What is eLearning?

Other sources: magazines, events, zines, white papers, conferences

Glossary

The eLearning FAQ

SmartForce, Learn Fast, Go Fast, pdf (11/99)
Disclosure: SmartForce was an Internet Time Group client..

Notes & Oldies

eLearning

According to Jay Cross, information architect of Internet Time Group, "eLearning" is the target model for corporate training in the next three to five years. It will be a key survival skill for corporations and free agent learners and is a convergence of:

• loosely organized corporate ecologies
• a business climate of permanent white water
• technological advances, including high-speed broadband networks
• a shift of power and responsibility from organizations to individuals
• emergent best practices, from performance support to training to knowledge management.

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 with work."

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

• personal software agents that crawl the Web to screen and feed information to personal portals
• connected gadgets and gizmos that simplify (and complicate) our lives
• plug-and-play training modularity
• learning standards that create interchangeable, Lego-like objects that slash costs and development time
• personal files and programs that run directly from the Internet.

More info www.intemettime.com

Training & Development, November 1999

Will Companies Ever Learn? "Learning has got to be connected directly to the 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 be embedded in processes, projects, and experiences. If you put your energy into people who are ready and willing to join you, and if those people add value to the business, others will come."

Get Smart Online, UpsideToday Special Report (4/00)

"Training is moving online for the same reason that companies attempted outsourcing 10 years ago," says Gartner Group analyst Clark Aldrich. "Not because it's better but because it's cheaper and more measurable." There are technical barriers to implementation, some of which are overcome by outsourcing. Pressures for eLearning include demands for global reach, reduced time to market, flexibility, just-in-time learning, and cost savings. Even with he right internal systems in place, companies often find it challenging to navigate such a young market to find the right fit. The metrics are murky.

eLearning: Rhetoric vs Reality, Gautam Ghosh

Into the Future, a Vision Paper by Wayne Hodgins and Jay Cross (2/2000) for ASTD and NGA. In HTML, not pdf.

The Future of Online Learning by Stephen Downes (7/98), a classic

Getting Started with Online Learning, Macromedia, "designed to help authors create learning applications that succeed."

Web Based Training Information Center