Reputation risk
When does rapid e-learning fail to cut the mustard.
Much discussion nowadays concerns the relative merits of rapid content authoring tools. Potential users want to know which tool is best for their needs, which one is easiest to use, which has the most features, which is the best value for money and so on. But existing users often find that once they have used the tool for a while that it cannot achieve what they want it to do. Recently I found that the tool I was using had no logic to the question templates. I wanted to give different responses in a multiple answer question. If the learner clicks on Answers A and C then Feedback J appears but if they clicked on Answer C and D then Feedback K appears. Also I wanted the learners to have a second try if they gave the wrong answer the first time but I couldn’t achieve this either. Straight right or wrong gives little opportunity for the learner to learn from their mistakes. Here my rapid development tool could only offer the basics.
The best thing about rapid content tools is that they are so simple to use. In some cases, as long as the user is reasonably competent in using PowerPoint then they can be up and running in no time at all. This enables the subject matter experts (SMEs) themselves to use the tools allowing the training team to get on with, well training I suppose. But an SME will have no idea about how to make a sequence of PowerPoint slides work as an item of instruction; that is not their job. If the module that they are creating is business critical such as compliance or behaviour related then it could be argued that a short course in instructional design would be required before they start. Conversely, if the module is short and not critical then it wouldn’t matter so much anyway. After all, the really important thing about these tools is not that they can produce fantastic e-learning but that it can be done in very little time and at very little cost. But I have a worry and that concerns how e-learning is perceived by its users rather than its creators.
This discussion of the pros and cons of rapid content tools invariably seems to omit one very important constituency and that is what the learners want themselves. By this I mean that most of the discussions appear to circulate around the ease of use (for the creator), a templated approach (to save money for the company) or anyone can use it (saves money again).
Very few of the discussions seem to mention whether the needs of the learner will be met by the product of rapid content development tools. Will the learner see anything more than PowerPoint presentations converted to Flash modules?
I must say immediately that this may sound grossly unfair on those who try and frequently succeed in creating great e-learning using a rapid content development tool but there is also some dross out there that I fear, will put learners off e-learning for ever.
A recent blog posed a question that asked at what point do you decide that the output from the rapid content development tool simply ‘won’t cut the mustard’ and that you will have to either use a different tool or pay for professionals to create the e-learning module instead? There is an obvious and a not so obvious answer. The former is that if there is budget available and the need is critical then you would simply not choose the tool that would produce the least effective module.
The not so obvious answer is that the choice should be made on the impact it may have in your organisation on the future use of e-learning. Here are two quick examples.
- You needed a 5 minute ‘mind-aligning’ pre-module for a presentation skills course. You just need all the delegates to come to the session with the same thoughts in their mind. This is perfect for rapid e-learning – created in minutes, it does not need to be cutting edge and you can make a new one next time.
- But if you had to roll out anti-money laundering training to every employee of the firm would you not pull out all the stops to create something that would do a great marketing job for e-learning? If you just converted a PowerPoint presentation you could put a lot of people off e-learning in your company for ever.
My worry is that if the majority of the content made in-house looks the same, uses the same templates and colour palette and is mainly PowerPoint slides converted to Flash then this will quite simply give e-learning a bad reputation. Similarly giving someone with no knowledge of how learners learn a tool to create learning is not a guaranteed recipe for success. I was trying to think the other day of a non-rapid development tool but I failed. Have we gone too far the wrong way?
Vaughan Waller is senior instructional designer at accountancy firm Moore Stephens