The e in e-learning stands for elephant

is for Elephant.

by Jay Cross

For publication in Brandon Hall's
Internet and Multimedia Training Newsletter
November 1999

The e in e-learning stands for elephant. Or at least it might. For like the blind men encountering an elephant in the old story, e-Learning means different things to different people. One feels the tail and exclaims, "e-Learning is like a T-3 line to the Internet backbone." Another is slapped in the face by the trunk and says, "e-Learning is about interactivity and feedback." Yet another touches the elephant’s side and says, "Whatever e-learning is, it’s very, very big."

Likewise, the CEO touches a tusk and finds a competitive weapon for e-business. Learners touch the elephant anywhere and find whatever they want to learn. The training manager finds a way to provide what learners need without having to second-guess what’s happening in their heads.

At the end of the day, how best to answer Elliott Masie’s challenge to create an e-learning that focuses on what’s best for the learner?

Experience and more

Elliott recently put a stake in the ground, advocating that the e of "e-Learning" reflect the experience of learning in the Internet era. (Go to http://www.masie.com/articles/ for his report, The "e" in e-Learning stands for "E"xperience.) He would like to see e-Learning with "the intensity of an airplane simulator, the support of an email from a trusted mentor, the engagement of a great novel and an experience of learning that makes a learner say WOW." Elliott cautions us not to obsess on technology, but rather to invent an e-Learning that addresses engagement, curiosity, simulation, remediation, coaching, peer learning, and more. Wow! I’m inspired. But I wonder if reaching so high takes us too far from today’s realities.

In the forums at The Masie Center, Nancy Williams, a senior instructional designer with AMS Training, wrote that in addition to experience, e-learning should also focus on a two-way exchange of information, exploratory learning that puts the learner in charge, encouraging learners to express themselves, and reaching outside the box to design learning that’s truly exciting. To Nancy e-learning is simply is making things creative, experimental, and fun.

Best Practices

Until recently, if you did a Google-search on "e-learning," the first ten entries pointed to Internet Time Group. People have told me I invented the term "e-Learning." Who knows? I’ve been talking about e-learning for more than a year. Probably hundreds of people came up with it simultaneously.

In a widely distributed white paper, I defined e-Learning as a model for what corporate training could become, a target to shoot for, a vision of the convergence of…

loosely organized corporate ecologies, a business climate of permanent white water, breathtaking advances in technology, high-speed broadband networks, and a shift of power and responsibility from organizations to individuals, and,

today’s emergent best practices (which Elliott does a better job of describing than I.)

Wired and in Your Head

IDC now uses "e-learning" in lieu of "on-line learning" and "Internet-based learning." Research director Ellen Julian defines e-learning as any nonacademic training delivered by Internet, intranet, and/or extranet. If you’re measuring the market (around $1 billion today, $7 billion by 2002 according to IDC), you have to draw the line somewhere.

Richard Close, co-author of the IDC report The Anatomy of Internet-based Learning, likes "e-Learning" because it liberates us from the academic, training mindset. It breaks down barriers and opens our minds to fresh thoughts.

When we talk of e-Learning, we too often convince ourselves that learning happens online, says Marcia Conner, co-founder of the Learnativity Group. "Learning only happens in the hearts, souls, and minds of learners. People may conduct activities or experience new things online, but that is not how they learn. Spend more time focusing on how learning occurs and only then, how it can be e-delivered, and you'll be on to something big. Really big."

It’s e-Business

Kent Vickery, Chairman of SRI’s Global Advisory Board on e-Learning, notes the powerful association with e-Business and e-Commerce, "e-Learning leverages the web and its boundless potential for transformation and speed. Embedded in every transaction is a component of knowledge transfer, and e-Learning is the most effective means of accelerating commerce through the power of knowledge. The ‘if’ of e-Learning is over. The real question is, which adopters will enjoy its earliest fruits?"

CBT Systems, a pioneer in CD-ROM based IT training, just renamed itself "SmartForce, The e-Learning Company." Greg Priest, the firm’s CEO, says e-Learning is what you get when you take an e-Business approach to learning itself. [Full disclosure: My company, Internet Time Group, assisted SmartForce in its transition to e-Learning.]

Greg’s vision of e-Learning embraces dynamic content, personalization that learns over time, rapid deployment, Internet and intranet delivery, interoperability with ERP, extreme scalability, top-tier security, and the ability to incorporate in-house programs.

Even though he’s in the heart of Silicon Valley, Greg agrees with Elliott that the people are far more important than the technology, saying "e-Learning enables people to move ahead faster; to elevate their daily performance and attain their long-term career goals. It’s an advantage that pays double dividends: smarter people make for a smarter organization, which makes for a distinct competitive advantage."

Let’s dump "training."

For twenty-five years, training departments and training vendors have tried to get the ear of senior management. Trainers change their titles to "performance consultant," training departments morph into corporate universities, and vendor brochures tout high ROI.

At least nine out of ten of these efforts fail. Why? Because no matter what you call it, it’s still really training. Training’s a staff function, it always will be, and corporate management has other fish to fry. Would a mainstream corporate function really be satisfied with anything less than "Level 4" performance, i.e., making a difference?

Perhaps e-Learning can change that. e-Learning is exciting. It’s Internet. It’s New Economy. Wall Street believes in it. The Fortune 1000 believe in it. Senior managers believe in it. e-Learning rides the e-Business wave.

Traditional training has proven incapable of keeping up with today’s pace of change. Many managers feel they’ve squandered their investments in training to-date and they’re leery about being taken again. Perhaps the term "training" has outlived its usefulness.

So let’s shutter the training department in favor of an in-house e-Learning start-up. Let’s adopt the can-do spirit of the Internet Age. Demand senior management commitment to the new order. Make learners responsible for their own learning. Hold managers accountable for providing speedy, convenient, effective access to it. Let’s go for it. Now.

Now we have half a dozen stakes in the ground. Let’s talk this over at TechLearn. Or is it Tech e-Learn now?

Jay Cross is an out-of-the-box business thinker, information architect, marketing executive, web enthusiast, change agent, and occasional author. He holds an MBA from Harvard and a BA in social sciences from Princeton. He resides in Berkeley, California, with his wife, sixteen-year old computer-fanatic son, and two miniature longhaired dachshunds. You may reach Jay at jaycross@well.com or www.meta-time.com.