Rob Chapman caused quite a stir yesterday when his article The elearning diet: Not recommended for long term results was published on TrainingZone. Here's how the synopsis reads:
"Like the Atkins diet, numerous boy bands and the dot com bubble, is elearning no more than just a passing fad? Rob Chapman pulls no punches in this outspoken opinion piece about the fate of the elearning industry."
Now I've met Rob Chapman and he's both a nice guy and a successful businessman, but well-informed he certainly is not. Whatever you think of e-learning, it insults the intelligence of the learning and development community to pass it off as a fad, whatever motives he has as a provider of classroom IT training.
The term e-learning goes back a little over 10 years, but the concept is at least 30 years old. Computer-assisted learning is as old as computers themselves, and certainly more established as a discipline than the IT training which Rob purveys. Of course, all things are relative, and when you compare e-learning to classroom education then perhaps a fad it is - after all, we've had classrooms for hundreds of years.
But to be a fad, it has to rise and then fall. Trouble is for Rob, this fad shows no signs of falling. Numerous surveys show how the volume of e-learning has continued to rise over the past ten years, largely at the expense of classroom training.
Where Rob is most clearly ill-informed is in the way he characterises e-learning as exclusively a self-study activity, conducted in isolation. Now he's not the only one to think that, but ignorance is never an excuse. Where e-learning differs from early CBT is in the way it employs the Internet to make possible all sorts of collaborative activities that simply couldn't be accomplished in a face-to-face setting. If e-learning is a fad then here's what we are going to be doing without when the fashion changes:
- web conferencing
- e-assessment
- collaborative distance learning
- social networking
- wikis
- blogging and micro-blogging
- podcasting
- games and simulations
- forums
- instant messaging
- and the whole World Wide Web!
Each of the above - and the endless other options yet to be invented -is an online resource which contributes hugely to learning. Remove these and we return to the dark ages. Sorry Rob, but I doubt that's really going to happen.
Couldn't agree with you more Clive! His article certainly made my blood boil as someone who has seen e-learning gather momentum and traction over those 30 + years! Looking in from the outside I wonder what Rob thinks of the human race!! Come on let's get real - he is so misinformed and if e-learning is such a fad I'm surprised he bothered spending so much time on an inflammatory piece! Me thinks he protests a little too much. And perhaps he's just a little worried about his businesses long term strategy for survival.
ReplyDeleteWell...I've struggled with ILT/trainer types for many years, trying to get them to see the benefits of technology...but I think it does help occasionally to have a challenge from somebody like Rob. So...although we've a 30 year history, and heaps of bucks are being pushed into e-learning (whatever that is), does this mean it works? I'm not sure. On the contrary, I'd suggest the great majority of what we know as "e-learning", hastily put together, badly considered, solitary, ignoring most of what we know about how people learn (which is something Rob does know about - give him some credit), is a waste of money. It's neither signficantly cheaper, nor sufficiently differentiated, to offer real value. I think we need to focus ever more clearly on what technology really does offer...and put as much effort we can into proving that what we do is worthwhile. So - well done Rob. More challenges please!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Clive. He would appear to have not really understood what the rest of us are doing - successfully. It's no fad,it's evolution.
ReplyDeleteWell said Clive!
ReplyDeleteClive, it's been a great one to follow and although I like you put in my two pennyworth, I had to bite my tongue very hard not to get mad..... All those eLearning anger management courses I made, knew I would find some use for the material!
ReplyDeleteI fear that Rob is only one of a very small number of classroom training companies feeling the current pinch in the downturn, where many eLearning companies such as yours and mine are struggling to keep up with the increase. It's always greener on the other side, thankfully this time we are on the right side.
I think he like a number of others could do a far better service to their clients if he were to embrace the very technology he is trying to 'teach', rather than trying to make t sound a bad thing.
I remember the ASTD conference in about 1997 in Atlanta, where every trainer was terrified they were going to loose their job to this new disk based learning...... Maybe next year.
Neil
Well said Clive - I was speechless when I read the article (and that doesn't happen often to me as you well know!). Sure, by all means challenge the use and value of e-Learning but only do this with a factually argued article, not by a whole load of unsupported, fictional claims. However, I suspect that if Rob had tried the former he would have given up ... No, for him the only way to repel this nasty and threatening invader is to attack it for reasons which I guess only he, Rob, knows. Hey ho!
ReplyDeleteJudith Christian-Carter
I Completely agree with you Clive and what Neil has commented. in-fact we should thanks Rob to raise this; now all of us are openly aware of this!
ReplyDeleteHi Clive,
ReplyDeleteI just discovered your blog and am happy to hear someone that understands the nature of necessity of e-learning. My only issue with most e-learning is how boring it can be in some application. For the large and small business community it is a useful tool too often neglected!
Sue
No matter what he says, the important thing is to do what you think is the best for everybody. He can't feed his thoughts to just anyone. Let him do the talking and just shrugged everything off.
ReplyDeleteWithout a proper definition of `elearning' and without appropriate reference to the current literature, Rob makes some startling claims. `elearning' is as much about the way humans learn as any other pedagogy and the success or failure of it will depend on how we utilise the tools available. (Think lecture hall with 200 students as opposed to small classroom with les than 12 students and an active & engaged teacher)
ReplyDeleteWell, as someone who has spent his entire career as an ID in elearning, let me also take issue. Mr. Chapman seems to have made a statement in the spirit of the old saying: "Whatever can be invented, has been invented." That foolish quote finding utterance in the public square more than 100 years ago, it's obvious the speaker in question was ill-aware of the degree of his foolishness. I would say this comment by Mr. Chapman fits rather similarly, if not totally. To counter him, I don't see how elearning WILL fail. It extends capabilities for companies and individuals, empowers people, and makes agile what once was an entrenched system of education and development. Elearning is education evolved. It's not the solution to all learning ills of course, but I cannot see how it is a tool that will disappear. After all, is not the pinnacle of human learning that model seen in The Matrix, where one need only jack into the system, flutter their eyelids for a few seconds, and come away with a degree in rocket science? Elearning certainly enabled that particular visual. ;)
ReplyDeleteThank you for that post!I have referred to your post in my own response to Chapman.
ReplyDeletehttp://kernlearningsolutions.wordpress.com/
Kia ora Clive!
ReplyDeleteYes, I'd put my weight behind what you're saying here too. Whatever elearning is, it's not a fad.
One thing though, and I'm sure you'll agree with this, elearning has to be planned right, developed right and delivered right, with proper follow-up and support. I have a hunch that the real faddy part that, perhaps Rod Chapman misinterpreted is that it's an easily swallowed panacea. It isn't that either. There is no easy option to learning.
Done thoroughly, elearning can be efficient, effective and long lasting.
Catchya later
from Middle-earth
Clive,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree!
One of the best things about learning things online are the communities. Whatever you want to learn, from knitting to rocket science, there is probably an active community, with forums, blogs and more!
Anybody who sees e-learning as a lonely, isolated activity is completely missing the point!
My goodness.
ReplyDeleteLet's let the research speak. Here's something from Inside Higher Ed.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/06/29/online
- Doug Flather