What is the 2004 forecast l'or e-learning and learning technologies? Did more people flock to online learning in 2003? What is the reality of e-learning? Should printing companies re-evaluate how to use e-learning? Did 2003 live up to its expectancy? A quick look back at 2003 Technology Forecast tells us that most of the same issues will again apply in 2004:
1. There were more offerings in e-learning training during 2003. Many employees turned to the Internet as opposed to on-campus face-to-face classroom learning to take advantage of the training due to time constraints both at home and in the workplace.
2. E-learning business did pick up in 2003 as schools, governments, and corporations around the world adopted e-learning applications.
3. The use of the Internet as a distribution method for learning continued to expand.
4. The 2003 dropout or attrition rates as high as 50-90% continued for much the same reasons-lack of motivation, poor content, no employer support, etc. Strategies for managing attrition in 2004 will be much more prevalent as corporations look for the ROI of e-learning.
5. Blended learning is still appealing as a best practice for e-learning.
6. E-learning focused more on content as technology became less of an issue with high-speed Internet access.
7. While online learning mid e-learning in general will not: replace instructor-led training, more asynchronous courses are being made available with bulletin boards and message centers lessening "real-time" instruction.
Going Forward In 2004
The outlandish predictions o( the early 2000s of the training market ranging from $740-$772 billion, with $66 billion of that for corporate training, just did not happen. According to an October 2003 forecast from IDC, the U.S. corporate e-leaming market will blossom next year and reach $10.6 billion in revenues by 2007. This is an ever-lower prediction than published in January 2003, when its prediction for the worldwide corporate e-leaming market was to grow from $6.6 billion in 2002 to $23.7 billion in 2006. Much of the recessional economy is to blame for this slow growth. Trying to keep their doors open, many corporations have let personnel go or cut travel and any discretionary spending.
Who Used E-learning In 2003?
Government increased their e-learning training. New federal regulations and mandates, such as the U.S. Patriot Act, demand that companies revise and reorganize current processes and methods to address concern over national security. E-leaming training has become one effective way to meet compliance rapidly and cost-effectively to respond quickly to changes in the regulatory landscape. "Many organizations lacing compliance issues have taken a blended approach to training, whereby employees are provided both lace-to-face and virtual training. Online training is a strategy that allows organizations to save money, while not overlooking the special needs and requirements of its employees." (Driscoll, 2003, p.1)
Corporations
First Union merged with Wachovia Hank in 2001. The merger provided the catalyst for a world-class training and e-learning organization. About half of Wachovia's training takes place in some type of distributed manner, with a large percentage of it in the form of e-leaming. In the past two years, about 80% of Wachovias 84,000 employees have taken e-leaming courses. (Nelson, 2003, p.l)
Retraining or New Career Seekers
Displaced by economic downturn that drove some companies to downsize and others to move operations to less expensive foreign countries, workers are taking retraining programs, and hundreds have entered or re-enrolled in college to upgrade skills or prepare for a career change. Many of these students have turned to the Internet for training. The Online University, Illinois colleges and universities reported offering 3,941 online class sections that generated 50,125 student course enrollments during the 2003 Spring/Winter term. This represented a 24% increase reported from Fall 2002 term. Similar reports came from all colleges who have online learning programs. The University of Phoenix, considered to the be the largest private accredited university in the nation, has seen its enrollment increase from 53,000 in 1998 to roughly 163,000 in May 2003. Currently, 72,200 of the school's 163,300 students are enrolled online, while the remainder attend classes at learning centers located around the country.
Learners for Learning Sake
One can lind just about any e-learning course. Sonic learners have the time and a curious mind and will take courses lor fun. Go to any search engine (google.com, askjeeves.com) and type in "learn photoshop" or "build a webpage." The findings are endless. Many are free. At the university level, costs can range for $29 to full tuition of $1,814 per course.
Printing Companies
While recovering, the economy took a toll on many printing corporations who either downsized or closed. Not a lot of company money was spent on training in 2003. Budgets were tight and personnel stayed close to home to save on travel costs and program fees. Yet one major finding in the 2003 GATF/PIA Keys to Profitability Report was that profit leaders who continued to do well during the present recession spent twice as much on training as the profit challengers. To paraphrase a question by a now retired industry leader, "Would you rather train your employees and they leave or not train them and they stay?"
Printing Companies and E-learning
Blended learning continued to be appealing and well-received in the printing industry. Blended learning describes a learning experience that combines Web-based technology and media distribution along with instructor-led methodology and traditional activities. One of the best delivery methods for blended learning is the wcbinar. GATF/PIA continued to offer highly successful webinars during 2003. The topics are timely and the classroom time away from the work area is ninety minutes to two hours. The best attended were the sessions that focused on technology.
Hundreds of personnel were able to train using the Internet to bring the content to the participant companies. Participants report satisfaction with this delivery system. No one wants to spend time and money only to be dissatisfied with the delivery system, content, and general learning experience. Having immediate access to the instructor to answer questions remains high in participant evaluations.
Employer Support Is Improving
Many companies seem to believe that e-learning means you do your normal forty-to-fifty hours a week and then cram in the learning at home on nights and weekends. This lack of support by management creates a clear path toward attrition from programming or prevents employees from getting started altogether. More and more printing companies allow employees to take courses on the Internet during normal working hours. In several of the blended learning classes, the employers have actually taken the courses along with the employees and encouraged additional staff to do so as well.
New Look
Time continues to be a major adversary to e-learning. Yet training is important and having the information normally taught in curriculum courses is paramount. The printing industry is fortunate to have: www.staffingtools.eoni as a training and testing website. This industry-specific websitc presently offers prepress and graphic arts courses for around $150 per course, or just $300 per user per year buys unlimited, 24/7 access to all prepress and graphics courses. Employees can log on, pretest, and take a course that is customized to their training needs.
Another company, l.O. Technologies, offers a world ol work solutions, an array of printing, digital imaging, color, and related courses and recognizes that people learn in different ways. In addition to traditional instructor-led training, they deliver relevant content to adult learners in the working environment. Alter signing up for an olle(TM) (On-Line Learning Excellence) course, the student can work through each lesson in the traditional sequential manner, or you can go directly to just the specific information needed to complete a task. Course topics are delivered in five-to-fifteen-minute chunks, with links to a comprehensive 12,000-term, and growing, glossary that supports the topic content and provides additional depth
A large manufacturing company has begun using this internet with 80% of the employees visiting the site and returning.
The olle courseware and olle InloFind Professional are excellent resources for printing and graphic communication companies. The courses they provide are process oriented and range from entry level to preparatory courses for the Color Imaging Professional certification exam.
First-level content is always text, which can be presented and skimmed rapidly; bandwidth-intensive graphics, audio, and video are referenced from the text and brought up at the user's request. When asked about the apparent lack of presentation bells and whistles, the providers state sincerely, "It's not about entertainment. It's about work, and getting the job done faster and better." In today's real-time, interrupt-driven working environment, the no-nonsense approach gets the job done.
So, Exactly What Does This Mean for Printers in 2004?
It means that management at those learning companies that want to succeed in e-training their employees must investigate e-learning and, where appropriate, enroll and participate. Management must be supportive of the learning process. What can a manager do to support e-learning? Here are some ideas: Simultaneously take the same courses in which you think it is important to have your employees trained. Encourage and endorse the use and the value of "just-in-time" research and how to use the Internet and courses like the ones mentioned in this article. During slower times, allow lime during work hours to take the entire course. In one: company people marked off an area for learning with yellow tape and a sign saying: "Learning Going On! Shhh!" Paying for the course is a definite plus. Paying for completing a course goes a long way, too.
Let the: employees know you value: their educational growth and efforts. Ask questions about what the employee learned and how it helped in the workplace. He-ward learners with re-cognition and incentives. The return on your investment will be realized many times over by the loyalty and the quality of employee that works for you and helps venir company profit with the new learning skills and capabilities.
[Reference]
(1) Drificoll, M. (2003). "How E-learning Can Facilitate Rapid Compliance. " (IT Management). Bank Systems and Technology, 40 (6) 44.
(2) Nelson, K. (2003). "Wachovia Gets Hooked on E-learning." Bank Systems and Technology, 40 (5) 42.
[Author Affiliation]
by Diane Koch, Director, Educational Service
Printing Industries of America
Phone: 703-519-8183
Email: dkoch@printing.org
www.gain.net
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