Call it the curse of the e-learning experience: non-interactive courseware that is ponderous, unrealistic, abstract, and typified by the dry text box that’s as ubiquitous as it is boring. It’s no wonder e-learning so often fails to capture the imagination and interest of the learner.

Creating ways to spice up that learning experience, and improve retention, is a high priority at Global Knowledge, a North Carolina-based learning company. The veteran provider of both classroom-based and online instruction is working to bring certain aspects of the former to the computer screen so learners can enjoy a more authentic, credible, and entertaining experience.

“What’s so often lacking in e-learning courseware is the presentation of information in the same vivid way it comes across in the classroom,” says Jerry Gschwind, vice president of enterprise solutions.

“Courseware developers often interview experts and sanitize their explanations into abstract summaries,” he says of the authoring process. “Sadly, they eliminate the war stories, the body language—the very personal knowledge possessed by the expert—and replace it with an anonymous text box.” As a result, says Gschwind, online learners are less apt to believe or relate to that content than they would the same material delivered in a classroom. “If they don’t believe it, they certainly won’t remember or apply it.”

Adding a personal touch

One solution, he says, is to give e-learning content a human quality whenever possible. He says that can be done without the additional costs of interactive simulation by providing a level of expertise and attention to the e-learning design process.

“You will notice in our self-paced e-learning that we tie content to a specific instructor whenever possible, and introduce that instructor at the outset via audio or video.” Each instructor summarizes his background and expertise in the subject matter. “We also provide audio recordings of each instructor through our ‘step into the classroom’ feature, in which the instructor explains the subject matter in an unscripted style and provides useful examples from personal experience.”

In addition, that same conversational style should characterize all learning content whenever possible, he insists. Gschwind says Global Knowledge is not unique in its personalized authoring approach, but does consider itself to be a best practice provider.

 “For a variety of reasons, this personalization of the content is typically not exploited by training providers,” says Gschwind, who explains that it is often difficult to identify material with an individual instructor, especially when content is developed overseas. When personal expertise is not made explicit, the training becomes less effective, he argues.

Gschwind says storytelling is another classroom technique that can be applied to online learning. “When an expert gives an opinion, that can be valuable in itself. But when it is followed up with a ‘war story’ from personal experience, the concept becomes easier to remember,” he says. An illuminating story becomes a “handle” for memory, is adaptable to many situations, lends credibility to the expert, offers emotion and conviction, and typically has a long shelf life. When adapted for e-learning, such anecdotes should be as short as possible, he says.

The real life experience of subject matter experts is taking on new significance during an era when roughly 50 percent of the workforce will be eligible for retirement. Employers everywhere are seeking ways to capture the wisdom of SMEs before it is forever lost, he reminds. “Our clients are looking for e-learning to do more to help with this issue,” Gschwind recalls. “One major industrial controls company we work with is really threatened by this because they have a large based of experienced employees on the brink of retirement. We are currently working with them to help develop a process for capturing expertise in the form of audio and video war stories to help provide orientation training to less experienced employees.”

Gschwind says another useful authoring technique includes phrasing choices in the form of questions to simulate dialogue. Presenting a statement in the form of a question more directly involves the learner in a dialogue and plants a seed in that person’s mind, he says. “We have made a habit of this throughout our work with a major pharmaceutical client, and have achieved great reviews on both satisfaction and ease of use. We are training sales people in this case, who are used to dialog with customers in their day-to-day work. So using questions as choices is a natural way to simulate dialog and give e-learning a more human touch.”

Overcoming obstacles

One potential obstacle to personalizing e-learning courseware can be getting the necessary time from experts. “Experts are experts for a reason, and usually they have no time for you. Furthermore, they may think your attempts to capture and represent their expertise on a more personal level is a really a conspiracy to make them replaceable.”

To counter this obstacle, Gschwind makes three suggestions. Suggestion #1: “Treat experts like experts. Don’t ask for volunteers. Find out who your experts are and extend personal invitations. Make sure they understand how valued they are through this invitation. The expert should really feel like they are being recognized.” Suggestion #2: “Know the difference between VIPs and experts. The CFO may be a VIP, but the person who can best explain the importance of purchase order process is probably on the front lines of Accounts Payable. Their expertise will in most cases be more credible because of their closeness to details and ability to tell authentic war stories.” Suggestion #3: “Provide incentives. Reward your experts for their participation. Even if you only have the budget for a small expression of appreciation, this can go a long way. Word will get around and soon you will have more willing participants to choose from.”

When selecting experts for training purposes, organizations should choose individuals with a deep understanding of the issues to be presented, and who are capable of explaining what they know. Getting them to open up with insightful information is among the usual challenges, says Gschwind, who says a one-hour interview typically yields 10 minutes of final material when an expert interview goes well. Savvy use of interviewing techniques can improve that result, he advises. “The difficulty of extracting useful information from many experts, especially their war stories, is that they simply don’t need to think about what they know anymore, they know it so well,” he says.

Global Knowledge also has advice for instructional designers as they seek to capture the personal expertise in e-learning courseware. “You have to be prepared to iteratively adjust your design as you learn more from your experts,” says Gschwind. “The expertise you’re capturing often changes learning objectives. You gain a different understanding of what’s important, or what it takes to do something successfully. So you often must revisit learning objectives, and alter the preconceived design.”

Publsihed: September 2005