Preparing E-Learners for Online Success
By Ryan Watkins

Advances in e-learning technology have, however, created new demands on both learners and instructors.

For instructors and learners alike, the introduction of e-learning technologies in the last decade has renovated the all-too-familiar training experiences that endured in organizations for nearly a half-century. From desktop video and instant messaging to just-in-time training using PDAs and iPods, the technologies that are commonly found in organizations and homes are offering instructors and learners a host of new tools that have the potential to dramatically diversify and improve learning. As a result, learning is finally leaving the training classroom and becoming an indispensable ingredient of living and working in our society.

These advances in e-learning technology have, however, created new demands on both learners and instructors. The time-tested learning strategies and study skills that most of us developed through 12 or more years of a traditional classroom education can only assist us to a limited degree when courses are moved to e-learning formats. In response, instructors, instructional designers, and curriculum developers have been building an inventory of contemporary skills and techniques for generating useful learning experiences for today’s high-tech learners. At the same time, learners have been informally developing updated study skills and learning strategies in a relatively ad hoc manner.

E-learner readiness

From the challenges of forming study groups in an online environment to new techniques for taking notes while reading PDF files on a PDA, the study skills required for success in e-learning are often beyond those commonly applied in traditional classroom training by successful learners. Many younger learners are actually more capable with video game technologies than they are in using online database search engines or learning from interactive chat room discussions. As a result, the e-learning courses that are being used currently in many organizations can present obstacles to learners who have only developed their study skills in low-tech instructor-led classrooms.

As an example, successful learners in high school and college courses have typically developed effective skills for asking questions of and communicating with the course instructor in a face-to-face course format. Yet, when they are offered online training opportunities there may not be an instructor available for feedback, and even if an instructor is available, they are often not accessible for immediate feedback at the time that the learner is struggling with course materials. Accordingly, the pragmatic study strategies used by successful e-learners veers from previous tactics used in the traditional classroom and includes such techniques as using Internet search engines to identify websites that may provide clarification or sending an instant message to a peer in the course while they await instructor feedback.

Without experience or other guidance, most learners—of all ages—are not adequately prepared to learn effectively from the technology-rich training opportunities offered by organizations. As a result, the training investment in high-tech delivery systems and courseware are not regularly achieving their potential impact on learner performance, say Shilwant and Haggarty in the August 2005 CLO article “Usability Testing for E-Learning.” Preparing learners for success in e-learning has become, therefore, a growing priority for training organizations.

E-learning study skills

Two essential skills for success in e-learning are adapting old skills and habits from the traditional classroom for use in e-learning and developing and applying new e-learning skills and habits for e-learning. From building a robust vocabulary of technology-related terms to adequately preparing for a debate in online discussion board and building the skills for e-learning typically takes many of the study habits from the traditional classroom and applies them in new ways using technology. For example, learners can apply the Cornell note-taking system even when they’re reading a PDF file they downloaded from the organization’s training library.

In addition to the adaptation of traditional study skills, some technologies have dramatically changed how a learner interacts with their instructors, peers, and course materials, thus requiring the development of some new study skills (see Figure 1). For instance, learners must invent new tactics for creating effective group dynamics when team projects are required in an online environment, such as leading the group through the well-known forming, norming, storming, and performing stages.

Figure 1: Relating Online Success with Traditional Student Success Skills
(Based on the E-learning Companion, Watkins & Corry, 2004)

Readiness surveys

Anticipating success in e-learning is not, however, always easy for learners or their organization. Self-assessment surveys can be used effectively to assist learners in identifying their strengths and weaknesses with regards to e-learning study skills.

While there are many e-learning readiness surveys developed for marketing purposes and available online, there are few that offer a model for self-assessment that can be adapted to the unique e-learning requirements of organizations. Working with the U.S. Coast Guard, my colleagues and I have taken the first steps in validating an instrument that can assist potential e-learners in assessing their readiness in the following areas:

Technology access

• Description: Access to the hardware and software required for e-learning participation is a necessary, but not sufficient by itself, criteria for a successful learning experience.
• Sample question: Do you have access to a computer with adequate software (e.g., Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat)?

Online skills and relationships

• Description: E-learners will typically require many basic computer and Internet skills in order to participate in e-learning, as well as to communicate with their peers and instructor.
• Sample question: Do you have the basic skills for finding your way around the Internet, such as using search engines and entering passwords?

Motivation

• Description: Appropriate motivation and focus are important elements in predicting the retention, persistence, and success of e-learners.
• Sample question: Do you believe that you would be able to complete work even when there are online distractions, including friends sending emails or websites to surf?

Online audio/video

• Description: The capacity to learn while using e-learning technologies (for example, streaming video, two-way desktop video conferencing, live chat rooms) should be self-assessed prior to starting an e-learning course.
• Sample question: Do you believe that you would be able to take notes while watching a video on the computer.

Internet discussions

• Description: Interactions with peers and instructors are often a critical ingredient in engaging e-learning. As a result, potential e-learners should review their skills for effectively communicating with others when using e-learning technologies, such as email, instant messengers, live chat rooms, desktop video, and two-way audio.
• Sample question: Do you sometimes prefer to have more time when preparing responses to a question.

Importance to your success

·         Description: Additional characteristics of e-learning courses and workplace contexts should also be reviewed and assessed by learners prior to committing to an e-learning experience (for example, regularity of instructor feedback, interactions with peers, and opportunities to apply skills in the workplace during the course).

·         Sample question: Is regular contact with the instructor important to your success in online coursework.

From predictors in each of these areas, potential e-learners can assess their readiness for the unique challenges of e-learning. Based on those results they can then identify resources and development activities that will help prepare them to be successful in future e-learning experiences. Organizations can use this instrument, which is still being improved and tested for its ability to predict performance in various e-learning environment, as a model for developing internal self-assessments for future e-learners within the organization. For example, using the current survey questions regarding a learner’s readiness to participate in Internet discussions as a guide, organizations can develop questions for the specific e-learning technologies they are using, such as WebEx, Centra, or PlaceWare. 

One challenge in assessing readiness for e-learning is that most potential e-learners have limited experience with many of the technology and study skills required for success. Consequently, they have difficulty predicting their own capabilities. In developing unique survey questions for assessing e-learner readiness it’s therefore valuable to relate e-learning activities to other technology applications learners may have more experience with from their current work.  

For example, if your e-learning courses require a good amount of learner interactions to use live online chat rooms, then you may want to ask potential e-learners questions about their application of communication skills when using instant messenger programs when helping them predict their readiness. Their level of experience and capacity to learn from the online experience using the analogous technology may be greater than their ability to predict performance in Internet chat rooms.

Designing for e-learner success
 

Transforming current e-learning courses and materials to facilitate the development of e-learning study skills and promote learner success does not, however, require a great amount of additional effort from instructors or instructional designers. By integrating online activities, resources, and materials into current e-learning experiences you can build online success skills into current content and provide learners with the information, practice, skills, and experiences for success in all e-learning activities.

Below are six tips that e-learning instructors can apply to most any e-learning course to assist e-learners along their path toward success.

• Include online activities as ice-breakers for learners. These will help learners build the important relationships that support effective learning. For example, My First Time…, Find Some Who…, and Websites About Myself are all effective e-learning activities for introducing learners to one another.
• Become familiar with both the technologies used in the current e-learning course as well as the other technologies, including USB memory, instant messaging, discussion boards, 802.11b technology, Blackboard, WebCT, servers, firewalls, and Ethernet, that learners may ask about during the course.
• Provide learners with the necessary information for getting in touch with technical support, as well as any unique resources for the technologies being applied in the course.
• Offer learners opportunities to assess and improve their technology skills and e-learning study skills. For example, develop a self-assessment survey that asks questions regarding technology or study skills that will be required later in the e-learning course. For e-learners who do not believe that their current capabilities are sufficient, be able to provide such resources as online tutorials, reference books, and help desk support that can aid their professional development in those areas.
• In each e-learning lesson, supply learners with Internet links that can prepare them with the specific skills required for accomplishing the learning objectives, including links with information on identifying learning styles, building time management skills, managing group dynamics, paying attention to diversity, or applying critical thinking to online content.
• Encourage learners to interact and communicate with other learners using email and other technologies, such as establish a course listserv, send out periodic emails regarding new course offerings from the training organization, and use instant messengers to contact learners. While these tools often require additional active participation of the instructor, the benefits of engaging learners in the e-learning experience are immense.

E-Learning can offer engaging, entertaining, interactive, valuable, and meaningful learning experiences employees in most any organization. It is, however, important that we prepare e-learners with both the technical and study skills required for success in these often new and often high-tech learning experiences. From building self-assessment surveys to designing learner-focused e-learning, training organizations can improve the return on their e-learning investments by ensuring that the entire e-learning experience supports the success of the e-learners.