiences more widely.
In late 1999, the term “e-learning”
was coined, and I, alongside my colleagues, promoted its benefits - in
particular the anytime, anywhere access to learning it enabled, as well
as the opportunity to learn at your own pace.
Corporate e-learning became big
business. We saw the production of off-the-shelf libraries of generic
courses, businesses offering bespoke development of interactive,
multimedia online courses, and the growth of vendors selling corporate
learning management systems.
Although companies took some time to
"warm" to e-learning, unfortunately quite a few who did, simply saw
it as an opportunity to cut costs and deliver their training entirely
online to the desktop. So it wasn’t long before disillusionment set in;
e-learning wasn’t delivering on its promises and in particular large
scale investments in learning management systems just weren't paying
off.
There were a number of good reasons
for this. Employees often considered e-learning inferior to traditional
classroom-based learning. They weren't that enthusiastic about being
compelled to sit at their computers and plough their way through hours
of online course materials - however well designed or developed. They
wanted a teacher to add value to the whole process and they wanted to
learn alongside other students.
To address this need for socialising
within learning, we saw the emergence of two new trends:
- Face-to-face elements were now
reintroduced and combined with online elements to create blended
learning solutions.
- And for situations where
face-to-face was not possible, i.e. where employees were remotely
distributed, systems began to be used to bring people together
online at the same time, for live or synchronous learning.
But now with the emergence of Web 2.0
technologies we are seeing a completely new phase of e-learning, often
referred to as E-Learning 2.0, which supports a more social and
collaborative approach to learning, and hence is also known as Social
Learning.
Whereas early e-learning was all about
delivering content, primarily in the form of online courses, produced by
experts and managed via learning management systems, Social Learning is
about creating and sharing information and knowledge with other people
using (often free) social media tools that support a collaborative
approach to learning.
Social Learning is fast becoming recognised
as a valuable way of supporting formal learning and enabling
informal learning within an organisation (something that has been
overlooked for far too long). The use of online communities and
networks, where employees are encouraged to co-create content,
collaborate, share knowledge and fully participate in their own
learning, is helping to create far more enduring learning experiences.
As the recession bites, organisations will inevitably be thinking about
cutting costs, but it will be important to look back and learn from the
lessons of the past; that is, not to revert to a content-centric view of
e-learning, but to move forward and embrace the new web tools to create a
more collaborative, flexible, social learning environment and, at the
same time, do more with less.
To demonstrate my
commitment to social learning I changed my own job title from E-Learning
Consultant to Social Media & Learning Consultant to reflect this new
focus of my work. If you'd like some help with your social learning initiatives,
contact me at
jane.hart@c4lpt.co.uk
