‘E-learning’ – once a word denoting the ‘leading edge’ application of learning delivery technologies and the latest thinking in instructional design, this ageing nomenclature has become popularly synonymous with the presentation of information in an uninspiring and pedestrian way. For years, studies showed that less than ten per cent of those who start an e-learning programme ever completed it.

In recent times – thanks to advances in learning delivery technologies – e-learning, which was prescriptive and characterised by the authoring of ‘traditional’ education contents online has given way to self-generated (via rapid authoring tolls in the hands of subject matter experts), grass roots learning content production, profiling and exchange, leading to the emergence of ‘learning communities’. Current delivery technology developments suggest that, soon, e-learning can become personal, using constructive pedagogy and delivering individualised contents. This will be characterised by de-structured content, tagged using XML to make it available via mobile devices.

Although epitomised by the self-paced online ‘course’, e-learning now encompasses, among other things, mobile learning, simulations, 3D learning environments, performance support systems, knowledge management, informal media and social learning. However, can what is being delivered via these various environments be homogenous enough for all of it to be called e-learning without producing some confusion, especially in the minds of the buying/learning community?

The good news for e-learning designers, developers and deliverers is that, in its traditional form of the self-paced, online-accessed course/ programme/ learning materials, what is being called ‘e-learning 1.0’ is going to be with us as long as there are desktops, laptops, CDs and the internet. The not-so-good news is that this e-learning is no longer ‘leading edge’.

Meanwhile, those at the leading edge of learning technologies are likely to have a background in the ‘digital industries’ – perhaps computer games, website design, search engine optimisation and social media development. These are the people who will give the world the personalised, individualised, contextualised, self-development, performance support materials which can be delivered to the recipient on any convenient device. In this information age, learning is not about acquiring and remembering knowledge but, rather, it is about the skill of knowing where and how to access that knowledge as it becomes appropriate.

So, it’s not ‘learning’ in the way that we have traditionally thought of learning, be it ‘e’ or otherwise. Or maybe learning/ e-learning are still what we always thought they were but the state-of-the-art information delivery technologies are going to be delivering something that’s significantly different. For a start, the new personalised, individualised, contextualised (and so on) materials are going to be too brief or immediate to have a ‘learning structure’ to them. Nor are they going to build in ‘tests of learning retention’ (whatever use we may think these have) to the information they impart.

Either way – whether there is still such a thing as e-learning, or what we might be tempted to call e-learning isn’t really e-learning – e-learning is not what it was. So, maybe we should bow to public pressure and find another name for it and consign another ‘e’ word of the ‘90s to oblivion.

Businesses need to take a more targeted approach to e-learning, according to a recent industry round table discussion. The panel agreed that, as the e-learning market becomes saturated with mobile applications, businesses need to provide employees with more focused learning opportunities to see greater benefits.

Jon Toothill, client services director at Lightbox Education, said, “With regards to technology supporting learning, it is important to consider what people actually want to learn. At the moment there seems to be an app for everything, but how many get used and how much of the e-learning collateral out there is on subjects that people actually want to learn? This is what should drive us.”

Michael Wilkinson, director at i-education, added, “It’s about empowering people to make the best choices about how to access learning, how to capture learning and how to connect with other people to explore that further. It’s about providing the right tools, whether it is using a mobile device, taking a video, audio diary or even a photograph.”

Ultimately, it was agreed that the technology must support the learning and not vice versa. Unlike in the past when it was the technology that excited people, businesses must adopt a pedagogue approach to continue to reverse this.

The panel at the round table discussions, held in association with UKFast, was completed by Gavin Hubbard, market strategist at LearndirectTony Lowe, managing director at Webducate, and Dan Sodergren of Great Marketing Works.

Comment: The findings of this round table panel raise some important issues and seem in sympathy with the story below (The rise and fall of ‘e’).

In that enduring Disney children’s classic, ‘Mary Poppins’, Julie Andrews – in the title role of the magical nanny – sings: ‘In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and ‘snap’ [click of fingers], the job’s a game…’

For its September conference (in London on 24^th September), the eLN – a UK-based non-profit organisation run by the e-learning community for the e-learning community – seems to have taken Mary Poppins’ advice to heart.

Chaired by Rob Hubbard, of LearningAge Solutions, the eLN conference will take the format of a game. In particular, the event will investigate learning technologies in the broadest sense, identifying when each form of e-learning is likely to be effective, and learning from those who have successfully thought beyond the confines of the ‘course’. Speakers include Ben Betts, of Warwick Digital Lab; Graeme Duncan (Caspian Learning); Jane Hart (Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies); Patrick Fitzpatrick (PTK Learning), and Ed Stonestreet (Yoodoo). More details from info@elearningnetwork.org

Comment: Once epitomised by the self-paced online ‘course’, e-learning now encompasses mobile learning, simulations, 3D learning environments, performance support systems, knowledge management, informal media, social learning and more.

Despite all this, learning is still generally seen as an extremely serious matter. So it is no wonder that, following the ’80-20’ rule, 20 per cent of people are motivated – or forced via their industry’s compliance regulations – to study 80 per cent of the learning materials available; only 20 per cent of e-learners complete the learning, only 20 per cent of what’s studied is ever applied, and other less-than-flattering statistics.

Along with Mary Poppins, the eLN has realised that a spoonful of sugar helps the (learning) medicine go down. Maybe, following the lessons of that film, it can find a way of inducing a banking crisis and produce cartoon-based environments which learners can explore in order to complete the ‘e-learning Mary Poppins experience’.

Wait a moment – these things now have a familiar ring of reality to them. So all that’s left is for the eLN to hold its fabled lunches on the ceiling and Mary Poppins’ magical influence over e-learning will be complete.