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Research on the Future
of Learning and Business
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Internet
Time Group
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IMPORTANT POINTS
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How Individuals Will Learn in 2004This chapter discusses how individuals learn and how to make the most of it. The next looks at how organizations learn.
Science tells us that we use less than 10% of our brains’ capacity. Every one of us has the capacity to achieve great things.
eLearning posits that businesses usually tap less than 10% of their members’ capacity for learning. Recent discoveries have shed new light on how people learn. Technology is providing the tools to fully integrate working, learning, and teamwork.
Leaders who believe in the power of eLearning will reap huge rewards. On the other hand, training will live down to the expectations of corporate chieftains who don’t have the faith.
The Great Training Robbery
“Many managers have just about had it with what they think of as the “training scam.” They’re tired of having their people taken away from their jobs to attend “training,” only to have them return without any more useful skills than when they left.” “But many managers who feel dinged by the training game are victims by choice. They are people who wouldn’t dream of entering a high-stakes poker game without at least knowing the rules and something about the strategies, but who blithely buy training without knowing the territory.” Robert Mager, What Every Manager Should Know About Training
Every year, American corporations pour $60 billion dollars into training. Many are dissatisfied with the results. They have good reason. They should be getting a ten to one hundred-fold return on training investments. The results of most training programs are marginal. What are we going to do?
What gets measured gets done. Training is no more than a means to an end. The goal is improved performance. Rather than spending on training, businesses in 2002 will invest in improved performance. Executives will demand an attractive ROI. If they don’t receive it, they will wrest training from training departments and manage the function as a line activity. Measures of effectiveness –scales measuring customer satisfaction, skills and effectiveness at the individual and unit level, and cost-benefit analyses – will be commonplace.
Underestimate the power of learning and it will live down to your expectations. By 2002, business will have broken free of the obsolete vestiges of industrial training that are the rule today. Ironically, we already know many ways to revitalize training. Major advances in adult learning theory have lain dormant in professional journals, awaiting discovery and application by enlightened organizations. What’s holding them back? Underestimating the upside potential of change (it’s HUGE) and looking at training as if it were “school” (it’s nearly the opposite.) Senior executives are skeptical, as are learning gurus.[1] It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Learning is a never-ending journey, not a destination. By 2004, we’ll all recognize that learning is a process not an event. Instead of “courses,” corporations will build learning environments, developing competencies holistically rather than piecemeal. Information and knowledge are becoming so perishable that one author suggests they come with expiration dates, like cartons of milk. If the pace of the Internet keeps accelerating, technical certifications will only be good for a month or two. Take a long vacation, and you’ll never catch up with what’s happening on the job. An eighteen-year old will take your job. That’s why we’ll all be lifelong learners.
Types of Learning
“Real learning is not what most of us grew up thinking it was.” Charles Handy
1. “Cognitive learning” relates to understanding something better. It’s in your head. You learn from reading, computer-based training, stories, case studies, and looking for answers to questions. 2. “Affective learning” involves changing attitudes, beliefs, and feelings. It’s in your heart. You learn through self-discovery. Often you need other to confront a new view of how the world works. Affective learning is tough because it often challenges our egos. 3. “Behavioral learning” deals with things you can do. Unlike what’s in your head and your heart, you can directly observe behavior. You learn behaviors by seeing a model and trying it out. Mistakes are wonderful teachers.
The majority of adult learning is informal, in the coffee room, finding
things out from the help desk, experimenting, or asking the person in
the next cube.
“Hard” Skills
If you tell me I may listen, If you show me I may understand, If you involve me I
will learn.
The Soft StuffKnowledge comes in two forms. “Explicit knowledge” can be articulated. It’s concrete. Often you can find it in a book or report. “Tacit knowledge” is how things really work. It’s the processes and know-how you cannot write down. You learn tacit knowledge through absorption, interacting with and shaping it through conversation and apprenticeship. By 2004, most corporations will accept that tacit knowledge learned over the water cooler is more important than explicit knowledge. To increase tacit knowledge, you make it easy for people with things to learn from one another to get together.
Stunning new research finds that “emotional intelligence” is twice as important as traditional learning and IQ combined. By 2004, we’ll recognize that you get the bigger bang from your buck when by helping people learn empathy, innovation, and commitment than from additional helpings of product knowledge.
Super Payback
What works bestBefore addressing how technology will ramp up plain learning to eLearning, let’s look at some rules of thumb developed in pre-tech days but equally valid today. Adults learn better
when they: · Are highly motivated to learn · Know what’s in it for them and deem it relevant · Have mastered the prerequisites · Understand what’s expected of them · Can connect with other people · Are challenged to make choices · Feel safe about showing what they do and do not know · Control the pace, navigation, and delivery of learning · When the learning experience matches their style of learning · Receive information in small packets · Receive frequent progress reports · Know where they are in the learning cycle · Learn things close to the time they will need them · Don’t fear looking stupid · Can concentrate on learning without distractions · Know their individual style of learning · Receive encouragement from coaches or mentors · Receive positive reinforcement for small victories · Are self-directed and hungry to learn · Vary the style of delivery (say, discussion followed by a simulation) · Complete a cycle from experience through reflection to generalizing · Can go at a pace that’s neither over their heads nor beneath their capabilities ·
Are free of
worry or stress about external conditions Tired? You should be. This list summarizes the lessons of more than two hundred studies on adult learning and the theories of more than thirty-five learning gurus and management thought leaders.
Motivated LearningThree things moltivate people to learn:
eLearning will go beyond today’s norms by associating learning with personal emotional payoffs. We recall debriefing a regional banking manager whose institution had just conducted a training course for its personal bankers. Part of the workshop addressed conflict resolution particularly well. “Personal bankers began calling to thank us for making the training available,” said the regional manager. “It not only makes us better bankers. It also improves our lives.” This particular bank regional was soon breaking long-standing sales records.
eLearning will include lagniappes, too. Motivated learners not only learn better, they are also more loyal, committed, and happier on the job. An eLearning curriculum is likely to provide electives in self-empowerment, accomplishing personal goals, and enjoying life outside the work environment. Expanding corporate learning to include unexpected opportunities for personally gratifying learning is a small price to pay for gung-ho employees.
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People who need people…
Does eLearning require facilitators, trainers, and mentors? In person? Some activities require you to show up. In the flesh. For example, people rarely change deep-seated beliefs without sharing experience with people. Small groups are the only way for many alcoholics to sober up and drug addicts to stay clean. Rallies are a great way to whip a crowd into frenzy. Contrary to visions of 1984 and Big Brother, computers and networks do not isolate people; they bring them together. This is their most important role. Also, eLearning does not propose destroying all the classrooms. Traditional classroom learning will be with us long past 2004. Classes are fun. Classes teach powerful lessons. Some classes are perks. Nonetheless, eLearning will use technology to bring people together virtually rather than physically. Who will help you learn more, a coach who’s almost always available by videophone or a coach who will see you in person but only on Thursday afternoons? Which would you prefer, learning from the guy down the hall or from the world authority on the subject who’s on another continent? Face-to-face is expensive and time-consuming. More and more business relationships are mediated by phone calls, voicemail, conference calls, email, and other means. And the same will hold true for learning. Scores of vendors of synchronous training systems are betting that people will continue attending classes in cyberspace. The fidelity of electronically transmitted images is rapidly improving. By 2004, full-motion video will have replaced the jerky postage-stamp sized video of 1999. Looking at someone on screen will be much more akin to looking at them through a window. Gordon Bell, father of the minicomputer and entrepreneur extraordinaire, now researches telepresence for Microsoft. Bell is probably shorting airline stocks, for he predicts that we’re reaching the point where attending a meeting virtually will be as effective as being there for real. Stanford university researchers have found that our Neanderthal brains, formed long before the invention of media, can’t tell a cartoon from a live compadre.[2]
School’s Out
Teach (t..ch) v 1. To impart knowledge or skill to Learn (lûrn) v. 1. To gain knowledge, comprehension, or mastery of through experience or study
Most of what goes on in school is a terrible, ineffective way to learn. Think about your own schooling. Didn’t the teachers decide what you’d be taught, how the message would be delivered, and when you’d study what? Doesn’t this discourage creativity and extinguish the joy of learning?
Gordon MacKensie, the former “creative paradox” at Hallmark Cards and the most moving speaker Jay has ever heard, tells of visiting public schools to talk about art. When he asks kindergartners, “How many of you are artists?” all the children raise their hands. Among first graders, a third of the hands no longer go up. Half of the second graders raise their hands. By fifth grade, no hands go up. In six years, school has managed to beat the creativity out of its pupils.[3]
School punishes group effort (“cheating”) at a time when the world of work seeks more cooperation and teamwork. School focuses on content, not process; academics, not problem-solving. Subjects are watered down and taught out of context, poor preparation for living in an increasingly complex, interconnected world. Measurement systems (grades) are unrelated to meaningful achievement. Schools reward the completion of learning, not its continuation.
"The
method people naturally employ to acquire knowledge is largely unsupported
by traditional classroom practice. The human mind is better equipped
to gather information about the world by operating within it than by
reading about it, hearing lectures on it, or studying abstract models
of it." Roger Schank and John Cleave
Like battered children who grow up to victimize their own children, corporate managers and staff unwittingly perpetuate the mistakes of schooling by supporting classes, lectures, one-way meetings, pontification by experts, dumbed-down content, and other baggage from their childhoods.
40% of America’s high-school graduates cannot locate France on a map.
Real learning starts with the learner, not the teacher. People learn by solving problems, by making mistakes and correcting them, by hearing stories, by engaging multiple senses, and by following the call of their innate curiosity. They learn best when they understand why something’s important to learn and can put what’s being learned into the framework of their experience. People learn when they’re intrinsically motivated and psychologically up for it. People learn when they feel in control of their learning, can set their own pace, and feel free to discover things on their own. Unfortunately, executives often draw on the “school” concept when making major investments in learning, thereby perpetuating the inefficiencies of the past. Synchronous learning mimics the class; asynchronous learning is an automated library or lecture hall.
“No more classes, no more books No more teacher’s dirty looks.” Discovery Learning
Kolb tells us that learning begins when a people confront something that seems out of place. Learners cycle through a series of steps, seeking to incorporate the apparent anomaly can be incorporated into their worldview. Learning has taken place when a new level of understanding clears up the picture. For example, let’s look at how Sarah learned about fixing computer bugs. Sarah’s computer was freezing about once an hour, displaying a blue screen that said, “Processing halted. Error 4347440.” She experimented with a variety of solutions. Her Windows 98 manual made no mention of this. Nor did the Microsoft web site. She called Microsoft but hung up after waiting 25 minutes. She entered “4347440” into several search engines and came up empty. She asked her twelve-year old daughter is she knew anything about Error 4347440. Her daughter tells her Error 4347440 is usually the result of running version 1.6 soundcard drivers and a force-feed joystick under Windows 98. “Gee, Mom, everybody knows that.” Sarah observes that her daughter is the first source to come up with an answer. Sarah downloads and installs version 1.7 drivers and the problem disappears. She reflects that asking her daughter for advice was much more productive than searching for answers on her own in a giant, unorganized database. And she found out that marrying different vintages of software can make Windows balk. Abstracting on these reflections, Sarah resolves that next time her computer acts up, she’s going to ask other people if they’ve experienced the same problem. Also, she’s going to think back on what she most recently added to her computer that might be confusing its operating system. Two hours later, Sarah’s computer crashes, this time reporting “Msgsrcv32 not found,” aptly demonstrating that individual learning is a continuous cycle repeated over and over again, one step after another. Any looping process bogs down if one stays too long at one stage without moving ahead through the cycle. Businesses often overemphasize the physical steps of Experiment and Observe. “Just do it.” “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it.” “I don’t know why it works but it does.” “If ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Academia invests too much time on the mental steps of Reflection and Abstraction. Hence, new graduates lack “practical experience.” “It’s academic” translates as “It doesn’t make a difference in the real world.” People learn best, and are most satisfied, when learning completes the entire cycle. De-emphasize the mental components and the result is “mindless work.” Skirt the physical aspects and it’s “all talk and no action.” As the cornucopia of technology gushes out exciting new learning technologies, wise planners will use the four steps of the learning cycle as a checklist in constructing a balanced set of learning activities.
Kolb's intellectual decendents describe four modes of learning: watchers learn best by observation thinkers are logical problem solvers feelers get emotionally involved doers are impatient and want to dive right in
Automating Apprenticeship
In time, apprentice learns how the master thinks. The new twist in eLearning is that technology is continually changing the nature of the craft. Everyone’s an apprentice of one sort or another. The New Knowledge WorkerConsider, if you will, a Cadillac mechanic confronted with a faulty carburetor. Her job is more complicated than in the old days. Yesterday most Cadillac carburetors were essentially the same; today they come in hundreds of models and shapes. The mechanic once dealt with the same soft of carburetor every day, getting lots of practice. Among today’s great variety, she may see the same carburetor every couple of months – plenty of time to forget. As carburetors become more reliable, she also has to deal with carburetors from a greater span of time. There’s an overwhelming amount of information to learn. Mechanic work becomes knowledge work.
The Department of Defense and General Motors tackled this information glut before the challenges to their mechanics spiraled totally out of control. They interview and recorded pointers and guidance from the wisest old hands in the shop. At Cadillac, GM came up with a limited, problem-solving vocabulary that could be understood by inexpensive voice recognition software. They structured the knowledge gleaned from the old hands in a solution-oriented architecture.
The New Knowledge WorkWhen today’s Cadillac mechanic is wrestling with a misbehaving carburetor, she describes the symptoms to an inexpensive, voice-activated computer on her belt. Immediately, she receives expert information via a head-mounted display or portable LCD screen.
So, does the mechanic become a robot performing mindless tasks? No, and in fact, just the opposite occurs, for the mechanic/knowledge worker uses high-order skills for analysis, diagnosis, and decision-making to summon and apply the information the computer displays. There’s a consistency in working with systems of this nature, whether one is fixing machinery or performing brain surgery.
In the future, people who master knowledge-work skills will be able to perform many different functions without further “training.” People will hone their general skills at working with knowledge rather than studying, for example, the nuances of the X7Y4G four-barrel carb. Short Attention Span Theater
Recent example is the Monkey Wrench Conspiracy, a game developed to teach young engineers how to use a new and innovative software environment. The software maker will distribute copies of the game with the product. Looking for all the world like a commercial software game, the Monkey Wrench Conspiracy challenges the players to use the new software product in increasingly complex fashion. The game aspect keeps the learners motivated.
Gameware takes advantage of question-based learning. Learners answer the questions they can and get help on those they can’t. There’s no failure involved: everyone plays until they can answer all the questions. QBL focuses on what people need to learn (the questions they can’t answer). It requires active participation. It parallels the way kids learn about computers. In fact, it’s closer to question-based Socratic teaching than most instruction.
Gameware fits best when outcomes are clear and motivation is low.
Single users compete against the highest score. As in pinball or other arcade games. But the competition is worldwide.
Of course, not everyone enjoys the same game. Oldsters like card games, yuppies enjoy Jeopardy, thirty-somethings like PacMan, and younger people go for Quake. By 2002, gameware will enable the learner to pick a topic and to pick the game format in which to learn it.
Gameware is unlike simulations. Sims are traditionally complex, time-consuming to build, expensive, and often off-target; not a good cost/benefit ratio. Templates are the exact opposite – because content is poured into an existing structure, making them fast to build, flexible, and cost-effective.
Pace of learning for the new generation is wrong. Their learning style is shaped in the rapid-fire cauldron of Sesame Street, then MTV, twitch games, and action movies. After learning in these fast-paced environments, going to school makes everything seem like slow motion. Kids “power down” as they enter the schoolyard.
Emotional Intelligence
Stability in business has yielded to chaotic change in the last twenty years, transforming what were once mildly important traits into the very hallmarks of star performers. Goleman and his colleagues have delineated what’s required to become a super achiever. Among the winner’s repertoire:
(See Appendix for complete Emotional Competence Framework)
BRINGING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE TO THE WORKPLACE “Emotional capacities like empathy or flexibility differ from cognitive abilities because they draw on different brain areas. Purely cognitive abilities are based in the neocortex. But with social and emotional competencies, additional brain areas are involved, mainly the circuitry that runs from the emotional centers – particularly the amygdala – deep in the center of the brain up to the prefrontal lobes, the brain’s executive center. Effective learning for emotional competence has to re-tune these circuits. Cognitive learning involves fitting new data and insights into existing frameworks of association and understanding, extending and enriching the corresponding neural circuitry. But emotional learning involves that and more – it requires that we also engage the neural circuitry where our social and emotional habit repertoire is stored. Changing habits such as learning to approach people positively instead of avoiding them, to listen better, or to give feedback skillfully, is a more challenging task than simply adding new information to old. Motivational factors also make social and emotional learning more difficult and complex than purely cognitive learning. Emotional learning often involves ways of thinking and acting that are more central to a person’s identity. A person who is told, for instance, that he should learn a new word processing program usually will become less upset and defensive than if he is told that he should learn how to better control his temper or become a better listener. The prospect of needing to develop greater emotional competence is a bitter pill for many of us to swallow. It thus is much more likely to generate resistance to change.” Optimal Process for Developing
Four basic phases make up the emotional learning process: · The first occurs even before the individual begins formal training. This initial phase, which is crucial for effective social and emotional learning, involves preparation for change. This preparation occurs at both the organizational and individual levels. · The second phase, training, covers the change process itself. It includes the processes that help people change the way in which they view the world and deal with its social and emotional demands. · The third phase, transfer and maintenance, addresses what happens following the formal training experience. · The final phase involves evaluation. Given the current state of knowledge about social and emotional learning, the complexity of programs designed to promote such learning and the great unevenness in the effectiveness of existing programs, evaluation always should be part of the process.” Information networks will support and reinforce each of the four phases. Consider the opportunities provided by: on-line assessment, unlimited practice opportunities, the ability to choose one’s path in a hyperspace, providing reinforcement and monitoring, and creating an apt organizational culture through shared stories, virtual teams, and buddy systems.
We’ll revisit the topic of emotional competence in the chapter on organizational learning that follows.
All Learning is SocialJohn Seely Brown, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation and director of Xerox PARC, observed that copier repair staff learned more about how to deal with customers in bull sessions than in classrooms. When confronted with a problem, field technicians consulted dog-eared manuals festooned with scribbles, notes, and yellow highlighter, not the pristine “official” manuals. Think about how you learned to do your job, and we mean how you learned to really do your job, not to just go through the motions. Was it in a classroom? Or from the people around you? Most of us would not be successful without intuition and “street smarts,” the intangible things you learn from working with others. Brown and his colleagues concluded that “learning is about work, work is about learning, and both are social.” The Institute for Research on Learning carried these ideas forward, and we’ll come back to them in the next chapter. We bring them up here because they impact the design of individual learning. If people learn the good stuff over water coolers, organizations need to build more water coolers, not more courseware. Since people learn what works – especially what we can’t even articulate – by informal means, let’s not block out their calendars with structured exercises. Last year a controversial book presented evidence that children learn more from peers than from parents. The Institute for Learning Research makes a case that workers learn more from peers than from managers and supervisors. By 2002, eLearning won’t be a steady diet of structured learning. It will provide time (and respect) for non-scheduled time, for chance encounters, for cross-fertilization from other areas, and for letting important issues bubble up to the surface in the course of goofing off. Learners will chat over net-based water coolers. Parts of the 2002 learning net will be a web without a weaver.
Different Strokes for Different Folks
Academics and trainers engage in holy wars over the most meaningful way to look at learning styles. One research project or another has found strong support for each of these ways of assessing learning styles: · Personality (extrovert/introvert models) · Information-processing (linear thinking v. broader conceptualizing) · Social-interaction models (learning-oriented v. grade-oriented) · Instructional preference models (listening v. reading v experiential learning) Learners also differ by the phase of Kolb’s discovery learning cycle they choose to emphasize, giving us: · Convergers who prefer finding the one right answer to a problem · Divergers to prefer brainstorming and collaboration about multiple answers · Assimilators who prefer reflecting on their findings to create new plans or generalizations · Accommodators who enjoy taking a hands-on, trial-and-error approach Harvard professor Howard Gardner finds that people exhibit these “multiple intelligences:” · Visual-spatial · Bodily-kinesthetic · Musical · Understanding of others (“Interpersonal”) · Self-understanding (“Intrapersonal”) · Linguistic · Logical-mathematic
All people learn about the world through these seven frameworks, but in varying degrees. I solve problems readily (high logical IQ) but can’t carry a tune (low musical IQ); I have an ear for languages (high linguistic IQ) but was always the last person picked for the softball team (low kinesthetic IQ). To complicate matters further, a person brings a unique mix of IQs to bear in any given situation. In a team situation, effectiveness can hinge on each individual’s contribution. Readers who prefer the “diverger” style will have a field day thinking about this; it gets very complicated.
Gardner says that differences in learning style “challenge an educational system that assumes that everyone can learn the same materials in the same way and that a uniform, universal measure suffices to test student learning. Indeed, as currently constituted, our educational system is heavily biased toward linguistic modes of instruction and assessment and, to a somewhat lesser degree, toward logical-quantitative modes as well.” You would think that the obvious next step would be to assess each individual’s preferred learning style at the front end and dispense learning in keeping with that style. Surely, if you’re training enough people, at some level economies of scale justify this approach. Well, it’s not that easy. To our knowledge, no one has successfully implemented this approach. While we can’t pinpoint what form of learning is best suited for a given individual, we can increase the odds of success by providing several different ways to learn. Consider this likely scenario in eLearning. The learner is to master a set of customer service skills by responding to complaints from mock customers an on-line simulation. To accommodate individual differences in style, a learner: · Can complete on-line prework to get to know the ropes before entering the simulation, choosing either sound or written media · Dive right in and see what works and what doesn’t · Dive in – but with an on-line coach providing advice along the way · Hop out of the scenario and into practice exercises before continuing · Challenge the final exam right off to find out if there’s really anything to learn Instead of “one-size-fits-all,” we can at least provide a variety of sizes and leave it up to each learner to find the best fit.[4] The academic performance high-school students markedly improves when they know their individual learning styles. The students learn the best study habits to follow and are aware of learning pitfalls associated with their particular M.O. We have seen no reports of comparable findings in adult learning, although we presume adults also improve learning by knowing their own learning styles and the implications.
Learning Styles and "Type" (from NYT) Learners are Customers
We’ve heard too many vendors and training directors blame trainees or their supervisors for programs that have failed. This is dead wrong. If your goal is to improve performance, you design a way to do so, and it doesn’t work, you’re to blame, not the people who experienced it.[5] When customers don’t buy our products, do we blame the “stupid customers”? Knowledge workers will not learn if they are not motivated to do so. Engineers tell us that what’s holding up high bandwidth to the home is “the last mile,” the last wires from the local switching station to the home. In eLearning, the biggest obstacle is “the last three feet,” the distance from the computer display to the inside of the learner’s head. Thinking of learners as customers makes it clear that it’s our job to sell them. Companies practicing eCommerce today work on how to entice the customer to buy, how to cross sell, how to win customer loyalty, and repeat business. They calculate the lifetime value of a customer, usually finding it a staggering sum. They follow up on complaints immediately, because they know that on the net, one complaint can reverberate to thousands of potential customers. They strive to learn something from every customer interaction in order to serve the customer better in the future. They mass customize their offerings to provide 1:1 service and individualized products. eLearning will steal all these techniques from eCommerce. In the eLearning environment, corporate leaders bear responsibility for: · Sell employees on the value of learning · Do whatever it takes to keep ‘em coming back · Know the lifetime value of an well-trained employee · Open feedback channels galore · Take action on suggestions immediately · Learn more about how each person learns, what they’ve mastered, and what they need next · Tailor learning to the individual learner Customers.com[6], a popular new business book, tells how to “create a profitable business strategy for the Internet and beyond.” We’ll replace “customer” with “learner”, and “business” with “learning”, to create an effective strategy for eLearning and beyond.
Customers.com also cautions us not to ignore these learner fundamentals:
Playing to Learn
Last year while visiting Cambridge, Massachusetts, my wife and I dropped Austin at a cybercafe while we went to the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum. When we returned, he was playing Doom with a bunch of Israelis. Who were in Israel at the time. Marc Prensky has developed a line of training templates called “Corporate Gameware.” Here Marc tells us why:
“Why Gameware? Simulations, quizzes and other game types are an important factor in bringing engagement to the learning process. This is particularly true for the "under 30" generation which grew up with computer games and find them fun and challenging. While entertainment computer games produce a great deal of engagement, they generally have little or no useful content. Business learning typically has a great deal of content, but little engagement. Corporate Gameware™ puts the two together. When the games' content is right (i.e. the questions and tasks are hard and very relevant to the user's success on his or her job), the engagement is particularly high.”
We asked Marc why he had chosen to base his learning games on templates.
“Why Templates? Templates (a/k/a "shells" or "engines") separate text, graphic and voice content (created and entered by you) from functionality and programming (determined by the template). In doing so, they address the three biggest problems associated with corporate multimedia learning:
With templates, the cost for each new project goes down, since the software component for the second and subsequent projects goes to zero. Once the template is licensed, a new module requires only (internal) content creation and entry. This typically takes days or weeks, rather than the three to six months required for custom projects, and relatively inexpensive personnel can do most of it (at Bankers Trust, we use recent college graduates). Since you create and enter, you can modify it whenever you feel like it. Matching the Medium and the Message
We’ve also talked with investors who extol the benefits of on-line learning – slashes costs, available any time, take what you need, scales to audience size, and so forth – without taking a few hours to try out an on-line course. (Many sample on-line courses are available for free.) We recently enrolled in numerous on-line learning experiences. Some notes from the real world.
1. Webcast. Lecture is not dead. Not all lectures, that is. I attended a lecture by Vanguard founder John Bogle. I was at home in Berkeley; Bogle (Princeton Class of ’51) was addressing an alumni group on the Princeton campus. Bogle’s talk was webcast by Netpodium; remote attendees listened in using the RealNetworks G2 plug in. The media was no better than listening to a talk on the radio. But the experience was great. I enjoyed the talk; Bogle taught me a number of things.[7] Observations: · A great speaker can carry a presentation without resorting to multimedia. · There’s no substitute for getting the word from someone who was there. It’s authentic. And the presentation is made of stories instead of summaries. In addition to in-house programs, ELearning will undoubtedly embrace “celebrity lectures” and other outside resources. Why not learn about generic subjects from the lips of the world’s foremost and most articulate experts?
2. Eloquent. We popped a CD into the slot and listened to Geoffrey Moore explain “the Gorilla Game” and Elliott Masie talk about “learning in the digital age.” Geoffrey appears on-screen in a 2x2 window. Text of Geoff’s words scrolls along simultaneously. PowerPoint slides are flipping up as he speaks. We make the PowerPoint larger and shrink Geoff. His sweeping gestures give life to the PowerPoint slides. Geoff starts to bore us; we crank up the speed 36%. Cool. Instructionally, this is just a one-way presentation. It’s got graphics. It lasts and can be reviewed. We can speed it up or skip over things we don’t like. But learning? That’s suspect. Next comes Elliott Masie. Like Geoff Moore, he’s a very animated speaker. The small video screen lends itself to the exaggerated gestures that used to appear in silent movies. Elliott’s talking excitedly about what we call eLearning. We click on the scrolling text and save a copy of the text of his presentation for review. As Elliott says, “What's on the horizon in the next couple of months, in the next year? And it's not just new toys and gizmos and gadgets and tools, but also it's new strategies, new levels of organizational commitment and new models for how we're going to use learning as a powerful tool for business, for growth, and for development.”
We opt for one more round. Now we’re going to hear Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet and founder of 3Com, talking with MIT alums about bandwidth. Metcalfe is a very funny – and opinionated – speaker. He’s calling the phone companies “bottleneck providers” whose core competencies are lobbying and legislation. The video made us feel like we were getting to know Metcalfe. On the downside, though, he didn’t use any visuals. Where we were accustomed to seeing Geoff or Elliott’s slides, this time around the screen showed a static card giving the name of the talk.
3. Online chat. A proprietary “college” invited us to join a discussion of on-line learning with a consultant who “has helped a great number of large and small organizations plan and develop learning processes for optimizing corporate performance.” At the prescribed hour, eight of us logged on. We commenced hurling text at one another, all seeing the same lines appearing on the screen. Reading the black text on a gray background was straining our eyes. The font was too small. Text moved by a little too fast for us to reflect on it. We suspect that the discussion leader had arrived with some text already written. <Leader> “Many businesses are capitalizing on the power and speed of knowledge to transform the cycle time involved in birthing a successful business idea from concept to market success. Knowledge is what distinguishes some of the most robust current business ideas from rapid business failure and organizational entropy. This trend will continue in the future
This is not conversation. This is trading slips of paper back and forth. Or dropping slips of paper in a hat and picking them out, not knowing whether or not you'll pluck out your response or someone else's. In the afternoon Jay returned for a private session with a founder of the online university that had sponsored the morning session. “Dave” requested we chat online. Excerpts:
<Dave> we transfer the same content online for $49 that is transferred in the classroom over 5 days for $4900 which means we can get a robust capability transferred to everyone in each of our content areas…We see a pretty geeky future in organization/people development as far as technology goes . . . We are investing ourselves in the emergence of the virtual or 3D webspace as the platform for experiential and simulational learning in the form of what we call “practice fields
<Dave> …the other large issue Delivering an INTERESTING (read: multimedia) learning application at garden variety 56K transfer rates <Jay>Thank goodness most training video is gratuitous fluff. <Dave> Yep. Hah That’s true.
<Dave> Regarding Kevin Kelly’s book . . . really agree that MOST IMPORTANT objective, (capitalization aside) is popularity/ubiquity rapidly before niche is filled by someone less capable or viable but more popular. <Jay> Kevin opened my eyes to quite a few things. <Dave> Really? <Jay> The inevitability of “training” customers.
<Jay> I have a couple of questions about what you’ve said thus far. <Dave> Yep Yep Yep shoot! <Jay> 1. This morning, Dale mentioned Lew Platt’s comment that if HP knew what HP knew, they’d be so much better off. Indeed, most “knowledge” is within organizations, not outside. You mentioned “transferring” something to your customers. Content? Tools? Infrastructure? <Dave> Capability Our mission is to help our customers improve their organizations We do that through learning products and through our management services
<Jay> 2. Price paradigm. I don’t think this is the big issue long term (and I’ve sold a whale of a lot of training.) For a “learning organization” to work entails recognizing that in the info age, learning IS the business. That takes it out of the staff and lays it on the line. CEO stuff, not training, out of budget, extraordinary expenditures, etc.
<Dave> Not sure I understand your Number 2. Can you say some more? <Jay> You mentioned offering for $49 what would have cost $4900 in the past. Well, the $4900 probably brought them $100,000 in results but training was still vulnerable to budget cuts, especially in off years. Training departments will fade into the woodwork as management takes responsibility for the knowledge growth and practice of the workers. These folks are more bottom-lined oriented than training types. What’s the right price tag for saving your company from oblivion? <Dave> OHHHHHHH . . . . yes I agree. But I see a sort of different evolutionary stream
Appendix
Instructional Design Model
The ADDIE model, a systems approach to performance improvement, has long reigned as the Instructional Designer’s mantra:[8]
Anyone who has ever developed training will have some variation of this algorithm around. Here’s a more comprehensive statement of it:
By 2002, the ISD model will probably have outlived its usefulness[9] because it…
Emotional Competence FrameworkSOURCES: This generic competence framework distills findings from: MOSAIC competencies for professionals and administrators (U.S. Dept. of Personnel); Spencer and Spencer, Competence at Work; and top performance and leadership competence studies published in Richard H. Rosier (ed.), The Competency Model Handbook, Volumes One and Two (Boston : Linkage, 1994 and 1995), especially those from Cigna, Sprint, American Express, Sandoz Pharmaceuticals; Wisconsin Power and Light; and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland. Much of the material that follows comes from Working with Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman (Bantam, 1998). Personal Competence Self-awareness EMOTIONAL AWARENESS: Recognizing one’s emotions and their effects. People with this competence:
ACCURATE SELF-ASSESSMENT: Knowing one’s strengths and limits. People with this competence are:
SELF-CONFIDENCE: Sureness about one’s self-worth and capabilities. People with this competence:
Self-Regulation SELF-CONTROL: Managing disruptive emotions and impulses. People with this competence:
TRUSTWORTHINESS: Maintaining standards of honesty and integrity. People with this competence:
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS: Taking responsibility for personal performance. People with this competence:
ADAPTABILITY: Flexibility in handling change. People with this competence:
INNOVATIONS: Being comfortable with and open to novel ideas and new information. People with this competence:
Self-Motivation ACHIEVEMENT DRIVE: Striving to improve or meet a standard of excellence. People with this competence:
COMMITMENT: Aligning with the goals of the group or organization. People with this competence:
INITIATIVE: Readiness to act on opportunities. People with this competence:
OPTIMISM: Persistence in pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks. People with this competence:
Social Competence Social Awareness EMPATHY: Sensing others’ feelings and perspective, and taking an active interest in their concerns. People with this competence:
SERVICE ORIENTATION: Anticipating, recognizing, and meeting customers’ needs. People with this competence:
DEVELOPING OTHERS: Sensing what others need in order to develop, and bolstering their abilities. People with this competence:
LEVERAGING DIVERSITY: Cultivating opportunities through diverse people. People with this competence:
POLITICAL AWARENESS: Reading a group’s emotional currents and power relationships. People with this competence:
Social Skills INFLUENCE: Wielding effective tactics for persuasion. People with this competence:
COMMUNICATION: Sending clear and convincing messages. People with this competence:
LEADERSHIP: Inspiring and guiding groups and people. People with this competence:
CHANGE CATALYST: Initiating or managing change. People with this competence:
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT: Negotiating and resolving disagreements. People with this competence:
BUILDING BONDS: Nurturing instrumental relationships. People with this competence:
COLLABORATION AND COOPERATION: Working with others toward shared goals. People with this competence:
TEAM CAPABILITIES: Creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals. People with this competence:
Is our company alone in being this dissatisfied?
No. “Training will address business problems or training will be marginalized,” said the keynoter at Online Learning ’98. The experts seem to feel training staffs are opting for marginalization.
Training magazine asked the thought leaders in training and development, “Is there a learning curve in this business?” They didn’t see much progress. Some said little progress had been made in the past 1,000 years.
Michigan Tech Center for Teaching, Learning, and Faculty Development
Accommodating Learning Styles
Visuals: Visual media help students acquire concrete concepts, such as object identification, spatial relationship, or motor skills where words alone are inefficient. Printed words: There is disagreement about audio's superiority to print for affective objectives; several models do not recommend verbal sound if it is not part of the task to be learned. Sound: A distinction is drawn between verbal sound and non-verbal sound such as music. Sound media are necessary to present a stimulus for recall or sound recognition. Audio narration is recommended for poor readers. Motion: Models force decisions among still, limited movement, and full movement visuals. Motion is used to depict human performance so that learners can copy the movement. Several models assert that motion may be unnecessary and provides decision aid questions based upon objectives. Visual media which portray motion are best to show psychomotor or cognitive domain expectations by showing the skill as a model against which students can measure their performance. Color: Decisions on color display are required if an object's color is relevant to what is being learned. Realia: Realia are tangible, real objects which are not models and are useful to teach motor and cognitive skills involving unfamiliar objects. Realia are appropriate for use with individuals or groups and may be situation based. Realia may be used to present information realistically but it may be equally important that the presentation corresponds with the way learner's represent information internally. Instructional Setting: Design should cover whether the materials are to be used in a home or instructional setting and consider the size what is to be learned. Print instruction should be delivered in an individualized mode which allows the learner to set the learning pace. The ability to provide corrective feedback for individual learners is important but any medium can provide corrective feedback by stating the correct answer to allow comparison of the two answers. Learner Characteristics: Most models consider learner characteristics as media may be differentially effective for different learners. Although research has had limited success in identifying the media most suitable for types of learners several models are based on this method. Reading ability: Pictures facilitate learning for poor readers who benefit more from speaking than from writing because they understand spoken words; self-directed good readers can control the pace; and print allows easier review. Categories of Learning Outcomes: Categories ranged from three to eleven and most include some or all of Gagne's (1977) learning categories; intellectual skills, verbal information, motor skills, attitudes, and cognitive strategies. Several models suggest a procedure which categorizes learning outcomes, plans instructional events to teach objectives, identifies the type of stimuli to present events, and media capable of presenting the stimuli. Events of Instruction: The external events which support internal learning processes are called events of instruction. The events of instruction are planned before selecting the media to present it. Performance: Many models discuss eliciting performance where the student practices the task which sets the stage for reinforcement. Several models indicate that the elicited performance should be categorized by type; overt, covert, motor, verbal, constructed, and select. Media should be selected which is best able to elicit these responses and the response frequency. One model advocates a behavioral approach so that media is chosen to elicit responses for practice. To provide feedback about the student's response, an interactive medium might be chosen, but any medium can provide feedback. Learner characteristics such as error proneness and anxiety should influence media selection. Testing which traditionally is accomplished through print, may be handled by electronic media. Media are better able to assess learners' visual skills than are print media and can be used to assess learner performance in realistic situations.
Learning buzzwords and terminology
Teach (t..ch) v 1. To impart knowledge or skill to. Often, to pour knowledge into a student’s empty head. Often counterproductive. Happens in schools all the time. Learn (lûrn) v. 1. To gain knowledge, comprehension, or mastery of through experience or study. Starts with the learner, not the teacher. As people take responsibility for their own development, “learner” is rapidly replacing “trainee.” Training. Obsolete term for one aspect of performance improvement. Hard skills deal with information and knowledge you can put down on paper. Soft skills are the touchy-feely, emotion-laden abilities such as selling or leadership. Asses in classes. Derisive term for lackluster classroom training events. Instructional Design. General systems theory meets learning. Advocates an orderly process of analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. Now under attack for putting a middleman between learner and subject-matter expert, for taking too long, and for producing events more than continuous learning.
Synchronous/asynchronous learning. Synchronous means everyone learns at the same time; generally this means “instructor-led.” Asynchronous learning is generally recorded and available on demand; often via the web or CD-ROM. Recorded learning is generally delivered 1:1, instructor-led is usually 1:many.
Fundamental Learning & Training Terms and Concepts[10]
360-degree Feedback: Refers to a process in which data is collected from multiple sources or multiple raters. Respondents may include self, supervisor, reporting employees, peers, and, in some cases vendors/clients. Applications include performance appraisal, professional development, assessment & succession planning, and assessing organizational climate.
Accelerated Learning: Methodology developed by Bulgarian Georgi Lozanov called Suggestopedia; SuperLearning or Accelerated Learning in North America. In broad terms, it is a research-based technology and an innovative philosophy that uses learners' holistic natural talents to provide them the highest probability of maximizing their learning, retention, and performance. An accelerated learning system creates a stress-free, positive, joyful, psychologically and physically healthy environment that enhances self-esteem and focuses on the needs of the learner.
Andragogy (and-rè-go´jê): IInitially defined as, "the art and science of helping adults learn," the term currently offers an alternative to pedagogy and refers to learner-focused education for people of all ages. The andragogic model asks that five issues be considered and addressed in formal learning. They include: 1.Letting learners know why something is important to learn 2.Showing learners how to direct themselves through information 3.Relating the topic to the learner's experiences. 4.People will not learn until ready and motivated to learn. 5.Often this requires helping them overcome inhibitions, behaviors, and beliefs about learning.
Behavioral Objectives: Sometimes referred to as performance, instructional, learner, or terminal objectives, these descriptive statements inform learners what will be measured. This type of objective reflects the belief that at a pre-determined, externally controlled time, a learner will know or be able to do something new. The three components of an objective are: 1.The identified behavior 2.The specific conditions 3.The evaluative criteria.
Certification: A voluntary program that in some organized way evaluates and measures an individual's qualifications to perform a specialized function. While some certifications convey no authority or privilege, others, such as those for Certified Public Accountants (CPA) and teachers, are required to hold certain jobs. Certification exists today in many professions and trades.
Computer-Based Training (CBT): Interactive instructional experience between a computer and a learner in which the computer provides the majority of the stimulus and the learner responds, resulting in progress toward increased skills or knowledge.
Criterion Reference Tests: Evaluation instrument that measures performance based upon instructional objectives.
Evaluation: A way to determine what one has learned. Evaluation can take many forms including memorization tests, portfolio assessment, and self-reflection. There are at least six major reasons for evaluating training, each requiring a different type of evaluation. They include: 1.Improve the instruction (formative evaluation) 2.Promote individual growth and self-evaluation (evaluation by facilitator and learner) 3.Assess degree of demonstrated achievement (summative evaluation by the teacher) 4.Diagnose future learning needs (of both facilitator and learner) 5.Enhance one's sense of merit or worth (learner) 6.Identify or clarify desired behaviors (teacher).
Evaluation Hierarchy: Donald Kirkpatrick identified the evaluation model most widely recognized today in corporate training organizations. The Kirkpatrick Model addresses the four fundamental behavior changes that occur as a result of training. Level One is how participants feel about training (reaction). This level is often measured with attitude questionnaires. Level Two determines if people memorized the material. This is often accomplished with pre- and post-testing. Level Three answers the question, "Do people use the information on the job?" This level addresses transference of new skills to the jobs (behavior change). This is often accomplished by observation. Level Four measures the training effectiveness, "What result has the training achieved?" This broad category is concerned with the impact of the program on the wider community (results).
Experiential Education: Any learning based on experiencing: doing, exploring, and even living.
Job-aids: Any tool that allows a learner to get information quickly when he or she needs it to complete a task. Often these are paper-based and posted on the wall in plain sight or in a small reference notebook. At other times, huge procedure manuals are considered job-aids because they allow users to get information as needed.
Learning Style: Composite cognitive, affective, and physiological factors serve as relatively stable indicators of how a learner perceives, interacts with, and responds to the learning environment. Included in this definition are perceptual modalities, information processing styles, and personality patterns.
Levels of Competence: Unconscious incompetence, Conscious incompetence, Unconscious competence, Conscious competence, Competence.
Pedagogy (pèd-e-go´jê): Literally means the art and science of educating children, pedagogy is often used as a synonym for teaching. Pedagogy is from the Greek word paid, meaning 'child,' and agogus meaning 'leader of.' More accurately, pedagogy embodies teacher-focused education. In the pedagogic model, teachers assume responsibility for making decisions about what will be learned, how it will be learned, and when it will be learned. Teachers direct learning.
Perceptual Modality: Learning style that refers to the primary way our bodies take in and perceive information; auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile.
Performance Technology: Technologies designed to enhance human performance and capabilities in the workplace. Also referred to as human performance technology, it is a systematic process of integrating practices from a vast breadth of fields such as instructional technology, organizational development, motivation, feedback, human factors, and employee selection.
Self-directed Learning: Learning initiated and directed by the learner. Either for leisure learning or as a result of being informed that we may need additional knowledge for a job, or school. More and more training departments are developing courses that employees go through at their own pace
When training and technology collide“You’re Content (and
I’m not)” “Training Programs!” read the signs at a quarter of the vendors' exhibits at the national video equipment conference. When a hardware vendor asked what I did, I’d explain that I managed marketing for the leading provider of interactive training for banks. “Oh, you’re content,” they’d observe. Then I’d explain that we saw ourselves as instructional designers and performance improvement consultants. They didn’t get it. I was still “content.” That made me very popular. Despite the signs, most of the booths with the “Training Programs!” signs had never delivered any training. They had the capacity to broadcast content via video. Show a video; people learn; that’s content. My instructional design friends would have been incredulous. Telling is not training. What’s more important, the wine or the bottle it comes in? Trick question. It’s not significant until someone drinks it. We winemakers can’t do without glass-blowers but we’re the reason one wine sells for $4 and another for $400. Instructional designers and trainers identify with vintners. Technology guys blow glass.
“Training Without Objectives”
A designer needs to know the destination before planning how to get there. Once we knew what we’re after, we can pick and choose from a vast array of training vehicles, e.g. discovery exercises, local team discussions, reading, case studies, games, simulations, role-play, and more. “Okay,” the executive would say. “You’re my conscience on this stuff. We’ll talk about what we want to accomplish. But go ahead and reserve those two days in New York, because I know we’re going to need them. [1] See “Is everyone this dissatisfied?” in the Appendix for the guru viewpoint. [2] See ______ in the Appendix for more information about how we treat computers like people. [3] Gordon’s delightful book, Orbiting the Giant Hairball, appeared in a new edition last year. [4] See “Accommodating learning styles” in the Appendix for a variety of means of appealing to different learning preferences. [5] Donald Norman’s excellent book, The Design of Everyday Things, does a wonderful job of illustrating this point of view. Now when we try to pull open a door that needs to be pushed, we know it’s not our fault; the blame the designer’s for not giving us effective cues on what to do. [6] Patricia ZB. Seybold with Ronni T. Marshak, Customers.com, How to Create a Profitable Business Strategy for the Internet and Beyond. [7] You can see how this stuff works at http://www.knowledgecast.net/dem_index.htm. Bogle’s talk isn’t archived yet. [8] This version is from The Big Dog’s HRD Pages at www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd. [9] For a complete description and defense of the ISD model, see Don Clark’s analysis on the Web at http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/sat.html. |
