KEEP YOUR LEARNING OPTIONS OPEN

The learning journey continues...

Over the last few years there has been a wealth of information written about eLearning. People definitley fall into one of two camps - they either love it and see its huge potential or they hate it, criticising its content and format.

When I talk about eLearning at University to students I have discovered, to my complete surprise, the most critical group that falls within the latter camp are HR professionals and in particular, HR Development professionals.

This is such a shame, as technology can be used in so many ways to enhance traditional classroom based training and facilitation. Perhaps it is seen as competition. Perhaps it is seen as distracting. Maybe, it is seen as something that will negate the need for trainers and facilitators in the future.

The CIPD quotes on its website that from their survey in 2005, which focused on eLearning and its respondents' views on how it is shaping organisational learning as a whole. For the first time, over half of respondents (54%) reported that they use eLearning, and a further 39% said they had plans to introduce it in the coming year. And while eLearning accounted for less than 10% of total training time, in the vast majority of organisations, respondents expected this to rise dramatically to up to 50% in three years time.

I am busy working with one of my clients and developing three new eLearning products for their new Virtual Learning Environment, as a supplement to their traditional face-to-face education programmes. This is exciting and the resulting first product is very warmly received by users who need to find a way to acquire the knowledge they need in a fast and efficient way.

It only leaves me to send a plea to fellow HR professionals - keep your learning options open and maybe get involved in designing eLearning as a valuable tool for the future relationships between the front line and HR.

Józefa
The POL Experience