Will learners soon dictate their learning qualifications?

That option could soon be coming our way if universities follow the research of Philip Duchastel, Nova Southeastern University. He says that university education needs to adapt to the new eLearning technology in a number of ways.

Instead of the traditional approach, he proposes a new learning model that includes:

1. Students who define and pursue specific learning goals as opposed to learning explicit content such as from a textbook
2. University course creators who accept diversity of outcomes as opposed to demanding common learning results
3. Students who produce their own researched knowledge rather than the regurgitation of course content
4. Evaluation tasks that demonstrate knowledge application as opposed to knowledge assimilation based on routine course tests
5. Students who can demonstrate they can build learning teams (collaborative learning) as opposed to exclusive individual learning
6. Universities actively encouraging global communities (virtual scientific communities) made possible by internet technology

“This new interactive model of learning is most suitable to online education. The explosion in information makes ‘creating knowledge’ by learners themselves more important than the traditional imparting of knowledge by instructors, whether in the classroom or elsewhere,” he says.

An online model of learning based around discovery learning removes the onus on course leaders or tutors to define what are legitimate knowledge and approved sources. The students working in collaborative teams would have to provide the evidence that their arguments (presentations of information) come from legitimate sources. And, that the conclusions drawn from their research are logical given the evidence they have gathered.

Checks and balances
There are several checks and balances inherent in this model of learning.

1. First, there is the learning team. The online environment allows some quite rigorous debate to take place because there is no body language involved to skew the frankness, unless it’s taking place in a video format (like Skype groups). Team members will understand that allowing someone to come up with poor research will not aid their case. They will want to challenge and analyze the research themselves, and will follow-up anything that could be suspect.

2. Second, the students’ evidence of success is not so much on the amount of content or evidence they have gathered, but the conclusions they have drawn from the evidence or research. Any tutor worth their degree will be able to sit through a presentation and discern whether the evidence is sufficient and whether the conclusions drawn are valid. Very little marking involved.

Tutors would become brainstorm leaders and guides when groups were stuck. They would teach critical thinking skills rather than facts that students could find out anyway. Their weekly (online or face-to-face) tutorials could be model presentations of their own research, and their teaching goals would be to show how they applied scientific method to ascertaining the credibility of the evidence.

The issue of credibility of research and information is a valid one. We just have to look at the victims of online hoaxes to know that if everything looks legitimate we are likely to accept that it is. We have only to read about ‘rogue investors’ to realise that while everything looks like we would expect, we will overlook indications of wrong doing or ‘tall stories’. We also have to quickly ascertain what is purely for entertainment and what is worth giving time to. Critical thinking is a skill most needed today, online or off.

Strange bedfellow as it is, I would propose that intuition is also a human quality that deserves more credit in the way we evaluate knowledge. It can let us down badly, because we rarely want to disbelieve old knowledge or be forced to take on new knowledge that lies contrary to what we ‘know to be true’. However, the greatest advances in science have come from the scientists, explorers and astronomers who trusted their intuition and refused to be bound by old knowledge. They took a very little new knowledge (observation) and allowed their intuition to move them forward into the unknown. Intuition is to be encouraged in our new learners.

I believe the vast knowledge library provided to us through the internet will encourage the world to take dynamic strides into a new way of living, if we are prepared to accept it. What needs to happen is that the old way of judging a student’s worth, through his/her accurate regurgitation of theory from old books, has to change. And it has to change whether the course of study is provided online or off.

Online Nation, a 2006 report by Elaine Allen and Jeff Seaman, looked at ‘Five Years of Growth in Online Learning’. The authors say that in the US about one-third of higher education institutions account for three-quarters of all online enrolments. “Future growth will come predominately from these and similar institutions as they add new programs and grow existing ones.”

These figures seem to imply that the early adopters of online (eLearning) have become the industry giants among universities. However, how are they taking hold of the opportunities that eLearning provides, rather than turning old books into online copy, is unclear. Online courses need to include strategies that hook students in. The learners must become active partners in the learning process rather than empty-vessels-that-must-be-filled.

Online Nation describes the barriers to universities taking on online courses as:
1. Cost (both cost to develop online courses and the costs to deliver them)
2. Lower retention rates for online
3. That students need more discipline to succeed in online courses
4. Whether online degrees will be acceptable in the job market
5. The level of acceptance of online instruction by faculty members

Allen and Seaman say: “it is not clear whether these are long-standing or more recent concerns, but survey responses suggest that these concerns are likely factors that have kept them (non-engaged universities) from introducing any online offerings.”

The first objection has largely been addressed by increasingly clever software. The second and third need a change of attitude about what learning is, as discussed in this article. The last two objections sound like pure reluctance to let go of what we currently ‘know to be true’.

H Sylvawood

Manufacturing moves into eLearning

We at Edutech KM have always said that manufacturers can do more than offer their employees manuals based on NZQA Unit Standards and tell them to get on with it. That focus is based on two assumptions:

1. Employees want to extend their skills so they are better at their job.
2. Skilled employees will naturally improve quality and this will pass on to the manufacturer in lowered costs of production.

Consequently NZQA Unit Standards have become prescriptive and absolute, and concentrate only on the skills and knowledge the trainee must have to operate at the level they are currently working at.

I would still agree that both the above assumptions are true. However, the research and articles I have been reading show that this is only half the story. Employees are not skill machines that can be easily replaced by more accurate automated equipment; employees are the brains that hold a vast amount of observational knowledge that could be keyed into the quality improvement cycle. By focusing only on how skilled they are we miss their world knowledge; we miss the feedback loop.

The other rich mine of improvement that manufacturers often miss is their resellers. Providing them with material/product specs does not mean they will:

• Sell the pertinent benefits to potential customers
• Ensure the final users actually understand how to use or apply the product
• Act as you mine of observational knowledge - why are there failures?

Even providing off-site training seminars is not enough because of reseller turn-over, limited training time and budget.

There is a big divide between the people in your company who convince the reseller buyers to add the product to their reseller range and the staff who resell your products. An ideal way to bridge that gap is to directly train the actual people who on-sell to the users. Most resellers, however, are unlikely to want to train their staff in how to sell the benefits of your product alone. They may have only a few staff and even fewer opportunities to send them on external training.

I would suggest that eLearning is the way to get over the gap. Well constructed learning on a CD or DVD or online can enthuse learners in a way that a pamphlet or instruction booklet cannot. Now my mind is racing with new possibilities after reading this article about how Madico, Inc., based in Woburn, Massachusetts got around the problem. Actually, they got further than 'around it', they elevated it into an opportunity that will make them stand out above the crowd.

I urge you to take a look at: Madico University: A Case Study of eLearning in a Manufacturer's Extended Enterprise.  Then if you're enthused or intrigued, let us know how we can help you create the same success. You do not have to be a large company like Madico to take advantage of good quality eLearning.

And about the benefits of a feedback loop: when employees and resellers are able to see themselves in the bigger picture they will come to understand their impact on everyone's success. It is often missed out of prescriptive training programs but can easily and cost-effectively become a fundamental part of your quality control/improvement plan. Just ask us.
Heather Sylvawood
Edutech KM Ltd

Bringing eLearning into your training

Cost has been a prohibiting factor when businesses consider the possibility of adding or shifting training into the realm of eLearning. Creating the content, images, written maaterial, videos, audios - it just seems all too much. Then, of course there is adding the cost of the Learning Management System (LMS) to record the student/learner results and the horrendous cost of the software to bring it all together.

However, the news is not all bad. There are many tools today that have been designed to be low cost, or existing tools that have been adapted by clever people to create eLearning design opportunities. Besides, the users and creators of eLearning have realised that the delivery has to change to meet the emerging needs of the new learner. No longer are learners happy with information delivered to them as if they were empty vessels ready to be filled with all they need to know. It doesn't matter how whizz-bang the delivery, they want the chance to contribute/participate in the learning. In other words they want to feed back information.

It's all this social media they've been involved with since teenage years!

That new socialisation is forcing some changes in the way eLearning is created. First: it needs to include some measure of social media (wikis, facebook pages for comments, forums or chatrooms) where the learning is critiqued; second: it needs to be cheap and adaptable for the changes that will inevitably happen in such a dynamic environment.

In the past the reaction has been for software to integrate refinements into a larger and larger and more expensive package. And many of the refinements were not required by most of the users. So it was refreshing when I uncovered the following blog site:

More Information


It's full of ideas and options for creating cost-effective eLearning and learning games - the software, how to adapt existing commonly-used software, where to get royalty-free images, how to create storyboards and access templates. As you are already reading a blog, you probably understand the power of social media, so your next step is to start thinking outside the box and making a plan to integrate it into your training.

I will certainly be sharing the Free-eLearning link above with the course creators on our community of eLearning site eBrainz.net.

A couple of interesting books I have been reading that might give you counter-arguments for detractors from online learning are:
1. Social Media for Trainers by Jane Bozarth - Techniques for Enhancing and Extending Learning. Jane focusses on training for soft-skills and business skills, but mentions many that could be transferred to more practical learning.
2. The New Social Learning by Tony Bingham and Marcia Conner - A Guide to Transforming Organisations Through Social Media. This book includes actual answers for the objections that might be raised to reject eLearning and including social media in online courses.

So now you have all the tools to make a change in your delivery of learning. I'd love to hear how you succeed!

Predictions of gloom

Have you thought about what would happen if the predictions of gloom eventuated for 2012?

The environmental events that have occurred worldwide have been really disturbing. How much have we contributed to those events?

• Devastating floods causing landslides and turning land masses into lakes
• Catastrophic weather events such as tornados and torrential rainfall leaving land super-saturated
• Monumental earth shifts such as earthquakes and volcanoes

 

It makes you wonder if we have tipped the balance and have engineered our own death of the dinosaurs. What can we possibly do if Mother Earth has decided to shake us off her back? Nothing really.

 

A different kind of threat

There is, however, one ‘event’ that we are equally vulnerable to, and very few ever mention – an economic meltdown. There are obvious indications of global wavering in the financial world.  Greece is about to be bailed out of its debt to the tune of billions of dollars. Its public spending cuts will only save an infinitesimal amount annually compared to the interest accumulated on the new loan. And Greece’s predicament is only representative of many countries facing the pay up now demands from previous borrowings to keep the country afloat.

 

Increasing your savings

Back home, while politicians suggest the band aid of ‘living within our means’ and increasing our savings, it is merely tinkering with an economic system that has outlived its usefulness.

 

Our current economic system:

• Doesn’t meet the needs of third world countries
• Doesn’t encourage careful husbandry of earth’s resources
• Relies on gambles and betting on future harvests
• Relies on people coming up with new ways to artificially inflate the value of real commodities
• Rests on majority confidence in individual economies and continual growth or inflation

 

Sounds grim but the money system is ‘the money system’ handed down on tablets of stone, isn’t it?

 

NO!

 

Money has no real value

Don’t believe that? Well, consider this.

The money system is simply a system of accounting for the value of goods. It evolved from the original barter system. It uses ‘tokens’ to represent the real value of the things we grow and process.

 

Unfortunately the ‘tokens’ (money) has become a commodity in itself and is traded even before it comes into existence on the back of a new product. As we produce more or add extra value to commodities or use the product to make bigger things or improve life we add to the total value of what exists in the world. Money should expand to keep pace with that value. Unfortunately money itself has become a traded commodity.

 

Confidence is the key

 Just like the property market crashed because it became over-inflated, and someone somewhere started to lose confidence and affected the confidence of the person next to them, so too can the money market.

 

The effect could be devastating:

• Banks could crash and close (no money/loans to keep businesses or farms afloat)
• Mortgages could be called up to pay creditors (people could lose their homes)
• People would lose their jobs as demand for products diminished or businesses closed
• Home owners would not have enough income to pay their mortgages and rents could become unsustainable
• Private companies controlling our major services, like gas and electricity, might find it impossible to trade
• People would not be able to get the health care and food they needed

 

It’s a grim picture but not much different from the consequences of tornadoes, earthquakes and floods.

 

Future proofing

How can we future-proof ourselves against catastrophes?  Well individually we can’t do much to stop them – people in power hold the reigns there. We can, however, change our own lifestyles to become more inventive to meet our needs.

 

Christchurch people have learned a little of what it is like to be without what we have come to see as essential services. They’ve had to go back to old methods of handling sewerage, collecting water, supplying heat, lighting and cooking. Being prepared with plans on how we would manage in such circumstances makes sense. You never know when you’re going to need Boy Scout skills.

 

But there other things we can do. We can nurture our creativity and take up skills such as organic gardening; start learning to knit and sew; begin recycling old things into new items rather than throw them out; join community exchange systems where the true value of items are established between producers and buyers. These skills are the kind of knowledge we exchange in the eBrainz community.

 

There are some things, however, that would really grind an economy to a halt. What could we do if there was no electricity – no computers, no electronic banking or payments? Doesn’t bear thinking about.

 

-          Heather

Working from Home

If you are an online course tutor, the chances are that you will be working from home, at least for part of your week. As an at-home worker I have had to learn to adapt myself to the relatively unstructured environment of a distance worker. Although I am one of two directors of a New Zealand business, a lot of what I do helps to create the product that earns the company income. I therefore need to be available and working at least 40 hours a week.

Moving from a regular eight-hour  a day job to working at a distance has proved to have some challenges. I have now spent four years working from a distance.  I’ve always been consistent when recording my time on different projects, so nothing changed when I reached Golden Bay – only the scenery. That was a problem …. From working in a small office in Christchurch I moved to a house on a hill overlooking Pohara, and Golden Bay. It was distraction city.

I’d forgotten how waves can shift and shimmer, grey out and race across the bay in front of a westerly. I became a bay watcher, unconsciously recording the tides and wind changes, the visiting birds and the cruising campers who came to see how the other-half lived. I would sometimes clock out just to sit on the deck and watch the marvellous changes in the bay.

The ability to clock on and off has had pluses and minuses. I found, everyone else thought I could ‘do other things’ during the day. An hour here-and-there, ‘doing other things’, soon eats into the time available to complete projects and meet deadlines. After the first month or so I became more disciplined and moved my office into a space where there was no direct view of the sea. Breaks became more structured.

A contractor we are currently working with says discipline is the key when working from home. “You have to make sure that you stick to your time schedules and deadlines. Not just work, but you have to make sure you take those breaks so you keep your mind fresh and creative,” says Shaun Meredith (Better Informed Ltd).
 

Our spaniel Tilly plays her part in keeping me sane, bringing me toys to play with or trying to climb onto my knee when I’ve been too long at the computer. Yet there are times when even Tilly’s company is not enough and I succumb to cabin fever. Working alone can feel isolating if you’re a social character. When your partner comes home ‘peopled-out’, you’re ready to party!

Sarah, the other Edutech KM Ltd, director, and I have frequent phone ‘meetings’, occasionally use the phone to brainstorm with others using three-way phone calls. We’ve had limited success with Skype, but that’s more to do with our personalities - when we want to create we want to do it now, so we stay within our comfort zone and use the phone.  We’ve also used Team Viewer with each other and clients.

Shaun agrees: “For my business verbal communication is very important. Having that verbal contact keeps you in the loop and you can better judge the situation with your client. Some clients’ expectations can get lost or misunderstood if you maintain textual communication.”

When working on a project together, Shaun and I both use the process of phone calls and follow-up clarifying emails between us and with other clients.
Shaun says: “One tool I have found very useful is Dropbox. The ease of this tool and not having to deal with blocked email or size restrictions makes you feel like you’re working on the client’s intranet.”

I’m lucky to live in an area of Golden Bay where Broadband is available. Over the three years I’ve worked here connectivity has improved. On the occasions it goes down, it’s Murphy’s Law and there is always, always a deadline approaching. Mail and the courier leaves mid-afternoon. There’s no possibility of dashing out to the airport with a CD for the courier’s next-day delivery – the airport’s almost a two hour drive away.  

And that’s a downside. There are times when visiting a client is essential. For a period of about five months I was travelling to and from Rotorua once or twice a month. I had to leave home at 4.30am in the morning to make air connections to Wellington and then to Rotorua. If you’ve travelled the Takaka Hill you’ll understand how, at that time of the morning, it’s a bit of a challenge.  I kept setting personal records like driving seven times over the Hill in 10 days.

For me, working at a distance has had far more benefits than I ever expected. As long as I stay focused during the day and I’m prepared to extend my hours when a deadline is looming, it’s fine. But then, that’s like any job, isn’t it?

Heather Sylvawood

www.edutechkm.com

heather@edutechkm.com

www.ebrainz.net.nz

Can Passion Fit Into Training?

In my mind the word ‘training’ is firmly linked in meaning to bending of wills – the imposing of a set of rules of behaviour upon another, reluctant-or-otherwise human. It pre-supposes that the person who is doing the training is superior in knowledge to the person receiving the training.

In my opinion, ‘training’ sets up a dynamic that does nothing to further knowledge. It might improve consistency in some process where an identical end result must be created, but it doesn’t draw the trainee into ownership of the process and pride in outcome. To achieve that state, far more than mere transfer of information and repetition of process is required. I believe the missing ingredient is passion. And passion is an emotion born from within or ‘caught’ from another.

Passion implies a total absorption in the topic; the overriding desire to become better and learn more. It drives people to broaden the horizons of the topic so that everyone learns more and new possibilities are born. Ask your friends which class they enjoyed most as a child or adult; then ask them about the teacher or tutor of the class. I’d bet a penny to a pound that the explanation will have all the hallmarks of a person passionate about their subject. The tutor’s passion will have fired up the interest of many of those they taught.

It might seem strange to be encouraging tutors to bring passion into their delivery when they are trying to teach young men how to properly adjust a planer to produce quality joinery. What is there to get enthused about? But bring in a perfectly crafted chair and ask them to run their hands over the curves of the back, ask them to observe the perfect symmetry of the legs, and test the tightness of the joints. Ask them to identify for themselves what makes it a quality product. Then tell them none of that is possible without the precision of the planer and the jointer ... that’s when an understanding of context gives birth to passion. Passion give rise to a commitment to quality. It pushes people to think beyond the completion of the task. They start to wonder: ‘If we did this would that happen?’ And that’s when innovation happens.

If we are content to train so that the same knowledge is passed on, knowledge can’t expand. It’s only when people learn to be passionate about what they do that knowledge will expand. The challenge is to bring that feeling of passion into the training you undertake.

Best regards

Heather Sylvawood

Director

Edutech KM Ltd

(Nelson Office)

Ph: 64-3-525-7073

Mob: .021-251-2141

www.edutechkm.com

heather@edutechkm.com

Who needs motivating?

When considering a training course we often brainstorm ways to motivate trainees to stick at the course, complete the course tasks and interact with enthusiasm when they participate in the face-to-face class or online activities.

But what about the course tutors? Where do they get their motivation?

The course tutors have to be motivated in order to enthuse the course participants they work with. Otherwise a general malaise infects the whole course.

Tutor energy can flag for a number of reasons:

• General overload at work or home
• A lack of feedback (especially in online courses)
• The lack of motivation of the course participants (especially if they are there because of outside motivation like ‘my employer said ...’)

To maintain enthusiasm the course has to change and grow; it needs to respond to the needs of course participants; and it needs to give back value and meaning to the tutor. We are social animals. We need to feel connected. We need to feel that what we give out has a positive effect on the lives of others. Course tutors are no different.

I have been confronted with this dilemma over recent days as I support people into creating courses for an online community of learning called eBrainz (www.ebrainz.net.nz). These people are skilled at what they do but few have had tutoring experience, and then mostly in face-to-face courses. Moving into the realm of online is a big leap for them.

I am finding that I have had to develop an ‘ear’ for translating their fears (evidenced by procrastination) and removing the barriers. In short I am finding I am moving into a motivational role. And that’s scary for me.

Luckily I have found a great book called: The Millionaire Messenger by Brendon Burchard, Founder of the Experts Academy. Despite the title the book is about creating community online and sharing your knowledge – and that’s just what I believe eBrainz is about.

Anyone interested in sharing the ride? Take a look at www.ebrainz.net.nz and see for yourself. Become a member of our community, either creating a course, or registering a request for a course you would like to do online.

Happy course creation

From the Team at eBrainz

www.ebrainz.net.nz

learning@ebrainz.net.nz

Phone 64-3-525-7073

Phone 64-3-337-0234

Ain't technology great?

Well it is if you can find how to set it up.

I’ve always thought that being able to write your blog on your own computer and with a button push send it hurtling through space to my blog would be just soooo cooool.

So here I was two hours ago setting up the Word 2007 blog template so that it would link straight into Train2Gain. Simple I thought! And that’s what all the Word instructions assured me.

The first tiny window had a button that asked me to ‘register an account’ – but I already had a blogger account so I didn’t need one, or so I thought. After some puzzlement I realised it meant “Register your current blog or set up a new one”. I really would not have objected to a larger window with longer instructions.

So I clicked the button and low and behold another tiny window pops up. In this window I have to choose my blog provider and Blogger is there. I’m home and hosed before tea, I thought. I wouldn’t have to use the other options of: My provider isn’t listed or I don’t have a blog yet. I’m really into this techno stuff. So I click next.

Now I need my User Name and Password. Ah! Now which username are they referring to? Several visits back to my blog site which I am currently logged into I come up with a choice of two. I know my password so it’s only a couple of tests and I’ll be all set up, I think. I pass by the pictures options. I can do that myself on a case by case basis, I decide. So now I only have to click the OK button. Almost instantly for both usernames a ‘Word cannot register your account’ box comes up. But at the bottom were the words: “Was this information helpful?”

I’ll leave you to answer that ... my temperature is just coming back to normal!

Happy course creation

From the Team at eBrainz

www.ebrainz.net.nz

learning@ebrainz.net.nz

Phone 64-3-525-7073

Phone 64-3-337-0234

When passion drives you

When passion drives me it is so easy to get things done. Energy flows, and I feel light and inspired.

I find that if my motivation has been inspired by a book or webinar or program I can hardly wait for the end of the inspirational event before I want to start on whatever it is that inspired me. I forget that I have actually been involved in a learning event. It isn’t learning – it’s doing. Or is it?

Surely learning should lead to:

• A tangible result
• An intangible change in the thinking of a person or group?
• New knowledge that generates action?

So how come I don’t view my passion and inspiration as a learning path?

When I think about it seriously, I have stuck in my mind a belief that learning has to be serious stuff. It has to involve some sacrifice, some putting off passion until I’ve earned it. It also has to imposed from above by people who know better.

But isn’t that flying in the face of what’s happening in the world right now – the integration of social networking into learning? Of course it is. My thinking is stuck in last century’s learning models. Nowadays when I want to learn something I go online and research it. I look for just enough information to answer my current questions. I might note a few interesting things to research later, but mostly I follow the Japanese JIT (Just In Time) principle – information I need just in time for when I need it. That kind of learning doesn’t fit into the 3-4 years studying topics deemed suitable for a named degree.

Unfortunately, formal learning is often a passion killer unless you know that it is leading into a career that inspires you. The very notion that the extent of your learning can only be measured by tests or assignments, in which you support other people’s past comments, doesn’t fit the requirements of our twitch speed future. How will it inspire us to move beyond the ‘now’? How can passion be merged into learning?

Formal learning organisations are facing an insecure future:

• Less money for research (where passion and inspiration leads)
• The increasing pace with which information becomes obsolete (and libraries must be restocked)
• A huge challenge in verifying the validity and currency of online information
• An increasing push for specialisation requiring a wider range of experienced tutors
• Increasing cost for housing students in a location and less government money to cover it

Staff and tutors at formal learning organisations are surely constantly running to catch-up, never mind get ahead of the knowledge tsunami. That young students might feel a bit disenchanted or disenfranchised in such a world is not surprising. They are already engaged in learning in the social networks they belong to. They just don’t see it as learning because it hasn’t been legitimised by the system. And their learning is indistinguishable from the social chitchat that accompanies the sharing of information.

Yet out in the real world, where passion can be a driving force, businesses are finding their knowledge and commercial improvements come from a free-exchange within a ‘what’s new and what does it do?’ culture. They are also finding that the interaction of staff along with the sharing helps to build bonds that will ultimately create a cohesive team.

Somehow over the next few decades the processes of learning and following your passion are going to have to merge.