There is a lot of talk about online learning in the world of continuous training, although the voice of users is still missed; but it is also said that the European e-learning market is almost stopped. It seems to be pointed out that one of the keys to the expected explosion of this learning method lies in the satisfaction of users, through training content that is better in tune with their expectations and needs.
E-learning products must provide relevant information, endowed with a purpose and didactic load, that responds to what users expect and want; E-learning does not seem to take off, no matter how much it flaps its wings, if it does not have the acquiescence of those who use it, whether they are managers or workers, in companies and organizations of different sizes.
Recently, in El País-Negocios (October 30, 2005) we were able to read an interview with Mariano Baratech, president of Doxa and the Association of e-Learning Providers (APeL), under the headline: “The European e-market learning is almost stopped ”.
The text seemed to already glimpse a forthcoming, long-awaited takeoff of online training in Spanish companies. We read that, preparing for this challenge and with the intention of leading the sector, Doxa and Fycsa, two important suppliers, are materializing their merger. Together they hope to reach a turnover of 30 million euros in 2008. We can, in this regard, remember that Fycsa already announced in 2001 that its turnover would reach the same amount -30 million euros- in 2003, although it really stayed in the fifth part (6 million), which suggests, if not exorbitant expectations, the slowness with which the sector has grown in recent years.
What does e-learning need to finally take off? These paragraphs will insist on the necessary, inexcusable, quality and effectiveness of the content offered, because it seems to us that the desired take-off of e-learning will not occur through repeated startup attempts, unless some other condition of the device changes.
Even if we mix it with face-to-face training (blended learning) to facilitate progress, and even if providers push a lot, it could happen that traditional training continues its flight and e-learning will remain on the ground, or be reduced to mere communication synchronous or asynchronous with the teacher-tutor, through ICT.
It is true that, by opening up the concept, e-learning has been identified with any learning process that makes use of information and communication technologies to avoid space-time constraints; but we would have to distinguish the famous interactive multimedia pills or courses (which recall that programmed teaching of our youth years) from the use of traditional linear materials served by telecommunication networks.
Whether a book, or an article, is good or bad, it still is when we send it by email; and if a pill on a certain topic is bad, it still is even if we put colors on it and make the texts appear letter by letter, or word by word.
Naturally, if one of those pills (or online courses) is good, with a solid didactic load, the result of the magic of the teaching expert, it should not be ruled out that graphic accessories, cosmetics and animations add value as well as cost. Because if what we found online were an electronic book, that is, a sequence of traditional pages, perhaps the production processes could be simplified and made cheaper.
As early as 2000, there were those (Vaughan Waller, for example), aware of perhaps going against the current, nevertheless warned that e-learning was nothing more than the online delivery of a training course, which we could do many times in Word or PowerPoint format, without going any further.
But more than distinguishing formats in the use of ICT, we should refer to content, understood as information that the user translates into knowledge or skill, through learning.
When we speak of distance learning, or self-conducted learning, we must certainly insist on the intrinsic motivation of learners; but it must also be done on the suitability of the content: its careful informational quality and its effectiveness in the pursuit of learning. Yes, two main things: informational rigor and learning facilitation.
It may seem like another truism, but designers have to carefully consider the profile of new workers and managers for whom training products are intended. The new knowledge worker, a cardinal element of the new economy, is demanding with the information that is offered to him for his permanent acquisition of new knowledge and skills.
His critical thinking leads him to value quality and reject mediocrity; his aspiration of efficiency leads him to think about increasing his daily performance, after obtaining better results; his need to innovate leads him to place himself at the limits of his field of knowledge, and not in the middle of the road.
All of us must be continually learning, but that does not mean so much to be doing one course after another, as to be frequently searching for information, processing it and extracting the necessary knowledge.
The new worker, beyond reacting (sometimes with resignation in past years) to the initiatives of the training area of his company, must be proactive in his learning, look for what he needs, contrast different information, digest knowledge and apply it. All this is more complex, but we cannot limit ourselves to waiting to be summoned to a course, so that we may follow them, perhaps, in exchange for credits or points that affect our future professional trajectory.
For an e-learning product to be preferred, and not ignored, it must be advantageous over what the user, with the desirable informational skills (information fluency), could find on their own in the available sources (books, Internet, magazines, conversations, etc.). Perhaps we could impose classroom training (although neither, really) but we cannot impose e-learning: we have to get users to demand it, due to the advantages it comes with, including the effectiveness of learning, that is, its reflection in results.
The priority should be the content, that is, the need to learn, in such a way that the method was a consequence of this and other circumstances. What references guide lifelong learning in organizations? I propose some:
- Person-position approach (competencies).Business strategy.Improvement and innovation.Quality of life in the company.Knowledge organization.Learning organization.Satisfaction of internal and external customers.Social responsibility.Use of specific tools.Follow-up of new methods.Cultural change.Personal-professional development.
Nothing new certainly; but it is that when talking about e-learning the content seems to be hidden, to give prominence to the method. Note that e-learning providers felt united by the method, both in Madrid (APeL) and Barcelona (Aefol) in 2001, probably because they expected an imminent explosion in the sector, still pending. Why has the expansion of e-learning in companies been delayed? What has failed, if any?
What was said years ago
Since the term “e-learning” spread in our country (five or six years ago), we have read very different statements from the agents of the sector regarding the content of e-learning.
I remember that in the spring of 2003, a book was published by Aedipe that collected the first realities (“the best practices of e-learning in Spain”). Already in the prologue, Carlos Pelegrín Fernández, Director of Development and Training at Telefónica, said: “When we talk about e-Learning, we are focusing on two key elements: technology and content. However, none of them have a high correlation with the growth and success of the solution in the company ”.
Also: “Many managers have approached the concept of e-Learning through content, thinking that they could make people fall in love with the new channel by themselves, thus guaranteeing the success of the implementation. The truth is that the best results can be achieved with medium-quality content, while excellent content guarantees absolutely nothing, and can even lead to failure ”.
A few pages later, in his introduction to the book, José Ignacio Díez, CEO of Fycsa stated:
"The success of online training lies to a large extent in the choice of the learning methodology and, in addition, in the motivational elements…". And, referring to a study carried out among different companies (surely clients), he clarified his vision of success: “It is relevant to highlight that in successful cases, considering as such reaching an end rate greater than 75%, (…) being in about cases the main success factor is the motivation of people… ”. José Ignacio Díez also alluded to the contents: “The contents have been magnified during these past three or four years, without the reason being very well understood.
It is obvious that the more attractive they are and the better they have been pedagogically developed, the greater will be their acceptance by students; but it is not clear that this is the key to self-study ”. And he continued: "Therefore, the contents, in their various forms, are necessary (…) but they are only a part, perhaps not the most significant part of success. And, for greater clarity: “Who else and who less has been forced to acquire complex knowledge with precarious means. Let's remember the university (…) with the photocopies of the notes of the most studious of the class: more precarious contents, impossible ”.
At the time I was surprised that the word “success” was repeated so much, but the fact is that one of the main clients in the sector (Telefónica de España), on the one hand, and one of the most prominent providers (Fycsa, which now occupies vice-presidency of APeL), on the other hand, seemed to downplay the importance of good content in the consolidation of e-learning… Interestingly, already in the different chapters of the book, their respective authors, those responsible for training of important companies, did seem to bet on quality content.
Angela Cruz, director of Alcatel University in Spain, pointed out: "The content of the courses is of the utmost importance for a positive experience"; and shortly after she added: "Online courses, in addition to having good content and a design that attracts the user…". The experts from the Open University of Catalonia, María Teresa Arbués and Lluís Tarín, seemed to consider didactic materials fundamental, and argued:
"In the context of virtual training, the creation, design and structuring of teaching materials and resources are stages of a fundamental process, which must be approached rigorously to ensure the quality of the programs and the facilitation of learning." They had already said before: "The contents are designed at the service of people who learn."
Carlos Espinosa, from Aena, referred to as desirable "the highest pedagogical quality" of the online courses, and declared: "The contents are developed by specialized companies under the direction of internal experts, who modify and validate the product until it is put into operation. final disposition".
Naturally, more things were said, and other important players in the sector did; But I have tried to show you that there seemed to be no agreement on the importance of having high quality and effective content, and I would like to add now that, not being able to assure it, I suspect that having paid more attention to the content could have accelerated the long-awaited take-off e-learning sector.
The reader will have their own opinion, without losing the perspective that the important thing is that our country, through knowledge and innovation, reaches its goals of productivity and competitiveness, whatever the method of lifelong learning that is imposed.
It seems unquestionable that we all have to learn continuously, and that ICTs offer us very valuable possibilities; but perhaps what we call e-learning should be better adjusted to the expectations of users. Whoever writes this, certainly a designer of numerous interactive offline courses at the time of the legendary floppies, and of online courses in the most recent corresponding stage, believes that he has learned quite a few things surfing the Internet.
I think I have developed my information skills a bit, and I invite the reader to put them to the test looking for the information they need, printed or electronic, contrasting it and learning in a self-directed way; But I am also confident that the e-learning sector will consolidate, because it is more convenient to have the best information already selected and synthesized, and arranged in a visibly didactic way: it would mean a great saving of time.
conclusion
What is certainly desirable is that we all have facilities for our lifelong learning in organizations, and that our experiences in this regard are pleasant. But it is true that everything starts from a clear awareness of our development needs, both in terms of new knowledge, as well as the other necessary skills: technical and social skills, attitudes, personal strengths, etc.
On the other hand, e-learning has made a lot of noise, and it has moved a lot of money, and this must necessarily be related to a solid future that almost nobody questions; but, in addition to a buzzword that mobilizes business interests, it must be seen by users as an advantageous system to learn, in order to improve individual and collective results. If I need information on a certain technical subject, or on the advantages of applying a specific management method, or on trends in a certain area, or on how to develop my intelligence or my intuition, I want the information to be clear, advanced, rigorous, synthesized, and easy to incorporate into my body of knowledge; I don't need excess interactivity, or cosmetics, or animation, or paraphernalia orchestration: just enough.
There will be different ways of looking at it, but I would join those who bet on e-learning for the supremacy of funds over forms, of content over continents, of ends over means, of realities over appearances, of the qualities on the quantities, the autonomy of the user on the controls of the training areas of their companies, the intrinsic motivation on the extrinsic one, the autotelic learning (to acquire knowledge and skills) on the exotelic (to nurture the file). But, see how you want, let's take advantage of the possibilities of ICT in the inexcusable lifelong learning.
