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Christine Walker, Business Solutions Manager, Monash Learningfast
ABSTRACT: The practical reality of e learning within a truly global environment is the focus of this presentation. Highlighted are case studies of organisations within the corporate and educational arena which have applied e-learning as a new delivery method for learning. Lessons learned from these encompass an appraisal of the critical success factors, the necessity to develop a learning platform incorporating an appropriate mix of technology, content and delivery. The presenters address the practical reality of collaborative learning in the global environment: one that factors in cultural, social, linguistic or digital divides.
The paper will then zero in on the active and creative role libraries can play in interactive, collaborative and global e-learning.
This paper suggests two complementary perspectives for consideration the e-learning consultant's advice for successful business solutions, followed by the information professional's observations as to how active and creative role libraries can play in interactive, collaborative and global e-learning.
My key focus as a consultant to the industry is to bring practical reality to the business of implementing e-learning solutions, supported by global case studies, and some lessons learned.
Engagement and Reward drive the business need to ensure maximum take-up of the solution, and provide an obvious cause and effect relationship. Experience shows that unless users are offered tangible rewards to encourage them to take advantage of training resources from the outset, the project will fail to attract significant numbers, which are worthy of the investment. This needs to be handled carefully. A diagnostic approach to determining the implementation strategy is recommended, with consideration to a staged implementation in accordance with the business need both current and future. This can be achieved effectively by utilizing your e-learning resources as tools to enhance career development and performance management: Careful planning is necessary to allow for maximum exposure to the resources and tangible benefits from all stakeholders. Define learning groups in a controlled environment with designated administrators by location, region, product group etc, not just a large user base of user ids and passwords.
The program must be sufficiently stimulating, relevant, convenient and ultimately rewarding. To substantiate this, the system must provide easily measurable indicators of usage patterns in order to realise the return on investment.
System Administrators should regularly access the LMS tools to chart usage patterns, (how, what and why they learn), and export statistical reports for learning activities, including test results in order to keep in touch with users' changing needs.
It is most important to network to communicate the benefits of the E-learning program to relevant stakeholder in the organisation who may offer useful advice and help with the implementation once they realize the benefits. Liaise with Human Resources staff to identify users with similar IT skill levels and learning needs which could be mapped to position descriptions. E learning tools can also facilitate such Performance Management initiatives as an IT Skills Matrix which identifies core IT skills requirements for employees to work efficiently in the workplace environment. In this way, staff will be encouraged to use training resources which best suit their needs and learning styles. This can be either on their own initiative or by collaborating with their manager at performance review to plan their learning path, which will result in a rewarding experience as their skills are upgraded. In this way, each user - regardless of skill level or individual role- employees, senior managers, academics, students - can plan their own learning pathway before they embark on the training program.
Effective collaboration depends on manager and employee planning individual learning programs together for progressive career development and performance management. Career development incentives are valuable but should not promise what the organisation is not prepared to deliver. Managers must support dedicated training time to complete the program whether individually or in groups. Another way to assess the program's inherent value is to ask for feedback on the program at performance review.
Establish pilot groups with a good representative sample of users at all skill levels and provide guidelines to ensure feedback is highly relevant and assists the final decision. Try to adhere to the time frame and avoid undue delays which is frustrating for all. Focus evaluation on usability and relevance to the organisation - highly useful core content which appeals to the majority audience rather than a small few - and which could inflate budget. Pilot groups should re-convene to review the program after a suitable time has elapsed since implementation to check that requirements have been met in line with the original specification. E-learning is a volatile market with products and companies changing positions rapidly - try to keep a balanced view and remain focussed on your objectives.
The requirement for internal marketing will be familiar to all information professionals and imperative in this instance to ensure maximum up-take,
Make the new program fly by raising awareness of the benefits and rewards to be gained. Explore various ways to ensure stakeholders' buy-in to justify their investment, emphasising key benefits. Advertise with links from the Home Page, Library page, link learning objects to related systems- e.g. Web CT, Library Catalogue. Incorporate training for Information Communication and Technology within Library Information Literacy programs. Human Resources Induction programs can be incorporated into interactive training tutorials. Plan a staged roll-out for maximum awareness and formally launch the program.
Promote incentives for career development - emphasize the reward
new IT skills, increased confidence, raised productivity depends on collaborative approach to E-learning for career development. Mentoring programs whether online or face to face are valuable to assist users who lack confidence accessing online tutorials on their own, to work better in a group environment. Online learning supports this rationale. Group training can be deployed using an existing training room to start new users accessing the program from the same vantage point. Group sessions are also valuable when launching the program at Go Live - another way to make it fly.
The Program must continue to be relevant and sufficiently engaging to continue to be successful, without losing momentum. Critical factors for success are centered on:
Technology, Content and Flexible Delivery using Diagnostic Tools.
Productive, interactive programs rely on current technology - platforms must be easily sustainable, whether hosted or Intranet services, in line with current and emerging technology - and ultimately add value in the form of individual rewards to users of the program. To achieve optimal performance, the platform must be bandwidth friendly and operate within a secure environment. Experience indicates that end users become impatient with plugins, which are often rather unwieldy and take considerable time to download. - and this is before you start.
Corporate environments often favour hosted solutions as this minimise the risk of purchasing and installing expensive servers, and providing additional technical staff to administer them. Intranet implementation is generally taking second place to outsourced platforms for this reason. MLF Hosted services offer a high degree of ownership as administrative tools are deployed and supported in the same way as accessing local server via the Intranet.
Scalability is the essence of a flexible approach to scoping requirements. User bases can start with minimum entry-level usage to evaluate requirements, scaling up to reach total potential users, Enterprise wide. Flexibility is vital to support the changing needs of the organisation and emerging technology.
Consistency and uniformity are mandatory to support users with a familiar environment, regardless of the content type, not limited to typical desktop applications but can incorporate other modules such as Communications - e-mail policy, Copyright and Privacy legislation, and any other compliance imperatives. Virtual tours to introduce Library and research resources not only save library staff valuable training time but also serve as a useful marketing tool.
Online deployment of Occupational Health and Safety programs also ensures that employees are aware of mandatory, important information. These training modules can be integrated within an Employee Induction Program.
Online learning programs provide a cost-effective, timely solution to reaching users within large organisations quickly and effectively. The facility to print from online manuals attracts those users who prefer to make notes offline, to do so with printed chapter reviews to assist retention of skills learned from the tutorials. Online manuals also add value when referenced by the Library catalogue as live links to the e-learning products.
Delivery must be sufficiently flexible to accommodate varied learning styles in line with individual, corporate and community needs. Most interactive tutorials are self-paced, and include a demonstration model for initial familiarisation with the platform and to plan time to complete. MLF supports audio programs with Australian voice-overs, which is popular with users new to the concept - other programs provide online mentors who stimulate chat sessions to interact with the class. Archived sessions for review are also useful to support distance education and encourage participation by remote users. Instructor led sessions can be linked to online tutorials to reinforce and allow users to practice and review new skills as required to support a blended approach.
The lesson learned here is to take the time whilst scoping requirements initially to carefully consider the core as well as disparate needs of your target audience - and remain sufficiently flexible to manage change.
Return on investment is a key contributing factor. Potential e-learning investors must also be aware of the need to budget for project management and allow for some internal marketing resources to rollout the program properly. It's also advisable to consult with Human Resources staff, involving them in the design and implementation process - they may even be willing to commit to the e-learning budget if the training program is seen to be integral to Performance Management initiatives - another reason to market the program early. System Administrators should regularly access the LMS tools to chart usage patterns, export statistical reports for ALL learning activities, including dates accessed, time taken to complete courses, number of attempts. This useful information is valuable for performance management initiatives as HR managers, and supervisors can track individuals progress and review and acknowledge new skills learned at performance review.
E-learning programs focussed on Information Communication and Technology training should bridge gaps within our society:
Community languages programmes need to be supported to encourage those in the broader community who speak English as their second language.
Marie-Therese Van Dyk , Manager, Centre for Learning and Teaching Support, Monash University
A survey of case studies accompanied by dialogues with e-learning practitioners within organisations which have embraced e-learning signals that e-learning has progressed through several evolutionary phases since its inception. Very simply these stages reveal that e-learning has moved from extremely passive online programs to dynamic, interactive ones. The former have invariably involved a simple transition from linear web-based instruction guides or static FAQ's. They have also been based on what Shelley Robbins defined as web-based content management systems or 'libraries'.
More recently e-learning has come into its own and has established a real electronic learning existence, in the truest sense of the word through the emergence of inter-active, knowledge-based learning packages or platforms incorporating a mix of appropriate technology, content and human inter-action. The balance between these three components will create a more truly student centred, investigative learning base which will incorporate a seamless technological platform of content and active personal involvement. Content in this e-learning scenario will come from lecture or structured course notes, supplementary readings and a range of online tutorials. The personal dimension will be most fully realised through interactive chat, quizzes and personalised help and feedback. The latter creates the opportunity for such learning to transcend or absorb other boundaries or services. For example, within the active and inter-related creative roles, virtual help desk services offered by libraries, computer centres, faculties or a combination of these can be embedded into the e-learning platform.
The creative role then for libraries is designing, developing and embedding library related learning materials into e-learning courses and programs. The obvious launching platform to enable librarians to play a creation role is through using their considerable expertise and knowledge, using the CAUL Information Literacy Standards as a basis and a bargaining or negotiating platform to develop creative collaboration with academics.
This paper has somewhat artificially separated the creative and active roles to signal the significance and necessity of defining libraries' role as being creative, that is playing a key role in initial planning, design and development of e-learning programs instead of appending or linking library tutorials, quizzes or more extensive information literacy programs into learning enriched courses.
Libraries' active role in e-learning is often impaired by the barriers and boundaries existing in tertiary institutions, especially those between academic and general staff. As Judith Peacock has so coherently noted, there is a wide chasm of difference and perception between librarians and academics.
The latter fail to appreciate that librarians do and can acquire the necessary skills to 'actively contribute' to teaching programs rather than serving merely as a passive provider of information. And within this there is often a reluctance or merely a willingness to offer lip service to the reality that librarians can and should play an active role through collaboration and partnerships. Having said that there are barriers, there are examples of energetic and real collaboration at a number of levels. Examples which demonstrate clearly best practice principles include the University of Queensland and the University of South Australia. Irene Doskatsch in her April 2002 report recognises the sheer volume of collaborative endeavour defined by the Library as ' curricular integration, that is achieving information literacy fluency by weaving the skills and abilities that contribute to information literacy into curriculum content, structure and sequence'.....between academics and librarians including joint design, planning and presentation of tutorials, lectures and assignments.
The University of Queensland differently signals best-practice elements of e-learning through its website. The key elements apart from the obvious collaboration between ITS and the Library are the explicit focus on skills and learning, the dynamic use of language, consistency and reiteration with AskaCybrarian, AskIT, UQconnect, Teach yourself. There is nothing static about this site.
Monash University has undertaken a series of collaborative e-learning ventures. One of the most recent is its Global Online Learning Development (GOLD) program. This aims to reflect current best practice in student centred flexible learning through a variety of means including the 'student's active participation and increasing learner's choice of methods and timing of interactions with teachers and peers and place and time of learning'. WebCT is the platform used and GOLD programs rely heavily on active collaboration and involvement from the early planning phases, between faculties, the library, information technology services, educational designers and student support services including the University's Language and Learning Division. The latter is perceived vital given the global context. Interactivity within the GOLD program goes beyond the WebCT platform to a variety of helpdesks which offer one on one personalised guidance and assistance. Another key component of the program is that clear and succinct recognition is given to both the strategic dimension and more pragmatic business opportunities. Encompassing both of these is the necessity to develop and deliver e-learning in the 'same scholarly and professional manner... exhibited in other areas of academic work' and the necessity to do so within best practice.
As organisations have moved from the cutting edge of e-learning they have realised that e-learning also enables organisations to enter into powerful partnerships. Numerous benefits accrue beyond the obvious educational ones. Such advantages include allowing institutions such as libraries to reposition or re-align themselves within the educational marketplace. An early Australian libraries foray into across organisational partnership was through Open Learning. With this venture, a loose alliance of academic libraries working with educational designers from the University of Southern Queensland created a video and interactive CD-based series of information literacy tutorials designed to accommodate a students studying in a wide variety of tertiary institutions. This exercise proved a useful learning experience for the organisations involved and provided the basis for some to more coherently develop other information literacy programs. Lessons learned ranged from the necessity to adopt a diagnostic approach, to appreciate the essential drivers of engagement and reward and the vital ingredient of marketing in all its many dimensions.
Interesting overseas alliances include Harvard University which partners a commercial enterprise to develop a Smart Library used educators and students throughout the world. Closer to home Charles Sturt University uses Qontentware which brings within it, the benefits of an information alliance with a publishing company. Another example is the tri-partite partnership between Monash University, The University of Queensland and the University of Sydney. Known as Webworkforce, this project offers information technology educators either at secondary schools, TAFE or university, or in corporate training courses a variety of learning materials. The project manager, John Bell describes this learning site as one that not only publices lecture notes and summaries, but also provides 'exercises, activities, practice exams and other learning 'objects' that are the 'nitty-gritty of high-quality education and training.' The key strengths of this partnership are the shared use of powerful resources, the utilisation of significant and leading expertise across organisations and importantly the opportunity to create a culture of innovative sharing of educational material that can be adapted to different levels across different organisations and different countries. From a different perspective, Dublin Public Library has built a series of connections with a diversity of e-learning organisations ranging from the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, to Irish Times Training to iLearn.To, to the Open University, all of whom teach through the medium of e-learning.
Developing library based e-learning programs for a global environment - some lessons learned from those who have gone before...
Cary Stratton, marketing manager for the Irish Transware company which specializes in adapting e-learning courseware to local environments cogently observes that 'You can have excellent content and accurate translations but totally lose your audience with a few cultural gaffes'. An example used to demonstrate this is the use of a red flag as a symbol of danger in countries such as China. Eileen Clegg from the Institute for the Future reported in the Elearn Magazine that those embarking on a global educational marketplace should avoid the one-size fits all approach which fails to appreciate, acknowledge and accommodate the following differences. South Americans, southern Europeans favour interactive communication, holistic approaches. Northern Europeans on the other hand tend to be more reserved and more accepting of detached instructional media eg e-mail. This is perhaps symbolised through Sweden as the initiator and major user of telecottages and mobile phones. Asians (in general) tend to prefer instructor guided and group learning. In a global environment, alliances with a local partner work more effectively. Other successful strategies used extensively by universities operating in a variety of countries but less so by libraries is the practice of recruiting international specialists or local staff familiar with cultural nuances to offer a blend of classroom and online learning.
Perhaps the best overview of best practice gleaned from companies on the cutting edge of e-learning is described in the Brandon-hall.com benchmark analysis, E-Learning across the Enterprise. Although the study reviewed organisations in the business sector, majority of the lessons learned or Best Practice standards have direct relevance to either educational organisations or libraries.
Executive Sponsorship
This is perceived as critical and involves actual commitment rather than 'mere management support'.
Planning
As many commentators have noted one of the most difficult elements of e-learning is implementation. Implementation problems can be significantly overcome by strategic development and planning.
Learning and Teaching as central to the organisation
The core elements from a library's perspective can encompass re-positioning or redesign, developing an e-learning culture and extending outwards in full collaborative partnerships.
Marketing and Communication
Elements include a comprehensive marketing planning one identifying all stakeholders and current and future clients.
Develop Globally and think Locally
A useful concept is to think globally for strategy and platforms and customise or adapt for local conditions especially with content and assistance.
Broad and dynamic approach to content
'Leading organisations get their e-learning content from three sources equally: packaged courseware providers, customer developers or through their own internal development.
The Best of Both: Classroom and Online
Successful e-learning practitioners generally concur that ideally content should incorporate multiple modes: online, taped or canned programs, broadcast etc. The best of both also draws with it the necessity for the classroom equivalent of student interaction, discussion and debate.
Balance of 'push' and 'pull'
With student centered learning designed for and from the users' perspective, there should be a balance of content 'pushed' to students associated with a 'pull' or demand for content.
Test, adapt, experiment
Critical to best practice is experimentation, adaptation, rigorous testing with real users in real settings. This should be overlayed by the broad principle of a continuous improvement cycle. Related to best practice are practical strategies on retaining those students enrolling in online courses. These include making registration easy, ensuring that students feel connected immediately, giving students explicit, readily available information rather than requiring them to leap from link to link, developing the online equivalent to a learning community and inundating the program with technical, academic and other support.
An overview of the current e-learning scenario, our conversations with practitioners and our own experiences from a consultant's perspective, a librarian's prospective and an external user's dimension signals that clear lessons can be learned from those who have worked through the cutting edge of e-learning. One concluding lesson is the recognition that e-learning and e-learning strategies developed by those in the cutting edge of corporations do not necessarily translate into the purely educational sector. E-training, or e-content management or educommerce are not synonymous with e-learning and e-teaching.
'Benchmark Study of Best Practices' (eLearning)
Available: http://www.forbes.com/specialsections/elearning/e-05.htm
'Culture Shock', (eLearn Magazine: Education and Technology in Perspective), Available:
http://www.elearningmagazine...number_nb=2/
Doskatsch, I. 2002, 'The University of South Australia Library's contribution to the development of information literate students,' January-December 2001.'
Peacock, J. 2001, 'Teaching skills for teaching librarians: Postcards from the edge of the educational paradigm', Australian Academic and Research Libraries, vol. 32, no. 1, pp.26-42.
Raik-Allen, G. 2002, 'Online to the future of learning', Monash Magazine, Spring/Summer 2002, pp. 34-35.
Authors - contact details:
Marie-Therese Van Dyk mailto:m.t.vandyk@celts.monash.edu.au
Christine Walker christine.walker@its.monash.edu.au