Note: This article appeared in Intranet Professional, prior to its re-launch as Intranets (in 2004).
It is simple. Information professionals are in the business of creating environments, like intranets, for the effective transfer of information to the appropriate users so they can create personal knowledge. This is the process of "informing" and that is what information pros do, and do well. The process of knowledge creation that happens at the user level is called learning. These two processes are important and critical sides of the same coin. Informing without learning is the equivalent of placing article photocopies and books on a desktop and not reading them. No matter how carefully selected and chosen, the end result is moot. Learning without information or content is again risky and, arguably, significantly impacts progress in an intellectual arena.
So why is this distinction important? Information professionals who focus on content selection, design, and delivery doom themselves to remaining information tellers and their intranets to automated information machines. Information professionals who focus on the processes underpinning informing and learning empower their products and services to soar.
The term "e-learning" is fraught with confusion and many definitions. IDC has a useful one. They define e-learning as: "Synchronous or asynchronous learning that is conducted over Internet, Intranet, Extranet or other Internet-based technologies." That covers a lot of territory! So, the purpose of this article is to provide a framework to view the various offerings.
E-learning providers fit into three basic categories: content, infrastructure, and services. Some organizations provide one-stop shopping—or are trying to.
Content
Companies are focusing their content development efforts in:
• K-12 school-oriented learning
• Academic learning modules
• IT skills training and certification
• Soft skills, particularly business and management skills
E-learning, done well, is expensive to create. It requires an understanding of learning pedagogy and the variety of ways kids and adults learn best. The adoption rate in the education sector is quite high. The Holy Grail of creating reusable and recombinable courses and lessons in modules is very attractive. Some pundits put the academic distance education market share at 50 percent of all post-secondary learning within 7 years. This creates a very competitive framework that fundamentally challenges the revenue models of higher education. They have to play just to stay in the game. Many, if not most, universities and colleges have e-learning programs as stand-alone distance education opportunities or as supplements to classroom learning. The academic sector's content concentration has been on courses in their learning specialization. For instance, there may be medical training like health technology or courses in ancient civilizations. Indeed, academic libraries have created many courses in the area of information literacy. This sector has been a keen adopter of course-builder applications such as Blackboard, WebCT, and Lotus LearningSpace to speed up their creation of distance education content. Other innovators in this content area are the leading textbook publishers who are building complementary Web-based learning spaces and content for their print products.
Business oriented e-learning tends to focus on information technology (IT) and management competencies. IT is an obvious market for e-learning courses—by vendor software to reduce the costs of training in an already computer literate market, by IT associations to accredit members in specific competencies, or for professional continuing education and continuous learning in a rapidly changing field. There are plenty of examples in this area such as SmartForce (recently acquired by SkillSoft), Books 24X7, or ProQuest Safari. This is one area where the e-book is nicely repositioning itself within the Internet learning space complementary to the library reference space.
With the coming baby boomer retirement bulge and the consequent loss of organizational and management knowledge within companies, smart organizations are searching for a way to make management competency learning opportunities available without needing to send employees out for continuous external classroom training. Hence, we see offerings of MBA-style content, redefined for the desktop user's problems. Examples of these include NewMindsets, Click2learn, and SkillSoft.
Infrastructure
Learning Management Systems (LMSs) are, in their most primitive form, just learning portals that can be permissioned into the intranet. Specific courses are selected and launched in the enterprise. In more advanced forms, internal and external courses can be integrated. In the case of learning content management systems (LCMSs) one can create courses within the LMS paradigm. Examples of LMSs are Saba, Click2learn, and NetG.
A stored PowerPoint presentation does not make for a wonderful learning opportunity. However, a new class of presentation management systems such as BrainShark or Presenter.com allow you to store PPTs with your voice or video synched with the slides. This is a big improvement over conference tapes and allows people to replay or review a presentation in real time or on another occasion. This is a useful method for overseas or new employees to get basic learning.
There is a new suite of authoring tools for e-learning creation. Some LCMS vendors provide templates and outlines to ensure a minimum standard of presentation and pedagogy is met without having to invent from scratch. Add the emerging metadata standards, such as SCORM, for tagging and describing e-learning content and now there is an industry that is maturing quickly.
Another key industry development is the repackaging of traditional content such as books and articles into electronic coursepacks. These can be developed (and copyright cleared) for courses or even at the individual lesson level. Each article, document, or book can be easily read, downloaded, or even bought from right within the e-learning course. Leaders in this area are XanEDU, digital coursepacks, and eTextbooks.
The real sizzle in the industry is the building of virtual learning environments with many whiz-bang features. Going beyond the virtual classroom model and into true collaboration software along with customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge management (KM) tools directly integrated into the learning management environment creates exciting opportunities for modeling some of the best classroom education without travel and other costs accruing to the enterprise. Major LMS vendors have adopted cool collaboration and conferencing services such as WebEx, PlaceWare, and Centra.
Services
There is a mini industry developing of e-learning consultants and technical consultants who bring their early stage experience to bear on intranet strategies. Some specialize in personalized learning strategies or the provision of coaching and mentoring services. There are also external hosting services that reduce the costs of managing these services. It means one does not need to load the whole system internally and can contract for the required levels of privacy and support.
Other Spins
This is a very complex industry. But then so is human learning complex and diverse. Employees and students come with needs and arrive at their e-learning class with a wide diversity of experience, literacy, and learning styles. The best e-learning respects this diversity and does not attempt to force students through a normalization procedure. The choices of classroom, technology, or text-based learning are best left to the learner. For those who practice intranet professional skills in global organizations or markets, there are additional challenges with respect to international delivery, culture, and language translation.
What Are the Key Takeaways for the Intranet Professional?
• Adopt second-generation e-learning where there is more than a course and users direct their own learning.
• Focus on the "learning ecology" or the holistic and healthy learning environment and ensure that the technology does not get in the way of learning but rather enhances it.
• Understand that "blended e-learning" works by combining e-learning with face-to-face learning and offline practice.
• Acquire e-learning as "learning nuggets" developed in recombinable learning paths and accessible, as the learner defines it, through metadata-driven customizable paths. In other words, a balanced approach will work better. There is no room for educational zealotry here.
Well, there is the framework. It is changing every day. E-learning companies are merging. Course vendors are licensing collaboration software. E-book publishers are being bought by learning portals. The more things change, the more they remain the same. The learner is still a human being—usually a student or employee—and learners still have needs. Today there are tools closer to the user's reality. Let's take advantage of them.
Sidebar
Selected E-Learning Companies
Collaboration tools
• PlaceWare [http://www.placeware.com]
• WebEx [http://www.webex.com/home/default.htm]
• NetMeeting [http://www.microsoft.com/windows/netmeeting/]
• Centra [http://www.centra.com]
• Raindance (formerly Evoke Communications or Contigo) [http://www.raindance.com/]
• Flypaper [http://flypaper.com/]
• Centerwheel (formerly Coolboard.com) [http://www.centerwheel.com/]
• Groove [http://www.groove.net]
E-Learning
• NewMindsets Inc. [http://www.newmindsets.com]
• Click2learn.com, Inc. [http://www.click2learn.com]
• DigitalThink, Inc. [http://www.digitalthink.com]
• Docent, Inc. (includes gForce) [http://www.docent.com]
• KnowledgeNet [http://www.knowledgenet.com]
• Knowledge Planet.com [http://www.knowledgeplanet.com]
• Learn2.com, Inc. [http://www.learn2.com]
• NETg (includes the former Xtremelearning and uNext) [http://www.NETg.com]
• Ninth House Network [http://www.ninthhouse.com]
• Saba [http://www.saba.com]
• SkillSoft (SmartForce)[http://www.skillsoft.com]
Presentation (Communication) Management Systems
• BrainShark [http://www.brainshark.com]
• Presenter Inc. [http://www.presenter.com]
Course Management Systems
• Blackboard [http://www.blackboard.com]
• WebCT [http://www.webct.com/]
• Lotus Learning Space [http://www.lotus.com/home.nsf/welcome/learnspace]
E-Books
• MeansBusiness [http://www.meansbusiness.com]
• XanEDU [http://www.xanedu.com]
• Element K [http://www.elementk.com]
• Books24x7.com (IT Pro, BusinessPro, OfficeEssentials) [http://www.books24x7.com]
• Safari Tech Books Online [http://www.il.proquest. com/products/pt-product-safari.shtml]