E-Learning: Has it Reached a Plateau?
Allison Rossett, professor emeriti of education technology at San Diego State University, and her colleague James Marshall, a department of educational technology faculty member, recently reported on an e-learning survey that they conducted in mid-2009. According to the article, which was published in the January 2010 issue of the American Society for Training and Development’s Training and Development electronic magazine, the death of the classroom is not imminent and e-learning really has changed much over the past few years.
Rossett and Marshall surveyed practitioners in corporations, academia, and government agencies and then tallied up the 968 responses. They didn’t stop there. In fact, they took the survey and modified it, posting it on an online survey site and inviting professional groups to weigh in. Currently, 26 “snapshots” as the authors call them, are posted on the online survey site with two ratings that must be filled out for each. The snapshots describe an e-learning practice such as “We use computers as part of classroom instruction.” The first rating asks about current practices for that snapshot with possible answers of: Most of the time, some of the time, and rarely/almost never. The second rating covers how you would prefer the practices to be with possible answers of: Essential to a quality program for us, nice to have, and not essential.
In addition to the snapshots, the authors asked about drivers and barriers. The current online survey describes 25 potential barriers to implementing e-learning rating choices of: major constraint, minor constraint, or not a constraint. A few examples of these potential barriers are: “We cannot afford these methods,” “Our lawyers resist employee generated contributions and communities,” and “Employees prefer to go to classes.”
The online survey is a tool for practitioners to analyze their current e-learning practices and stimulate their thoughts on future approaches. While you can few the online survey results, those results may be different than the original 968 responses that Rossett and Marshall reported on.
The authors found that while there’s plenty of buzz about the Web’s role in instructional design, familiar instructional strategies such as scenarios and tutorials remain reality. E-learning, the way many bloggers and experts imagine it, has not yet fully materialized. In fact, the authors were surprised to discover that testing of knowledge and skills is the most common e-learning practice with testing surpassing the use of computers in the classroom.
In addition to looking at common practices, the authors also reported on uncommon practices. Mobile devices, e-coaching, and online discussions were rare practices as well as Web 2.0 activities. The one exception to Web 2.0 activities was academia. The authors could on speculate on the possible reasons for the exception, speculating that professors have more freedom to experiment with social media and that their course content may have more room for discussion than typical corporate training topics.
Responses about enhancing e-learning snapshots in the future where varied with no overwhelming consensus amongst respondents. The Top 10 Future Aspirations were:
- Personalized learning
- Problem solving and knowledge construction
- Measurement for program improvement
- Mobile learning and support
- Employee-generated content
- Online networks and collaboration
- Authentic and immersive experiences
- Performance support
- Assessments point people to relevant programs
- Scenario-based e-learning
Finally, the survey revealed constraints to e-learning with money topping the list. With today’s economy, this didn’t come as a surprise to the authors. Other major constraints included resistance to change, shortcomings of technology, and a preference for the familiarity of the classroom.
What did surprise the authors were the factors that they expected to be constraints but actually were not including: employee resistance, employees’ abilities in using technology, employees’ independent learning abilities, incentives favoring the classroom, and lawyers.
Rossett and Marshall concluded that the old and familiar e-learning practices of assessments, testing, personalization, scenarios, and tutorials dominate current practices and that the future of virtual classrooms, blended learning, collaborative and user-centered approaches has yet to materialize.
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