Build Skill with A-Learning
By Thomas Reed and Laura M. Francis

E-learning has transformed traditional training, offering flexibility, variety, easy maintenance, and a low cost-per-user ratio. But often, e-learners still need to build skill, making it difficult to measure the bottom-line results. Enter a-learning.

Anyone who has picked up a training magazine within the last few years knows that e-learning dominates the pages--with good reason. E-learning has transformed traditional training, offering flexibility, variety, easy maintenance, and a low cost-per-user ratio. Thousands of topics and courses are available for a relatively small investment, and software and hardware enable administrators to track and quantify learning. E-learning's most unique benefit, of course, is that it enables people to learn any time, from anywhere.

Despite all those amazing qualities, e-learning continues to struggle, often offering weak interactivity and failing to engage learners. E-learning also misses the mark in helping people apply quickly, easily, and uniformly the concepts they learn to their day-to-day work. Often, e-learners still need to build skill, making it difficult to measure the bottom-line results. Although e-learning may be faster, the challenge to transfer practical knowledge remains.

What's next?

Acknowledging the limitations of e-learning begs the question, What's next? In a word: a-learning or electronic action learning. What is a-learning? Think of it as just-in-time skill building, virtually. Like e-learning, a-learning is cost-effective, easy to use and maintain, self-paced, and always available.

Unlike e-learning, a-learning focuses on skills, which learners develop through experience as they perform work and complete tasks. A-learning employs the principle that people learn best when they're involved in the process. Thus, learning moves from a passive information transaction to a knowledge transfer interaction that manifests itself in daily work habits. Learners quickly become involved, interacting with information in ways that enable them to learn the concepts while actually applying the skills.

A world of difference

Imagine a newly hired manager, Marie, who must make her first decision as a leader. She has completed all of the formal training necessary to create and implement a managerial decision, yet she stills feels hesitant. Neither the budget nor her tightly packed schedule will allow for any more classroom training. She feels stuck. What can she do?

Option #1

Until recently Marie had only one option: e-learning. Participating in an e-learning program focused on decision-making, she would typically experience the following:

Concepts and definitions. E-learning focuses on building a general knowledge base of concepts and ideas. That creates a basic level of understanding, but allows concepts to remain abstract and out of reach. E-learning would present Marie with definitions and examples of the various elements that comprise a good decision. In other words, she would learn what the term cross-functional decision means, but she still might not be able to apply the concept to her situation.

Models and graphs. A second feature this new manager would find in an e-learning course involves visual learning, that is to say models and graphs. Those visual cues reinforce the learning that occurs through definitions and concept development. Marie might see a graphical breakdown of how often people make decisions on their own, with another person, or with a group or team. She might also see a model that reiterates some of the main concepts learned; for example, one that depicts the steps in the decision-making process.

Tests and quizzes. E-learning proponents put a great deal of faith in these assessments. Although Marie can expect to answer an array of questions on many decision-making topics, she will find that the questions don't apply to her specific situation or help her make a better decision.

The questions on standard assessments test the lowest level of cognition: recall. For example, if Marie learns that 25 percent of decisions are made without any outside input, she can later expect to be quizzed on that fact. The question may ask:

According to research, what percentage of decisions are made without outside input?

A) 15 percent B) 25 percent C) 35 percent D) 50 percent

That question fails to engage the learner or ask her to use any higher levels of cognition. The same type of question could be asked of a two-year-old. Tell the child that grass is green, then ask him what color grass is. He uses only memory recall when he answers; he doesn't analyze or manipulate the data mentally.

So, although e-learning can help transfer basic knowledge and concepts, it would not help this new manager to make a better decision than before she began the program.

Option #2

Instead of sticking with e-learning that provides little support in building skill, Marie can try an a-learning decision-making program that will help her learn the decision-making process while actually making a decision.

The a-learning program would consist of these elements:

Exercises. All a-learning programs place the emphasis on action, which most often takes the form of exercises that users complete in conjunction with performing a specific job task. So, our new manager would complete exercises that would help her

• focus on the decision to be made
• determine whom to involve in the decision-making process
• analyze the risks and benefits of making a decision
• create an action plan including steps to take, people to involve, and dates by which each step should be completed.

Those exercises will teach Marie a formulated decision-making process while helping her work through her current decision, in essence building skill while addressing her immediate need to make a work-based decision.

Reusability. A second feature that makes a-learning so revolutionary is the fact that the same program can be used repeatedly without growing stagnant. Marie can work through the first impending decision using the a-learning program today, complete another decision using it tomorrow, and continue in that manner for months or even years to come. The program functions according to the data input by the user; each time the data changes, the solution changes accordingly.

Collaboration. A third unique feature of a-learning programs is the way multiple users can interact with one another. In a decision-making program, our new manager can invite other key stakeholders into the decision, gather their opinions and ideas, and incorporate them into her final decision and action plan. This feature pushes a-learning outside of the realm of static, solo-user e-learning and into the world of teamwork and group effort.

Look Ma, no test!

People who are familiar with e-learning often blanch at the thought of a training tool without built-in formal assessments. They place great emphasis on tests that fail to engage learners beyond basic levels of cognition. Those e-learning fans scorn programs that offer something different, which succinctly classifies what a-learning offers--something different.

A-learning doesn't use tests and quizzes to assess users' learning. Instead, it takes advantage of job-related assessments, which differ in the way they evaluate and measure progress. For example, Marie takes an e-learning course about decision-making. She successfully regurgitates facts and figures and therefore aces all of the tests and quizzes. Yet what does that really prove? Can she go out now and make a decision? Does she suddenly have the needed skills because she successfully repeated facts and passed the tests? More than likely, the answer is no. She still needs to build skill.

A-learning provides a viable method for assessing progress and learning by looking at those factors in relation to the work the person actually performed. For example, let's take a look at Marie's progress after using an a-learning product. Did she effectively make the decision she needed to? What effect did her decision have on the company, her coworkers, and her subordinates? Is she showing progress in terms of understanding the decision-making process, making decisions, and implementing them?

All of those questions point to the bottom line--how well is the user performing this aspect of her job, particularly in relation to the type and extent of training she received? Although Marie may not be asked to remember the percentage of decisions that are made without outside input, her performance will certainly be assessed based on the quality and success of her decisions.

The differences between a-learning and e-learning are clear. If you need to build skill quickly and effectively, use an a-learning program. If you want to build knowledge of concepts and definitions, use an e-learning course. If you want a 1-2 knock out punch, try combining the two.

Tom Reed is president and founder of Triple Creek Associates (www.3creek.com), a company that designs business-driven a-learning to help leaders and managers accelerate knowledge acquisition and skill development; treed@3creek.com. Laura Francis is a writer and editor for Triple Creek; lfrancis@3creek.com.