Dr Karen Becker explains how to get colleagues to embrace elearning and avoid the seven deadly sins.
Twitter, Moodle and Ning get you excited about learning, and blogs, wikis and RFIDs are common terms in your vocabulary. Visiting a virtual world is the norm, and you can’t understand why your colleagues don’t jump on board the e-learning super highway immediately.
Well, according to Dr Karen Becker, a lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology with a PhD in ‘Unlearning in the Workplace’, many people need to unlearn past behaviours before they can accept that elearning is a powerful teaching and learning tool.
Unlearning involves breaking down what you think you know, opening up your mind to new concepts and then relearning over time. And it’s something many people find difficult to do.
One of the biggest issues with introducing elearning in education and training is the manner in which it is debated, applied and evaluated within the learning environment. Here, Dr Becker tells us how to avoid committing the ‘seven deadly sins of elearning'.
1. Old wine, new bottles
Repackaging. It’s a no-fuss way to put your learning content online and the easiest way to alienate an elearner. Having your learners read through their entire course content uploaded on your website does not embrace the essence of elearning or stimulate creativity. Instead of repackaging, think about using elearning in an engaging, imaginative and flexible way where learners can benefit from interactive tools such as video, blogging and online discussion.
2. All the bells and whistles
This sin is commonly known as ‘because we can’ syndrome. Just because you have a certain technology at your disposal does not necessarily mean you should use it, no matter how much money you spent acquiring it! A firm set of learning outcomes should underpin the introduction of any elearning, and technology should be applied to directly meet these outcomes.
3. Unhealthy (and unnecessary) competition
It’s easy to get involved in the ‘face to face’ versus ‘online’ debate, particularly with colleagues who identify with a traditional classroom teaching methodology. However, with the recognition that a blended approach to learning is often the most successful, this debate has become redundant and is unlikely to benefit your cause. Realise that there is a place for both traditional and technology-based teaching and training and try to help your colleagues embrace e-learning by easing them into a blended approach.
4. Jack of all trades
There are many roles involved in delivering elearning. You need researchers, facilitators, designers, technologists, assessors and advisors. As a teacher/trainer it’s common to want to be the ‘be all and end all’ for your learners. But just like the face-to-face learning environment, you need to delegate activities outside your expertise and concentrate on what you are best at – being a great elearning teacher/trainer.
5. Misuse of expert power
It’s easy to get excited about elearning, particularly if you’re a new convert to Web 2.0 technologies. But not everyone is as comfortable with contemporary elearning terms and online tools as you are. In fact, speaking the lingo and bombarding others with too many new tools at once can turn people off elearning. Try using your expert power to engage people in an easy, non-confrontational manner, allowing them to embrace elearning within their comfort zone.
6. Because I said so
Just because you know that elearning is the answer to a teacher/trainer’s prayers, doesn’t mean your learners and colleagues do. In order to have elearning accepted in your organisation you need to sell its benefits. You can do this by using solid research or elearning case studies to show how elearning could make a significant difference to your learners and organisation.
7. This won’t hurt a bit
As with any new system, there will be teething issues when your organisation experiments with elearning. It’s important to be upfront and to discuss with staff and learners the disruptions they might experience. A good way to minimise disruption is to conduct trials of technology before a tool is rolled out on a larger scale.
