E-learning vs Instructor lead learning – more

As I talk with students they routinely ask about e-learning. After the earlier Blog on this topic, I decided to look deeper into this trend.

I found a number of positive views on e-learning as the future, but the sources usually ended up as providers of the e-learning tools and consulting. I did find one set of information that I would like to share. The articles came from Chief Learning Officer magazine. (www.clomedia.com).

The discussions over the e-learning topic were more targeted at an understanding of its benefits and drawbacks than a sales pitch. Probably my favorite was “Technologies to Support Leadership Development” by Kerry Patterson. In this article four rules of training success, of which the third is titled “Know When to Forgo the Flash … or Not”. In this there is a discussion that when courses are targeting behavior change or to break away from traditional methods, that instructional methods that emphasize the social connection and allow for direct feedback are usually the best. Why would that be true?

Think about it. To challenge your personal behavior or methods, let along going after the business behavior or methods is tough. It is always out of the students comfort zone. Think about an attempt to motivate that level of change with a 1-way e-learning presentation. I know that a student in this situation needs re-assurement and an ability to ask questions specific to their business or the frustration will be huge. I find that my students drive the training classes off the agenda to talk about how the ideas will be applicable in xxxxx. Where xxxxx is their business, organization, workgroup or what ever. These side discussions are what takes the Lean Six Sigma learning from the head to the heart.

Successful Lean Six Sigma students are the ones that find a connection between the tools and skills to their past experience. I can see the light come on when the connection is made. I hear things like “I wish I would have known that before” and “Now I know why xx worked and yy didn’t”. These revelations come after the side discussions, where the topic is made real. The tough part is that the same discussions do not reach everyone. Every student is different and needs different social support to allow the significant change to occur.

The last reason e-learning alone will always be tough for the Good Lean Six Sigma programs, the lack of experiential learning opportunities. Many of us use catapults in the learning, why? It is because they generate data with noise effects and clear predictive X’s. A simulation could do this too, but a simulation will not allow the mistakes, and people to people differences that the student will see as the catapult is used. Now they know the context of the data, and when the tools are applied during analysis the student gets to see how the tools represent changes and mistakes real time. If this was a MasterCard Ad, this would be the “Priceless” take away.

Can e-learning be part of a blended learning to support the classroom work, of course it can. But, where do you make the cut? I have a peer in a large company using Lean Six Sigma with employees all around the world. The decided on e-learning to supplement the classroom work and bought a set of Black Belt e-learning courses from a very successful consultancy. Started using them between training weeks in an attempt to reduce the classroom time. After a year, it was found that the e-learning increased training costs and was not allowing the classroom time to be reduced due to the need to question and discuss the topics. After the analysis, they stopped the blended black belt learning and have decided to only use e-learning when it is to pass information and tools, but not to change behavior.

If you have experiences or thoughts on this, please add a comment to this blog.