The controversial changing face of training
For over 15 years I have been delivering in class events for eLearning designers, developers, managers and Instructional Designers. I spent years teaching groups how to develop eLearning that works. That has all changed and today we offer ‘live’ tutorials online rather than eLearning courses. Need to know why I decided live was better than eLearning? E-mail me at neil.l@thelearningcoach.co.uk or comment here and I will happily get into that discussion.
For many years we had full classrooms every month, we ran courses in our office suite and in fabulous places like Williams F1.
The recent financial strain put on business by the world’s financial mess saw a downturn last year of budget available to attend such learning events as many companies cut back training in huge swathes. Try as a training person to tell companies that this is short sighted as the skill level will not be there when business returns has been an uphill struggle as many of you know full well. Todays offering can be found at http://www.thelearningcoach.co.uk/tutorials.html
Along came rapid development tools, with them the latest in the long line of buzzwords and gizmos, with the promise of quickly developed eLearning to solve all your problems.
What this has generated is a new generation of eLearning developers who have coined the title of Instructional Designer with very little Instructional Design knowledge. If you think that an Instructional Designer is a person who creates eLearning by converting ppt slides to online delivery with a few few clicks in a software program, then unfortunately, through no fault of your own, you may fall into this category.
For me an Instructional Designer is exactly as it is defined in Wikipedia.
“Instructional Design, also called Instructional Systems Design (ISD) is the practice of creating “instructional experiences which make the acquisition of knowledge and skill more efficient, effective, and appealing.” The process consists broadly of determining the current state and needs of the learner, defining the end goal of instruction, and creating some “intervention” to assist in the transition. Ideally the process is informed by pedagogically (process of teaching) and andragogically (adult learning) tested theories of learning and may take place in student-only, teacher-led or community-based settings.”
If you want to create learning that engages, teaches, informs, excites, empowers and changes behaviours, you need to know more about instructional design, assessment design, screen design and layout, building lesson plans, understanding the psychology of what the learner wants, needs and will do.
As 2013 begins to see a vast increase in business activity, there is no time like now for those calling themselves Instructional Designers to gain the skills they really require to make these changes happen.
The Learning Coach and 
Ian Sharp are discussing. 
Neil Lasher 
Ian Sharp 21:05 on January 12, 2013 Permalink |
Neil.. I certainly agree that creating a great elearning experience requires a range of different skills.
I’ve some experience in creating and delivering classroom training and well as some eLearning courses.
More importantly, I’ve attended many live training courses and also numerous online courses in several different formats. My own conclusion is that I much prefer the online learning experience and certainly thought it delivered great value and that I also gained a deeper understanding of the subject area too. The fact is that with elearning, I can learn at my own pace and also ‘rewind’ and go through chosen sections again and again if necessary. It provided me with a deeper learning experience. This is my own experience of training over the last few years.
I’m very interested to know about your thoughts on why you decided that live training is better?
The Learning Coach 08:19 on January 14, 2013 Permalink |
Ian, I suppose I have to be clear that ‘live’ is better in this type of training but there are very many places where ‘e’ works.
However it is not where ‘e’ does not work but how badly it has been designed and rolled out. Let me explain.
I made the decision that to train people how to create better elearning courses, I could not get the same personal intervention in ‘e’. In cases where each individual has a different expectation of the course or requires an individual output to their own concept and view, there is no way to deliver in a generic content method. The people who have attended my training over the last (x) years on instructional design, all come to the event with preconceived concepts, often these require to be changed for them to move forwards. Everyone I meet has a different view of what eLearning should and could look like. So in this case I made the decision to deliver this ‘live’. This way I can facilitate. If I was training to push a button on a machine after making 5 checks, I would use ‘e’.
I spent many days considering how I could move this instructional design training to ‘e’ and every time returned tot he view that I could never deliver the same experience. To find the halfway house, I now deliver these online in a virtual classroom ( http://thelearningcoach.co.uk/tutorials.html ) and deliver live. You can go back and review by watching the recordings and take them from your location. So the cost is reduced in the same way. But the end user gets the personal experience, the networking with others with similar but different issues.
As for other learning online and why ‘live’ is sometimes better…
Our designs to date have been too information based. We have introduced many ideas like scenarios and serious games but we need a rethink, like the ‘environment model’ I posted earlier to really engage the user into the system. It should not be a course or set of courses or an event or set of events, but if we want to change behaviour we need to create something ongoing, something we flit in and out of and get drawn back to, something we maybe are only using for 5 minutes at each visit but become a part of.
For example take this blog. You read it, you commented (thank you), I have left a reply and you will get a mail to pull you back to read the reply and hopefully enter into a conversation again.
If this was a learning event you would get something new, comment back or do something and then get more later….. This we do in many things all day long in our work. We send an email, we got a reply at a later date, we respond and so on and so forth until the conversation is finished. eLearning needs to be that conversation.
Ian Sharp 09:51 on February 3, 2013 Permalink |
Thanks Neil, that makes a whole lot of sense. I guess that pure elearning often means a ‘one size fits all’ approach which certainly has its place and benefits, but will fall short for some topics when conversation is what is needed.
The Learning Coach 10:05 on February 3, 2013 Permalink |
Ian, you hit the mail firmly on the head when you say conversation.
But conversation does not have to be speech on the way we know it.
Send an SMS with the word Start to 0786 0022919
Enjoy the conversation.
Check out my new website too. Neillasher.com
The Learning Coach 10:07 on February 3, 2013 Permalink |
Excuse my lousy typos today. iPhone has a mind of its own!