Learners have choices

Although ‘anyplace’ learning seems a little far-fetched, learners really do have choices about where they e-learn. They can learn at their desktops, if they work at a desk, or, if they’re out and about, practically anywhere they can take their laptop and get a connection. They can learn at home, where a large proportion of the population now have access to the Internet, or in a learning centre – at their workplace, a college or a library – which is designed especially for the job.

That’s the theory. We’ve had a few years now to test this model out in practice and see where it is that learners actually want to learn and, perhaps more importantly, where they are actually able to learn. So, what do we now know?

We do know that learning at the desktop is easier said than done. In particular, learners complain that continual interruptions are an annoying distraction. As significantly, others feel embarrassed that learning at the desktop can appear to their managers and colleagues as if they are playing rather than working.

But some organizations do make a success of learning at the desktop. Steve Dineen is CEO of e-learning developer fuel: “The culture of the company makes a big difference – how far on the road it is to becoming a learning company and adopting e-learning fully. For example, 70% of learning at Cisco is online and the CEO is a great advocate. As a result, when people are learning at their PCs within Cisco it is seen as acceptable by their peers and their management.” According to Ian Ruddy, Head of Human Resources, Cisco Systems UK and Ireland: “We offer additional incentives and rewards such as stock grants, promotions and bonuses to employees who pursue specialisation, certification and qualifications earned with the help of e-learning. We monitor Cisco executives on their deployment of e-learning as a strategic top-down metric. Our aim is make e-learning a part of employees’ daily life at Cisco, by making it easily accessible via the Web.” The result? Cisco was ranked the number one Best Company to work for in the UK in February 2001 and e-learning was mentioned as one of the contributory reasons.

Dineen: “The style of office also has a big part to play. For example, a survey that we conducted of 300 employees at Cable & Wireless in the West Indies, told us that 85% liked to learn at their work PCs. Their environment was really conducive to e-learning, with lots of space between desks, a friendly atmosphere and a supportive management team. On the other hand, an environment such as a trading floor will be far too loud and busy to allow learners to concentrate.”