DESIGNING FOR EVERYONE
August 17, 2016
It seems pretty clear that corporate America has decided to embrace e-Learning as the training medium of choice. The advantages of cost savings, 24/7 availability, and easy conversion of existing information are all winners for the decision makers charged with profitability responsibilities.
What is lost, however, in this rush to adopt e-Learning, is the historical emphasis on retention and transferable skills acquisition. And, today those can only be attained through a recognition of two truths:
1) an acceptance of the fact that nearly 40% of the nation’s workforce cannot assimilate written material that goes beyond a 4th grade reading level.
2) an acceptance of the fact that technology is but a tool and the end user must remain the focus of all learning.
In order to successfully address these goals, we must recognize the current state of technology-based learning — and the first thing we must acknowledge is the amount of garbage being disseminated under the guise of e-Learning. Page-turner programs, PowerPoint presentations and reconstituted written procedures all do more harm than good. In fact, they almost totally ignore most modern workers and their needs. They lack the winning focus — an emphasis on the users of today and their attendant learning environment.
Our single-minded focus must return and remain on the end users. It cannot be on the technology. If our users learn, we win. If our programs reach out effectively to those many individuals who do not “learn by reading,” we win. If we reach only those individuals who are fluent readers, we lose. Our single-minded focus must be directed toward the many — and, variety of — users we encounter. Only then will the desired increased corporate profitability become the end result.
If e-Learning providers design their courseware for inclusive learning — learning which is multi-sensory (rooted in full motion video, graphic animations and optional word-for-word audio), measurable, and more consistent — then, “The Learner” will win which, after all, is the goal of all training.
More on Monday – – –
— Bill Walton, co-Founder, ITC Learning
www.itclearning.com/blog/ (Mondays & Wednesdays)