Myth
and Reality of E-Learning
By Stephen J. Gill
This
article was originally published in Educational Technology, Volume
43, Number 1, 2003
E-Learning
is a misnomer. Computers do not deliver learning; they deliver content and
the best of these programs can only guide the learner through part of the
learning process. This process depends on the interaction of a multitude of
factors. Some of these factors are internal to the employee's attitudes, beliefs,
and style of learning, and some are external to the employee and embedded
in the culture of the organization. An employee will not learn from instruction,
with or without an instructor, unless motivated, prepared, reinforced, and
rewarded.
Call
it e-courses, e-technology, online instruction, Web-based training, or CD-ROM
training. To call it learning, however, is to confuse the instructional method
with the instructional objective. By doing this we run the risk of confusing
the ends with the means. The instructional delivery format is the means to
the end goal of learning and performance improvement. Confusing training with
learning outcomes has been the bane of the training field for the past hundred
years.
Now,
having said that, the reality is that e-learning has become a popular term
for computer-based instruction and, in particular, Web-based courses. Therefore,
I will use this term knowing full well that it is misleading and misrepresents
what we should be trying to achieve in the workplace.
The myth of e-learning is that online instruction will solve all of the problems of learning and performance improvement in the workplace. The reality is that computers offer just one more tool, indeed a very useful one, for the delivery of training and education programs. Performance improvement will only occur when the organizational culture supports learning.
Prevalence
of Online Instruction
No doubt about it, online instruction is becoming a major component of workplace
education. The American Society for Training & Development (ASTD), in
its State of the Industry Report (ASTD, 2002), says that approximately 20%
of training in "world-class organizations" is being delivered by
e-learning technology. ASTD projects that this number will continue to grow,
at least through 2003. Training Magazine's 2001 Industry Report (Galvin, 2001),
summarizing a survey of U.S. organizations of over 100 employees, says the
percentage of companies using CD-ROM, Internet, and intranet-based, employer-sponsored
training frequently, is in the 30% to 40% range. W.R. Hambrecht & Co.,
an investment bank, is predicting that $11.4 billion will be spent on e-learning
in the U.S. in 2003 (Dietderich, 2001).
We are witnessing a dramatic increase in number of companies and educational
institutions selling courses. Cohen and Payiatakis (2002) report an explosion
in the growth of the e-learning industry. Participation in the 2001 On-Line
Learning Conference is just one of the indicators of this expansion of the
industry. Attendees increased from approximately 5000 two years ago to approximately
9000 in 2001, and online learning exhibitors at the conference increased from
353 in 2000 to 425 in 2001.
T+D, the monthly journal of ASTD, follows the stock market performance of
38 "e-learning infrastructure players" (Martin, 2002). This is in
response to tremendous interest from ASTD members. So along with how to use
creative training techniques and how to make leaders out of managers, we can
read how to invest in one of the hottest market sectors.
E-learning has a faddish cast. It is the Big New Thing in the
training and education field. It is glitzy, has a language of its own, is
part of a fast paced, intense market culture, and commands major investment
by providers and customers. All of this creates a wave that trainers and companies
are trying to ride to success. But this success can be elusive. As Cohen and
Payiatakis (2002) have observed,
…organizations get caught up in the "next next thing" syndrome,
either insistent on being at the leading edge or equally scared of being left
behind."(p. 12)
Allure
of E-Learning
Online courses are very
attractive to business organizations. In a highly competitive environment,
this technology offers great promise. The instruction can reach large numbers
of employees at the same time (synchronously) or at the convenience of each
employee (asynchronously). As long as an employee has access to a computer
and sufficient bandwidth, distance from an instructor is no problem.
Executives are attracted
to the technology because it appears to be less expensive to produce and disseminate
to large numbers of employees in comparison to the overhead costs of maintaining
a training department and outsourcing instruction. General Motors hopes to
save $4 million dollars a year by moving to an online format for training
their 88,000 executives, managers, professional, and technical employees (Dietderich,
2001).
Trainers are attracted
to the technology because they can easily measure and report output in terms
of courses delivered and employees served. These numbers look very impressive
in their performance review. And they like the fact that there is an enormous
amount of content available online from which to choose. For example, the
Society of Manufacturing Engineers offers its members over 1100 online courses
(http://www.sme.org/cgi-bin/learningcenter1.pl).
Trainers believe they
have more control over the quality of instruction when using online delivery.
The content is checked upfront and then the same product is delivered to every
learner in the same way. Trainers can be confident that everybody is being
exposed to the same information in a consistent fashion, which is not necessarily
the case in classroom instruction. Also, changes can be made to improve and
update the content as needed.
Employees are attracted to the technology because it offers them the opportunity for a large choice of topics and they can learn when and where they want. Many managers like these benefits, too, because they assume that with this technology employees will study on their own and will not have to use work time for training.
Myths
of E-Learning
This fascination with
the technology has resulted in the spread of a number of myths about e-learning.
Let's examine six beliefs about e-learning that are based on a wish and a
prayer, not on evidence.
Myth One: Instructor-led,
classroom-based courses can be transferred to the Web with no loss in their
teaching potential. Course materials that were designed to be used by an instructor
in a classroom, with explanations and supplementary material provided as needed,
are posted on the Web, which is a different instructional environment than
was originally intended for this material.
Myth Two: Taking
courses at a desktop is as good or better than attending an off-site, instructor-led
course. The two types of environments are considered equivalent even though
one has face-to-face interaction between students and instructors and among
students, one is dependent on every student staying motivated enough to complete
the course on their own, and one can integrate text, graphics, video, and
audio under the control of the learner.
Myth Three: All
employees learn in an online environment. Large numbers of employees in the
same company, in some cases thousands, are expected to take the same online
courses. This assumes that all employees learn in the same way, that a visual
learner, an auditory learner, and a kinesthetic learner will all be able to
learn and apply the instructional content on a computer screen within roughly
the same amount of time and the same resources.
Myth Four: E-learning
courses are cheaper to deliver than classroom education. It is assumed that
once a course is developed, the cost of each employee accessing that course
on the Web or printing additional CD-ROMs is negligible. And by sending the
course content to employees, companies save the cost of instructors, travel,
and facilities.
Myth Five: Having
a vast selection of courses from which to choose is an advantage. This is
the more-is-better assumption. It is like having a virtual university, a veritable
smorgasbord of educational offerings at your fingertips (literally). An employee
can select an Intranet course about one of the company's proprietary processes,
a generic course on project management from a professional association, a
course in Excel from a software training vender, or a course in stress management
offered by a community college.
Myth Six: Working and learning are separate activities. A corollary to this is that if you are at your desk, on the shop floor, in a team meeting, you are not learning. Learning is something that happens outside of work. Therefore, e-learning should be provided outside of work hours.