How to grow intellectual capital
A robust technological infrastructure which responds well to training needs will nurture knowledge management. Sue Weekes reports
Who'd be a training professional charged with the task of implementing an e-learning strategy?
Every company you meet appears to be offering so-called e-learning. And to complicate matters, everyone tells you that its approach is the best route to take.
The only thing that seems clear is that there is more than one right way to introduce e-learning, which is almost certain to mean that there is more than one wrong way of introducing it as well.
In his book The E-learning Revolution - from proposition to action, Martyn Sloman talks about human resource models being regarded as absolute when they "should be evolving". This is certainly the case with an e-learning strategy - it's impossible to achieve everything in one go.
And while Sloman suggests a number of propositions in his book, his following three characteristics of a new training paradigm serve as good guiding principles for training professionals to keep sight of.
There should be, says Sloman, "emphasis on the learner and his or her acceptance of responsibility, a holistic (or integrated) approach to creating competitive advantage through people in the organisation and the need to ensure that resources are focused appropriately and managed effectively."
While it's true that there is no one size that fits all, the most successful e-learning strategies are those that have started small, but have had a bigger vision attached to them from the start.
The advantage of building a system in an organic, modular way like this is that e-learning starts to be embedded in the culture of an organisation.
Gartmore Investment Management, a major player in the field of global equity and fixed income assets, began with a pilot to train two groups of 100 people, and the system is now available to the global workforce spread across Jersey, Germany, Japan and the US, as well as the UK.
"I definitely recommend a pilot with an eye on the bigger picture as opposed to a big bang approach," explains learning and development manager Karen Martin.
"We started in a small way and as people talked about it and word spread, it created intrigue inside the organisation with people asking, 'Why haven't I got access to it?'. Now it's open to everyone in the company."
The e-learning nirvana lies in creating a robust strategic and technological infrastructure that, once in place (and put in place for the right reasons), is allowed to grow organically and be capable of responding to training needs anytime and anywhere, as and when the business or the individual requires them.
Ideally, the front-end manifestation of this should be an employee-branded learning portal which acts as an integrated gateway to every type of training service offered by the company, from a short, sharp online top-up course (sometimes called just-in-time learning) through to traditional classroom-based training.
One of the best working examples of this is IT solutions provider ICL's Learning Gateway, which sits inside its employee portal Café VIK. Café VIK - Valuing ICL Knowledge - was launched in 1996 as a knowledge management system and has grown into the company's employee portal with self-service HR tools such as online flexible benefits.
The Learning Gateway provides access to a database of over 5,000 learning options including online, CD-Rom and classroom-based courses and also provides a vital link to the knowledge management system. It allows employees to set up online communities on a particular subject, so learning discussion or even collaborative learning can continue beyond a course.
Similar self-propagated special interest groups are rife within the employee portal Channel W at IT services company Wipro, where the link with learning and knowledge management has also been forged.
"Managing our intellectual capital efficiently has become one of the most critical factors that will help create business value and provide competitive advantage. Channel W is a vehicle to help achieve this," says vice-chairman Vivek Paul.
Unfortunately, there's no easy route to the perfect learning environment. Technically and without the right vendor, "it remains a minefield for the novice. "You should take it slowly, slowly and grow the thing organically," says Jan Hagen, solutions sales manager at content provider and consultancy Wide Learning. "However, if you put the wrong piece in at an early stage, it can make it difficult for you to scale up later on."
Often, this wrong piece has been put in place because of panic and pressure. "There are two scenarios where it goes pear-shaped," says Nige Howarth, vice-president of international marketing at NetG. "One is when someone from on high has made a statement that you've got to shift 50 per cent of your training online and this cascades down to those at the coalface who panic and think 'better get the vendors in'.
"The second one is when someone senior has just decided that they are going to have e-learning as an adjunct to their existing training."
E-learning vendors may disagree on a great deal of things, but they are unanimous that the opportunistic bad practices that take advantage of the above scenarios, such as companies being sold a learning management system and then promptly being left to get on with it, must end.
However, mistakes won't happen in the first place, if you apply some good old-fashioned principles and common sense and don't allow technology or the vendor to become the driver of the project.
Gartmore's Martin says there's no substitute for going to exhibitions and doing your own homework and research, but always stick closely to your wishlist and checklist.
"There is a wealth of information available online where you can keep up to date not only with products but also current thinking and trends such as the US-based Masie Center (Bookmark of the Month, pXVIII).
The commissioned research on e-learning that is being made available by the Learning in Business Research Associates (Libra) may also prove useful (News, pIII).
Good vendors, of which there are many around, can also bring a huge amount of experience to the party from which you can benefit.
Before you approach the providers, though, it is vital to assess the compelling business reason for having e-learning in the first place, because without this you're unlikely to get the executive level buy-in you need (see pVIII).
Worldwide HR consultancy Watson Wyatt found that companies with the most successful e-learning programs have adopted a set of strategic steps and have made sure that it is aligned to their corporate mission, vision and values.
Senior consultant Bruce Walton says he is a fan of the pilot approach, but is also mindful of the bottom line values. "If it's corporate HR which is driving the project, it is going to be looking at bringing in a learning management system and taking an overall approach.
"However, it could equally be the guy in the sales department who's more interested in getting the courses in and getting things moving."
His sentiments are echoed by KPMG Consulting's David Parlby, partner responsible for its Interactive Learning Solution. "Sometimes the benefits are so big that you have to run as hard and fast as possible with it," he says.
None of this should panic you into rushing or skimping on planning, and Walton suggests six steps when devising your e-learning strategy (see In Summary, above). Once these are in place, you can invite the vendors round for tea and begin to look at components such as content and learning management systems.
When meeting with the providers, you should beware the bandwagons of which e-learning has had a fair share charging through over the years.
The current trend for blended learning - where courses combine online and traditional methods - is a sound one and is highly appropriate in many instances. But it is also something of a crowd-pleaser, being less radical than a pure e-learning option.
"Vendors are now punting products that are 'blended'. People like it because it's less controversial and less threatening for the trainer," says David Wilson, managing director of Elearnity.
"But ask most people what it is exactly and they'd struggle to tell you. What many don't realise is that an integrated learning model also breaks the classroom part into bits." For IT training for instance, instead of a traditional classroom solution, the online learning could perhaps be more effectively followed up by a coach walking the floor.
The disparity in demands, thinking or approaches that exists in e-learning has often led trainers either to compromise or fragment their strategy along the way, neither of which is a good idea.
No strategy exists to suit everybody, all of the time, but a holistic, integrated approach as suggested by Sloman, which can be facilitated by an organic infrastructure, will ultimately ensure that you can serve most needs at most times.
As NetG's Howarth says, "All of the components discussed are just little acorns. Bring them all together and you'll start to get nuggets of success. Then you can really grow your system and see it start to work."
Further reading: The E-learning Revolution - from proposition to action,
published by the CIPD, 2001. ISBN0-85292-873-4
In summary
Key steps to successful e-learning
