MY, HOW THE E-LEARNING INDUSTRY HAS
GROWN SINCE 1997
BY DR. JACK PHILLIPSAND HOLLY BURKETT
In 1997, as the e-business/e-commerce/dot-com era
was building, the term“e-learning” wasborn. Several
of us started to use it to describe the use of the
Internet to deliver what we were calling CBT, or
computer-based training.
The core idea was to allow an employee to access the
programmed instructional courses
that were then being delivered from individual
workstations or over corporate internal
networks. The focus was to change the delivery mode
and to extend the reach of CBT to workers in any
location, and even from their homes.
Over the next few years, the effort evolved to work
out the kinks of Internet delivery.
Bandwidth was an issue for many offices, as it was
common for remote locations
to be connected to the Internet by low-speed
dial-up. This made for frustrating or
funny challenges as pages loaded very slowly.
This was also the start of the learning systems
field. If we were going to deliver e-learning to
workers throughout the organization, we would need
systems to authorize and track the content. The
first wave of learning management systems (LMS’s)
was focused on administering the delivery of courses
from external collections of e-learning content
(from organizations with older names, like CBT
systems).
The next wave of innovation in e-learning was the
expansion of the media formats that
were used to present content and to engage the
learners. Early e-learning was limited to
text and a few still images. Next, we were able to
add a small amount of animation. Then
came the use of audio (voice and sound). The next
wave was the deployment of video:
Starting with very shaky and small video images, it
has improved every year to where we
are now approaching the use of high-definition video
in the next 24 months.
LEARNER INTERACTIONS
Learner interactions also started to evolve:
>>Early
e-learning was designed around a behaviorist-focused CBT model. Learners were
presented a page of content and were often given a
comprehension question to test if
they understood it. This branched to a moment of
praise (Good job, Elliott!) and on to
the next set of content. Or to remedial phrasing and
re-teaching of the content.
>>Soon,
learners asked for more control of the sequence of content. Some e-learning
design started to include a Microsoft Explorer
framework, which displayed all of the
modules and content, allowing users to navigate
based on their own learning needs.
>>Gaming,
simulation and other immersive learning modes also made their way into the
world of e-learning. Designers and learners reached
for more creative ways of dealing
with content.
>>Reference-based
content also grew as a component of e-learning. Designers could easily add a
wide range of links to additional, advanced or remedial content to the core
instructional modules.
Over the past 10 years, the term e-learning has
expanded to include a wider range of
learning activities and models. These include
synchronous training through the rise of
Webinars and other Internet-based, real time
classroom/seminars. In fact, in many organizations,
the fastest growing segment of e-learning was
Webinars. This marked a key expansion from “any time
and any place” to “any place and all together at
once.” One hybrid that emerged was the use of a live
Webinar to create asynchronous content. In other
words, use a scheduled live session to capture and
then edit content to be made available as a
streamed, anytime module.
NEWEST DEVELOPMENTS
In the last five years, e-learning has evolved quite
a bit. It is almost difficult to really use that
term to accurately describe a set of content. We are
seeing innovations that include these hybrids of
e-learning:
>>Podcasting:
The use of an audio segment to tell a story, deliver
a perspective, distribute an update or even a
component of a course. Podcasting clearly can be
leveraged as an instructional resource, but it also
can be used for corporate communication, customer
support, and as part of a blended learning
experience.
>>Performance
support: While this term was coined and developed by
Gloria Geary more than 20 years ago, we are now
seeing a rise in performance support technology that
provides learning “at the moment of need” rather
than in anticipation of need. Organizations are
shifting a percentage of their e-learning assets to
performance support assets.
>>Gaming
and simulation: The ability to leverage 3-D
capabilities, gaming models and immersive
simulations is rapidly evolving some e-learning
offerings. We are experimenting with virtual worlds
like Second Life, alternate-reality games where
content is created by “players,” and on-going
immersive simulations.
>>Search
and Google: A large percentage of the workforce
turns to Google-like search engines as its first
step in learning. Many employees do a search on
internal or external resources to launch their
e-learning efforts on a given topic.
>>Social
networking systems: Sometimes, our e-learning is
focused on finding the right person rather than the
right content. If I can locate a colleague with
applicable experience, that may be all I need to
gain mastery of a topic. Just yesterday, a colleague
found me on “Linked In,” asked a very specific
question, and I responded with an e-mail followed by
a phone call. It was all that this person needed,
yet he found me through a social networking system
in which I was a friend of one of his friends.
In a nutshell, the “e” in e-learning has expanded
and exploded. Some would say that we have shifted
from“e” standing for electronic learning to the
“e”meaning empowered or effective learning.We have
gone way beyond behavioral CBT and are entering an
era of collaboration, knowledge and connected
learning. Three years ago, our e-Learning Consortium
voted to change its name to the Learning Consortium.
Are we still doing e-learning? Yes. But, do we care
if that term is used? Not really. Learners and
learning professionals will continue to leverage new
technologies and methodologies that afford us the
ability to learn better, faster and more
effectively.
Elliott Masie is the founder and chair of the Masie
Center’s Learning Consortium and the host of
Learning 2008.
For more information, visit
www.masie.com
e
