vive la révolution: e-learning 2.0

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Vive la Révolution: e-Learning 2.0

1Advance, © Saffron Interactive 2008

What does 2.0 mean?If you haven’t heard of e-Learning 2.0 yet, you soon will. The e-learning industry is part of a wider social

and cultural revolution that is fast determining the way we access, share and create information. That

revolution has its origin in the term Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 started as just a whisper among media folk back in 2004, but now it is a cry of deafening

proportions in almost every technology-based industry. Everyone is talking about it, from the most junior

programmer to the biggest movers and shakers in software development. And it isn’t a technological

revolution that has brought this about, but a social one.

Advance, © Saffron Interactive 20082

So the term itself is a little misleading – there’s

no real update as such to the World Wide Web,

but rather in the ways in which people are using

it. Of course, there have been advances and

improvements to software, but that is almost

incidental to a wider cultural change. Anyone,

not just software developers, can now make their

mark on websites.

Originally, the web used one-directional

communication similar to that used by other

media. So an individual or organisation would set

up a website containing information. That would

then be taken in by readers and the process would

stop. Knowledge fl ow from publisher to consumer

for the most part ended there. It’s perhaps not

quite as clear cut as that – a reader could forward

some of the information to a friend, or email the

creator of the webpage if that facility were available.

Even accounting for that, the number of lines of

communication

was small, and not

visible to other

readers. But now?

Browsing through

many popular

websites will quickly

show you that this is no longer the case. The

Times website, hardly holding true to its printed

page roots, offers blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, news

feeds and mobile news.

Let’s take blogs as an example of how Web 2.0

works. Taken from the shortening of the term

‘weblog’, blogs are a lot more than the simple diaries

their name would suggest. An entry by the blogger

is not the end point for transfer of information, but

actually the start. It is a stimulus to a wider debate.

Readers can make comments; subsequent visitors

to the site can post a response to those comments

just as easily as they can to the original content of

the blog. When you consider that many of these

posts will contain links to other blogs, websites

and articles, the scale of the information being

shared becomes truly staggering. All of that comes

from a single starting point, and the Times website

alone currently has more than 30 active blogs. For

any one of those starting

points, what unites the

contributors? Nothing

more (or less) than an

interest in a particular topic

and a willingness to share

their knowledge and opinion.


What is the result of all this? Web 2.0 represents a steady but seemingly unstoppable move away from publisher created content to user-

contributed content. It is a shift from one-to-many to many-to-many communication. Each blog has the potential

to be a community, a network of people involved in multi-directional sharing of data, information and opinion.

This interactive capability is seen by many as the defi ning characteristic of Web 2.0.

Social networking takes this idea further. Sites such as Facebook have enjoyed stunning growth since their

inception. Facebook itself began as a simple communication tool just for Harvard University students but

via other universities, fi rst in America then

abroad, it has become a truly worldwide

online community. One number perhaps

helps to illustrate the point – there are

more than 70 million active users of Facebook worldwide. And there can be little doubting its user-contributed

credentials. Since it became open source, many thousands of applications have been developed by users. Some

of them sink without a trace, while many people will testify that others are infuriatingly ubiquitous. Either

way, there is a clear and widespread willingness to be involved and contribute to something that has long since

passed out of its original owner’s practical control and is now in the hands of all of its users.

So where does e-learning fi t into to this?e-Learning has long followed in the footsteps of web innovation so it hasn’t taken long for those in the industry

to start asking what does this mean for e-learning? With the ever increasing emphasis on interactivity and learner

participation, people are asking how can we use the features of Web 2.0 to progress e-learning? This has led to the

coining of the phrase ‘e-Learning 2.0’. The fi rst question to ask is can e-learning realistically follow in the footsteps

of Web 2.0; the second is why should those in our industry want this to happen? The fi rst of these questions is

the easier to answer. As the change that has occurred in web use is predominantly a social one, rather than a

technological one, there is no practical reason why e-Learning 2.0 cannot become a reality. In fact, there is an

established base of potential learners who need no introduction to blogging, social networking and the like; by now

it is a part of their everyday lives. The groundwork has already been done by Web 2.0, so e-learning just needs

to take advantage of that.

The very fact that e-Learning 2.0 is new is also a big factor in its favour. Being able to introduce a learning topic

in a previously unseen fashion can do much to dispel e-learning fatigue – the learners’ feeling that they have seen

and done something much like this before. With e-Learning 2.0 learners are receiving information from a variety

of sources and are then able to share and expand upon it in ways they haven’t been able to before. With a Web

2.0 savvy target group, there is no reason why this communication should stop.

each blog has the potential to be a community, a network of people involved in multi-directional sharing of data, information and opinion

4 Advance, © Saffron Interactive 2008

Apart from novelty value, what can 2.0 add to e-learning?So, we’ve established that there is no reason why e-Learning 2.0 cannot become a reality. Let’s move on to

consider why this would be desirable for those in our industry.

It has long been known that people learn best when they are motivated to teach themselves and, crucially, to

teach others. Our aim as training professionals should be to cultivate a community of self-motivated learners and

teachers. How to create such a community in a business environment has hitherto eluded trainers the world

over; e-Learning 2.0 has the potential to change that. For the first time we have a viable way of establishing and

maintaining a community of learners, a community actively posting and sharing information in a self-perpetuating

learning environment.

Establishing a community of learner-teachers is all very well but what exactly will they be learning? With so much

technology at our disposal and so many possible ways of utilising it, how do we begin to make the best use of

it? The starting point, as with any training solution, has to be the learner. e-Learning 2.0, like any other training

programme, can only be truly effective at the point where a business need intersects with an individual’s desire

for personal development. This is where the innovations of Web 2.0 offer clear advantages. In the same way that a

blog acts as a springboard for further discussion, so can a business direct the learning of its employees who strive

to develop professionally. And it can do this in a manner that is engaging, flexible and ongoing.

What would an e-Learning 2.0 training programme look like? As a training mechanism, e-Learning 2.0 is still at an experimental stage and we are not yet in position to say with

any certainty what will work as a learning tool and what will not. One thing that is certain however is that, above

all, e-Learning 2.0 is blended learning, taking advantage of many different forms of communication.

Let’s look at an example of what an e-Learning 2.0 course could look like. The course will be on project

management, a clear case of business need allied to personal development. Both company and learners stand to

gain from an effective learning programme and so there is already a high level of motivation. An e-Learning 2.0

course can take advantage of that and build upon it by doing things that conventional e-learning courses do not.


This could start with a podcast, referenceware and

a corporate wiki, sent to learners to give them a

taste of things to come. This can be followed by

a more traditional

e-learning course,

where learners

can build up a solid

knowledge base. And

that is normally the end of an e-learning course. A

knowledge base is established and the learners are

then left to their own devices.

The challenge is then to continue the learning

process and here e-Learning 2.0 can replicate some

elements of classroom training. Social networking

or blogging leads to discussion, which can then be

formalised into group work, to be presented in a

classroom session. Once this is finished, there is

no reason for this sharing of information to stop.

Discussion should continue, perhaps aided by

further podcasts, with learners continuing to share

their opinions and experiences.

To maximise the potential of interactivity, those who

have finished the course can act as mentors to those

learners partway through. And with the technology

at their disposal and the social phenomenon of

online communities, the location and schedule of

mentors and learners is no longer an obstacle.

That vision would also go some way to solving one

of the problems of e-learning: how do you know

it’s working? It is notoriously difficult to judge the

true effectiveness of an e-learning programme. You

if you can see learners continuing to share information long after they have finished a program it shows that the learning has made an impact

can test a learner’s knowledge immediately after a

programme, but does that test behaviour or just

memory? Even if you then test the learners again at a

later date, in most cases,

it is probably the latter.

If you measure effects

on the business, you can

never be sure exactly

what factors are influencing your figures. But if you

can see learners continuing to share information long

after they have finished a programme, it shows that

the learning has made an impact and is continuing

to do so.

The effectiveness of the training can be further

assessed by observing the nature and content of the

online discussions. A trainer will be able to see at a

glance how learners have interpreted the content of

the training programme and to what extent that is a

reflection of what was intended.

So e-Learning 2.0 is the trainer’s Holy Grail?Despite its many advantages, e-Learning 2.0 is not

the answer to every training need. If it is to be

effective, it must be used in the right way and, at this

stage, we do not yet know what that right way is.

The first thing to consider is the learners – will

they respond effectively to a new form of learning?

6 Advance, © Saffron Interactive 2008

Certain demographics will be almost automatically interested. Younger generations of learners, already familiar

with social network websites, will have no problem understanding or adapting to an e-learning social network.

Indeed, many companies use a group on Facebook as an informal induction and online academic discussion

forums, such as WebCT, are already a fi xture in some universities. But to sustain that initial interest and to

attract older generations, there must be a real purpose behind the use of e-Learning 2.0.

For some learning solutions, it may not be appropriate. For example, with a health and safety course, is there

practical benefi t in creating a forum for further discussion, for opinions to be exchanged? Health and safety

involves information that must be understood by learners straightaway, otherwise their safety is at risk. Adding

numerous other forms of communication could simply confuse matters with no worthwhile benefi t gained.

Even if the content is appropriate, SMEs may be unwilling to relinquish control of the content. While they may be

able to see what learners are discussing, they cannot in any practical way control the learning. Can they be sure

that the original objectives of the course are still being met? So it can’t fully replace more traditional e-learning,

but rather should be used in conjunction with it, to enhance it, as part of a blended learning programme.

So there are dangers and despite the revolution, e-Learning 2.0 isn’t going to provide learning professionals with

all the answers. Without real benefi ts to its use, e-Learning 2.0 would be destined to become a footnote, or

a foolish diversion from the business of learning. But those benefi ts are real and can add new possibilities to

what e-learning can do. The true value of e-Learning 2.0 is when it can be used to exploit a desire for personal

development to fulfi l a business need. It then allows learners to take responsibility for their own ongoing learning

in a manner that is truly interactive. Social change is here – the e-learning industry cannot ignore it.


Laura is an Instructional Designer at Saffron Interactive

where she specialises in blended learning programmes.

Projects that she has designed and led include those for:

KPMG, Roche and Red Bull. She has also worked with BT

and Microsoft on a range of projects.

She is currently researching the possibilities new media

offers to training and business communications, of which

Web 2.0 forms an important part.

Before joining Saffron, Laura taught English as a foreign

language, both in the UK and abroad. She has a degree in

English and Linguistics from the University of Manchester.

Laura can be contacted via

[email protected]

www.saffroninteractive.com

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vive la révolution: e-learning 2.0

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