Distance Learning Has Arrived
Jinfo Blog

By Robin Neidorf

Abstract

Many organisations of all sizes and types are considering distance learning to support their workers, members and stakeholders. Developments in technology and user behaviour in the past several years have made distance learning more effective and accepted. Organisations can take advantage of the benefits offered by distance learning to create a resilient workforce of perpetual learners.... but there are of course pitfalls to avoid.

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Not terribly long ago, most professionals looked askance at distance learning. Most professionals had little or no personal experience with distance learning programmes, and those who did have experience were often dissatisfied with the results. Technology was clunky; course platforms were counter-intuitive; interactions were stilted.

So much has changed in the six years since the first edition of my book on the topic. Whilst researching the updated edition of Teach Beyond Your Reach (CyberAge Books, 2012), I had the opportunity to reflect and comment upon all the technological and cultural changes that make distance learning a viable and even preferred component of professional education.

The two most important developments are:

• Improved Tools: Course platforms have evolved enormously in six years, as have other collaborative platforms that lend themselves to supporting distance education. In fact, all the technology gains in collaborative online tools can effectively support a distance learning programme.
• User Comfort: Users today are very comfortable with fostering meaningful professional relationships via collaborative platforms, in ways that were unimaginable six years ago. Consider the kinds of online interactions you had in 2006. Consider the interactions you likely had last week. I’ll bet your own experience reflects this revolution.

These developments mean that more organisations are taking a serious look at distance learning, to augment or replace in-person training.

Benefits to Organisation and Student

Increasingly, organisations of all kinds are integrating distance learning components into their training programmes. They have discovered the many benefits distance learning provides:

• Flexibility:  Busy adults need access to learning on their terms and schedules. Often the barrier to training is the time it takes away from other activities, more so than its cost. Distance instruction enables greater flexibility. Using tools like asynchronous discussion, archived materials, and self-paced programs, instructors can create more flexible environments for their students.
• Relevance: Distance learning, in contrast with face-to-face learning, provides scope for customisation through choices of pathways through material, adapting assignments to learning styles, and applying the content directly to the needs of the student. By doing so, distance learning also builds innate relevance into the offering. Busy adults seek out educational opportunities that are directly relevant to their needs, and distance learning can deliver.
• Practicality: One of the advantages of distance learning is that it fits more easily into a student's regular workflow. Students can access learning from their desks or tablet devices, engaging with new ideas right in the environment where they will need to use them. The ability to practice using new ideas right away helps the learning stick.
• Efficiency: Eliminate travel time and water cooler talk, and taking time for learning is already more efficient. Workers may not always be able to justify days -- or even hours -- away from the office for workshops or conferences, but they may be able to make the case for an hour or two of professional training that doesn’t even require leaving their desks.
• Cost: The cost of attending live learning events has outpaced growth in corporate travel budgets. Even organisations that make travel budgets available to attend live events may find that, in practice, professionals simply cannot afford to be away from their offices for a full day or more. A distance learning program and in-person program may have the exact same registration cost, and yet the real cost to the student (or the employer) will be lower for the distance program due to the reduced impact on productivity.
• Reduced Risk: Live events are risky for organisers – anything from bad weather to traffic jams to poor logistics can turn a well-planned event into a disaster. Distance events reduce these risks (although the risk of technical failure is still present). For participants, too, distance learning may represent reduced risk. Participants who are dissatisfied with a particular event can more easily reduce their time commitment by logging off, whereas if they have traveled to an event, the time is simply wasted.
• Scalability: Live events and learning environments bump up against capacity – only so many people can fit in a room, and instructors can only teach so many sessions in a given week. Distance learning truly enables you to teach beyond your reach — to get to more students, fill more sessions, and expand capacity to reach more learners. Distance learning scales more easily than live events and provides a more flexible format for producing learning relatively quickly around a variety of topics.

Common Pitfalls

But it's very common for organisations to end up with lacklustre distance learning, which recreates the worst elements of in-person training whilst gaining none of the benefits of distance. 

The focus of Teach Beyond Your Reach is to help instructors understand the many steps they have to undertake to create a successful distance learning experience. Some of the key principles presented in the book are equally important for organisations to consider when reviewing their own learning programmes.

Focus On the Student, Not the Content

The most important variable in successful distance learning is the student. Who is the student? Why does s/he want to learn? What barriers exist between him/her and a successful outcome?

Understanding the needs, motivations and learning styles of adult learners is essential for any organisation offering distance learning programmes. Too often, training departments focus on what they want or need to teach (the content), rather than on the students and their needs.

Make It Interactive

Successful learning programmes involve the student. Too often distance learning is flat and lacks interactivity to engage and motivate the student. A recorded presentation, on its own, is not an effective learning tool.

Also keep in mind that adding an interactive tool, such as a threaded discussion or comment feature, does not create interactivity. We've certainly seen how difficult it can be for organisations to activate effectively the social media components of their intranets -- just because you install the feature doesn't mean that people will use it.

Interactivity has to be planned carefully into a curriculum with the target users (and their motivations) in mind.

Do Less

If I could only make a single recommendation to any organisation creating a distance learning programme it would be this: Do less. 

Look at your planned curriculum and pull out one-quarter of the learning objectives. Save them for another course or add-on module. 

Examine the slides for your lecture and remove half of them.

Review the modules included in your certification programme and divide them further so that four modules become six modules.

Find ways in every distance learning interaction to do less. Focus closely on a smaller number of goals and execute those well. You have a greater chance of satisfied students who will come back for more.

Perpetual Learners and Tomorrow's Workforce

Today's careers require knowledge workers to be perpetual learners. Distance learning principles and approaches can be built into nearly every organisation or any size. What's more, expertise in distance learning will also improve your outcomes for face-to-face learning opportunities.

Build an organisation of perpetual learners who get value from distance opportunities as well as in-person events, and you have a resilient workforce, regardless of what challenges next come their way.

Articles in series:

• Learning Interactions: The Missing Key to KM Success
• Improving Communities of Practice through Distance Learning Principles
• Distance Learning Has Arrived

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