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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

eLearning Research

At a panel at DevLearn. We have:
  • Will Thalheimer, Work Learning Research
  • Kevin Oakes, I4CP
  • Claire Schooley, Forrester
  • Chris Howard, Bersin
  • Kevin Martin, Aberdeen
Biggest trend is Learning 2.0 trend. A shift in Training Methods. Allow people to work faster, better through informal learning. eLearning 2.0 addresses informal, on-the-job. It's relatively new. Bersin is publishing report on learning 2.0. Collaborative. Learner in charge. Looking out there for the information they need. Find it. Use it. And it sits there. Younger generation used to finding things on their own.

Talent management being discussed in the board room. Performance management. Learning and performance management converging finally. Linking development plans, career paths, learning opportunities. Leap to 2.0 before they get the foundation right.

Good, Chris, called him on this. Learning 2.0 is so different. 2.0 is chaotic. Talent management is structured.

Statistics from ASTD research -
  • 86% - web 2.0 technologies likely to use more in learning function than they do today
  • 41% - using technology for informal learning at high or very high extent
Kevin Oakes - "learning is getting left behind as people look at talent management." Only 19% say they have integrated talent management to a high or very high extent.

Learning 2.0

  • Trust is barrier
  • Culture is number one barrier - knowledge sharing is problem
  • Reluctance among potential mentors to teach each other
  • Time is problem
Qualcomm - employees submit business plans. Have festival where employees vote on best business ideas.

What percentage should they invest in Learning 2.0 - answers ranged from 20 to 50%?

Economy

Do we have to do anything different?
  • Shift priorities to align better.
  • Use cost lowering technologies (video conferencing, web conferencing) to save money
  • Look at criticality of retaining workers
  • Improve performance of existing workforce
  • Should be good for L&D to be more accountable
GE CEO - told training leaders - need you to step up. That's not the norm. Rest cut training budgets during down economies. Prediction, unemployment is going from 6.4% to 8% over the next 12 months.

Focus on how you can impact sales and cost reduction activities. That's what people care about during tough times.

Talent Management

Where does learning fit in? Is training organization taking a back seat?

Strategic effort - learning is part of it, but not leading it. Broader focus. Especially when you talk "Integrated Talent Management."

Kevin mentions how Learning Management System companies have move towards Talent Management. See Rise and Fall of LMS.

Why are you getting into talent management?
  • Compete in marketplace
  • Retain
  • Need to innovate
Hiring manager focused on better quality candidates. HR may focus more on time-to-hire.

Informal quarterly reviews were differentiator between best in class and those not.

Measurement

Must be done the way the business does itself. Revenue. Profitability.

Not a top priority. Talk about it. Don't actually do as much as they should.

Recognize they are not doing as a good a job as they could, but generally roughly okay.

Best-of-class (top 20%) - want to have metrics. Which means they don't today.

Josh Bersin's book suggested as resource for what impact training has on organizational performance - The Training Measurement Book: Best Practices, Proven Methodologies, and Practical Approaches.

Best in class - training organization design. Hub and spoke is a good approach.

Question from audience: Can learners effectively handle control of their own learning? What does research show?

Some debate, but no research on this yet. Somewhat goes to the fact that this would be hard to measure for most kinds of organizations.

Organizations need to think of Learning 2.0 as a learning style thing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice article tony...very detailed and well explained...keep it up!!

Blogger In Middle-earth said...

Kia ora Tony

You have a lot here.

One reason that I have often found causes a reluctance to share knowledge on technology use in the workplace is diversity.

Many apps can have several different routes to skin the same cat. One narrow example is drop-down-menus vs quick-keys in MS.

People always have their own preferences. The diversity causes barriers as one route, familiar to one preson, may be unfamiliar to another who already knows another route to get to the same place. MS is full of this. It drives trainers crackers.

The upshot is that there is a lot that's recursive as well as redundant. This is just an observation.

I haven't got a solution to this unfortunately, other than teaching/training beginners to use certain established ways. Young people don't always respond to that.

Ka kite
from Middle-earth