opinion
Why generic e-learning?
Martin Belton G
eneric or off-the-shelf e-learning gets a bad rap these days. A new ‘Valhalla’ has emerged: powerful interactive technologies that enable
collaborative learning and exchange of exciting ideas. Meanwhile, scorned by the chattering classes for its page-click linear approach, generic languishes banished to a corner, its name occasionally whispered at conferences like some black-sheep relative at a wedding. In many ways generic e-learning has fallen victim to the same malaise as the learning management system. Just the letters ‘LMS’ evokes a frown with the average learning consultant. Once they were the vanguard of the industry, heralding a thrilling new world of work. Now the thrill has gone. Their SCORM architectures scorned. That said, nobody seems to have got round to telling this to the people who buy e-learning, or LMS for that matter. According to a recent survey, the worldwide market for generic e-learning will grow at 15% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the next five years. There are though some good reasons why we can have confidence in this forecast. Here are seven of them:
It’s still economical The ‘write once, use many times’ approach has a massive cost advantage. And cost will always be important for competitive organisations. Alternatively, think of it like this; for the price of a few bespoke packages, organisations can have a whole library of knowledge at their fingertips, ready to support employees at the drop of a hat.
It’s consistent Buying into an e-learning library means you have a much more consistent approach in presentation. That makes it easier to navigate. Students don’t have to relearn how to adapt to the idiosyncrasies of specific publishers. ‘Experts’ are apt to criticise repetitive navigation structures. But for learners, knowing what
e.learning age june 2015
Martin Belton reveals why his granny might think some bespoke learning providers are all fur coat and no knickers and that instead, you should take another look at generic offerings
button to hit next is one less thing to worry about. Easier then to zoom confidently around their learning before moving onto their day job. Consistency is one of the single most underestimated qualities in learning programmes. Consistency in language, style and navigation makes things easier to understand, not harder.
They’re published Creating educational content is a profession. The publisher’s reputation is laid bare when their name is on the box in big letters. There is real personal motivation to maintain standards and deliver a product fitting to their reputation. It can be all too easy for the unscrupulous bespoke operator to peddle a flashy front end but with little real substance to back it up. All fur coat and no knickers as my granny used to say.
It’s fast It’s fast as in, you can have it tomorrow, not two months’ time as long as you don’t argue. There will be no nasty surprises when the bespoke Alpha you ordered turns up and looks nothing like you imagined. By which time your team are screaming for it so you reluctantly sign it off, even though you don’t really think it does the job.
Packaged, reliable, working Not too long ago, generic e-learning mostly worked on loose standards and certifications, half observed and half ignored. Today this has tightened up dramatically. The advent of cloud solutions and better standards tackled the vagaries of SCORM. Generic is a tried and tested solution. Of course it’s possible to do so much more today. But ask yourself this: do you really want to go through all those technical challenges again?
Quantifiable results
Because generic e-learning offers the same learning experience to many more people across different organisations, it also enables you to get more powerful, better quantified results. Managed correctly,
Martin Belton is managing director of Ascot Communications @ascot_comms
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it can cleverly reveal gaps in your organisation’s knowledge with genuinely useful benchmarked results. Today a smart generic provider can give you benchmarked results against grouped competitors.
It’s evolved Unsurprisingly, today’s generic e-learning packages are a world away from those early click and tell programmes we watched in the late 90’s. They are easier to run and give better results. Programmes such as Netex learningCoffee are themselves customisable, giving you an individual experience with none of the normal cost and other challenges associated with full bespoke packages. Skill Pill offers a brilliant library of generic content which is designed for mobile and a world away in design and learning methodologies from anything offered four or five years ago. These last two points are worth reflecting on. Cloud
technology may yet be the new (and unlikely) saviour of the many-user generic e-learning programme. Whilst we get excited about the possibilities of ‘big data’, few talk of applying the concepts to our ‘trad’ generic content. But at least one major provider is today working through its catalogue, capturing assessment information across industries and looking at all the various ways to use that data to add value. Evolution had to happen. Yet, like the LMS, generic content built its reputation in a firework-free online era. In many minds, it remains rooted there and therefore valueless. This is kind of odd. Few would say that a good old fashioned, whizz-bang free book is not a valid learning tool. “Don’t be surprised if there is yet a ‘learning-backlash.’ A new tomorrow with learning professionals demanding the power and brilliant simplicity of page-click presented by the world’s best subject matter experts, untrammelled by uninformed comment and misguided opinion. It’s a thought.
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