Features
USEFUL SOURCES OF INFORMATIONThere’s no central URL for all the government’s e-learning initiatives, but a good general web site for links on various aspects of e-learning in the public and private sectors around the world is The In 2003 the NHS is going to open the |
New initiatives to encourage so-called 'distance learning' – using the internet – are hot news in government. Gary Flood reports on how workers can study in their own time from the comfort of their own homes
Mobile learning
E-learning – the idea that you can learn new skills and get trained
online and by yourself instead of in a classroom or going off on a course
– is flavour of the month in Whitehall.
The basic concept: using computer technology in the form of either CD-ROMs
with lots of course material on disk or via the web, students use the
computer to ‘teach’ them instead of a tutor or instructor. Supporters
stress this method encourages a self-starting approach and allows a lot
of flexibility in terms of time spent studying.
A lot of central government money and support is going into developing
a number of big e-learning initiatives. These include Learndirect - the
online skills development operation - new online universities and significant
projects in the NHS.
In fact, what’s believed to be the largest e-learning project so
far has been the LearnECDL project carried out by the Manchester NHS Agency.
2,000 nurses are working on their ECDL exams (ECDL stands for the European
Computer Driving Licence, and is a qualification in basic IT skills, see
right hand box), and if successful it’ll be offered to all 18,500
staff in the agency.
Backers of the idea say this will transform learning. Typical is David
Unwin, learning programmes director at 
UkeU,
the new 'virtual' university which will offer online versions
of masters degrees and professional qualifications from established academic
centres.
“This is better than face-to-face learning as it allows the student
to proceed at their own pace,” he says.
UKeU has been launched with significant taxpayer backing - £62m
of funding from the UK government - with a further £5.6m from the
big computer manufacturer Sun, and much enthusiasm.
But there’s a big snag. While the public sector is falling in love with e-learning, the private sector’s love affair with it seems to have cooled off significantly.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the professional
body for the HR community with 110,000 members, found in its 2002 annual
survey that only 30% of training managers were actually using any form
of e-learning, and of those, 70% said they were using it in a very limited
way.
What seems to be happening is that the first generation of e-learning
has run into some roadblocks. The basic lesson is that bosses bought into
e-learning because they thought they could slash training costs down to
nearly zero, but without thinking through how people actually train and
learn.
“There was wild optimism, and too much hype,” says Peter McClintock,
the e-learning director for a company called Globalknowledge that sells
courses on IT to the public and private sector, including BT and the MoD.
Some people in commercial companies also got turned off e-learning because
they felt it devalued their training efforts. “It’s one thing
to go off on a residential course and come back and be seen as the expert,
another if it’s not done separately to your duties and no-one knows
you’ve done it or made the effort. Companies have only just woken
up to that problem.”
Against this background it’s important to be aware of the lessons
learned in the private sector so that they’re not repeated in the
public.
The point is that e-learning needs to be made to work for you, and you
should discuss potential pitfalls as well as successes with your employer
before going on a course.
First and foremost, say the experts, we now know that the right support
is incredibly important. “Advice and guidance online or face-to-face
is vital,” says Pablo Lloyd, director of business development at
the organisation behind Learndirect, UFI (University for Industry).
“Our centres offer many ways to make people feel their particular
individual needs are being addressed.” Lloyd claims this approach
has made it easier for its users, mostly women returning to the workforce
and people over 50, who need specific business and IT skills as quickly
as they can.
But the government says it’s aware of some of the dangers the poor
implementation of e-learning can cause. It’s seconded a senior administrator
from the Open University, Diana Laurillard, to head up its ‘e’
efforts at the Department of Education and Skills.
“Some private sector organisations haven’t been aware of what
it really takes to do this properly,” she says.
“E-learning is the business of education, and you have to be in
that business to start with to do it right.”
The distance learning pioneered by the Open University model is much
closer to what’s actually needed, she adds. That’s because the
government sees great potential in e-learning to equip everyone in the
UK with the right skills to thrive in the knowledge economy.
But it can also just be fun, she adds. “There’s so much exciting
and interesting stuff out there that you can only really access online.
I’d encourage anyone to drop into a UK Online centre and have a play,
where you’ll get support and help to find what you want.”
A case in point is pharmacy porter Gareth Thomas, who works in Hinchinborough
hospital in Cambridgeshire, won the Learndirect learner of the year award
for 2002 for “having a go”.
Gareth has two young children who he reckons will soon be coming home
asking him about computers and all of this internet business. So he decided
to try and learn all about them.
He couldn’t afford the price of any local college course but noticed
stickers around the hospital for other courses and decided to find out
more. He’s now passed a number of Learndirect IT courses by using
computers provided at the hospital by its training department. “I’d
never used one before but it was all so well laid out I found it very
clear,” Gareth says.
This despite him not having done any education since he left school at
16 (he jokes he’s “still 29”) and being constantly on call
through his bleeper.
We’ll leave the last word on e-learning to Gareth: “If I can do it, anybody can.”
Contact the article's author Gary Flood
UNISON AND E-LEARNINGAn example of e-learning at work is how Staffordshire
Moorlands District Council has worked with UNISON to help its staff
acquire key computer skills. “National surveys had shown low satisfaction
with training provision in local government in IT skills,”
says Mike Jones (above), UNISON branch education officer, who also
works in the council’s IT arm. Another driver was the increasing importance in
local government of the push toward ‘joined-up’ government,
or e-government. To get there, though, all council staff would need
to be more e-enabled. A decision was made to improve the situation via
an initiative around ECDL. ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence)
is an EU-recognised proficiency qualification. A pilot was organised in co-operation with the local
college in Leek, with agreement won from the employer that staff
could get 2 hours training time for the project a week. Volunteers started signing up in May 2001, using
ILA (Individual Learning Account) funding to get the project started
– which enabled the council to sanction the number of staff
on the pilot to go from 20 to 124. A training room with eight PCs was set up at the
main council office, supplemented by a number of remote PCs for
staff working off-site. CDs were supplied for home use and they
even negotiated discounts on course materials for the volunteers
at the local bookshops. “We made sure there was plenty of back up,”
adds Jones. The results were impressive. Of the 124 who started
76 passed in their first year, with another 20 carrying on but intending
to finish. Of the total group, 88% said they’d enjoyed the
experience, 94% would recommend it to others, and 80% said they
preferred it to regular tutor-based training. “We wanted to do this to give people confidence in IT, not specific work skills, and we think it’s worked. Even if you just want to write up your PTA notes at home using the computer, this is the kind of course you might find useful. People liked being able to do this at their own pace,” is Mike’s verdict. |
LOTS MORE FEATURESIncluding stress in the workplace, getting out of debt and the pensions crisis more... |
© Copyright 2008
