Rapid E-learning Briefing

Matt Fox explores the Rapid E-learning phenomenon. Check out his briefing to see what works and find out about challenges and solutions to developing effective rapid e-learning.

Matt Fox looks at the opportunities and pitfalls involved in Rapid E-Learning.

No time to read the Briefing online? Download our Rapid E-learning Briefing.

Interested in getting involved in our Rapid E-learning market research? Drop us a line at: rapidelearning@kineo.com

Introduction

2006 is the year of Rapid E-learning. Whether you are user, author or manager of e-learning, you can’t have failed to notice its arrival and be wondering about its impact on learning in your organisation.

Our recent survey showed the market place for tools to develop rapid e-learning is hotting up, but remains highly fragmented. Differentiation remains low and pricing is increasingly competitive.

Like many emerging market places, there is a bandwagon forming around rapid e-learning. Everyone is ‘doing’ rapid e-learning – but what is it they are creating? Does it work? What are the limitations and opportunities?

In this Kineo Briefing, we set out to answer these questions:

What rapid e-learning is and isn’t
How it can be used
How it is developed
Rapid E-learning Tools (open source and commercial)
Blended learning using rapid authoring

And we conclude with:

Opportunities and pitfalls

What is rapid e-learning?

You’ll hear a number of definitions of Rapid E-learning in the market place.

According to Josh Bersin in his article for CLO magazine in July 2005 "Rapid e-learning is emerging as the fastest-growing category of online training. It is generally defined as Web-based training that can be created in weeks and is typically authored by subject-matter experts (SMEs)."

He estimates it’s a market place that grew 80% in 2005 and will reach a value of $410 million in 2006. In our own assessment of reports, definitions and practice in the market place, we have identified seven key elements to rapid e-learning which we think will stick:

Can be developed in 21 days or less
Doesn’t require specialist knowledge and skills or 3^rd party support
Can use SMEs to author directly
Requires a low level of investment to create it
May have only a short shelf-life
May involve an element of virtual classroom delivery or be completely standalone
Will be short

Speed to development and deployment is clearly a key factor in rapid e-learning. With sales cycles shortening, tactical responses to changes in the market place required today not tomorrow and rapid staff turn-over, the need to produce support and develop higher performance in shorter time scale increases.

A major disincentive to producing e-learning in the past has been the need to master complex tools or specialist programming languages. A new generation of tools have taken away this barrier and provided either straightforward web-based / windows-based interfaces or even more simple integration with common tools like PowerPoint.

A third important feature is reducing the need for direct intervention from 3^rd party or internal learning specialists and putting the power and responsibility for development back in the hands of precious subject matter resources. This is not without its challenges as will discuss later.

Rapid e-learning also brings with opportunities for reducing the direct development costs of bespoke learning which can range from £4500- £25000 per hour to virtually nothing, depending on what content or assets are commissioned externally.

Traditionally, the paradigm in e-learning has been to extend the shelf life as long as possible to maximize return on investment. This approach was necessary to justify the large up front direct development costs. With rapid e-learning reducing these to nearly nothing in some cases in pure cash investment terms, there is no need to preserve learning for a long time to maximize return. It is now possible to develop e-learning which is truly throwaway; which deals just in time with issues and has a limited shelf life.

As we know, the term e-learning encompasses a multitude of different approaches. So does Rapid E-learning. Increasingly we are seeing it as fit for purpose content, developed just in time (and quickly) and deployed in a variety of settings which can include standalone, via a learning management system or increasingly in a virtual classroom setting where it can be facilitated and supported in a ‘one to many’ distribution model.

Finally, brevity. Rapid e-learning should be quick to consume as well as to produce. Meaningful units of learning can be generated of between 10 and 15 minutes. Who has time or appetite to do more? It’s unrealistic and can be unproductive to remove people from their workflow for any longer.

How can rapid e-learning be used?

While rapid e-learning can probably be effectively used in many different contexts, we see five content areas as having the best fit for Rapid E-learning:

Sales and channel readiness
Just in time learning reinforcement
Capturing niche expertise
Knowledge protection
Customer learning

Sales and channel readiness

In any industry where product cycles are short and there is a large or highly distributed audience such as in retail, rapid e-learning makes compelling sense. If product experts can rapidly put together positioning information and updates for circulation or top sales performers can send round their tips for selling the product, you have a powerful way of keeping the sales force up to date and performing strongly.

In industries which depend heavily on sales channel partners for revenue, the costs of having their sales forces kept up to date (or conversely the costs of not doing so) can be significant. Rapid e-learning delivered through a secure and exclusive channel portal gives an ideal route of ensuring channel sales teams are on top of the latest product and positioning information.

Just in time learning reinforcement

One of the great pitfalls of the corporate training world is lack of learning reinforcement. Rapid e-learning provides a great opportunity to follow up core training with quick refresher learning objects, reinforcement quizzes, drop-in sessions online for question and answers etc.

Niche expertise

In many organisations, there are specialists whose knowledge and expertise is crucial in a specific area. If others need to be trained in part of that specialism, it can put real pressure on the expert’s capacity to do the ‘day job’ as well as being costly and inefficient.

Rapid e-learning gives an opportunity for those individual to capture their knowledge in simple commented or narrated e-learning. It is particularly productive if they have a stock of PowerPoint presentations which they have already built up.

Knowledge protection

In organisations where specialist knowledge is vital to its operation and future, having that knowledge limited to individuals’ heads can be a risk. If that person leaves or is ill, a lot of intellectual property can be lost. By encouraging or mandating the capture of specialist knowledge in rapid e-learning some of the risk of losing key knowledge can be mitigated.

Customer learning

Customer learning offers opportunities (and risks) in terms of rapid e-learning.

On the opportunity side, rapid e-learning offers an additional communications channel and way of adding value to customers by providing specialist learning which will help them get more from products and services. The benefit can be increased reputation and loyalty.

The downside is that if your organisation has a high value brand, it may be at odds with fit for purpose rapid e-learning. In this case, you should tread carefully and ensure that anything produced remains appropriate to the tone, quality and style of customer communications which is in keeping with the brand.

How Rapid E-learning is developed

This section isn’t about the mechanics of developing rapid e-learning, but more the process of assembling programmes for standalone use or use in a virtual classroom session.

Rapid e-learning may follow some the same elements of the critical path for standard e-learning development, but in reality there is no time or resource to go through all the standard hoops for e-learning development. We suggest the following stages are essential as a guideline for anyone producing or commissioning rapid e-learning:

Stage	Purpose
Rapid objective setting	Define key learning requirements Confirm audience and requirements with sponsor or stakeholders Can be done by e-mail or phone or face to face
Rapid storyboarding	Present the key learning in PowerPoint format – ensure it is structured and chunked as a final script and includes all instructional elements to save time
Rapid asset development	If audio or specialist graphics are required this is the time to record it / commission them Use either freelancer or internal resource who can understand and turn around briefs quickly
Rapid testing	Any e-learning should be tested for content and interoperability, even if this is a quick exercise Use a checklist of key criteria for testing functionality and content
Rapid deployment	Make learning quickly available via e-mail, intranet, extranet or LMS.

There is a risk and temptation, with the simplicity of some tools like Breeze and Articulate just to take a PowerPoint, add a little audio and click publish. In no time at all you have your e-learning ready.

But does this type of content work? Time and time again we have seen rapid ‘non’ e-learning: a hastily converted PowerPoint probably doesn’t do the job, turns off the audience and is a waste of time.

We believe strongly that ‘rapid’ doesn’t mean ‘no instructional design principles’ required. On the contrary, for rapid e-learning to be effective (i.e. more than just an annotated presentation) there must be some design principles applied. As a minimum, we would expect to see:

Instructional Design Principle	Purpose
Effective information design	Work to the limitations of PowerPoint presentation screens but present information in digestible chunks. Use clear layering; if detail is required embed it in supporting documents. Give an overview before going into detail.
Clear information flow and sign posting	Number slides; explain linkages between sections and individual learning points.
Write for adult learners. Use emotional engagement and make it relevant	Invite an emotional response to the content by asking questions, illustrating or exemplifying in way which will be meaningful to the audience.
Effective questioning	Use reflective / formative questioning (depending on the limitations of the tool you are using) to question every four or five slides
Multiple media	Go beyond text. Offer, where possible visual and audio illustration of points.
Exemplification	Illustrate and explain points through example or case study
Summarisation	Summarise key learning at the end of sections
Remediation / support / follow up	Indicate, where follow-up support could be found for the learning (eg FAQs, access to the expert, intranet, peer group, discussion forum) Flag if there is any linked learning or resources such as virtual classroom sessions or workshops.

Tools (Commercial and Open source)

Look out for our series of reviews on authoring tools at www.kineo.com

Our recent survey showed a great deal of fragmentation in the market place for authoring tools. Our intent is not to go into detail at this stage, but to offer some indications of what the tools are and how they can be used.

Tool	Recommended usages
Entry level tools Macromedia Breeze Articulate	Simple linear presentations from PowerPoint; end of section quizzes; suitable for product knowledge or technical briefings Can embed video and flash animations in sequences Can be tracked in SCORM compliant LMS Some issues with embedding formative questions and the configuration of inbuild navigation controls No specific templates or interactions designed for e-learning are included in the presentation component
Intermediate tools Atlantic Link ContentPoint Trivantis Lectora	Interactive learning sequences with more sophisticated screen interactions designed specially for e-learning Can embed PowerPoint and screen capture tool content More robust on formative questions and quizzes Suitable for product knowledge, technical training, soft-skills and fully interoperable with SCORM compliant LMSs
Open source tools
Open office Impress	PowerPoint clone from Open Office org. Remarkably similar feature set – but not compatible with Breeze and Articulate. Good for simple presentations – no LMS interoperability offered but can be distributed by exporting it as a PDF or html file
Atutor	An open source LCMS allows simple course content creation, all managed through a web front end Suitable for simple knowledge presentation and quiz generation Packages content as SCORM objects and can also run SCORM objects Also offers virtual classroom, chat, wiki and blog modules which can be used to support rapid e-learning
Moodle	Allows static content, rapid e-learning developed in 3^rd party tools and quizzes to be uploaded and tracked via a website Good for managing large groups automatically
Wink	An open source screen capture tool that allows rapid software simulations to be created

Blended learning using rapid e-learning

Kineo’s Blended Learning Matrix shows how various tools can be used to produce blended solutions incorporating rapid e-learning.

For volatile content and large audiences, it makes sense to invest in a variety of content which could include in-house rapid authoring alongside other rapid e-learning support including e-mail, forums, Wikis, intranet resources, virtual classroom sessions etc.

Here’s how, for example, a simple rapid e-learning blend could be put together for sales / product knowledge training.

Blend Component	Rapid E-learning content type	Role in Blend	Cost to develop
1. Pre-learning communications	E-mail Web-phone in	Multichannel communication; alert to learning opportunity; set expectations	Low - time only
2. Product knowledge development	Rapid e-learning presentation by SME / high performer with sales case studies Online quiz tool PDA doc briefing Podcast with customer dialogue scenarios	Experience and goal based content presentation; diverse delivery channels; self-selection for content	Low to medium – time to produce multiple formats. This is the key knowledge for the product
3. Follow up and reinforcement	RSS feed with product updates and selling tips Virtual classroom clinic for specific issues Wiki knowledge base for customer feedback, case studies, important changes Regular Podcast /e-mail with performance update Blog from product lead and sales lead on progress and tips	Dynamic content Diverse; personal responsibility	Low to zero for e-learning. Time from participants and leaders.

Conclusions: opportunities and pitfalls

Rapid e-learning seems to herald a new dawn for quick response, performance-focused training and there are some great opportunities:

More content can be developed with less investment, more quickly in response to genuine need in the organisation
Specialist knowledge can be captured and reused more efficiently
Rapid development can be devolved to people who don’t have specialist authoring knowledge
Simple blends which exploit multiple delivery channels for just in time / at point of need e-learning can be produced at high speed
Output in SCORM compliant Flash packages means you can produce browser independent, trackable content without specialist programming help

However, there are downsides that we see emerging from this trend:

A focus on speed and output at the expense of developing good learning
Poor or no instructional design
Tool development plans which still tend to be technology driven and not by the needs of instructional design best practice
Risks of content and information overload for end-users as the ease of development may lead to over-development and distribution of content

Let’s be clear. A PowerPoint presentation with a quiz on the end does not necessarily make good learning. The chances are it doesn’t do anything at all in terms of personal performance. By making it easier to produce content, we shouldn’t lose site of the importance of good instructional design.

There is no reason why developers of rapid e-learning shouldn’t apply the same principles of sound instruction as standard e-learning developers:

We should expect to see adult learning approaches applied to rapid e-learning courses including goal oriented learning; strong links into personal experience; directly relevant to their job role and how they do it
We should see information design applied rigorously, with well chunked content, layered and signposted with clear headings. There should be less text and more optional links to supporting content; audio should support the textual learning points not duplicate them
We should see at least basic instructional design principles adopted such as stimulating personal interest, clear communication of ‘what’s in it for me’, formative questioning, exploitation of all the available media channels for communicating ideas and principles, summarization and remediation support
Sound questioning and assessment techniques which reinforce and confirm learning

A lot of these aspects can be kick-started by clear guidelines and templates for design which create the containers in which the various required learning interactions are included by default. Simple placeholders can be replaced with text. This approach will help assure sound, fit for purpose learning.

As a final thought, we also feel there needs to be more consideration on distribution and access to rapid e-learning. LMSs and intranets often create barriers to learning: too many clicks and sometimes an extra log on to get something which should accessed just in time and quickly.

So, we’ve been doing some thinking about how to get learning at people’s finger tips, reducing or eliminating the barriers to having to search and launch through catalogues of content. The answer? You’ll have to wait and see….

In the meantime, if you would like to feedback on this Kineo Briefing or find out more about how we can help you with Rapid E-learning, please contact us at:

info@kineo.com or +44 (0)870 3830003