How Organizations Can Make The Most of Online Learning
How Organizations Can Make The Most of Online Learning
How Organizations Can Make The Most of Online Learning
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Description
In an age of accelerating business and technological change, the success
of an organization depends significantly on its employees and how they
can effectively learn and perform their roles. New technologies, com-
bined with innovative approaches to the design of experiences for learn-
ing and performance, can help organizations boost their performance and
improve their overall culture.
This concise book, written by an expert in e-learning and performance
design, technology, education, and strategies, provides practical advice
and insights for executives, learning designers and developers, subject
matter experts, and others involved in organization learning, including:
Keywords
e-learning; online learning; digital learning; learning experiences; online
learning strategies; mobile learning; performance improvement; learn-
ing technology; learning design; learning experience design; user experi-
ence design; usability; learning analytics; content curation; collaborative
learning; informal learning; workplace learning; corporate training; cor-
porate learning & development; performance support; informal learn-
ing; workflow learning; situated learning; skills transfer; scenario-based
learning; storytelling
Contents
Preface��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ix
Acknowledgments�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������xi
Introduction
Using Technology to
Improve Performance
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic forced organizations to change the way they
learned. While organizations already made substantial use of various
types of online learning (or e-learning; the terms are often used inter-
changeably), suddenly they could no longer rely on in-person, classroom
learning at all. Changes due to the pandemic helped organizations fully
appreciate some of the benefits of online learning but also sparked discus-
sions about how to better employ online learning methods going forward.
Computer-based learning, and later online learning, has been in use in
a variety of forms, from remote live sessions to online courses to immersive
simulations, since the 1980s. There have been successes in several areas,
including learn-by-doing simulations in which the learner plays a role
in a realistic experience and is able to learn in a “safe” environment—
any incorrect decisions the learner makes in a simulation won’t have a
real impact on the company—and just-in-time performance support, in
which training time is reduced in favor of tools that can help an employee
work more effectively while on the job. Online learning has also seen
a substantial set of “page-turning” courses, generally easy-to-produce
courses in which the learner reads or watches information and then takes
a quiz or exam. This method tends to be ineffective and not well received
by its audiences. We’ll get into the reasons for that later in this book.
Online learning has the potential to revolutionize workplace learning
and performance, and we’re at a time now in which, partly thanks to new
technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and
2 How Organizations Can Make the Most of Online Learning
A Focus on Performance
Corporate learning experiences often tend to be modeled on traditional
education, whether in the classroom or online. Online learning regularly
takes the form of courses in which employees read text or watch a video and
then take a quiz in order to “check their knowledge.” This type of learning
experience is familiar and also simple and inexpensive to produce—yet
it’s rarely effective. There are a number of underlying reasons why other
approaches are more effective, and we’ll cover several of those in depth
later in this book. However, at its core, the goal of workplace learning
should be to improve performance—to help employees perform their best.
The connection between being able to pass an information-based test and
successful job performance is tenuous at best; along with other factors,
good job performance in virtually any role involves the performance
of skills, not the recitation or recognition of information. For example,
consider someone who’s starting an entry-level customer service job at a
retail chain. It’s not particularly difficult to take, and easily pass, an online
course in which the test is information-based—for example, the learner
may be asked to select which of several choices is a good principle of
customer service. But being good at customer service involves much more
than simply knowing the way that you’re supposed to act—you need to
understand how to use information in context, and also be able to put
your knowledge into practice. Everyone knows that it’s not considered
good job performance to be rude to customers, but not everyone comes
in with a great sense about what constitutes appropriate conduct and
what doesn’t. Learning experiences that focus on performance—such
as a realistic, complex online learn-by-doing simulation with coaching
Introduction 3
guidance and feedback—can help people learn to perform, not just learn
to recite information.
The apprentice might start with simple tasks such as cleaning equipment,
then grow into more complex tasks and skills, all while receiving coaching
guidance and feedback from an expert.
The apprenticeship model is practical and effective, but it doesn’t
scale up well. When society needed to teach and train masses of people,
the apprenticeship model simply couldn’t handle the load—there
were not nearly enough experts to work with everyone. The classroom
model that we often see today—with a teacher or lecturer in front of a
class—can teach a large group, but it’s not, and was never intended to
be the most effective learning experience, just the one that was practical
to implement.
However, technology-based experiences—particularly those that are
learner-driven, such as, for example, learning to fly a plane via a flight
simulator—do scale up! If we create a great learning experience that runs
on a computer or mobile phone, it can be made accessible to millions of
people, or more, for essentially the same cost as making it accessible by
10 people. The key is to avoid focusing only on reaching a large audience
but to look to create great experiences, often those that follow different
methods than traditional learning.
simulation, it’s not a real computer so no customer will be upset, but the
technician will learn from their mistakes.
Augmented reality (AR) enhances the real world via technology; for
example, Google Maps includes a feature that can direct the user through
a major airport, step by step, by superimposing instructions and detailed
information over a live view of where the user is (Haselton 2021). Figure 1.1
shows an AR map example from an airport.
learning experiences they most enjoy to what content areas might reso-
nate best with them when used in an analogy—and function more as a
coach. This model has the potential to greatly improve employee perfor-
mance as well as their appreciation for their organization.
involves showing how to do something rather than just talking about it.
Overall, in order to make the best use of online learning, organizations
would be well-served to redesign their uses of technology in learning and
development to move away from traditional educational models and take
advantage of new technologies, along with research-based learning meth-
ods, to create new models of online learning for their employees. We’ll
discuss potential strategies in more detail later in this book.
Index