Marc My Words: Why I Hate eLearning

In the past, I’ve written about how I’ve hated instructionalobjectives, ADDIEand LMSs.Now, since this is my 99^th and next-to-last regular column, it’s nowor never to tackle the Big Kahuna: I hateeLearning.

Wait, you say, didn’t you write two best-selling books on eLearning? Haven’tyou been advocating for eLearning for decades? You can’t really hate eLearningnow, can you?

Well, sort of.

I think eLearning has been the most significant and consequentialdisruption in the learning and development business in the last half-century. Anduntil the proliferation of the internet, I wasn’t sure if it would ever makeit. Disc-based (micro- to pizza-sized), client-server, and a host of othershort-lived technologies only served to make eLearning more hassle thanhelpful, so I was dubious. The web changed that; eLearning is here to stay. That’sgood.

Thou shalt not speak ill of the wonderfulnessof eLearning

Like the other tools I kind of hated, eLearning is in danger of becomingso sacrosanct, so entrenched in our orthodoxy, that speaking critically about itamounts to heresy of sorts. We allknow the power and potential of eLearning to improve learning efficiency andeffectiveness, but we must also shine a light on eLearning’s flaws, not only inprocesses and technologies, but also in our own assumptions of what it is, andwhat it can and cannot do. It’s essential for our professional health.

The hype

Maybe I have a love-haterelationship with eLearning. I’m awed by its potential, but my main beef with itis the hype. If we’re not careful—and we often aren’t—it can consume us, and wemay never realize, until it’s too late, that all the hysteria has affected ourdecisions and results, most likely to our dismay. Here are ten eLearning hypesthat sometimes make me wish we could blow it all up and start over. We can’t,of course, but if we are more mindful of the unrealistic expectations we placeon eLearning, and deal with them, perhaps we can love it just a little more.

It’s fast and easy! The allure of“rapid” eLearning can lead some to equate rapid with good (I recently saw an adclaiming you can create a course in “justminutes”). Just because you can do it fast doesn’t mean it’s going to work,or that you should have done it in the first place. Sometimes, when we makethings too simple, quality suffers because we often fail to look more deeply atwhat we are doing. To avoid hating eLearning, treat it as a professionalactivity, complete with professional challenges, and make sure you fully understandwhat you are getting into. What’s true in life is also true for eLearning: youcan’t get something for nothing (or almost nothing), especially if you want itto be any good.
Anyone can build eLearning! With therise of rapid eLearning comes the assumption that anyone can do it. But noteveryone is cut out for this. Handing off eLearning design and development responsibilitiesto SMEs, instructors, techies, managers, or anyone who has a “few days tospare,” can lead to eLearning that looks just like the classroom experiencesthose people have been used to, only it’s often worse and ultimately leadspeople to hate the experience. Good authoring tools, templates, and styleguides can help, but training and experience in instructional design can helpeven more.
We don’t need no instructional design! GreateLearning starts with great instructional design, and not taking the time tofocus on this, because it takes too long, costs too much, or has beendisparaged as not really a discipline (none of which are true), can get youinto trouble. eLearning is complex and not always well served by ignoring thebasic principles of what makes it all work. Instructional design matters, andgreat authoring, publishing, or project management, while important, are nosubstitutes for it.
Social learning is the answer! Socialmedia can be a mess if you’re not careful. Want people to hate eLearning? Tryincluding social media tools that have no purpose. Putting them out there doesnot guarantee that they will be used in a beneficial way. Embedding the toolsin the workplace, giving them a meaningful role, and then incorporating thosesame tools into eLearning programs will help learners link the workplace andthe learning environment together.
Great tech cures all ills! Too often wesee technology as a strategy, not as an enabler. This can lead us to assumethat we can fix broken eLearning with better, sexier, and shinier tech. This only exacerbates the problem and can lead peopleto hate eLearning, even while being dazzled by the technology. Furthermore, theseinvestments can be expensive, and if the costs leave nothing left for carefuldesign, your program is no better than it was before. More efficient, perhaps,but no better.
The classroom is dead! eLearningchanges the classroom, it doesn’t eliminate it. Those organizations that rushedinto eLearning too fast and shut down all their classrooms, and eliminatedtheir entire instructor corps, have lived to regret it (or, perhaps, notsurvived their decision). Nothing kills the love for eLearning more than usingit in ways it was never intended. Precious and expensive classroom trainingwill still be needed, but it will look far different. Much less presentationand fact-focused, and much more problem solving, experiential, and team-focusedactivities.
eLearning is a miracle cure! If youlisten too much to the hype, you might think eLearning cures the common cold! IseLearning an answer for everylearning challenge? Of course not. But you’d never know that in someorganizations—or from some vendors for that matter—where it is promoted beyondits capabilities, leading to impossible expectations around performance, cost,and learner satisfaction. If you’ve experienced this, chances are you’reprobably having a harder time selling your next project. Start small, pick yourprojects carefully, set realistic expectations, deliver on them, and then shareyour success stories. Learn from the experience and be ready to scale. Movingpeople from loathing eLearning, to accepting it, and ultimately to loving it,takes time.
Learners will figure it out! We have,for a long time, assumed that people know how to learn, in general, and arequite capable at it. But we now know this isn’t always the case and thatlearners need to learn how to learn. Thischallenge is worse with eLearning as there is no one around to respond toquestions or observe problems. Furthermore, managing learning time and focus isentirely on the learner. Goodinstructional design helps, but don’t dismiss basic learning skills. If eLearnersare frustrated, their perceptions of eLearning will be profoundly impacted, andnot in a good way.
It’s sooooo exciting! Think people willlove eLearning because of its novelty or uniqueness? Think that your learnerswill fawn over eLearning because it’s fun or “techy?” Think again. Sure, youmight win over some folks with the “newness” of eLearning (as well as gaming,badging, and new technologies like VR and AR), but these approaches alone willnot sustain the enthusiasm. Over time, programs that are boring, of littlevalue, or a downright waste of time will turn that initial excitement to acomplete turn off, making your next effort much more difficult (and users willtell their colleagues to stay away as well). And simply mandating programs willnot help to spread the love. Remember, “activity” is not learning and“implementation” is not acceptance.
Nothing will go wrong! The PeterPrinciple is alive and well in eLearning, so prepare for it. Good planning andexcellent project management may be more of a key to successful implementationthan just about anything else. You are not working in a perfect world. Whilewe’re not planning for Category 5 hurricanes, disaster planningmitigates risks, including user dissatisfaction, even in eLearning.

Use this list, and other items you might want to add, to see whetheryou are susceptible to any of these eLearning hypes. Perhaps you’ve gotten pastmany of them but new ones have taken their place. Take them seriously; overcomethem and, like me, your view of eLearning can easily shift from I hate eLearning to meh, and ultimately to love.