E-Trainer Evolution
By Allison Rossett

How the Web changes what training professionals do.

E-learning is no longer just an intriguing idea. ASTD's 2001 State of the Industry Report presents a picture of what's happening in organizations with e-learning, noting that organizations self-report less training in classrooms and more via technologies in the near future. However, the report goes on to admit to clouds on the e-learning horizon, which are being produced by the gap between exuberant promises and mundane online learning programs.

Even in an environment characterized by muted excitement, the trend for technology-based training is decidedly up. What does that mean for training and development professionals? How are jobs and roles changing?

Expanding Roles of Training Professionals

Conventional roles and skills	Future roles and skills
Design and develop	Develop and purchase
Develop individual brain power	Manage organizational brain power
Develop content knowledge	Develop individual learning power, establish associations, find relevant materials, and make meaning
Deliver or coordinate classes	Focus on organizational readiness and management of knowledge resources
Develop and produce events and products	Create and nurture place-bound and online environments that continuously support and develop people
Coordinate short-term events and interactions	Broker systems to be used before and after classes
Deliver from content inventory	Perform analysis to customize and tailor content
Share skills and knowledge	Manage knowledge resources
Focus on employees as learners	Develop programs for managers and students as learners
Measure "butts in seats" and Web hits	Measure contribution to strategic goals
Reactive problem solving	Proactive problem solving

Brokering rather than developing

The Web enables systems that potentially deliver instruction, information, decision support, performance support, knowledge bases, and record-keeping. But development and maintenance of those elements is not for the faint of heart. Questions abound: Can you author? Should you author? Do you have a preference for XML or HTML? Should you use Dreamweaver or Toolbook II? What's Flash? Can you call on experts? Are you able to discern critical elements from gratuitous graphical elements? Can you keep your eye on strategic purposes and organizational alliances while juggling technical details?

Many internal training professionals find themselves working with producers, vendors, and portals. As trainers broker between organizations and external resources, they attempt to tailor and tweak offerings, discern quality, and achieve cost efficiencies.

Consulting rather than delivering

During my 20 years at San Diego State, I found that many students based their interest in training on their ability to "stand and deliver." They perceived themselves as good presenters and instructors. They sought careers in classrooms where they could stand center stage. But the work of the training professional now extends far beyond the podium.

Such portals as Smartforce, Learn2.com, ElementK, and Click2learn offer lessons on software, hardware, business, and interpersonal skills. But who believes that an e-learning product--any more than an isolated class--can transfer to performance without aligned organizational systems?

Enter the expanded consulting role. Training and development professionals need to ask the following questions: Are individuals ready for e-learning? Is the organization aligned around outcomes? Trainers now must consult organizations on how to take advantage of the new media options and offer assurance that opportunities match needs and that fertilization and follow-through will happen consistently.

Sorting a pile of this from a pile of that

Consider the following story. One week after running a red light, my friend received in the mail a ticket for $301, a picture of her misdeed, and information about driving schools. She signed up for the online scholar option, relying on simple questions that tested her search functionality to pass the class. What did she learn? Not much. Will it influence her driving? Not at all. Was she a satisfied online student. Yes, indeed. With little fuss or bother, she met her mandated requirements. What does this tell us? The easy way is attractive, as is the promise of a stunning value proposition.

Or take a look at Docent's June 2000 white paper about return-on-investment: "A Docent e-learning solution is expected to deliver a minimum of 400 percent return-on-investment in the first twelve months." Similarly, Indeliq (Accenture's e-learning venture) promises that "Indeliq's patented technologies accelerate learning by up to 3 times and improve cognition and retention by up to 15 times over traditional, lecture-based classes and computer-based training."

Such promises can't help but attract the attention of executives. They also should rivet training professionals because they will have to provide the discernment and organizational support necessary to convert hope into some version of reality. Verification of promises and quality assurance will become a growing focus for trainers.

Likewise, increased individuality, portability, and job shifting increases demand for recognizable quality and credentials. How does an organization determine the value of an online degree or certificate? Which e-learning providers offer high quality and support? Those are vital questions about any learning experience or vendor, but the flood of new providers and technology formats make interpretation nearly impossible and decision-making difficult.

Even the U.S. Senate is taking note of the flood of new options and credentials. Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey led a commission that took a careful look at Web-based education. Evaluation companies, such as Lguide, make online products more transparent to the marketplace. However, options still seem overwhelming and impenetrable.

Seeing into hearts and minds

Have you often wondered what was going on inside employees' heads during a class: whether they're thinking about the class or lunch, or if they'd choose to be there if they could find a way out the door?

Web-tracking systems can be helpful in providing measurement and insight. Web hits give training professionals a picture of users: Websites they visit, how long they linger, how they move from site to site, and whether they return to a particular site. This data about employees' choices is potentially rich for future planning.

Indeed, the Web enables more people to have immediate and continuous access to information. There's increased transparency for employees and leaders and opportunities to wrap messages and meaning around the data. For example, executives can examine sign-up, completion, and persistence patterns; employees can review customer satisfaction data to determine their own learning choices; and sponsors can make decisions about resource allocation after reviewing online feedback from learners.

Developing great stuff

Unlike instructor-led training, which can be modified on the fly when instructors face blank stares, e-learning is immutable during instruction. Frustrated, stymied, or bored, the e-learner will tune out when the experience lacks precise anticipation of their needs. The savvy e-learning developer must predict the interests, concerns, and stumbling blocks of learners.

E-course formats are expanding in conjunction with more strategic business views. The number of online materials that coach, collaborate, and nudge is growing. The fleet-footed developer will produce learning objects that can be repurposed as lessons, practices, examples, customer-support materials, anecdotes, and simple online job aids.

Reaching over boundaries

Conventional boundaries are starting to erode as publishers, universities, and start-ups redefine themselves, seeking ways to be THE education, training, and information provider.

Case in point: universities are entering the e-learning marketplace at a fast pace. If UNEXT and Quisic can take on academia, then academia can use its content and brand wealth to provide learning to the unmatriculated. For example, the menu on UCLA's Website is stocked with online and campus courses, expert professors, and branding, providing a glimpse of the future of higher education. Similar to Yahoo!, users define their relationship with UCLA and the Website tailors offerings to their needs.

An e-learning company's access to organizations will start with materials that cover such topics as time management and how to use spreadsheets, but will grow to organizational services quickly. Next, e-learning companies will jump from delivering off-the-shelf content to linking content to organizational competencies. A common discussion among e-learning companies is how to move from a course-delivery model to matching learning and information-support objects to career competencies and performance-management systems.

Some e-learning companies are concentrating on anytime, any place, any pace delivery. Wireless companies, such as Palm, Blackberry, PageWriter, Ameranth, and OmniSky, are working on delivering the promise of mobile learning, which has garnered early interest from the the hospitality and medical industries. Be ready: This type of learning won't look or feel like courses of the past or present.

Crossing over borders

People in the training and development business are finding themselves with expanded vistas and mandates. A consultant might live in London and focus on change management in Eastern Europe and Asia. Another colleague in India may be building a course for use all over the world. A third internal consultant is leading a team to establish international project management standards, transcending time zones, language, and culture to produce approaches that will generate classes and performance support tools.

When companies cast their capabilities beyond traditional borders, opportunities and dangers swell exponentially. Recently, I worked with a successful U.S.-based telecommunications company that was growing globally and needed to crystallize and communicate processes so distant acquisitions could mimic, adapt, and build similar success. The challenge: How to capture and promulgate content and standards at the heart of their business, while simultaneously incorporating strengths from other cultures?

Or consider a global company that tries to reduce its American-focused programs by simply translating documents into British-based English. To be sure, some executives, not surprisingly, prefer to believe that there are certain verities of success that transfer neatly from Des Moines and Dublin to Beijing and Pretoria. Unfortunately, simple solutions are seductive but they often fall short.

Many executives who are successful on global projects have had experiences outside their country of origin. Although American finance and technology consultants often spend time abroad as part of their career trajectories, trainers rarely do. Training and development professionals would profit from such experiences and networks.

Long live the trainer

Recently, training professionals have heard that with the advent of e-learning, training is dead. To be sure, the Web is changing what trainers do, but training is not at all dead. Instead, to survive the new e-world, training is evolving, as are trainers.

Published: June 2001