Unfortunately, these days we are just so resource constrained and are being pushed into a corner to offer only e-learning versus ILT. As we all know, not all content is appropriate for e-learning but when you have a global audience that you have to train and ILT just isn't possible because of resource constraints, e-learning is the fallback.

I refuse to say that e-learning is "better than nothing" because if your participants still can't perform, did you really accomplish much? Executives push "personal responsibility" on the learners, which is true to a point but only one component of the challenge.

Well, my challenge is to create a series of courses, one of which is an e-learning course on system configuration of a product that's very detail oriented and very complex. If you mistype one thing, you'll be a stick in the mud. Executives have said ILT is out, e-learning is in and "you only have a month or so to design and develop."

My question is, how do you bridge this gap between ILT and eLearning? How can people ask questions that are so imperative to their success? I'm not as worried about development because we have rapid e-learning tools that will get us through, but what are some design best practices to try and accomodate the gaps between e-learning and ILT?

I'm in favor of "train the trainers" and getting some mentors up to speed on this new product so that they have a go-to person but, it still won't be enough and our resources there are still really constrained.

Your thoughts are appreciated!

Unless there's some way to smack sense into the stakeholders, the only thing left is to demonstrate what the ridiculous time constraint (ONE month to design, develop, test and roll-out a program that is supposed to help people learn something?????) will do to the quality of whatever it is you end up producing.

(I'm offering that as a point to consider because I somehow suspect that any time talking them out of this directive would be about as meaningful as banging one's head against a large petrified tree.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LoveLearning,

As one option, you could deliver the self-paced portion of the training, then provide any of multiple means for mentoring, support, and follow-up:

• Email
  
• Chat room with office hours
  
• Discussion board/forum
  
• multiple Open Q&A webcasts
  
• Follow-up webcasts reviewing more complicated or important items

Jeff's comment makes sense.

Here is another thought:
What does your mandate for elearning entail? Are you thinking of "full blown" asynch courses with quizzes, games and so forth? Have you considered something more e-learning 2.0-ish? Maybe have SMEs or existing performers of the work create short videos for the learners. Create a wiki or blog by someone for the learners. If appropriate, have some live sessions using Skype or ooVoo or something.

Yes, eLearning can be a lot more expensive than ILT to develop depending on the number of potential participants, the frequency of required revisions and so forth. But, "quick and dirty" learning can be put together with web 2.0 tools, cheap video cams, and so forth for a very affordable price.

First of all, good luck! It's never fun to have your delivery method defined for logistical reasons.

One practical point is to design the elearning so your learners can spend as much time as possible working with the system or a mockup of it. Identify the places where they are likeliest to enter information incorrectly and create interactions that allow them to make the mistake in a controlled environment - maybe even confront it directly by asking users to point out all the wrong places they could click on a given page. In short, try to give them as much opportunity as possible to make their mistakes in the safety of the training session.

One other thought. ILT is not always necessarily the best approach. Maybe users won't have quite as much of a need to ask questions if they have an enhanced ability to try, test, and explore things firsthand in the WBT.

Again - good luck!

Dennis