Distributed_Learning-CorporateSettings

Distributed learning is gaining ground in corporate contexts as businesses strive to reach the learners of today in ways that engage and achieve desired business outcomes, including budgetary requirements. To meet these needs, many corporations are changing their training (educational) environment from the the traditional face-to-face, or Instructor-lead, model and are making effective use of technology by applying it more in their educational training courses. "We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn." (Peter Drucker 2005)

“Technology has revolutionized business; now it must revolutionize learning. In the 21st century, people will have to learn more than ever before. Especially for global organizations, live classroom-based training is becoming too costly and cumbersome. Even if employees had the time to attend all the courses and seminars and to read all the books and reports they should to remain up-to-date in their area of work, the cost of such learning would be prohibitive. The need to transform how organizations learn points to a more modern, efficient, and flexible alternative: e-learning. The mission of corporate e-learning is to supply the workforce with an up-to-date and cost-effective program that yields motivated, skilled, and loyal knowledge workers. (Bachman, K. 2000)

Some of the forms of e-learning are as follows:


 * Television Courses:** These courses are delivered via video tape to employees in groups or individuals, some may include a face-to-face orientation at the beginning of the term and/or proctored examinations. Such courses have due dates and are scheduled for employees to take.


 * Web-based (WBT or CBT) Courses:** These courses are delivered through the Intranet (private network maintained by company or organization accessed by authorized employees). CBT's deliver substantial course materials and activities, they are accessible from anywhere, anytime, there are no regular class meetings. Even though there is so much flexibility with this training form, there are requirements to passing the course(s) and receive the proper credits or certifications, such as the completion of the course by certain due date, or even a passing grades of 95% or better.


 * Hybrid Courses:** Hybrid courses involve a mixture of Instructor-lead and Web-based learning, offering both synchronous and asynchronous learning. In addition many of these models may include participants from remote locations. Hybrid courses often include asynchronous tools such as Forums, Blogs, and Wikis for participants to engage in discussions that extend the learning through collaborative interaction.

For corporate learning to be considered an example of distributed learning it must contain elements of peer interaction, whether synchronous or asynchronous, as it is this cognitive interaction that lends itself to the increased knowledge of the community. Often, distance learning techniques are also leveraged in these distributed learning models.

“In times when small instructor-led classes tend to be the exception, electronic learning solutions can offer more collaboration and interaction with experts and peers as well as a higher success rate than the live alternative. Teaching and communication techniques which create an interactive online environment include case studies, story-telling, demonstrations, role-playing, simulations, streamed videos, online references, personalized coaching and mentoring, discussion groups, project teams, chat rooms, e-mail, bulletin boards, tips, tutorials, FAQs, and wizards. Distance education can be more stimulating and encourage more critical reasoning than a traditional large instructor-led class because it allows the kind of interaction that takes place most fully in small group settings.” (Bachman, K. 2000)

Corporations may begin to fully apply Distributed Learning techniques by creating ongoing learning extension activities to current Web-based training courses. For example, by adding a discussion forum or reflection blog section to a learning module the corporation allows learners to extend the learning beyond the event. Adult learning follows the cycle of experiencing, reflecting, interpreting and taking action. (Coghlan, 1997) Corporations may encourage this learning cycle by adding asynchronous discussion opportunities to normally individual, static Web-based offerings. For example, including a threaded discussion at the end of the WBT regarding workplace ethics and integrity could extend learning as individuals reflect and respond on the topic to reinforce and refine their understanding.

"Many participants in distributed learning situations report that the use of asynchronous learning environments (such as threaded online discussions, which do not rely on posting at the same time for interaction) positively affects their participation and individual cognitive processes for mastering knowledge and skills." (Dede 2004) At the same time these forums provide a listening post for the corporation to understand the mindset of the employees and engage with them in the discussion.

Distributed learning is gaining momentum as companies find that today's atmosphere of fast-paced technological development requires constant internal training. Corporate training programs enable employees to learn new applications and IT management lessons, as well as encourage workers to remain loyal to their employers. Distributed learning has emerged as a useful method of corporate training because it is flexible--employees can take a lesson anytime, anywhere, using the Internet, a corporate intranet, or a CD-ROM. The IT industry is particularly well suited to distributed learning, because constant education is needed to introduce workers to the latest technologies. Furthermore, training often gives rise to loyalty among workers, a necessity during the current shortage of IT professionals. "Particularly for technology employees, training is a huge and key retention factor," says TrainingNet's Dave Eagan. "One thing they expect from an organization is not only the opportunity to learn by doing, but to expand their knowledge by training." (Industry Standard, 28 Feb 2000) (Karen F Smith)

All training courses requires evaluation by the employees, the purpose of this evaluation is to give the employees an opportunity to express their opinions about the quality of the courses and the material covered. Employee feedback is reviewed by the corporate learning and development team to improve quality and study employees' performance after training to understand the effectiveness of the courses. (DJ - what are your thoughts on moving this to the assessment section under a corporate heading? Dan Wood)

Effective use of technology can help corporations teach employees how to be responsible and disciplined at their jobs, by applying scheduled due dates, and passing grades at the same time it helps the employees know what their company's expectations are as far as performance. (Dijlah Benjamin)