The flight to quality

In the quest to gain competitive edge, e-learning publishers are increasingly resorting to a numbers war. “Our catalogue contains over 500 courses.” “Call that a catalogue? We’ve reached the 1000 mark and are still climbing.” But judging e-learning on the basis of quantity is a nonsense – it’s like saying that Barbara Cartland was a better romantic novelist than Jane Austen because she wrote more books!

In the survey ‘Attitudes to E-learning’ (Campaign for Learning, KPMG and UfI, 2000), 12% of e-learners thought that the quality was ‘poor or terrible’ and 39% only ‘satisfactory’. Although more than 70% reported that they learned anything from ‘a fair amount’ to a ‘great deal’, the perceptions of quality were significant and probably explain why in another survey (ASTD / Masie Center, 2001), only 38% of learners indicated a preference for e-learning over other methods.

More evidence can be found in the 2000 survey by Forrester, which found that, although enthusiasm for online learning runs high, users struggle with static content. One user reported: “Right now the content available isn’t much better than a workbook or reference manual with a few quizzes. The design needs an overhaul so that the content is more engaging to the learner”.

The problem with quality is not related to the sophistication of the programming, nor the whizziness of the multimedia – it comes down to design. In her article ‘Deprogramming IT Learning’ (ASTD, 2001), Christine Sevilla describes how “many providers are using Internet technology to implement basic educational techniques that are derived from programmed learning models, developed fifty years ago. This type of learning isn’t about problem solving; it’s an assessment of memory.” Controversial psychologist turned designer Roger Schank, speaking at Online Learning Europe 2001 in February, echoed this view, although he believes that this approach is just a carry-over from classroom training: “The problem with online learning is that it replicates the existing system. It treats learning as a process of knowledge transfer.”