Some voices have been pointing out that some part of the products used in the corporate e-learning sector seems to be conceived with its back to users, with insufficient attention to their needs and expectations; That is why I wanted to dedicate my recent presentation at the Online Educa in Madrid (2005) to the figure of this user-type, that of the new knowledge worker: to his concerns related to lifelong learning. This worker in the emerging economy becomes a human information processor: he uses information as raw material in his daily performance, and from it he knows how to extract the necessary knowledge.
The new worker-type of knowledge companies, with solid curricular training and visible professional spirit, is a great consumer of information, and knows how to convert it into applicable knowledge. Printed or electronic, a lot of information reaches him, but he ingests and digests it, making good use of his informational competence.
He is more attentive to the fund than to the form, to the content than to the continent, to the source than to the channel. He is used to continual learning, and is glad to find relevant information that helps him. Learn from orchestrated training, but also and above all from the information you access.
What does the k-worker expect from e-learning products and services? Expect valuable information, prepared to be directly translated into applicable knowledge. Faced with one of these online, multimedia and interactive courses offered by providers, he hopes to enjoy the experience; but not because the messages appear on the screen letter by letter, or word by word, with a graphic device, but by the content of the message itself.
He hopes to dialogue with the system, much like he would an expert; do not expect simple questions, with brief messages of "success" or "error" to your answers; don't expect e-books you would rather read on paper, black on white; it does not expect ornamental animations, if they do not add didactic value; He hopes to find what he is looking for, because he knows what he is looking for and does not want to waste time.
As an individualized learning procedure, e-learning is not as miraculous as it was said, and it is already openly recognized that it is a complement, and not an alternative, to traditional methods of professional development. But in itself, an e-learning product is a source of information, as is a book, and even with a certain advantage if the product has been conceived well enough, by an expert teacher. You read, listen and see: you receive information from the screen; he even talks. Sometimes, it comes to that programmed education that we met as young people, brought to the multimedia world of the PC.
There is no need for more interactivity, or more media, than is required in each case: from there we would be adding cost, but not value. But, above all, it requires precise, rigorous, clear information, adjusted to expectations; We do not need to learn what we already know, nor do we need to speculate, nor do we need to beat around the bush. The knowledge worker does not need to be led by the hand, or asked unnecessary or inappropriate questions; It does not admit questionable statements, or free inferences, or erroneous data: it is a demanding user, who already has a remarkable command of the field in which it is handled.
If this user thinks that an online course is not giving him knowledge, he abandons it; and abandonment does not imply a renunciation of learning, but rather a waste of time. Therefore, systems of coercion or extrinsic motivation (points or credits) are not valid; if forced, he will appear to have followed the course, but he will opt for a good book, or a good lecture on the subject, or a fruitful Internet trip. And if you weren't convinced of the need to tackle those contents, forcing him doesn't seem like a good idea: you should convince him.
The knowledge worker has a lot of information at his fingertips, and he can practice self directed lifelong learning with its advantages and disadvantages. It can take effort to separate the grain from the chaff, but it ends up reaching the best information available, in printed or electronic channels.
On the other hand, before an online course, before an e-learning product, it must be assumed that the selection work has already been done, and that the best available information on the subject is accessed; if not, the user will not only distrust the course, but also the method. If, in an online course, we were not facing the best information available on the subject, the graphic apparatus would be useless, nor the words entering one by one to slow down the reading. The cost of an e-learning product should not be justified by the graphic device, or free interactivity, but by the value of the information provided and its ability to become, with just the effort, applicable knowledge.
Already in 2000, and I keep the article, there were those who (Vaughan Waller), aware of going perhaps against the current, warned, however, that e-learning was nothing more than the online delivery of a training course. Interestingly, the latest definitions of e-learning seem to return to this idea. It seems that we have agreed to identify e-learning with any learning process that relies on ICT, which certainly opens up the field a lot… (I would say that in face-to-face training itself we make frequent use of ICT).
The fact is that a self-directed learning course must be effective, whether delivered on paper by correspondence, or through ICT. Its possible ineffectiveness could not be compensated by the color, the animation, the interactivity or the showy appearance of the messages on the screen. If in addition to being effective it is visually attractive, great; But when I asked a technologist about the need for the cosmetic and graphic apparatus, they told me that it was intended to "motivate the student".
I would say that the motivation of the k-worker is intrinsic, and its learning, autotelic; she thirsts for knowledge, and even - once she has become aware of the need - a desire to improve her skills, attitudes, behaviors, etc. I have heard, in reports from other frequent events that are organized in the sector, that if you want to learn, you can do it in front of a good book or a bad one; And I have also read that "who else and who least" learned in the university with precarious content (the author alluded - later elected vice president of the Association of eLearning Providers, APeL - to the notes of the most studious of the class…).
But I think that we should not trivialize the importance of content, and the fact is that in the face of poor content, the k-worker will abandon, and look for other, better content; here it is not so much about studying to pass (exotelic), but doing it to learn (autotelic), and thus improve professional performance.
E-learning is already present in all segments of education, because ICT is; But the k-worker - a key worker in the new economy - needs to extract applicable knowledge, quickly and easily, from the information that is offered.
In my Online Educa presentation, about an image of the teacher and the learner communicating in presence, I alluded to both the telecommunications networks and the series of professionals hosted by e-learning to define the methodology, to program interactivity, for multimedia production, for course administration, for revitalization, for tutoring follow-up… And I said that if, in addition to adding cost, they added value, the final product should be fully satisfactory. But we know that, in the corporate segment, e-learning is not generating significant learning: something must be failing in the multidisciplinary production process. A reengineering of this process may be required.
In conclusion, one wondered, in effect, if one could not conceive in another way - more agile - e-learning products for these users, whose needs are so specific. Let us remember that knowledge workers are close, so to speak, to the frontiers of their field of knowledge, and that these frontiers are continually expanding. Remember that new knowledge workers, in addition to continual learning, contribute to innovation, that is, to the creation of new knowledge. Perhaps the so-called e-learning guguelization fits here…
Self-service in the Information Society is not bad, but let's remember the importance of information skills: what is known as information literacy or information fluency; Without these core competencies, we might take some erroneous information for good, make misinterpretations, think that we already know enough, let ourselves be biased, and, in short, make bad decisions.
That is, let's see in the k-worker an e-learner, but we expect that it will frequently have to search in a self-directed way for the information it needs, going to the sources and channels that it can access. The k-worker –as we said– becomes a human information processor.
