Online
Courses: What You See Is Not What You Need
(page 2)
Don’t
Separate Work from Learning
But an even more insidious problem in this rush to e-education is that
it reinforces a mind-set that work and learning are separate activities.
This is especially true if bosses communicate the expectation that, with
online courses, employees should now get their training after “work”
hours. Businesses today cannot afford to separate work and learning; technology
and the pace of change do not allow for this. Work is learning and learning
is work. The exciting potential of the Web is not the capability to take
courses designed for the classroom and put them on a computer screen,
but in delivering byte-size chunks of information, when and where employees
need it, for their rapid learning and immediate application to work tasks.
The key to performance improvement is knowing an organization’s performance
and learning needs and setting appropriate and attainable goals. Then
the company can decide if online instruction should be one of the methods
to achieve those goals. Regardless of the method, however, it is critical
that the company maintain an environment in the workplace that supports
the learning and the application of the new knowledge, skills, and attitudes
that employees develop.
Web-based instruction is a wonderful addition to the arsenal of learning
tools in the workplace. The potential for making information accessible
when and where it is needed, as well as delivering messages in a consistent
way to many people over long distances is tremendous. But don’t think
that this is the answer to employee training and development needs. The
real answer is clarity of business goals, aligning learning with those
goals, and providing a mix of learning opportunities to achieve those
goals.
An edited version of
this article appeared as a letter to the editor in
Crain’s Detroit Business, Dec. 17, 2001.