Cost Distribution – More Learners, Higher Costs

When it comes to controlling costs associated with training, you first need to know how costs accumulate. The general rule of thumb is the more people you have to train on a given topic or curriculum, the higher the costs. This is especially true in instructor-led training (ILT). The bulk of your expenses are in training materials development and distribution of those materials and content. If you are fortunate to implement an e-learning model for training distribution into your company, you can dramatically reduce your costs. A post published last year on the PinPoint Performance Solutions Blog compares the cost and benefit to a centralized e-learning distribution model versus the more traditional training distribution model found in classroom instruction.

Shared-Cost Model

Not all companies can afford to implement e-learning however. Some simply do not have the logistics to support such a platform for training. If you must go the ILT route, you can control your costs through a shared-cost model. We often think of training costs being associated with development and distribution, but we often overlook the cost of of training associated to downtime when an employee takes time off from their assigned duties for training. Productivity tends to suffer when they are away from work, therefore a shared responsibility between the employer and the employee is needed to maintain performance in the workplace. To remedy this, encourage employees to attend training on their own time such as evenings or weekends. An alternative would be arrange half-day training sessions where the employee attends training in the mornings or afternoons. This way you can minimize downtime or time spent away from the workplace. A shared-cost model is a fair exchange if the company is fronting all or most of the cost associated with training and the employee is receiving the benefit of increasing their knowledge and skill set.

Leverage Technology

As illustrated earlier in this post, if you have the technology you should take full advantage of it. Adopting e-learning, whether synchronous or asynchronous, will help lower distribution costs. If you can leverage content online and make it reusable, rally around knowledge management practices to ensure learning content is up to date and easily accessible.

Conclusion

Just because times are tough and companies need to watch their expenditures, it doesn’t mean you should sacrifice training. Costs can be mitigated and controlled if you think differently about it, utilize your resources, and partner with your employees to build a learning organization that’s still competitive in the marketplace.

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Harold Jarche discusses how we should re-think the way people learn in the workplace in his post Network Learning: Working Smarter. I like the term “Network Learning” because it demonstrates how learning is no longer a one to one interaction between instructor or subject mater expert and learner (employee). Mr. Jarche’s post is far too in-depth to analyze here, but I highly recommend it and you should take the time to learn how he sees learning in today’s business climate, how learners filter information to find what they are looking for and how they link with communities to find information and validate their findings.

We’re moving away from the more formal context of learning such as classes, online courses and self-study courses, and moving more toward informal learning events where the learner seeks information in context to their situation. Even in formalized learning environments powered by technology, such as a learning management system (LMS), it is the desire of the learners to break away from the structured environment and connect with other learners. Twitter has been one social media platform that has enabled free-flowing, just-in-time interaction between learners. This phenomenon, known as social presence in learning, is discussed in greater detail on a previous post.

Training and adult learning has benefited from advances in technology, but  the success of learning in the workplace rests in how well we interact with one another, not the technology we use. It is only a means to an end. Going social with our learning will enable us to find “who knows what” and connect with them. If you think about it, if we accelerate learning through social presence and social networks, we’re all teachers as we educate, guide and mentor others.

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Learning 2.0 for Associations is not necessarily an e-book. It’s actually a well written report that provides an overview of the tools that have emerged as of late in the Web 2.0 revolution and how they apply to learning in organizations. It is not an in-depth technical view of the tools, rather it assumes the reader has a solid grasp of the web, knows how it works and is able to conceptualize how these tools facilitate learning.

As a practitioner in the field of training and development, I appreciate the report’s attempt to trace how we’ve gone from Learning 1.0 (one to one traditional instruction) to Learning 2.0 (one to many). Today’s learning, driven by Web 2.0, not only allows instructors to teach more people than ever before, the social aspects enable students to serve as teachers guiding, supporting and providing feedback to their fellow students.

What I learned from this report is that Web 2.0 does not facilitate learning in and of itself. They are tools that enable or enhance the learning experience. The trick is to select the right platform for the appropriate learning situation.

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It’s not that rapid e-learning tools are entirely replacing trainers or instructional designers. They are, however, becoming a preferred choice of developing and delivering training in the corporate world. Their ease of use and overall cost is relatively low compared to the more traditional forms of training. Nevertheless, these software applications are merely tools and in the hands of inexperienced instructional designers or subject matter experts tapped as trainers, they are ineffective.

Instructional designers  have their place in the training process as they analyze and validate training needs. With their knowledge of adult learning and how to maximize the potential of each learner, they can organize and present the content in a fashion that is easy to learn and relevant to the learner. More importantly, they can create activities and exercises that give the learner an immediate opportunity to demonstrate what they learned and get corrective feedback.

Sadly, I have to agree with the author of the blog post that inspired this particular post that some companies are trading quality for speed. While it is understandable that managers and human resource departments need people to be trained quickly and efficiently, the science behind adult learning often gets overlooked.

I feel the profession instructional design is losing some ground as being an established function within organizations. This is largely due to the economy. When cuts in a company need to be made, training is often the first to go as instructional designers are largely a support and administration function of an organization. They are not a line function, which generates revenue directly for a company. Such cuts, in my opinion, are not necessarily a wise move as I discussed in a previous post.

Rapid e-learning tools, in place of qualified instructional designers and trainers give a false impression that anybody can put together training and I hope that changes when the economy turns around. Instructional designers must do a better job demonstrating their value within their organizations. At PinPoint, we’re happy to say we use rapid e-learning tools, but we back-up everything we produce with sound instructional design.

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• Communication Modes
• Rehearsal/Response Options
• Instructor Pacing
• Social Presence

The class was split up into groups and each was assigned a feature to explore and research.  Our goal was to find what research is out there and published on these features and share our findings with the class.

I was actually pleased to be assigned to the subject of Social Presence in synchronous e-learning.  One of my goals since starting the WELPS certificate program was to find ways to bring social media into e-learning and the workplace.  Conducting some research this week led me to some recent papers on the use of social media in the classroom.  I read about three papers and a couple articles on the subject.  Out of these papers and articles, I found a few that speak well to the subject at hand.

First thing’s first: let’s define Social Presence in learning.  Out of all my research, pretty much all of them agree that Social Presence is…

Tools, systems, structure and functionality that supports social interaction between people and group members.

All of the articles I found agree too that when Social Presence is reduced, communication decreases leaving people and group members feeling disconnected.

The Papers

Enhancing Social Presence in Online Learning: Mediation Strategies Applied to Social Networking Tools

Key points:

• Using social media tools like Twitter and Facebook to create or augment social presence in e-learning places the responsibility on the students to participate and make the necessary connections with others. However, guidance by the instructor must be given to ensure that social media is being used as an educational tool and not a message board or photo sharing site.
• Since most incoming students to college courses and people in younger generations are already engaged in these spaces, instructors should make a concerted effort to engage with their students.
• Students participating in online courses often have a sense of isolation, impacting their success.  Therefore, participation in social media spaces with fellow students builds a sense of community they may not receive in the virtual classroom.

Tweeting the Night Away: Using Twitter to Enhance Social Presence

Key points:

• Although learning management systems (LMS) and virtual classrooms offer a wide variety of tools for social interaction and social presence, some lack the ability to offer just-in-time social interactions and connections.  Twitter can offer free-flowing, just-in-time interaction.
• Learning can take place outside the context of the classroom environment.  Twitter enables users to connect with their fellow students without being tied to the LMS or virtual classroom.
• The nature of Twitter enhances the student to write concisely due to character restrictions (140 characters), target specific audiences and maintains and ongoing relationship after the class complete.
• Instructors should provide clear guidelines for use to support learning and interaction with fellow students.

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As you can see, if the synchronous e-learning platform you use does not afford social presence, there are ways around it by utilizing third-party applications.  In order for it to be effective, some guidance should be provided for it’s usage.  However, too much guidance will stifle social presence which should develop organically among the learners.

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