Why e-learning doesn’t replace learning in a classroom
September 6, 2006
New job, new things to learn
Today was my first day at my new job: an so called “e-learning company”. Besides a traineeship at the Internet-department at a dutch televisionstation, this is my first job that is related to my study. Before this I had all kinds of jobs: from being dressed up as an easternbunny to promote licker, to a photographer driving through the Netherlands, shooting pictures of pubs for an investment company.
Now I have to prove what I’m worth… Exiting! My job overthere is to think about the interaction design of their cms and the front of the software (which users who follow a particular online course will use). The (small) company already quite successful, but they want to improve the interface and the behavior of the platform.
Capabilities in the classroom, theory at the computer
Without sounding to much like a commercial, I would like to share what I learned today. Studying used to be very theoretical, people who studied a few years ago, had different kind of colleges then I have now. But the communication in the classrooms became more and more directed at the teacher as a coach. Now the situation is somewhere in the middle, or at least more ideal: The teacher provides you with information, students can ask direct questions and discuss about it with each other, they can work on putting their knowledge into practice. For a solid background on your skill in a particular branch, theory is still very important. When the popularity of e-learning was rising, back then (somewhere around the year 2000), it was even said it would replace learning from teachers in classrooms. Well, e-learning seems to be a good solution for learning theoretical stuff, because it can provide you with knowledge/theory and exam in a structured and personalised way. But it seems it can never replace the face-to-face discussions and direct feedback from teachers and co-students. Best thing to do is combining the two ways of learning together. Or even better: let the learner decide which combination of learning ingredients fits best.
Blended learning
Well, besides my new employer and now also myself there are more people with this vision, it even has a name: Blended Learning. KnowledgeNet’s Graunke describes blended learning as “multiple formats that reach learners in ways they want to learn. It’s a combination of traditional instructor-led training with subsets of e-learning components such as self-paced and synchronous.”
(from “E-learning, the second wave” by Craig R Taylor, 2001).
Also an interesting point in this article I never thought about before: Unlike the traditional instructor-led world, where bad course-information can be saved by a good teacher, an e-learning program needs good content to succeed. (mm, maybe I’m not so needed at my new job afterall)
Blended learning is more than a combination of learning in a classroom and e-learning. It’s about combining every situation where you can improve your knowledge and skills: from reading a book on the beach to have an online discussions with co-learners.
It must be quite difficult to organize all the ingredients for the learning-blend to satisfy the learners needs, when they have so many opportunities/institutions to choose from… To be continued….
June 27, 2008 at 11:40 am
it should not be your experiance