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THE ELEARNING MUSEUM

Goldfield, Nevada, is the site of the largest gold

strike in the 20th century. Founded in 1902, Reference Pages
Goldfield boasted a population of 30,000 during
its boom year of 1906. The bar at Tex Rickard's Articles
Blogs
Northern Saloon was so long it required 80 tenders Building Community
to serve its customers. My great grandfather CSS, Semantic Mark-Up, and codes
Design
invested heavily in Goldfield shares; they now
First Principles
trade for pennies and mighty Goldfield is a ghost Glossary
town. How People Learn
Knowledge Management
When I began writing about eLearning in 1998, some of us felt the training industry had struck Learning Links
Learning Standards
gold! We were going to change the world and pick up some dot-com riches while we did it. Making It Work (Implementing)
Irrational exuberance? We didn't think so at the time. eLearning was going to make email look Metrics & ROI
Presentations
like a rounding error. It reminded me of the spirit of Woodstock. People in the business
Psychology
exchanged knowing smiles. "We must be in heaven, man!" Social Software
String theory
In late 1999, Training and Development magazine interviewed me.... The eLearning Museum
Time
Visual Learning
Says Cross, "Successful leaders inspire members of their organizations to work smarter.
Collaboration, learning portals, and skill snacks have replaced Industrial-Age training. The
Web is revitalizing personalized learning and meaningful apprenticeship. Learning is merging Search
with work."

Here's what lies ahead in our not-too-distant training future, according to

Cross: Search
personal software agents that crawl the Web to screen and feed
Our Infrequent Newsletter
information to personal portals Sign up for our sporadic newsletter.
connected gadgets and gizmos that simplify (and complicate) our lives
plug-and-play training modularity Email:
learning standards that create interchangeable, Lego-like objects that
slash costs and development time
personal files and programs that run directly from the Internet. Entries by category...
Blogging
At least I didn't get specific on "not-too-distant," did I? Well, it looks like I did.
Books
Collaboration
According to Jay Cross, information architect of Internet Time Group, "eLearning" is the target Customer care
model for corporate training in the next three to five years. It will be a key survival skill for Design
Emergent Learning
corporations and free agent learners and is a convergence of:
handbook
Jokes
loosely organized corporate ecologies Just Jay
a business climate of permanent white water Learning
Meta
technological advances, including high-speed broadband networks
Networking
a shift of power and responsibility from organizations to individuals Outbound
emergent best practices, from performance support to training to knowledge Recycled from Blogger
Ref
management.
store
The Industry
What happened? We fumbled the implementation. We naively expected workers to flock to the Time
glowing screens. We thought we could take the instructors out of the learning process and let Visual
Workflow-based eLearning
workers gobble up self-paced (i.e., "don't expect help from us") lessons on their own. We were
wrong. First-generation eLearning was a flop. Companies licensed "libraries" of content no one
paid attention to. PowerPoint became the authoring language of choice. (Personally, I get Blogroll
more content from a Jackson Pollock drip painting than from someone else's PowerPoint
Internet Time Knowledge
slides.) Dropout rates were horrendous. After-the-fact finger pointing is not productive. I Learning Circuits Blog
don't use the term eLearning much these days. Workflow Institute

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Lance Dublin and I wrote a book with our prescription

Emergent Learning Forum
for turning things around: (1) gain stakeholder support jaycross.com
through change management and (2) offer worthwhile
Meta-Learning Lab
learning experiences and sell them to the learners. Too Technorati
little, too late. How to Save the World
Jay's Furl Archive
I'm moving on to things that work, a set of tools, Internet Time Wiki
techniques, and attitudes I call 20/80 learning. They are tied to workflow, immediate need, Seb's Open Research
human interaction, respect for the worker, networking, and more. This page will remain as a Chris Pirillo
Joi Ito
relic of yesteryear's euphoria. If my grandchildren ask "What did you do for SmartForce?" or
Jon Udell
"Why did you spend time at Cisco?" or "What did you speak about at Online Learning in Social Software Blog
Anaheim?" I'll have a URL to back up my stories.
Steve Johnson
Philip Greenspun
Focused Performance
Participo
Zeldman
SmartForce, Learn Fast, Go Fast, pdf (11/99)
eClippings
Disclosure: SmartForce was an Internet Time Group client.. Jerry Michalski
Dave Sifry
Will Companies Ever Learn? "Learning has got to be connected directly to the Gizmodo
Ross Dawson
business," says Judy Rosenblum, former chief learning officer at Coca-Cola. "The
idea is to stay away from a standard 'learning program.' Instead, learning needs to Boing Boing
be embedded in processes, projects, and experiences. If you put your energy into
Powered by
people who are ready and willing to join you, and if those people add value to the BlogRolling
business, others will come."
Internet Time Group
eLearning: Rhetoric vs Reality, Gautam Ghosh
MOVABLE TYPE 2.65
Into the Future, a Vision Paper by Wayne Hodgins and Jay Cross (2/2000) for ASTD and NGA. pdf.

Cisco eLearning
Disclosure: Cisco Systems is an Internet Time Group client. MT Blog Search
The Future of Online Learning by Stephen Downes (7/98), a classic
© 2004 Internet Time Group

The eLearning FAQ Updated 08/02/2004 11:47:28

Defintion of eLearning
Does it matter?
How does it work? Berkeley, California
How well does it work?
What are the pitfalls? Recent entries
What are the trends?
New Blog
Who are the major players?
Blogger Experience, Housekeeping, Something New
How to Keep Up Loosely Coupled
Glossary Above all
Demographics is destiny
Articles & opinions
Are you setting the bar high enough?
Implementation Virtual Apps
Aerobic Learning
Bibliography Work as Video Game
Oracle and Macromedia, Sitting in a Tree
Information from zines, newsletters, conferences, groups, mazagines, journals, analysts The Blogosphere
& books ASTD Silicon Valley
Performance Support
Caution: I wrote this in March 2000, before the dot-com bubble burst, and it Kingsbridge Conference Center
First Post by Email
remains somewhat overenthusiastic. Here's a more current take on what's going on: Transition
Inactive Blog
RSS Feed for New Site
The State of eLearning. Comment Spam
Testing ... testing ... 1...2..3
Guest lecture at the Business School of San Francisco State University,
IT Doesn't Matter - Learning Does.
October 2, 2002. All blogging is political
Mutlimedia Learning
For something more current, see Jane Knight's wonderful Guide to e-Learning at Damn, damn, double damn
Nonverbal impact?
e-Learning Centre
The New Religion
Shhhhh.....
Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!
Definitions Business Process Management (2)
Really Big
eLearning is learning on Internet Time, the convergence of learning and Business Process Management Conference
networks and the New Economy. eLearning is a vision of what corporate WorkFLOW
Don't Lose a Common Sense: LISTEN
training can become. We've only just begun.
It's only natural
Gmail!
eLearning is to traditional training as eBusiness is to business as usual. Both Go with the flow

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use the net to augment tradiitonal means.

Time Out for the Fair
Informal get-together in SF this Wednesday
This FAQ addresses corporate learning. In this context, effective eLearning dramatically cuts
Repetition, reverb, and echoes
the time it takes for people to become and remain competent in their jobs. For context, Who Knows?
check out the first eLearning White Paper ever written. Ur-blogging
Cognitive Mapping
Push vs pull
eLearning is the convergence of learning and the Internet.
The Big Picture on ROI
Art Break
Howard Block TDF Finale
New Community of Practice Forming
Bank of America Securities
Dropouts
More TDF04
eLearning uses the power of networks, primarily those that rely on Internet technologies but Training Directors Forum 2004
A Rare One-Liner
also satellite netowrks, and digital content to enable learning. PlaNetwork LIVE 2
PlaNetwork LIVE
Eilif Trondsen, ASTD 2004 Leftovers
Googlism
SRI Learning on Demand
Worker Effectiveness Improvement, not KM
Upcoming Events
eLearning is the use of network technology to design, deliver, select, administer, and extend eLearning Effectiveness?
Jay's Talk at ASTD
LEARNING. Mintzberg & Cooperider
Lest ye forget
Elliott Masie, ASTD International Conference & Exposition 2004
Knowledge Tips
The Masie Center
What is Workflow Learning?
ASTD msg 1 of n
eLearning is Internet-enabled learning. Components can include content delivery in multiple Look out, it's Outlook
Collaboration at ASTD Next Week
formats, management of the learning experience, and a networked community of learners, Tell me a story
content developers and experts. eLearning provides faster learning at reduced costs, User indifference
increased access to learning, and clear accountability for all participants in the learning Interdependence
The shortest presentation on metrics you will ever hear
process. In today's fast-paced culture, organizations that implement eLearning provide their Back to Blogger
work force with the ability to turn change into an advantage. Windows fixes
The Alchemy of Growth
Grab bag
Cisco Systems
Very loosely coupled
E-Learning from Practice to Profit
Robin Good kicks off Competitive Edge
eLearning is dynamic. Today's content, in real time, not old news or "shelfware." On-line
China Bloggers
experts, best sources, quick-and-dirty approaches for emergencies. Sonoma Dreaming
Upcoming Events
eLearning operates in real time. You get what you need, when you need it. Emergent Learning Forum: Simulations
'Lanta
eLearning is collaborative. Because people learn from one another, eLearning connects The Best Things in Life Are Free
Metrics and Web Services
learners with experts, colleagues, and professional peers, both in and outside your OpEd: ROI vs. Metrics
organization. e-Merging e-Learning
Loosely Coupled
eLearning is individual. Every e-learner selects activities from a personal menu of learning Search me
Exercise?
opportunities most relevant to her background, job, and career at that very moment.

eLearning is comprehensive.
eLearning provides learning events from many sources, enabling the e-learner to select a
favored format or learning method or training provider.

Greg Priest,

SmartForce,

The e-Learning Company

eLearning [is] the delivery of content via all electronic media, including the Internet,
intranets, extranets, satellite broadcast, audio/video tape, interactive TV, and CD-ROM.

Connie Weggen

WR Hambrecht & Co

We define eLearning companies as those that leverage various Internet and Web technologies
to create, enable, deliver, and/or facilitate lifelong learning.

Robert Peterson,

Piper Jaffray

eLearning is using the power of the network to enable learning, anytime, anywhere.

Arista

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Best Practices

Accept no substitutes! Anyone with a web site can claim to provide eLearning. How does one
separate the real stuff from the bogus? Legitimate eLearning is more likely to:

Focus on the needs of the learner, not the trainer or institution

Take advantage of the net: real-time, 24/7, anywhere, anytime
Bring people together to collaborate and learn together
Personalize, often by combining "learning objects" on the fly
Offer more than one learning method, e.g. virtual classroom and simulation and
self-paced instruction
Incorporate administrative functions such as registration, payment and charge-backs,
monitoring learner progress, testing, and maintaining records

eLearning? e-Learning?
E-learning? E-Learning?

In the early days, way back in 1998, it was always e-learning, with the hyphen. SmartForce is
the "e-Learning Company", and Cisco's John Chambers evangelizes e-learning.

As eLearning matured, some of us are dropped the hyphen (and started "intercapping" the
"L".) Microsoft uses eLearn, as do SRI and Internet Time Group. The Google search engine
finds:

1221 elearning (no hyphen)

2900 e-learning (hyphenated)

Does it matter?
E-business.

Change is rampant. It's the Knowledge Era, New Economy, Internet Age, Information
Revolution, yadda, yadda, yadda. Brains have replaced brawn.

Networked organizations demand rapid-fire, front-line decisions, and people must be in the
know to make them. Everything's converging or already networked, cycle times are speeding
up, and competition is coming from all directions. Are you ready?

Staffing for eBusiness is a make/buy decision.

Buying is pricey and shortsighted. (Techies with tongue-studs and purple hair command
six-figure salaries, and there are too few of them to go around. We're short half a million
high-tech workers, and business gets more techie every day.) Buying talent is not like buying
tools. The shelf-life of knowledge has dwindled to the point that a four-year engineering
degree is obsolete in, well, about four years.

People once agonized over career decisions for fear of looking like "job hoppers." These days
they hear about a new opportunity over lunch and go to work for a competitor that afternoon.
Money doesn't necessarily talk to a young person who drives a Porsche. What keeps people on
board these days is the opportunity to develop, to build valued skills, to achieve certifications,
and to add to their store of intellectual capital.

Learning has become a vital business function, but old-style training can't keep pace with
Internet time. Traditional workshops cost a fortune in airplane tickets and time away from the
job. In the eyes of many senior managers, off-site workshops have always been somewhere
between a total waste of time and a boondoggle, the "great training robbery." Training has
grown too important to be delegated to training departments.

eLearning is attractive to corporations because it promises better use of time, accelerated

learning, global reach, fast pace, and accountability. It's manageable. It cuts paperwork and
administrative overhead. Sometimes it can be outsourced, providing more time for leveraging
the organization's core competence. eLearners like it, too.

Drivers

As human capital becomes the chief source of economic value, education

and training become lifelong endeavors for the vast majority of workers.

Peter J. Stokes,

Eduventures

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We need to bring learning to people instead of bringing people to learning.

Elliott Masie,

The Masie Center

Technology has revolutionized business; now it must revolutionize learning.

WR Hambrecht + Co

Information and knowledge are the thermonuclear competitive weapons of our time.
Knowledge is more valuable and more powerful than natural resources, big factories, or fat
bankrolls.

Tom Stewart,

Intellectual Capital

American education needs a fundamental breakthrough, a new dynamic that will light the way
to a transformed educational system.

Chris Whittle

The Edison Project

Organizations today realize that they cannot use traditional training methods if they want to
stay competitive. Because product cycles, competitive intelligence, industry information and
corporate strategies are moving and changing so much faster than they need to, companies
understand that the only way to get knowledge to their employees is thorough an eLearning
initiative that relies on the Internet.

Kevin Oakes

click2Learn.com

Education is the next industrial era institution to go through a complete overhaul, starting in
earnest in 2000. The driving force here is not so much concern with enlightening young minds
as economics. In an information age, the age of the knowledge worker, nothing matters as
much as the worker's brain.

Peter Schwartz

The Long Boom

Technological changes increase complexity and velocity of the work environment. Today's
workforce has to process more information in a shorter amount of time. New products and
services are emerging with accelerating speed.

WR Hambrecht + Co

eLearning solutions provide the missing link that allows organizations to effectively measure
ROI and the learning to business results.

Dave Ellett

Docent

....the number one reason employees leave existing positions for new jobs is not pay but that
their employer was not investing in their development.

Thomas Weisel Partners LLC

Learning is what more adults will do for a living in the 21st century.

U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray

Imagination is the most powerful human resource on the planet. Harnessing it and its
resultant electronic tools in the service of education is the great hope of the world.

Glenn R. Jones

Jones International

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Human skills are subject to obsolescence at a rate perhaps unprecedented in American

History.

Alan Greenspan

It is estimated that we will need 1.3 million new computer scientists, systems analysts and
computer programmers by 20006 in the United States. Yet, currently one out of every ten IT
positions, or approximately 350,000 jobs, are open today.

Merrill Lynch

With the aging of the U.S. workforce (median age of US worker expected to increase from
35.3 to 40.6 in 2006) and technology automating a large percentage of unskilled jobs,
training is necessary to remain relevant in today's knowledge-based economy.

Ibid

Knowledge workers require greater flexibility in the workplace. Globalization, competition,

and labor shortages cause employees to work longer, harder, and travel more than previous
generations. A the same time, these workers require more independence and responsibility in
their jobs and dislike close supervision. Today's knowledge workers have a nontraditional
orientation to time and space, believing that as long as the job gets done on time, it is not
important where or when it gets done. B the same token, they want the opportunity to
allocate time for learning as needed. Modern training methods need to reflect these changes
in lifestyle.

WR Hambrecht + Co

Discreet training events held off-site in a hotel room that fulfills the "20 hours per year, "check
the box" regimen will not suffice.

Thomas Weisel Partners LLC

Drivers of Cisco's Learning and Training Needs

The Objectives The Challenges

Fast, effective Geographically

deployment of dispersed learners
mission-critical Phenomenal
knowledge growth
Well-trained and Difficult/Expensive
up-to-date training logistics
workforce Need for
Lower-cost Knowledge on
learning Demand

The Pressures

Relentless
Competition
Constantly
changing
technology
Shorter product
cycles
Shorter time to
market

Source: Cisco Systems

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How does it work?

Different perspectives

eLearning is like a cubist painting. To make sense of it, you need to look at it from different
perspectives.

From the philosophical viewpoint, eLearning is framed by the principles and practices of the
eLearning community -- a mix of social concern, instructional design, software savvy,
entrepreneurial zeal, and extreme dissatisfaction with the status quo. Another view looks to
the components of eLearning -- collaboration, simulation, databases, and so forth. The
eBusiness perspective relates eLearning to ERP, supply chain optimization, and
disintermediation.

eLearning is revolutionary. As Nicholas Negroponte says, incrementalism is innovation's worst

enemy. The Internet changes everything; education and training are about to be changed.
Radically. It's time for a fresh approach.

eLearning focuses on the individual learner. For years, training has organized itself for the
convenience and needs of instructors, institutions, and bureaucracies. Bad attitude. Think of
learners as customers. Compete for their time and interests. Provide them legendary service.
Convert them into raving fans. Give them choices. Don't make them reinvent the wheel.

From instructor-centric:

to learner-centric:

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eLearning is forever. Continuous education. The forty-year degree. Daily learning. Work
becomes learning, learning becomes work, and nobody ever graduates.

Performance is the goal. The objective is to become competent in the least time and with the
least amount of training. If people could take a smart pill instead of logging in to class, bravo!
How long is this going to take? No more credit for seat-time.

Most learning is social. The coffee room is a more effective place to learn than the classroom.
Studies reveal that the majority of corporate learning is informal, i.e. outside of class.
eLearning seeks to foster collaboration and peer interaction.

A classic study at Standard found that Hewlett Packard engineers who watched videotaped
lectures followed by informal discussion performed better than Stanford engineering students
who attended the same lectures on campus. Instead of an on-campus lecturer pouring content
into students' heads, the HP engineers were challenged to construct their own interpretation
of the subject matter.

Smart pill. Would you prefer this or the workshop?

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Most eLearning is personalized. The best eLearning system learns about its users and tailors
its offerings to their learning style, job requirements, career goals, current knowledge, and
personal preferences. <buzzword alert> Small chunks of learning (granules, objects) are
labeled (metatagged within IMS standards) so systems can automatically mix and match them
to assemble and deliver individualized learning experiences. At least that's the dream.
Nobody's fully there quite yet. </buzzwords>

Hierarchy of Learning Objects

eLearning is delivered in the right-sized pieces. Why take a one-hour class for the five
minutes' worth of content you're looking for?

eLearners are responsible for their own learning. eLearning empowers them to manage and
implement their own learning and development plans.

Education in the Knowledge Economy

Old Economy
Four-year Degree
Training as Cost Center
Learner Mobility
Distance Education
Correspondence & Video
One Size Fits All
Geographic Instituting
Just-in-Case
Isolated

New Economy
Forty-Year Degree
Training as Competitive Advantage
Content Mobility
Distributed Learning
High-Tech Multimedia Centers
Tailored Programs
Brand Name Universities & Celebrity Professors
Just-in-Time

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Virtual Learning Communities

Source: The Book of Knowledge, Merrill Lynch, p. 8

Components

Overview of an eLearning Setup

eLearning is inevitably a mix of activities -- people learn better that way.

An eLearning environment generally includes:

self-paced training delivered over the web (although it could be via

book or CD or video or what have you)

1:many virtual events (which could take place in virtual classroom, virtual lecture
hall, or expert-led discussion)

1:1 mentoring (which might entail coaching, help desk, office hours, periodic
check-in, email exchanges)

simulation, because we learn by doing. Learners from all over the globe experiment
on millions of dollars worth of routers and bridges at Mentor Labs. Consultants
learn about eBusiness from a game developed by SMGnet.

collaboration, either joint problem-solving or discussion among study groups via

discussion groups and chat rooms

live workshops (yes, the old way), for some topics are best taught in the real world
by a flesh-and-blood instructor or expert

assessment, both for initial placement and for opting out of topics the learner has
already mastered

competency roadmap, a custom learning plan based on job, career, and personal
goals

authoring tools, to develop and update content

e-store, to pay for learning or post costs against budgets

learning management system which registers, tracks, and delivers content to

learners; reports on learner progress, assessment results, and skill gaps for
instructors; enrolls learners, provides security, and manages user access for
administrators.

Important facets of eLearning

The continuous evolution of the learning industry is hell-bent toward an experience totally
personalized to the individual learner. Today, the vertical communities accessed by an
individual learner provide a comfortable envinroment to learn skills required in the learner's
industry. Tomorrow, access will be through a corporate-sponsored community completely
tailored to the individual's needs, with content delivered on demand and technology that will
continually monitor the learner's abilities as the learning takes place, adjusting content and
pace seamlessly.

Wade Baker

Payback Training Systems

Improved collaboration and interactivity among learners. In times when small instructor-led
classes tend to be the exception, electronic learning solutions can offer more collaboration
and interaction with experts and peers as well as a higher success rate than the live
alternative. ...a study found that online students had more peer contact with others in the
class, enjoyed it more, spent more time on class work, understood the material better, and
performed, on average, 20% better than students who were taught in the traditional
classroom.

WR Hambrecht + Co

The magic is in the mix!

eLearning blends the best of:

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Traditional and new classroom

On-the-job
Coaching and informal mentoring
Reading
Standalone technology
Online technology
Digital collaboration

Elliott Masie

The Masie Center

How well does it work?

The cards aren't in yet. eLearning is too new to have produced hard evidence of learning gains.
eLearning's top-line upside is speculative; its bottom-line savings are on more solid ground.

Undeniably, eLearning cuts the costs of travel, facilities, administrative overhead, duplication
of effort, and more importantly, the opportunity cost of people away from the job in times of
great need.

There's no doubt that eLearning can be rolled out fast. The time required to roll out a new
product globally can shrink from months to hours.

Better

Sharing and managing knowledge throughout our company...was one of the keys to reducing
our operating costs by more than $2 billion per year....

Kenneth T. Derr

Chevron Corporation

Faster

...learners ...can better understand the material, leading to a 60% faster learning curve,
compared to instructor-led training. ... Whereas the average content retention rate for an
instructor-led class is only 58%, the more intensive e-learning experience enhances the
retention rate by 25-60%. Higher retention of the material puts a higher value on every dollar
spent on training.

WR Hambrecht + Co

Cheaper

Motorola calculates that every $1 it spends on training translates to $30 in productivity gains
within three years.

A recent study found that corporations that employed a workforce with a 10%
higher-than-average educational attainment level enjoyed 8/6% higher-than-average
productivity.

Computer-based training and online training can reduce training costs over instructor-led
training. A congressionally mandated review of 47 comparisons of multimedia instruction with
more conventional approaches to instruction found time savings of 30% improved achievement
and cost savings of 30-40%.

Merrill Lynch,

The Book of Knowledge

What are the pitfalls?

Motivation

Whenever the topic of bandwidth comes up, the phone company yowls about ?the last mile,?
the flimsy wire bottleneck between their switching station and your house.

e-Learning providers also have a bottleneck, the last yard from the monitor into the learner?s
brain. Without motivation, this final connection will never be made.

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Professional training via CD-ROM flopped. Why? Because we took instructors and coaches out of
the picture. The learning process breaks down when "untouched by human hands." A ringing
phone interrupts a standalone learning exercise, and CD-ROM courses morph into shelfware.

Companies that adopt eLearning as a cost-cutting measure and provides no human support will
not be successful. eLearning is not training by robot. Learners will live up (or down) to
expectations.

Which of these two scenarios presents a better environment for learning? Assume your boss
arranged for one of these two learning events for you:

instructor-led, off site e-learning

Before you leave, the boss calls you in, You receive an email from personnel.
tells you this is important, and
explains what he expects you to come
home with.

You fly away to the beach-side resort You study at home after work.
hotel where training will take place.

Your peers know you?re away for No one even knows you?re taking part
learning. (They have to take up the in training.
slack.)

You return home, and everyone asks They still don?t know you?re taking a
what you thought, what?s new, course.
anything to share?

You learn with members of your study You learn on your own.
group. After you and the guys finish
your lessons, you hop out for a few
brews and a game of pool.

You hang your certificate of Another email from personnel.

completion on the wall. Or put the
paperweight on your desk.

It doesn?t have to be this way. Managers must go the extra mile to pat learners on the back,
give them recognition, and encourage them to learn with their peers. eLearners are
customers; they continually need to be sold.

Finally, eLearning is not for everyone. Some people simply will not learn outside of a
classroom.

Learning to the desktop

This is one of those benefits that's better in theory than in practice. Learning complex

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subjects requires concentration. Most people's desks are less than optimal for learning (and
often for working, too, but that's another matter).

Buddha was right. "When you do something, do it as if it were all that mattered." Get away
from the phone. Shelter yourself from colleagues. Go to a learning cubicle. Put up a "Do Not
Disturb" sign.

"Ah ha," Dilbert's pointy-haired boss would say. "I've got the solution -- take it all home." As if
there aren't distractions aplenty at home. Feed the baby, watch the game, talk with the
spouse, have a beer on the patio, or log in for learning? Besides, what message does the boss
communicate about the value of learning if he expects people to do it on their own time?

Pitfalls
Hurdles to eLearning!

Quality and intensity of content

Availability of content
Habits, customs, and culture
Technology delivery -- bandwidth, etc.
Pricing models
Lack of digital collaboration models
Research gap: Does it work?
Calibration of expectations

Elliott Masie

eLearning Briefing

January 2000, Seattle

Certain content -- because of its nature, relative value, or importance -- is not suitable for
technology-based delivery. While online training is especially well suited for the acquisition of
IT skills, it has certain limitations in the arena of soft skills training. Other educational
content that does not translate well into a virtual environment is material requiring significant
hands-on application, with a strong emphasis on peer review and collaboration.

WR Hambrecht + Co

Update in mid-2002:

A horrific pitfall has turned out to be cajolling workers to participate. One third to one half of
workers never register to take part. Half to three-quarters of those who start a program drop
out before completing it. I've just completed a book on how to improve employee
participation.

What are the trends?

Short term

Corporations increasingly outsource training to Learning Service Providers (think Application

Service Provider + Learning).

Standards-based learning management systems assemble large-grain learning objects on the

fly. (XML meets learning).

Learner relationship management mirrors customer relationship management.

ERP and CRM vendors replace learning management systems as learning is recognized as an
enterprise application.

Longer term

"Intelligent" interfaces learn about the eLearner over time. (Apple's Knowledge
Navigator finally arrives, only twenty years late.)

Learning becomes imbedded in work processes and equipment.

Economies of scale will development of "cool" learning using rich media, popular
entertainers, and game interfaces.

Posted by Jay Cross at February 10, 2003 12:20 AM

13 of 14 3/9/08 1:59 PM
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14 of 14 3/9/08 1:59 PM