What's in my head today?

Sorry for the delay between posts - things have been hideously busy lately - but here we go. Last time, we looked at TSAEP’s internal use of web conferencing to support learning and its applicability to a wide array of topics and methods (e.g. accredited learning, such as Diploma programs, short and sharp operational training sessions, remedial sessions, etc.). Today, we’ll look at online courseware and we use that to support our staff and business results.

A quick definition up front. When we talk about online courseware, we’re talking about self-paced online learning units that staff can access either at their desktop or from any computer with an Internet connection outside our network (provided they have their username and password for the Learning Management System). The examples I’ll use here have evolved over the past four years as we’ve become more comfortable with the tools we use and with delivery of training and other support material through an online medium. Those of you who have followed some of my previous posts, especially with relation to performer support resources and collaborative learning, will note that we currently use online courseware for some aspects of work that would be better supported through decision support or collaborative learning resources. We’re moving in that direction, but I can’t sit here and say we’re using collaboration and performer support as well as we can, or as well as we would like to. Over the coming months, some of our support activities and resources will be changing from what you will read here, but I’ve offered the online learning perspectives we’ve gathered as a resource for those who are currently exploring using online courseware for their organisations, or those who are considering whether there are tweaks they could make to what they currently offer. I think we’ve learned some valuable lessons in the past four years, and I hope you’ll find the information useful.

Learning content - develop or buy?

Any organisation starting down the path of an elearning initiatives is faced with this question up front. In our case, the choice was a simple one for most of the content we needed. The specialised nature of government provided employment services in Australia means there are simply very few off-the-shelf courses that address the key knowledge and skills our people need to develop. The Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) offer a number of online training units that providers can access, but when it comes to internal processes to help job seekers into work and maintain suitable records of what is being done with whom, internal development was definitely going to be required. 

Developing content - what tools?

Once it was obvious we were going to have to do a substantial amount of content development ourselves, it became a question of how this was going to be done. While our training staff focused on supporting the needs in the field, two of us at National Office started looking at what was available out there. One thing we knew for sure - we didn’t want simple PowerPoint page turners slapped online for people to access.

We considered a number of different options for tools - Articulate, Raptivity, and a host of others. We kept coming back to Adobe Captivate, though. Many people see Captivate as an application that’s good for recording software demonstrations, but they baulk at using for more complex learning scenarios. We saw Captivate as a flexible tool that could be used for the majority of what we wanted to achieve, and importantly, the learning curve toward competency was reasonable.

Over the past four years, we’ve not had reason to regret choosing Captivate as our main development tool. For additional functions, we wanted to add Photoshop, Premiere Pro (for video editing) and a couple of other things, so we added Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection to our toolbox as well. Later on, as we became more proficient with developing online content, we also added CodeBaby Production Studio, and had CodeBaby make us some custom avatars dressed in TSAEP uniforms to “host” certain learning content.

Finally, we’d obviously need a Learning Management System (LMS) to host and track content and users. We put nine different systems to the test, and chose DOTS, from DOTS Talent Solutions, due to it’s flexibility and scalability, and the excellent support and advice offered by the company itself. Those of you who have read my past posts about the limitations of the LMS and its need to evolve with the times will know my thoughts on the improvements and refinements required of them. I’m happy to say the guys at DOTS Talent Solutions are always willing to listen. Time will tell whether the messages we’re sending are resonating with them, though.

General strategy

Four years ago, we weren’t really considering collaborative learning and social tools for use in our learning strategy. Today, though, things have changed, so the advice I’d give to anyone getting into online courseware for the first time is slightly different to the way we approached our early roll-out.  Where the bulk of our time was spent on planning out which courses could best be offered as self-paced learning units and how we could assess competence, today I’d put a lot more time into working out where I could use collaborative tools (e.g. wikis, discussion groups, etc.). These kinds of tools can provide your workers with just-in-time information to support the tasks they do without the need for them to wade through a full course of material in order to locate the one thing they really want to know.

After you’ve sorted out how collaborative options can assist, then turn to the online courseware (internal or off-the-shelf). There are a couple of areas where self-paced online courses can be especially effective when linked to an LMS or other tool that can track completion and any testing required:

1. Compliance training: most organisations have at least some compliance material that simply has to be completed by all staff members. If the material doesn’t require live participation in things like role-plays and basically consists of learning rote information, self-paced online courseware linked to some assessment questions can work well. We use this ourselves where we can.
2. Informational material that doesn’t require input from participants. Much like compliance training, this is the stuff that people need to know, but which is fairly straightforward and doesn’t require synthesising information from a number of different areas of knowledge in order to put it to work.
3. Computer systems training: we use software demonstrations to help people learn to use IT systems. These interventions are more powerful when they are linked to activities that participants can complete as the go along - either in a training system (provided it is close enough to the real thing - too many “training” systems leave out critical functions or wallow several updates behind the live system), or through recorded practice activities where users have to navigate a reproduction of the system and complete tasks you’ve set them.

Captivate makes recording demonstrations, guided navigation and assessment tasks in an IT system incredibly simple with its ability to record the three presentations at the same time. This means you can use the old “tell-show-do” training sequence with ease. 

Before we started using online resources, all learning and development activities within TSAEP were carried out in traditional group or one-on-one training sessions. This was incredibly expensive in terms of time, money and opportunity costs (the things people could be doing instead of sitting through a training presentation). Perhaps worst of all, it’s not the best way to learn some aspects of what a person needs to do on the job. Wise use of online material, coupled with other resources (including traditional group or one-on-one work where it adds value) will provide better bottom-line results at less cost and with less disruption of the workplace.

Most importantly of all, of course, people need to have the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned as soon as possible after the training. Hermann Ebbinghaus’ classic Forgetting Curve should be pasted on every learning and development professional’s wall to remind them (no pun intended) that application of learning over time is absolutely essential if something is to be embedded in long-term memory. This means application needs to happen consistently in the days and weeks following a training course. It doesn’t have to hours and hours of practice and repetition; short, sharp practice sessions will work best. Ignore Ebbinghaus’ work at your (and your workers’) peril.

Summary

Our online learning material continues to play an important role in preparing TSAEP’s people to carry out their jobs to the best of their ability. While you certainly shouldn’t see it as the be-all-and-end-all of training, these resources are very powerful when used appropriately. As I said earlier, these days I’d spend more time on working out how the business can facilitate collaboration between people and the location of experts to ask help from when needed, but online training modules will continue to play a part in organisational learning for some time to come.