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Example research essay topic: Face To Face E Learning - 2,493 words

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... from online material about the principles of hiring, but need classroom instruction with role-playing to learn those skills. When personnel go to one of the companys training centers, they learn a lot from other people doing the same job at a different location. You cant package that in a class, says Diana Scott, the firms e-learning manager. (7) The company experimented with online forums to promote such exchanges but found that busy workers simply wouldnt use them. Experts say that the methodology used for each of the various phases of the training process should reflect the desired outcome for that stage, not the cost or convenience of a given technology. No one has found an ideal mix of technology and classroom instruction, but IBM seems to have come close.

It conducts 48 percent of its training electronically, says Ted Hoff, IBMs chief learning officer. With 320, 000 employees scattered across 76 countries, the company has a special need to quickly and efficiently train its people. But like many other firms, IBM has found that e-learning works most effectively when strategically coupled with classroom training. A prime example is Basic Blue, IBMs training program for new managers. In years past, the more than 5, 000 new managers who are trained each year would be brought together for a five-day event to learn the basics of the firms culture, strategy and management practices. That was too much information to absorb in such a short time, so IBM expanded the program to 12 months by adding different types of e-learning to the weeklong live event.

Five months before the live event, managers now do self-paced Web learning modules that discuss basic management skills and use simulation modules to handle real-life business scenarios using videos of a fictional colleague or customer. By the time the new managers meet for the five-day event, they have been in the field long enough to discuss actual experiences. After forging those face-to-face relationships with other managers, they continue to do online group simulations and mentor one another for seven months. (3) Studies conducted by Harvard Business School and other organizations determined that the program enables managers to learn five times as much material at one-third the cost of a classroom-only approach. Before going through Basic Blue, managers said that they preferred face-to-face training. Afterward, Hoff says, surveys indicated that managers overwhelmingly liked the blended approach better, and in the future always wanted some training delivered electronically. IBM, of course, sells e-learning technology and has a vested interest in its success.

Other companies remain more wary. Four years ago, when the Internet was still considered miraculous, Express Personnel looked for an e-learning system to help save its franchise owners time, travel and training costs. An Express Personnel vice president checked out some programs and was wowed by the setup at a real estate company where e-learning was provided 24 / 7 through streamed video delivered by satellite. Soon afterward, Express Personnel purchased a similar video training system.

Problems started immediately. Creating content was expensive and time-consuming. Worse, many franchise owners didnt have enough bandwidth to view the videos over the Internet. The videos would get stuck all the time, and the presenters looked distorted, Scott says.

We bit off more than we could chew. (3) The experience was not uncommon. In the first go-around of e-learning, many companies had a follow-the-leader mentality. They installed state-of-the-art learning systems with 3 -D simulations, but never considered whether the systems were necessary or cost-effective. In the past, people used a lot of crazy metrics and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to build e-learning systems with a lot of gratuitous functionality, says Dave Palumbo, head of the learning practice for Sapient Corp. , a Boston consulting firm. Those kinds of approaches have been scaled back, he says, along with high-flying e-learning providers that could charge whatever they liked for support. What remains are crisp, clear solutions that solve well-understood problems.

Express Personnel got rid of the expensive Internet video system, and the vendor that sold it, in 2002. The second time around, the companys training department involved the IT department in choosing a simpler e-learning system that wouldnt tax the franchises computer systems. Now, franchise owners and their employees can log on and, instead of being confronted with a mountain of videos, are directed to shorter online classes designed for their specific job functions, such as inside or outside sales. If an e-learning system overwhelms the users with too much information, they will not come back. The new system has a lot of capabilities that we turned off and are not using, Scott says. In e-learning, more is not better. (2) Many companies believe that how employees are prepared for e-learning has a big effect on the trainings outcome.

Kathy Harris, an analyst at Gartner Group, notes that student-managed learning is a radical change for most people, and companies must provide incentives to use it. Before IBM inaugurated a series of Web seminars for salespeople on how to sell e-business technology, a vice president of sales sent a message to all salespeople about why the information was important to their jobs and to the companys future. Like many other successful e-learning initiatives, the seminars were well attended because they were mandatory. But it is important to send the personalized note about why this is valuable so the participants have the right mind-set, Hoff says. The training wont be effective if people are doing it only because its required. Granted, IBM has tremendous resources.

Still, even small firms with modest e-learning programs are finding that the same principles apply. Windsor Frozen Foods, a tiny division of the Keebler Company, finds that few employees are interested in attending training after work, especially if the course is held at a remote location that requires additional transportation time. George Young, Windsors corporate director of human resources, thought e-learning was a perfect solution, so he purchased learning modules on management practices from Ninth House about subjects such as how to ask better questions at meetings. The key to the success of the self-paced modules, he found, was setting up sessions afterward for the users to discuss what they had learned and how they could apply the information to their jobs. (2) Given employees past lack of interest in additional training, Young approached the program with trepidation. But the employees had a lot of lively discussions, and he now frequently sees situations in which people apply some of the things theyve learned from the modules, even if they dont realize thats what theyre doing. A crucial aspect of the self-paced training was letting people know in advance that these discussions would be held, so they had greater focus and a sense of accountability.

Despite the success, Young is taking the go-slow approach that now characterizes many e-learning initiatives. The first modules were done by 14 company officers, and e-learning is being rolled out to the rest of the workers gradually. The ASTD report shows that learning technology is rapidly taking the place of much of the training traditionally presented in a classroom. Overall, 15. 4 percent of corporate training in 2002 was conducted through learning technologies, compared to 8. 8 percent two years earlier. Among Fortune 500 companies, learning technology constituted 25. 5 percent of all training, up from 18. 7 percent two years before.

Not surprisingly, the more advanced forms of e-learning are much more popular among larger firms and companies that are technology-savvy. At Fortune 500 firms, 73. 6 percent of technology-delivered training comes through networked, online methods. This has increased steadily even during the dot-com collapse. However, most firms are looking at more modest technology and smaller initial investments. (2) Companies are still trying to find the right balance to make the e-learning experience engaging but not overwhelming.

In many cases, experts say, workers will be happy with the new generation of 10 -minute training modules that address a specific need. The content doesnt have to be so flashy that it looks like Steven Spielberg produced it, analyst Palumbo notes. Companies are also grasping for better metrics to measure e-learning, such as increased satisfaction and reduced turnover, as opposed to what Palumbo calls the previous smiley-face metrics like I liked it better. Too often, experts say, companies have looked to e-learning as a cheaper solution, without considering whether it is an effective solution. Successful e-learning starts with a commonsense practice that is often overlooked: carefully thinking through the purpose of a training initiative. Brennan of IDC still sees companies set arbitrary e-learning goals, such as planning to have 80 percent of training online in four years, without thinking about how receptive the audience will be, what the business drivers are, and how they will combine e-learning with other forms of training.

When I hear numbers thrown out without business arguments other than well save money, Im skeptical, he says. Analysts say that skepticism about e-learning is a good thing. Remembering and avoiding the sins of the past will enable a firm to reap the many real business benefits that can come with careful purchases and sound planning. (6) While technology is often perceived as adding to development time and costs, it can help reduce them as well. Warmbrand pointed to a software simulation tool that helped MBE, with small investments of cost and time, develop vivid software simulations that were then burned to CD-ROMs or posted on the web. Citibank's Cortes said: Variables such as cost, time and content stability are consciously part of our discussions about which delivery options to consider.

Warmbrand emphasized that, despite an array of tasty blending options, reality dictates how training is ultimately delivered. In the MBE world, franchisees are everywhere and very independent. For their ongoing training, after the four weeks of orientation, we have no option: we must do all our training at a distance. That means technology.

At the same time, Warmbrand acknowledged that it was not easy to motivate far-flung franchisees: Weve found that its a challenge to get them to complete online courses and assessments theyre not employees, so motivating them is sometimes hard. For now, were enforcing compliance, but we have plans to develop a program that builds interest and motivation by emphasizing relevance. (6) Ivan Cortes, a performance improvement consultant with Citigroup, is responsible for increasing financial service sales in international settings, especially Latin America. To do this, he develops many kinds of learning assets trove from which 100 different country representatives can choose. He said: Were using job aids in the form of PowerPoint templates, and face-to-face discussion forums that are structured to provoke thinking and problem solving as a follow-on to a sales skills workshop. They provide room for conversation without assuming any one person is the expert.

Earlier writing depicted blends as combinations of online experiences and classroom training, with an emphasis on what might enhance the classroom. In an article last year, Strategies for Building Blended Learning (n 1), we touted expanding possibilities, where instructor-led training is no longer the meat in the sandwich, although it remains a key nutrient. The respondents agreed with that idea and their efforts reflected the richer menus now being served up. (6) The hidden secret of e-learning is that a lot of people who try a computer module or online class wont finish it. In a recent survey conducted by James Madison University, 375 corporate learners said they dropped out of classroom instruction only 3 percent of the time but failed to complete 26 percent of e-learning. The reason that 36 percent of them gave for abandoning the technology was poor design of the e-learning material or a mismatch of e-learning styles. The quality of the online experience has not been good for most e-learners, says Jeff Snipes, CEO of Ninth House Inc. , a San Francisco maker of online training modules.

In the past, companies have paid a premium to have people like Tom Peters do seminars and workshops, and they need the same level of content in e-learning. (6) That pitch has made Ninth House an award-winning producer of e-learning modules that teach managerial soft skills the kind of thing that many analysts think is the most difficult to learn online. To combat that impression, Ninth House has used a two-part strategy. The first part was to license and adapt high-quality material from business gurus like Peters and Ken (The One Minute Manager) Blanchard. The second was to give the e-learning experience some energy by using slick, movie-like simulations created with the help of designers at places like Disney and Pixar. Ninth Houses Situational Leadership module begins with a short video clip from Ken Blanchard, followed by vignettes and interactive videos that place the user in the middle of a movie. The fictional management scenarios range from a gold mine to a fishing pond.

We are changing the paradigm where people used to just sit in front of their computer and read text, Snipes says. In a situation where you are trying to develop management skills and change behavior, you need a higher learning experience. (6) Like most other e-learning companies, Ninth House promotes the blended-learning approach. E-learning is not just good for one thing and the classroom for another, Snipes says. Each is a great way to do part of the learning experience. He believes that concepts can be learned online, followed by simulated online role-playing on a general subject such as negotiation.

After that, he says, people should get together to discuss the concepts and practice their skills more specifically with techniques such as role-playing how to negotiate their own companys contracts. The Ninth House approach seems to be working. Last April, the U. S. Department of Justice issued a report about a pilot program using Ninth Houses online seminars based on Blanchard's teaching. The department said that the amount of training the managers received in 4, 247 electronic courses taken over two years would have cost $ 10. 5 million more in a classroom.

More important were the qualitative results. Ninety-two percent of the people who participated in the program said that they were able to learn and remember concepts as easily as in a classroom, and 64 percent said that the courses had helped improve their job performance. Bibliography: 1) A. Rossetti, F. Douglas, and R. V.

Frazee, Strategies for building blended learning (online magazine), ASTD Learning Circuits, 2003, web 2) J. Berlin, Blended Learning: Finding What Works, Chief Learning Officer, 3 (1), 39 - 41, 45, 2004. 3) P. Dean, M. Stahl, D.

Sylvester and J. Pear, Effectiveness of Combined Delivery Modalities for Distance Learning and Resident Learning, Quarterly Review Of Distance Education, 2 (3), 247 - 254, 2001. 4) Thomson Learning announces research study findings, 2003, web 5) Training Media Review, web 6) W. Find. Controversies of Blended Learning. New York: Viking Press, 2001. 7) Y. Guzman.

The Prospective of E-learning. From Wired Magazine, issue April 2002.


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Research essay sample on Face To Face E Learning

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