Management Today

IT’S LEARNING, JIM, BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT.
   If you believe the hype, e-learning is the new face of corporate training. With a steady growth compounding year on year, it is replacing the classroom, and cutting costs drastically. Only a small percentage of companies, however, have incorporated e-learning fully into their training programmes. Could it be because much of this industry is simply selling old wine in new e-bottles?
   Paula Young, director of learning technologies at PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the first corporates to embrace e-learning, admits that, at first, it was hard to be discerning. "We saw a flurry of dot.com activity, got consumed in the hype, and mistook reading for learning." She echoes the views of many, that deveIopments have been technology-led — the needs of the learner being lost in the focus on what is technically possible. She describes most of the ’tell and test’ products as ‘click and fall asleep'.
   Although accounting for only a small percentage of the present e-learning industry, simulations stand out as by far the most innovative products on offer. Instead of feeding users information, then testing them — the 'tell-and-test' method — they take role-play to the next level, allowing users to ‘experience’ situations in order to learn.
   Adapted from ‘Management Today’ — November 2001

More about simulation-based e-learning (SIMBEL): Simulation Levels in Software Training

Designed for trainers by trainers, The ITS Suite, which incorporates ITS Designer, ITS Playback, ITS Manager and other ancillary applications, is part of wider advances in the PC-based approach to professional training. Traditional methods have focused on the lecture, whereby the trainer instructs, and the trainee observes. PC-based courses, aided by their multi-media formats, provide trainees with a more active and hands-on approach to training, which is based on trial and error. They are encouraged to interact with the Training Course by answering questions, typing relevant information, and clicking appropriate buttons.

Unlike traditional training courses, those run with ITS Playback are non-linear. This means that, although trainees can progress through a course in a sequential fashion, there is the scope for viewing topics as and when desired, whether it is to recap on a specific topic, or to repeat a task. Such flexibility allows the training material to be used, not only as a course of study, but also as a Help tool, to aid a practising user through a particular aspect of a task, while on the job.