The Ecosystem of eLearning 2005

SolutionPaper

The Ecosystem of eLearning 2005

Jonathon D. Levy

Vice President, e-Learning Programs

Harvard Business Online

October 2001

Contents

1 Introduction
2 Learning in Transition
3 Learners Take Charge
4 The Ecosystem of eLearning 2005
5 Conclusion: Innovation Emerges

1Introduction

Despite the technological sophistication of the 21st century, at our core we all remain hunters and gatherers, relentlessly hunting for information and gathering bits of knowledge. A recent study by Forrester Research suggests we spend $404B annually, 11% of all US wages, just seeking out the information we need to do our jobs. What knowledge workers need is not just a way of accessing data, but of filtering data so the information they receive is exactly the information they require, when they need it.

Beyond the histrionics of the dot.com marketplace that took its toll on a number of early eLearning pioneers is the longer-term reality:competitiveness means using technology to do more with less. On-the-job performance-based learning is no longer optional; indeed, it is becoming the new currency of both recruitment and retention. Corporate spending on technology-enabled learning is on the rise.

But there is also much confusion and uncertainty as the traditional model of teaching slowly yields to a new learning model. This transition has not yet extracted the innovation from the invention, as elements of the old (teaching) paradigm are used to attempt to jump-start the new (learning) one. It doesn't work well, and it creates confusion.

2 Learning in Transition

In physics there is a model for what is going on in corporate training and learning today. When a system in a steady state moves to a different steady state there is great volatility in the transition. For example, water at room temperature is stable, and so is water vapor in a cloud. But when the water changes to vapor it is accompanied by violent boiling. This is known as a "phase transition."

A phase transition is taking place in the education and training market right now. One very old steady state model—the traditional academic classroom-based model—is transitioning to the more efficient and personalized performance-based eLearning model required by the competitive need of the times. The state of the field seems turbulent and unsettled as competing theories, solutions, and learning models struggle for evolutionary authority. But there is another calmer, steady state ahead of us, beyond the cacophony and just out of sight. To guide our strategic decisions during this phase transition, we need a focused vision of where all this is headed.

3 Learners Take Charge

In their June 2001 report "Into the Future," the ASTD and National Governors' Association’s Commission on Technology and Adult Learning concluded that, “We all have a skills gap, all the time…. The skills gap is a ubiquitous characteristic of life in the future.” New knowledge is being generated faster than we can learn it. At the same time, new learning technologies are being generated, combinations of which can bring about the reality of worker empowerment—a concept whose time has come.

For the first time in history, the individual learner is poised both logically and technologically to take charge of the learning process. Instead of the faculty and training departments deciding what knowledge is to be imparted, the learners themselves are emerging as the packagers and organizers of their own knowledge requirements. They are not starting from zero; that’s why we call them knowledge workers. Utilizing a new generation of performance support systems, employees will select or even be pushed what they need to know as the need arises. They are the best judge of how much additional depth they require and how much time they need to spend on a given knowledge topic to accomplish the business task at hand.

For corporate universities and training departments, a unique opportunity now exists to empower the knowledge warrior that lurks within every knowledge worker. While HR managers struggle to navigate the whitewater of change to steer a transitional path from "just-in-case" courses to "just-in-time" strategic support, a new fusion model for personalized employee-driven learning has begun to emerge.

Four integrated components–a network, a database, a computer, and two or more learners–jointly create the knowledge solution that reinforces the corporate knowledge worker's abilityto not only survive, but to win more often.

4 The Ecosystem of eLearning 2005

The following chart suggests the emerging differences between the first wave of eLearning implementations that were largely derived from the academic model, and the new fusion model that merges digital and human assets as a real-time performance support technology.

Dimension
/ "Traditional" eLearning / Emerging Model
Content: / SKILLS, FORMAL / CONCEPTUAL, INFORMAL
Basic unit: / COURSE / JUST ENOUGH
Process: / READ & LISTEN / INTERACT
Schedule: / ONLINE CLASSES / JUST IN TIME, JUST FOR ME
Dimensions set by: / FACULTY, UNIVERSITY / THE LEARNER
Media: / STATIC, HTML / DYNAMIC, XML
Location: / FIXED POINT / ANYWHERE
Length: / SPECIFIC START & END / ONGOING
Credential: / CERTIFICATE / COMPETENCY MAP
Interactivity: / INDIVIDUAL / COLLABORATIVE
Delivery: / INTERNET SERVER / LMS-CDS+ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE
Drivers: / CURRICULUM / BUSINESS EVENT
Push: / REQUESTED / DYNAMIC, INFERRED
Outcomes, metrics: / CONTENT-BASED / PERFORMANCE BASED
Client: / KNOWLEDGE WORKER / KNOWLEDGE WARRIOR

In this model:

  • A learning event becomes an evolving performance-support relationship.
  • Inside-the-company knowledge and outside expertise converge, as does human interaction and digital content, all of which now resides within the taxonomy. The competency map creates a new overarching meta-tagging schema for all learning objects.
  • Everyone is a consumer of the corporate knowledge program: employees, managers, channel partners, and traditional customers. Corporate learning evolves as a profit center. (According to the Corporate University Exchange, 37% of all corporate universities plan to be a profit center by 2003!).
  • The learner seamlessly assembles the content that is required at any particular moment. User-control is an inherent characteristic of the interactive online environment (but not of the classroom).
  • eLearning, digital publishing, knowledge management, communities of practice, and enterprise software such as HRIS, ERP and CRM begin to talk to and enhance each other while new metrics are created to measure the value of knowledge systems on individual and enterprise performance.
5 Conclusion: Innovation Emerges

It is said, we are living in a “Guttenberg moment” wherein everything gets reset to zero. The field of learning—led by corporate learning—is about to enter a phase transition, emerging as a totally new paradigm with entirely new metrics. By way of comparison, the Industrial Revolution increased productivity over cottage industries 5,000 times!

By the year 2005 much of the turbulence will be behind us. By then it will be clear that the kinds of activities that require a classroom do not belong in an online environment, and vice versa. The required technologies are already in place. When the whitewater subsides, the innovation within the invention will emerge.Is it any wonder that many CEOs are already beginning to realize that effective management of the online learning environment is one of the most crucial business decisions of this decade?

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