June 2014

eLearning in the Age of Social Media

Kevin HadlockSenior Director

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Trends in learning

1. A continuing shift – a trend – away from formal training and toward more collaborative, informal, time-of-need learning in the workplace

2. The successful emergence and sustained utility of online ‘communities of practice’ and ‘learning communities’

3. The growing use of the Internet as a ‘read-write’ mechanism facilitating effective, dynamic personal knowledge acquisition and management

4. New generation of workers/learners wedded to tablets, mobile phones, other mobile devices outside the classroom and in

5. The emergence, success, and continuing growth of MOOCs (‘massive open online courses’); early days…best practices still emerging

6. Classroom training increasingly supported by online tools to provide real-time blended approaches easily driven by instructors

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Co-opting the trends

» The less good news… Some are starting to fall behind

They need to think very differently from a strategic perspective than they’re used to doing…and it’s very difficult

» The much better news… Your competitors are acting only on fragments of these trends

There is no reason to stop doing what you’re doing; you likely have more components in place already (content, delivery channels, etc.) than you may realize

You can use current learning trends to your advantage…and you need to do so to obtain, develop, and retain top talent

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs

in the square holes. The ones who see things differently…they change things. They

push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we

see genius.”

--- Steve Jobs

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You have permission to change…

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What is “training”? Is it the same as “learning”?

» ‘Training’ is the formal introduction of new information and/or technique, the application of which is designed to help an employee perform his/her job better. (Most often other-motivated and provided on a scheduled basis, often weeks or months down the road.)

Training Examples: Seminars

eLearning (when used within formal program structures)

» ‘Learning’ is any process through which the learner becomes better informed and able to perform better. (Most often self-motivated, immediate need-driven, individually sought, and personally-permissioned; frequently informal and unscheduled.)

Learning Examples: Google

Wikipedia

Email exchanges

Conversations with peers and supervisors

Seminars and elearning

Is either training or learning ‘mission critical’?

» Managerial types typically say that training is not

» Learning almost always is (employee performance requirements make it so)

» If the level of ‘timely and effective employee performance’ is the correct measure of mission criticality, then learning should always be available even if (and especially when) formal training is not

» Since training – both seminars and elearning - is an event (or a series of events), rather than value applied on a continuum, one can fall into the trap of viewing it as something less than ‘mission critical’ (as indispensable as it may be in the broad scheme of employee and organization practice)

» Learning (if it is, in practice, ‘value applied on a continuum’) is ‘mission critical’ (at the very least, it is ‘mission essential’)

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“Workplace learning professionals are in for a shock. Business is waking up to the fact that learning is now mission critical. Will executives continue to allow learning policy to reside in a separate department or some sub-department of HR for much longer? Do you think they will let “learning professionals” maintain sole control? I doubt it…”

--- Harold Jarche Blog, July 1, 2013, http://www.jarche.com/2013/07/learning-is-too-important-to-be-left-to-the-professionals/

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Technology is changing the learning paradigm

» “Learning is going mainstream [i.e., becoming mission critical] within and outside the modern day enterprise, and the training function is being left behind.”

» But even most elearning comes up short: “We have hit a point where application of technology to [existing training paradigms such as the ADDIE model] merely increases the efficiency with which we train poorly.”

» “In today’s enterprise ecosystem, information is the currency, people are the transport mechanism, conversation is the transfer mechanism, and co-creation is the value-generation mechanism.”

» “None of us is as smart as all of us, and the read-write Web provides a platform for real-time collaborative learning on a scale previously unimaginable.”

» Bottom line: Organizations need to use social technologies, but in ways that are qualitatively superior, that bring people together in greater numbers and that leverage their knowledge and facilitation richness far more than they ever have before.

Quotes from Tony O’Driscoll, Training, September 2008, “E-Networks: If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em”

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“2013 Learning in the Workplace” survey results* (1)

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Not

importantQuite

importantVery

importantEssential

VIP + Essential

Collaborative working within your team  3%  12% 30%  55% 85%

Web search for resources (eg Google) 2% 17% 32%  49%  81%

General conversations & meetings with people

 2%  19%  40% 39% 79%

Personal & prof. networks and communities

3%  22% 35% 40% 75%

External blog and news feeds  8%  22%  40% 30% 70%

Content curated from external sources  9% 29% 39% 23% 62%

Self-directed study of external courses  14% 33% 35% 18% 53%

Internal job aids  20%  37% 26% 17% 43%

Internal company documents  13% 44% 29% 14% 43%

Company training/e-learning 25%  42% 20% 13% 33%

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____________________________________

* Center for Learning and Performance Technology, http://www.c4lpt.co.uk

“2013 Learning in the Workplace” survey results (2)

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» Most critical findings:

Survey size: 600 respondents (self-selected)

Company training/e-learning is the lowest rated way to learn at work

Workers find other (self-organised and self-managed) ways of learning at work far more valuable – with team collaboration being the highest rated

» The general pattern of results holds good for most industries, job functions, job roles and age group. Also…

68% of those working in HR/L&D also consider training/e-learning to be of little or no value for them in the workplace

As a whole, these survey results are yet another piece of evidence that show how workers are continuing to organise and manage their own learning in many different ways – and in doing so are bypassing the L&D Department.

Comparison with the “2012 Learning in the Workplace” survey results shows that this is a continuing trend.

In-progress 2014 survey continuing the trend (results so far)

Jane Hart, April 22, 2013, http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/blog/2013/04/22/company-training-of-little-value/

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Workplace learning trends

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How credit / finance professionals think (1)

» Training can be a hard sell to an individual who is perpetually pressed for production

Veteran employees don’t think they need training

Novice employees don’t know they need training

Mid-rangers try to slide by without training

Most employees won’t “train” unless someone else requires them to do so

» Learning, on the other hand, is at a premium and everybody wants all they can get their hands on when it helps them do their jobs better and get what they want

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» What they want

Increasing income

Career path / job security (perform well now; hedge against downturns; create people network in case they need it)

To be more competitive

To adequately provide for themselves & their families

Recognition

To make a difference

To matter

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How credit / finance professionals think (2)

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» What credit / finance organizations want

Expanding revenues and profitability

Individual and corporate (i.e., portfolio) stability

Improving individual and corporate competitiveness

To adequately provide for their shareholders

Improving reputation

To contribute to their markets

To be obviously relevant, even indispensable

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A look into the mind of the credit / finance organization

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» Credit / finance professionals will reach out for learning when the value is obvious Attractions are in people (witness the explosion in social media) People like to learn on their own AND from others People are attracted to the knowledge that others have, so long as that knowledge helps

them People want to get what they need when they need it (‘they hear when they’re ready to hear’) People like structuring their own processes

» HR/L&D should help employees make learning connections to improve on-the-job performance and advance their careers

» Your continuing influence – and even relevance – may depend on it

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The key is facilitating connections

“Enterprise social media and external social networks are where more business transactions will occur. They are also where a lot of learning will happen, but not separated from business.”

--- Harold Jarche Blog, July 1, 2013,http://www.jarche.com/2013/07/learning-is-too-important-to-be-left-to-the-professionals/

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“…a group of people brought together for the explicit purpose of learning from one another.” Jane Hart, “Social Learning Handbook 2014”

» Google (or similar) search functionality built into your Intranet so that it can search internal training and information sources, not just external

» Internal, formal learner networks; widely publicized, easily accessible, with constant communication taking place Alumni (i.e., employees who have completed courses) On-call mentors

» Formal capability for text-based topical discussions, a la software product “communities”

» Growing institutional knowledge bases that are widely publicized and easily accessed

» Internal read-write “wikis”

» Internal instructor wisdom proliferated beyond the classroom via digests and blogs

» Granular elearning tests and content available on demand

» MOOCs

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Potential parts of a collaborative learning community

» Google for credit/finance professionals

» Two ways to get information instantly through Google widgets:

– Bank (internal) site search

– Full Web search

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Google searches

SEARCH: MALC Web SEARCH: Bank Web

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» An alumni network is a directory of all employees who have completed at least one course offered by the organization, together with a listing of all courses completed; access to them is facilitated so other employees can learn from them

» On-call Mentors are internal subject matter experts who are available as needed by employees during business hours; access to them is facilitated so learners can communicate efficiently with them to get topical help at the moment it’s needed

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Internal, formal learner networks

LEARNER NETWORKS• Alumni• On-call Mentors

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» Topical Discussions are any number of conversation threads – some via live webmeeting and others through structured text messaging – that run over time, covering a wide variety of topics; topical choices and their attendant threads can be unlimited in number

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Topical discussions

TOPICAL DISCUSSIONS

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» Knowledge base consists of many volumes of in-depth content that is easily searchable, viewable, copy-able, and printable

» Wiki is a read/write area on the organization intranet, where – under general control of an “owner” and working within a well-defined rule structure – all employees can contribute to knowledge and information on myriad relevant topics; an internal, focused, and highly relevant version of Wikipedia

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Expanding, dynamic knowledge repositories

KNOWLEDGE REPOSITORIES• Knowledge Base• Wiki

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» Instructor digests are articles (of any length) published by your internal instructors on topics related to the learning material they teach; these can be used as pre-reading for their seminars, as post-course follow-up, or as amplifications on and applications of content treated in their courses; there is no set schedule for their publication

» Blogs are frequently and consistently published, somewhat informal and short in nature, addressing specific topics of current interest, designed to keep employees in touch with instructors on an ongoing basis

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Instructor wisdom proliferated beyond the classroom

INSTRUCTOR WISDOM• Instructor Digests• Blogs

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» Single-subject Proficiency Quizzes are short tests designed to assess subscriber proficiency in a wide variety of narrowly-defined subjects, typically at the short ‘Tutorial’ level

» Diagnostic Tests are a collection of online examinations that subscribers may complete to assess their strengths and weaknesses on broad, integrated credit topics, typically on a pre-study basis

» Mastery Exams are a collection of online examinations that subscribers may complete to assess their strengths and weaknesses on broad, integrated credit topics, typically on a post-study basis

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eLearning – knowledge checks

KNOWLEDGE CHECKS• Single-subject Proficiency Quizzes• Diagnostic Tests• Mastery Exams

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» eTutorials are elearning vignettes (typically no longer than 15 to 20 minutes in length)

» Courses are collections of elearning Tutorials, combined into logical content groupings

» Curricula are collections of elearning Courses, combined to provide broad-based learning options on closely related topics

» Simulations are online, real-life case study-based applications of credit-related concepts and techniques

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eLearning – self-study content

CONTENT• eTutorials• Courses• Curricula• Simulations

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» A ‘massive open online course’ (MOOC) is an online course aimed at large-scale interactive participation. It consists of traditional course materials, videos, readings, and problem sets, as well as interactive learner forums.

» Course Listing and Descriptions presents a list of MOOCs authorized by the organization, together with descriptions of each course.

» Schedules and Registration displays dates and registration process associated with each MOOC, and provides links whereby employees can enroll online.

» My Watchlist automatically advises the learner of upcoming MOOCs that cover subject matter identified by him or her as being of interest.

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MOOCs

MOOCs• What is a MOOC?• Course Listing and Descriptions• Schedules and Registration• My Watchlist

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A MOOC Success Story

Coursera established in 2011 (began with three courses… “Intro to AI” was first with Stanford University; enrollment reached 160,000)

480+ courses, 20 categories, 90+ partners (most of them universities) in 16 countries

Largest course: 240,000 students

5,260,000+ students

Business and finance courses are prominent

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A community of practice success story

“Knowledge Gateway” established in 2004

Over 300,000 professionals participating

Truly global, with participants from every country in the world

Ongoing & planned discussions, plus real-time help

Formal courses offered

https://knowledge-gateway.org/_include/flash/NewSite.pdf

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» Have a formal success plan…don’t leave it to chance

» Provide interesting, relevant, high-quality content

» Make the elearning mandatory

» Ensure visible executive endorsement support

» Position the elearning and communicate expectations effectively

» Build in diagnostic and mastery feedback mechanisms

» Provide proactive mentoring

» Hold learners accountable for both progress/completion and performance

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Epilogue: how to increase elearning take-up

If you continue to think the way you think, You’ll continue to act the way you act. And if you continue to act the way you act,

You’ll get what you got.

(Stated differently… Solely incrementalizing your programs in a stagnant or declining training paradigm

will bring disappointing results. Embrace social

learning in common sense ways to improve employee

knowledge, performance, and retention!)27

And finally…

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Q&A

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Thank you!

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