I always use the January column to look back at what was onmy mind over the past year, and to set some resolutions for the year to come.In reading back over my columns and my work from 2017, one theme leaps out in apretty big way: getting back to our roots.
Since eLearning started to gain popularity in the 2000s,we’ve seen new tools and affordances grow by leaps and bounds. But I worry thatsometimes, in pursuing the next “best thing,” we’ve lost sight of whateLearning was supposed to do. Remember? It promised just-in-time, just-for-melearning opportunities, quick to deploy and easy to access. Some lessons from the early days are, I think, worth keeping in view: Don’toverdesign; be careful of too much content; use the right approach for thedesired performance; be careful of templates and easy-build quizzes that mayobscure your view of a more effective approach; and remember that content isabundant—look around before re-creating the wheel. Be careful of blaming thelearner; make sure bad design and one-size-fits-all thinking aren’t undermining learner success.Try, when you can, to keep constraints like lack of budget and dry content from driving inferior or ineffective design.
In addition, we’ve identified ways of supporting learningthat don’t fit the original eLearning (“online course”) mold. Thanks to Google,YouTube, and other social tools, we have literally put learning right at learners’ fingertips.Channeling and leveraging self-directed approaches and social opportunities? We’re working on it. Our challenges?Making resources and experiences available, often while satisfying mostlyuseless (sorry) demands for completion and tracking and credit. Somesuggestions: Don’t miss Jane Hart’s ideas about shifting to a “learning concierge” role. Continue supportingefforts at working out loud to facilitate the flow of information across organizations anddisciplines, and to help us understand not just what someone does but how shegets things done. Learn about the inner workings of real communities of practice in order to better help supportand sustain them. And, in taking stock of what you know about how people learn,step back and look at it from their points of view and their beliefs about learning. What, for instance, are the consequences ofthrowing big experiential-learning experiences at learners who believe thatlearning should happen fast, in discrete, easily tested bits, and that“learning” is the ability to recall and spit back information?
Finally, I can see I spent a lot of 2017 pondering ways tobe more influential: Get out of your usual designer/facilitator box and polishup some new skills, likedealing with data, learning to read academic research, understanding behaviorchange, and developing business acumen. Look for some help and practicewith negotiation and assertiveness skills. Work on ways to educatestakeholders. And sometimes, in dealing with objections and resisters, take offthe gloves and counterpunch.
As for resolutions for the new year? Well, 2018 promisessomething different for me. After 28 years, I retired from my job with stategovernment and yesterday started a new job with The eLearning Guild as Directorof Research. I’m not sure what resolutions to set for that—yet—but plan to bebringing you useful, practical, data-based information to help you improve yourpractice, keep you up to date, and support your efforts at building yourinfluence.
Wishing everyone happiness and health as we moveinto our new year.
