Rapid and Really Rapid eLearning

I ran across a link to an article on Learning Circuits - Rapid E-Learning Grows Up and I apologize, because I can't remember where I found this link.

While the author, Joe Fournier, and I share some opinions, I think we differ a bit on where things are heading longer-term. Let me walk through this...

Tony O’Driscoll, a key learning strategist for IBM, told an attentive crowd at ASTD Charlotte that the codified information base of the world is expected to double every 11 hours by the year 2010. As this crescendo of content reaches critical mass, so does the demand for better insight into this information. To more rapidly distribute this new knowledge, workplace learning professionals (WLPs) need to transition from flat content (such as text) to dynamic, rich content that conveys meaning through fewer words and evokes more engaging mental stimulation.

I think we all see the deluge of information coming. However, the way Joe puts it - as if somehow by creating rapid eLearning we can keep up with the flood. That's really not going to happen. Instead, take a look at George Siemens Knowing Knowledge and especially at the part that discusses how Know-Where and Know-Who will become more important.

If you are really talking about the information deluge, it is unlikely that Rapid eLearning tools are going to have an appreciable impact on it. Instead, we need radically different models where we can rapidly find the people and information we need. Maybe Joe is talking about creating quick hit learning pieces as a starting point for quickly understanding topics, but that's different than giving Rapid eLearning tools to SMEs.

rapid e-learning’s primary value is in addressing learning problems, rather than as a communication alternative for flat content

Has he seen the stuff that's being created with Rapid eLearning tools? Especially by SMEs? Take a boring presentation. Add audio. Add a multiple choice quiz at the end (maybe). Force your learners to take it. Admittedly, I'm biased about this kind of format because of my own learning style. So, let's be honest that much of what Rapid eLearning provides is the ability to quickly go from "flat content" to "linear content" - in other words, we go from a few web pages to a linear "learning" experience.

Rapid e-learning pioneer Jennifer DeVries has an apt analogy: “I see rapid e-learning like the desktop publishing industry of 20 years ago, when desktop publishing was relegated to the one person with the big computer who knew the specialized software and laid out all of the documents. Then MS Word came along and it included many desktop publishing features, giving everyone the ability to create reasonably attractive material on a PC using this very simple software. I think rapid e-learning tools are going to transform the e-learning industry in much the same way, so that e-learning development will become more accessible to the general public.”

One thing that Joe and I (and Jennifer) definitely agree on is that Rapid eLearning tools allow a significantly reduced learning curve and more rapid production. What's interesting about this is that we see this same kind of effect with Wikis that allow us to post content at the click of a button on a site. So, Joe's vision of the future where you'll be able to go to the page of the course, edit away is pretty much inline with mine.

But, what's interesting is that the examples that Joe cites later in the article where several tools are being used together, he points to larger eLearning pieces. I would suggest that the longer-range trend will be to use Rapid eLearning tools to create small snippets that are embedded within reference materials (Reference Hybrids).

In a world where you can't get people to learn ahead of time because of the volume of information and the lack of time, you have to create materials that will be used as needed.

What does this look like? Use a Wiki to produce reference materials, quick start guides, job aids, etc., with a bit of small eLearning pieces embedded within it (probably created with a Rapid eLearning tool). Of course, you'll need to justify to yourself the value of having the linear learning event as compared to web pages that you can easily edit on the fly via the Wiki. You'll find that creating the content in the "Rapid" eLearning tool feels pretty slow in comparison to editing in a Wiki.

It's the same old thing of faster, easier tools eating the lunch of the more robust, slower tools on top.

Good Article on Creating Better eLearning

Good article by Clark Quinn in eLearn - Seven Steps to Better eLearning.

Where Will the Change Come From?

A few weeks ago, I posted a summary around the November LCB Big Question "Are ISD / ADDIE / HPT relevant in a world of rapid elearning, faster time-to-performance, and informal learning?":

eLearning Technology: Significant Work Needed to Help Instructional Designers

Some interesting thoughts in the comments. One thing that just struck me was a comment by Mark Oehlert that suggested we re-engineer the way professors teach ISD. In thinking about that comment, a few random things dawned on me:

1. Fundamentals Okay, But Change Needed

When I look at what people are writing, there is a growing chorus that proclaims while the foundation of these models remain relevant, change is needed.

2. Where are the ISD Gurus in this Discussion?

When I think ISD/ADDIE/HPT, I think of Allison Rossett, Harold Stolovich, and Ruth Clark. Yet, I don't see them saying much of anything about these changes. Heck, do any of them even have blogs? Do they communicate outside of the slow mechanisms of presentations, articles, books? If we are in disarray (as Karl Kapp says), then do we expect a new guard to step forward and lead this?

3. Will the Change be Emergent?

I'm doubtful that we will see the Gurus step forward and lead the change. I really doubt that we will see forward thinking professors start teaching about a different model before that model emerges elsewhere.

At a Web 2.0 event that I moderated, one of the speakers was Matt Glotzbach, Head of Products at Google Enterprise. He made a really interesting point that with ready access to all sorts of new services, adoption was likely to now start with Consumers and Prosumers and then migrate into organizations. Thus, much of the focus of Google Enterprise was to see what works in the consumer space and help bring it to the enterprise.

Combine this with the concepts of Enterprise 2.0, Emergence and Network IT which suggest that rather than trying to define workflow, rules, function ahead of time, we provide relatively free form tools and allow behavior to emerge and then provide better support.

Finally, combine this with the discussions around Informal Learning that suggest the support for informal learning approaches will be emergent as well.

What do you get?

What's likely to happen here is that all sorts of innovation in learning, knowledge management, etc. is going to occur in the consumer, prosumer and in uncontrolled pockets in the enterprise. We'll examine what's working and not working. We'll grab stuff that works and fashion theory and support to help it grow.

More Good eLearning Related Blogs (and Various Notes)

Every three months I go through a process of Managing my RSS Feeds. You can see my September Blog Clean Up. If you are looking for good blogs that relate to learning and/or eLearning, then take a look at my prior post: eLearning Blogs - Quick Way to Find Good Ones

So, in December, I removed from my Front Page the following blogs for lack of posting or lack of content I found relevant to my interests:

edufilter, edugadget, elearn, Learning for 2020, LTI Newsline, Rapid eLearning
News, Steven Forth, Sviolka’s Context, T+D, TrainingThatSucks, TrainUtopia

I added to my front page:

• Soul Soup
• SCORM Watch
• In the Middle of the Curve, Wendy Wickham
• e-Training in the Trenches
• Learning Reflections, David Wilson
• 7 Days and More

If you are in a corporate eLearning development department, take a quick look at Wendy's blog maybe it will inspire you to blog.

If you know a good blog on eLearning that's not in my list on the right, I'd like to hear about it in a comment.

Finally - as a note to the bloggers I just added to the list, one suggestion that I'd make to each of you (and to pretty much every blogger) is to add a Blog Guide (for first time visitors). What is likely going to happen is that someone will visit you for the first time and have a heck of a time figuring out what your blog is about and if they are going to be interested. Stephen Downes and Nancy White both think its a good idead too. :)

Related post: Top Ten Reasons To Blog and Top Ten Not to Blog.

What to Call Ourselves and Our Industry?

A few weeks ago, I received an email question that asked:

Something I wanted to ask you is if you have defined somewhere on your blog the meaning of a term which I’ve seen you use frequently – ie “learning professional”. Or if you’ve seen someone else define it and could point me in the direction of this source.

Also, just curious if there is any particular reason why you prefer “learning professional” over something like “elearning professional” or “e-learning professional”.

I've looked a few different times for an appropriate definition - and come up empty. And certainly, I use the term. We got dinged for the use of the term in the LCB's Big Question for September: Should All Learning Professionals Be Blogging?

I believe that I first started using the term after hearing that ASTD was now going to refer to their membership as "Workplace Learning Professionals" - which sounded good. When I refer to "Learning Professionals" - I personally include folks outside of Workplace learning as well. Thus, dropping the "Workplace" portion of the term.

I believe that there's even more of a challenge around the segmentation and naming of groups of Learning Professionals (our industry)?

So, does anyone know where appropriate definitions can be found?

And, I can answer the second part - if I use the term "eLearning Professional" then I would be talking about someone who is a Learning Professional but with focus on delivery that leverages technology primarily software/web/online technologies. Thus, to me those terms are more specific and wouldn't include a folks who do ID or delivery that is classroom only. (Does anyone do that anymore? - Heck, even my kids teachers all put school notes with resources online.)

Sorry, I couldn't be more helpful. I hope a comment will appear with good links to help this person out.

Knowledge Management and Learning

Interesting discussion going on with contribution by Luis Suarez, Jay Cross, David Wilson - around the distinction between Knowledge Management and Learning:

Knowledge Management and Informal Learning
Knowledge Management and Learning - Separated at Birth? - Where They Really?
KM & learning: separated at birth?
KM and Learning

This is an interesting exchange because it highlights that approaches to learning and to knowledge management are shifting and beginning to overlap more now. Both are coming to recognize the importance of Know-Where and Know-Who as opposed to Know-What and Know-How.

Impact of a World of Loosely Connected Individual Relationships?

After posting yesterday eLearning Technology: Web 2.0 Tools, Networks and Community (Individuals vs. Collective) - where I discussed how my use of Web 2.0 tools were forming a network of individual relationships, today I ran across a post by Dave Pollard - Social Networking in Business: An Update where he lists out a series of tools that create links between people much as I was discussing. As I stated yesterday, what's interesting about these links is that there is no community associated with them as there generally has been in the past for me. Thus, I'm finding myself in a world of:

Loosely Connected Individual Relationships

This raises all sorts of questions for me:

• Should I do something more with these relationships or is the loose connection enough?
  
  For example, I've met 20+ other bloggers through writing on common topics. A few I've individually communicated with outside of the blogosphere. A couple I've asked to be on panels or met at conferences. Maybe this is enough, but I feel that if I was looking to find out which other bloggers (or other people who I am loosely connected with) will be going to a conference I'm going to be attending, I have no easy way to reach out. As I said yesterday, I don't have a list. I also believe that relationships are built by a series of interactions. Should I be looking to engage with other people in some way beyond the blog? If so, what, how, why? Or maybe a loose connection is fine? Maybe that's the new world? Maybe I need to get used to it?
  
• Do "communities" exist within these loosely connected individuals or do you need something more to form a community?
  
• What should communities such as TrDev (a discussion group) or the eLearningGuild or ASTD do with/about these loose connections that span in, across, through their communities?

If you have thoughts on this, I would love to hear from you either through comments or through a blog posting.