Andrea Hope
Associate Academic Vice-President, Hong Kong Shue Yan College
Dave Smulders
Instructional Development Consultant, British Columia Institute of Technology
Abstract
This session is particularly suitable for participants who may be considering a shift into e-learning as a workplace training solution. It provides a unique opportunity to interact with the “complete cast” of participants in the process of design, development, delivery and review of COL’s e-learning courses for international organizations.
The objectives of the workshop are to provide an opportunity for participants to:
· explore the benefits, challenges and applications of tutor-mediated e-learning for workplace training from the perspective of the learner, the tutor, the course provider and the employer; and
· reflect on the implications of COL’s success in expanding access to training globally for the employees of international organizations.
At the end of the workshop, participants will have a clear understanding of the key factors for success in the e-learning enterprise, including the roles of:
· learner support
· tutor support
· feedback and evaluation
· course design; and
· organizational culture
The Workshop is divided into two sections.
Section 1
Participants work in groups to analyse authentic case studies that reflect the experience of the tutor and the learner in workplace-based e-learning and to create a list of factors for success.
The workshop facilitators will then share their first hand experience as learner, tutor and course advisor on COL’s “Writing Effectively” courses and led discussion on the issues raised.
The final part of the first section will focus on the process of course development for tutor-supported e-learning in the workplace. Participants will analyse a further case study that reflects the cultural, pedagogical and equity and access issues raised by the process for both employers and course developers.
Section 2
Presentation entitled “Think globally, learn locally: Democratizing learning for international organizations”
COL has engaged with several international organizations to design and deliver sustainable transnational workplace e-learning through the application of internet-based communications technology to established principles of best practice in open and distance learning (ODL).
The universal use of e-mail and word-processing software throughout international organizations has opened opportunities for the democratization of learning by providing an effective alternative to traditional face to face educational delivery methods, accessible both to workers based in cities with high connectivity and those in remote areas.
Drawing on the experience of the Programme Manager and a current course developer, the paper explores how COL has addressed the challenge of developing effective professional development programmes for international organizations that connect people across the globe while respecting the value of local learning.
Author names - Title of article
INTRODUCTION
In the lead up to the new millennium, the rapid development of the World Wide Web, internet and word processing technologies began to change the way we communicate, work, learn, and live. Information and communication technologies have enabled new work and learning opportunities across boundaries and among communities. This paper focuses on how the sensible application of ICTs has opened up new opportunities for the provision of equitable, accessible and affordable professional development to the multilateral workforce. The context of discussion is the Commonwealth of Learning's experience in providing transnational workplace training for multilateral organizations. The subject matter consisted of writing skills and effective writing principles and has become known as “The Writing Effectively Series.” The training developed for this series of writing courses has opened effective virtual learning opportunities for employees based in over 100 different countries, enabling the medical officer in Luanda, Angola or the Secretary in Kabul, Afghanistan to pursue the same learning experience as their counterpart based in Geneva.
We describe the paradigm shift taking place as “Think globally, learn locally” an educational version of the well known dictum of “think globally, act locally” (Naisbitt, 1994). The shift was enabled by employing appropriate information and communication technologies (ICTs) in a pedagogically sound manner to facilitate the widest distribution of cross-border learning and to encourage unrestricted access to learning by women and marginalized learners in troubled, remote and isolated locations in the world.
THE COL FORMULA - HOW TO ENGAGE TECHNOLOGY TO DEVELOP AND DELIVER EFFECTIVE LEARNING
The technical foundation to eLearning (Farrell, 2003) consists of technology backbone and digital content. The former refers to the infrastructure upon which content can be stored and retrieved and learner and learning support can be orchestrated e.g. synchronous and asynchronous chats, threaded discussions, and one-on-one email coaching or mentoring. The digital content refers to study materials appropriate to the organizational, communal, cultural and technological context. The result is the design of content that reflects the media in which it is presented, including the presentation of textual material in a web-based environment, taking advantage of hyper linking to resources, and incorporating visual and audio elements to the interface of the materials.
Appreciating the power and potential of ICT for fast and affordable communication, multilateral organizations have invested in technology to enhance communication and information flow, to capture knowledge generated at global, national, community and individual levels and to organize and store information for easy retrieval and reuse. Building on this investment is the development of a learning strategy that capitalizes on connecting people to information access and just-in-time learning.
However, the set-up and acculturation of the large technological infrastructures can be a slow and expensive start-up process. Incorporating training into such infrastructure is no less fraught with dangers such as skepticism, resistance to change, and the unreliability of new technology.
Therefore, bringing training into this mix requires the anticipation of a few essential questions that belie a return to the fundamentals of designing learning experiences:
• What do learners need to learn according to the demands of their work and the mission of their organization?
• How best to acquire knowledge and skills under a particular set of circumstances?
• How to retain, retrieve and apply selected learning outcomes?
• How to leverage existing technology-based practices into the learning programme?
COL has found that the following steps (Sanjaya, 2001/2002) adapted appropriately for multilateral organizations have led to positive results.
COL Steps
Writing Effectively for Multilateral Organisations
1 . Needs Analysis
Market research on the demand and need for an online course should be the starting point. The resulting report should contextualise the project, outlining its benefits or disadvantages and potential obstacles.
Demand for online courses: Does real demand exist? Will online delivery be cost-effective? Is it the best option currently available?
Course credit and equivalence: How will course credits be transferred for certification? What about the equivalence of the course with face-to-face programmes? Is it necessary to get certification from an accreditation body?
1. Needs Analysis
The project team researched the demand and need for an eLearning course to contextualize the project, outlining its benefits or disadvantages and potential obstacles. COL undertook a detailed analysis of the needs of the partnering organization in investing in developing the writing power of its multilateral workforce. This was done through interviewing training managers who have a comprehensive and in depth understanding of the corporate strategies for human resources development, the language competencies of employees and the outcomes of training intervention.
After many discussions with colleagues at headquarters and regional offices and interviews with a cross section of potential learners, we agreed to a competency and constructivist based, non-credit bearing, customized and tutor-mediated e-learning format. The idea was to replicate the instructional design intentions of a professional development workshop more than an accredited course.
2. Learner Profile
This will help you understand who your potential learners are, and how you can best fulfill their learning needs.
Hardware/software: do learners need to purchase special hardware or software to access the course? Most computers now ship with a web browser. If learners have to download a special plug-in from the Internet to view a particular course component, it is better to provide them with a CD-ROM of that component to save costly Internet access time. This consideration not only includes access to technology but acceptance of technology as well.
Internet access/bandwidth: how accessible is the Internet for the learners, and what bandwidth or connectivity (e.g. dial-up modem, DSL, cable) is available? Low bandwidth availability has significant design and pedagogic implications. You can't prepare learning materials based on graphics, animation, sound or video because of the time and costs involved for learners to adequately view or download the materials.
C osts: who will bear the cost of needed computers and Internet access? Although normally this falls to the student, the costs may be prohibitive. Is it possible for your organisation to arrange for subsidised learning, in partnership with industry or government? Can you facilitate educational loans? Is it possible for you to create learning resource centres, with computers and Internet facilities, for group learning and access?
2. Learner Profile
Understanding learners' study environment, technology access and discovering how to best fulfill their learning needs emerged from the needs analysis exercise. The learners' comfort level in learning through technology and motivation to learn were among the considerations that were explored. COL gathered learner profiles through extensive interviews with HR personnel, and potential learners and baseline data collection through pre-learning survey. How diverse and mixed are the potential learners? How can diversity be met and how can gaps be bridged in terms of knowledge, competencies and skills?
In the end, the course development team adopted a modular approach to cater for the different needs of a wide range of professional and administrative staff for report writing and general correspondence, all of whom were involved in writing at work (e.g., report writing, correspondence, and records). These application modules were created as an extension of the compulsory foundation module on effective communication principles.
Neither COL nor any of its partners have an LMS in place. Nor was either party interested in imposing the hidden curriculum of technology on the course. We therefore looked at the lowest common denominator of technology to provide a reliable and practical backbone to support and enable:
the transfer of learning materials
the connection between tutors and learners
the connection between COL, learners and tutors
the connection between COL and partnering organizations
We found it best to use technologies that learners are already familiar with in their day to day work.
3. Organisational Profile
Your organisation must be prepared to undertake an online learning project.
Expertise and infrastructure: do you have the in-house expertise to design, develop and deliver an online programme? Do you have the infrastructure to support online courses, or will upgrading be needed? Can you affordably outsource expertise (content and technology) and infrastructure from elsewhere?
Faculty development: How prepared are your trainers to handle additional online courses? Will faculty be compensated for any extra effort, and in what way? What training facilities are available for teachers to upgrade their teaching skills for the online learning environment?
3. Organisational Profile
COL learns with its partnering organizations throughout the development and delivery process. We walk our talk and put best practice into action.
What COL and partners share are:
1. Commitment to liberate learning through engaging technology appropriately and wisely;
2. Commitment to collaborate and seek progressive and workable solutions together;
3. An appreciation for the diverse needs and conditions of learners working in an multilateral context.
4. Blue Print
In addition to the needs analysis, learner and organisational profiles, the blueprint for the course should contain:
Pedagogical features: Online teaching and learning must meet the requirements of the subject and the needs of the target learner group. Online learning can be a supplement to face-to-face instruction, equally mixed with face-to-face instruction, or the main delivery method, instead of face-to-face instruction. The last category is the most challenging for educators and instructional designers. When designing online learning, it is best to consider the best practices of all learning theories (behaviourism, cognitivism, and constructivism). The WWW provides opportunities to use all these.
Media mix: An appropriate media mix for the course, taking into account the suitability of a given media to a particular subject (such as using 3-D models for an architectural drawing), will increase the effectiveness of student learning and contribute to the successful achievement of course objectives. Media delivery options must be decided during course content planning, so that the appropriate media creation tools can be used for content development.
Interaction: Interaction is a major contributing factor to successful learning experiences. Table 1 lists different possible learning technology combinations, based on three basic interaction modes (Moore, 1989) and on four methods of computer-mediated communication (Paulsen, 1997).
Assessment: Assessment and evaluation of learner performance is crucial. Although online examination brings a number of authenticity, security and certification issues, evaluation models should take the WWW's constructivist (student-centred) approach into account. The WWW can facilitate many evaluation systems - from computer-based (web-based) objective testing to tutor-evaluated, long answer tests or assignments - but is capable of supporting much more than the traditional, three-hour paper and pencil test. Online course developers now use alternative assessment tools such as evidence-based tests (where learners submit projects online), learning diary submission, and participation in discussion forums or peer-based evaluation.
Learner responsibilities: The nature of online learning requires learners to be very self-motivated. The role of the instructor is to challenge learner curiosity and help learners achieve personal learning goals. Online learning should therefore be designed according to adult learning principles, in which learners have as much responsibility as their teachers, if not more. Learners need to be informed of their role and responsibility prior to starting the course. A period of orientation may be needed, as most online learners are initially novices of the medium.
Development strategy: At this point in the design and development of online learning, most institutions and instructors have to decide if the course will be developed using a suite of individually available web tools, or an integrated course delivery software package.
In general, web-based applications such as email, discussion groups and chat software are not designed for educational purposes. Using them in isolation or developing an integrated educational system around them may not be effective in terms of cost, time or learning outcomes. Integrated systems for online learning are needed because the generic web environment does not provide:
a standard way to organise course materials
prior evidence of the environment's instructional effectiveness
tools to support basic instructional activities such as course design, organisation of groups spaces and personal spaces, grading, and easy integration of multiple media files
models to support learning strategies that involve collaborative learning, knowledge building and multiple representations of ideas and knowledge structures (Harasim, 1999).
Commercially available, integrated application software packages include facilities for every aspect of designing an online learning programme.
Learner tools are available to learners when they log on to the system:
Course tools: for content presentation, displaying industry-standard, interactive web pages to learners. The pages have links for navigation, and contain all course texts, graphics and multimedia learning materials
Collaboration tools: for synchronous and asynchronous activities like email for one-to-one communication, discussion boards for conferencing, chat for real time clarification of doubts, whiteboards for lecture presentation and group work, or a virtual "drop box" for sharing programmes and applications
Support tools: include personal learner profiles, a facility to upload files to the system (e.g. for submitting assignments), personal library, search facilities, study skills guidance, bookmark facilities (to remember where you stopped in the last session) and calendars.
Developer tools for the website administrator and the instructor. These seem initially more complex, but are easy to use after a short training or demonstration period:
Administrator tools: allow course software to be installed on a server, provides resource monitoring and website management facilities. Assigns user identification, passwords and usage rights to learners. Some systems also handle online registration and fee payment
Designer tools: online teaching tools for the instructor. Includes facilities to prepare course plans, upload files (course content) and announcements, design assessment tools (such as quizzes) and a calendar of activities. The instructor can also design the appearance of individual web pages through choice of background colour, text font and type of images or graphics.
Learning management tools are features to track student progress and log-ins to the website. Instructors can monitor the progress of individual learners and provide personalised feedback. Complete statistics on website use can be generated for reviewing or evaluating policies and practices. Interactive user guides and "Help" facilities for troubleshooting and systems operation are also common in almost all software packages, for both learner and developer tools.
4. Blue Print
Steps 1-3 involve the preliminary investigations needed to gain a better knowledge of the organization and its training requirements and capabilities. The blueprint takes the training programme development to the first step of action. With the blueprint, the designers draw up a rough outline of what that training might look like, including features spelled out in sections 4.1 to 4.6. It is the client's first real peek into what the final product will look like.
4.1 Pedagogical features : There was constant reference and dialogue on the following issues:
What are the learning objectives and outcomes?
What are the learners' needs?
How best to achieve the outcomes?
How to retain and apply learning?
How can we optimize authentic problems and situations for learners?
4.2 Media mix : We looked at print, CD Rom and a combination of both. These were considered in light of accessibility, affordability, reliability and learner friendliness.
4.3 Interaction : We placed great emphasis on interaction: i.e. leaner interaction with materials, leaner interaction with a personal coach and learner interaction with support. According to Moore (Moore, 1993), Rowntree (Rowntree, 1994) and Holmberg (Holmberg, 1989), education at a distance is enhanced when interaction and dialogue are encouraged.
The psychological and communication gap that can develop between tutor and learner in a distance education course is not an inevitable consequence of physical separation. This psychological and communication gap, which Moore calls the transactional distance, can be overcome by a course structure that encourages learner autonomy, and encouragement of interaction. Interaction in this instance consists of two main types:
Participants will interact with the course materials themselves, entering into an internal dialogue with the tutorial in text-based format.
Participants will interact with their tutor, entering into an ongoing and largely participant-driven dialogue.
4.4 Assessment : The assessment was designed with two main goals: 1) success in completion, 2) success in learning. Each assignment of the course was designed to encourage learners to improve upon their efforts. Learners were therefore allowed multiple (three in total) submissions of the same assignment, each subsequent submission improving upon the last one based on feedback from the tutor. Throughout this process, learners were able to apply knowledge, to reinforce learning through reconsidering and revising one's work, and to build confidence by seeing real improvement through successive submissions.
Tutor Marked Assignments (TMAs) are the key tool for engaging tutor and the learner in a dialogue mode to exchange views, raise questions, find answers, consolidate knowledge, change bad habits, and build strengths.
4.5 Learner responsibilities : COL briefs learners of their responsibilities, reminds, motivates them and seeks to develop their skills. It is important for learners to be aware of their freedom and independence as well as the virtual help desk they could access when such needs arise.
4.6 evelopment Strategy : We determined that eLearning can be effectively and efficiently delivered with conventional ICTs that are common to most multilateral organizations, such as basic word processing programs, web browsers, and email programs. Requiring further technical capabilities that the organization might not already be equipped with can easily lead to cost overruns and multiple problems of acceptance, implementation, and operation. Although some clients may be initially impressed by the “bells and whistles of technology”, our initial meetings involve clearing the air about what's possible within a limited scope of time and resources. We also emphasized the importance of creating a level learning field for cross border adult workplace learning.
Learner tools : Emails, CDs, Word, CD player and the Internet.
Course tools : Printed work book, CD Rom.
Collaboration Tools: Emails, Word.
Support tools : Coach, Course coordinator, personalized library, search facilities, study guide, bookmark.
Developer tools: Dreamweaver, Flash, Word.
Administrator tools: CIS, ACEware ( Both are LRMS software)
Any project-related hardware or software should be installed and tested. All involved faculty and staff should be trained in the systems and equipment, and should be familiarised with the pedagogical techniques.
5. Institutional Preparation
COL piloted the materials, trained the tutors, briefed the learners and engaged all players in one-on-one or group email exchanges.
6. Learning materials development
Implementing course development and design standards maintain consistency, especially if many people or partner organisations are involved. Since course development is time consuming, it is worth securing permission to use or adapt existing material where appropriate to launch the course more quickly.
6. Learning Materials Development
Since this course is highly customised, the general content is about 30% and organization specific 70%.
The generosity of UNHCR in sharing the original course design with other UN and multilateral organizations is a great example of collegiality and reducing repetition and waste. This has enabled subsequent versioning to happen faster. As well, COL conducts a pilot delivery for each course that becomes part of the evaluation process. Feedback based on the pilot is fed back to the developers who implement any final changes.
7. Evaluation
Once course materials are uploaded to the online learning environment, there should be a field trial of the learning materials and usability testing of the website, possibly through an initial pilot project. No online course should be launched without thorough evaluation. Consider:
Learning effectiveness: how does the online course compare with face-to-face or other distance delivery methods?
Cost-effectiveness: take into account the high initial set-up cost, and any ongoing costs such as upgrading of equipment or software.
Learning environment: how do learners negotiate the online environment?
Accreditation: the issues/problems in accreditation of online learning.
Evaluation: how do you improve the evaluation process?
7. Evaluation
Materials, learning support and course administration are subject to continuous renewal both at course end and at 2-3 year interval to gauge currency of content, and the effectiveness of the course over a period of time.
Evaluation is based on the four main channels of information about the course:
an end of course evaluation questionnaire;
a specially commissioned programme review;
monitoring of TMAs by a course advisor;
regular, organized discussions with tutors. Sometimes these discussions would focus on particular elements of the course that are open for critique and review.
8. Promotion
The course must be promoted both online and offline to its target learners, with plenty of lead-time for course registration. Ongoing promotion will encourage the level of enrolment needed to make the programme financially viable
8. Promotion
The launch of the recruitment campaign begins two months prior to course start. This will ensure sufficient time is allocated to planning, counseling, materials production and dispatch and refreshing the learner support system.
9. Maintenance and Updating
Online programmes require constant updating and maintenance to be effective. Learners need prompt feedback to address concerns and technical problems. Course instructors or specialised personnel should be trained to constantly monitor and maintain the website.
9. Maintenance and Updating
Through regular contacts ( distance and face to face) between Learning Managers at COL and at multilateral organizations, and annual contract renewal, maintenance and updating issues on materials, resources, support, learning performance and outcomes are re-visited and reviewed.
SHIFTING DIGITAL DIVIDE INTO DIGITAL DIVIDEND
In the early nineties when email was first introduced in academic institutions in Hong Kong, the reach of e-messages was limited to computers within the same building. By the start of the millennium, UNHCR already had in place an email (unhcr.ch) structure that was able to reach beyond mountains and oceans to the remotest outposts. However, there were still pockets of difficulties in reaching cities where the technological infrastructure was unstable. For example, Kandahar in 2001 used a radio-based email system that refused to carry email attachments. For the purposes of training in an online environment, this was a considerable barrier for the purposes of the technology- mediated learning design, i.e. tutoring, submission and marking of assignments, all of which was facilitated by the use of Word documents transmitted by email. To remedy the situation, COL established a buddy system whereby the Afghanistan course participant identified “a buddy” in the closest regional office who had reliable, non-radio based email access. The buddy then became the liaison point between the participant and the tutor and the course progressed more as a traditional distance learning course, in that transmission of assignments and correspondence took place by land via UNHCR's pouch delivery system. Granted, this seems to be a very inelegant solution to a basic technological problem, but it was effective and needed at the time in order to ensure the success of the programme. With the continuous improvement of technology, email connectivity has been strengthened and improved to a state recently where email connections have become a lot more robust and reliable for eLearning to happen.
Because of the speed of change related to technological improvements, there is a progressive change in the design and production of course materials. The Writing Effectively courses began as print-based materials to be dispatched to the learners via the UN special pouch delivery. Over time, there has been a move to using CDROMs and intranets, both the result of technological infrastructure changes and client demands. Given the incredible mobility of workers in these organizations, the availability of course materials in digital format is regarded as increasing the access and convenience of access for learners. Also with highly customized course materials, keeping materials current means constant updating. Reprinting workbooks is a more extensive and expensive process that requires advanced logistical planning and resourcing. Updating digital content has become more flexible and economical. CDROMs can be reproduced quicker at lower costs. Digitized materials can also be uploaded to a globally accessible intranet. This relatively subtle change in format has enabled learning materials to be reproduced and be made available in a shorter time span and at lower costs.
WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED FROM THIS EXPERIENCE
In designing eLearning programmes for multilateral organizations, we have found that the following points reappear under the circumstances of course development and delivery of open and distance programmes for multilateral organizations.
Whilst programmes are often funded by headquarters, the beneficiaries are literally all over the map. Therefore it is always pertinent to ask the questions:
Will regional, national and field offices have the same technology backbone to receive, read, and access materials?
Will field based learners be able to send assignments and communicate with their tutors with ease?
Will this meet the learning style and needs of colleagues working from the field?
Is attention given to the nuances of culture, ethnicity, language, and gender of an multilateral context?
The pilot should always include participants from developed and developing countries, field offices and Headquarters.
Designers must be attentive to potential environmental considerations on the global scale that might affect learners and learning e.g. the Tsunami, SARS pandemic, the war in Iraq. Obviously, not everything can be anticipated but organizations respond differently to global crisis situations.
Designers must choose the level of technology that will be the most accessible to the diversity of learners within an organization.
A training programme needs to balance the isolation and loneliness of technology-mediated learning with the human touch and communal support and sharing. This will help make the programme not only effective but accepted by learners as a viable training alternative.
CONCLUSION
The goal of the UN organizations in adopting open distance and technology mediated learning is to achieve democratization of learning for employees based in headquarters as well as regional and field offices, in cities and in villages, in well connected hubs and in isolated communities. In working with adult learners globally we have witnessed the following promising signs of the leveling of the learning field that reaps digital dividend. Evidence of the results of democratization of learning are:
Affordable and accessible learning for urban, rural, and island dwellers
Accessible training for workers based in war and disaster struck zones
Increased training opportunity for women (COL statistics: male vs. female learners, 30% vs. 70%)
Greater training opportunity for support staff (COL statistics: professional vs. non-professional learners, 35% vs. 65%)
Increased training opportunities to marginalized learners.
In gathering learner feedback, the following comments representing many similar voices reinforce the need for and the impact of global courses for local learning.
This is the first time that I take a long distance course. WEFUNHCR has been an excellent experience. The overall course was well presented and organized, which made it easy to follow and enjoyable. The material is superb, mostly because I can apply it to my daily work. I have recommended this course to all my colleagues. Besides the course in itself, I thought that my tutor was great. Not only did she respond in a timely manner, but also her comments were appropriate and encouraging. I liked it that she not only pointed out the mistakes which needed corrections, but also pointed out the positive aspects of my work. I found myself looking forward to her comments. Thank you for making the course available.
Distance learning with a CDRom is the only possibility for staff from our Office in Lyon (i.e. far away from Geneva Headquarters) to follow courses for the moment. I think it is a good means for staff to study even if it requires a lot of work at home (studying in the office was hardly possible due to an important workload these last few months). It would actually be very nice if more courses could be followed this way.
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