| When I talk to the boss of a training company, I always | | | | tool, e-learning will always lead to at best decreasing |
| hesitate before saying the word: "e-learning". Such a | | | | motivation, at worst a failure; we encourage you to |
| bad word which, most of the time, smacks of "old and | | | | consider e-learning as a process that includes: |
| bad experience", "bad quality", "not our philosophy"... It | | | | - upstream, consideration of the whole training process |
| sounds bad... but also, in my opinion, this is a little bit | | | | (see point 1) |
| unfair! | | | | - choice of an interactive platform and creation of |
| Even the best would have to give a simple and clear | | | | multimedia content (see point 2) |
| definition of this word... but, as the article devoted to | | | | - transmission of the content as a task to do and |
| the subject on Wikipedia reminds us, there is not one | | | | monitoring the achievement of this task |
| definition, but many. And this is precisely the problem! | | | | - downstream, request for feedback and feelings |
| So, instead of telling you what e-learning is, let me tell | | | | At every step, you - as educative manager or tutor - |
| you what e-learning is NOT: | | | | have an important role to play to let the student feel |
| 1. E-learning is not blended-learning, but a part of it. | | | | that he's closely accompanied. Be sure that this |
| Blended-learning consists of diversifying the way and | | | | commitment is not so costly in terms of time (a quick |
| the support of teaching so that the student doesn't feel | | | | answer to students' questions, short comments on |
| bored after two weeks of training and remains | | | | their exercises...) and that at the end it definitely |
| stimulated and motivated and keeps concentrating. In a | | | | improves the efficiency of your e-learning. That's the |
| way, everybody already proposes a kind of | | | | only way to reach the main goal usually assigned to |
| blended-learning because it has been obvious for | | | | e-learning: reduce the costs, while maintaining a high |
| many years that the classic face-to-face classes are | | | | level of quality. |
| not enough; that's why, we should be aware that | | | | 4. E-learning is not distance-learning, but it can be. If you |
| training that mixes individual lessons, group lessons and | | | | have read and understood the above points, this may |
| phone lessons is blended-learning. However, the key | | | | be obvious: first of all, because we encourage you to |
| point of blended-learning is, most of the time, the | | | | introduce e-learning most of the time as part of a |
| electronic support of e-learning which can be used to | | | | blended-learning process (with classic classes, etc... see |
| introduce a personal workspace for reviewing and | | | | point 1) but also because we advise you to always be |
| practicing and/or online classes. Indeed, as efficient as | | | | close to your student, even - I should rather say |
| time with the tutor or the other students can be, we do | | | | "especially"- if he attends a pure e-learning training. |
| believe that a successful learning process should allow | | | | E-learning must always be close-learning, that's the key |
| (or impose) a time per week for personal work and to | | | | to success. However, to successfully respond to the |
| support this we do believe that e-learning - as (not) | | | | needs of your students in a modern way of life (and |
| presented in this article - is the best support. | | | | work), it's a good thing to propose a pure |
| 2. E-learning is not (always) multimedia-learning or | | | | distance-learning service: your e-learning becomes the |
| interactive-learning, but it should be! E-learning - or more | | | | main (or the only) interface of this training, thanks to |
| exactly "old e-learning"- can be as boring as a classic | | | | the workspace but also and especially thanks to a |
| paper support (books and so on): indeed, what is the | | | | video conference system to support the classes. For |
| interest of giving a quiz with questions and answers on | | | | these cases, you have to keep in mind two key points: |
| an e-learning platform if it looks like the one on paper? | | | | - for a long distance training, it's especially |
| For sure, this online quiz will be accessible from | | | | recommended to respect a blended-learning process |
| anywhere thanks to the Internet and the correction will | | | | (by mixing online classes with phone classes for |
| be available immediately without waiting for the tutor to | | | | instance...) |
| do his job of correcting it. But that's the way one may | | | | - the video conference system must be available from |
| have defined and supported e-learning ten years ago! | | | | your e-learning platform and with a share-screen |
| And it's not enough because nowadays everyone | | | | (possibility for both tutor and student to interact on the |
| knows that in the balance these two real advantages | | | | same document) to keep the process as simple and |
| may weigh less than the obstacle that the electronic | | | | interactive as possible. |
| interface can represent for a lot of students. E-learning | | | | I hope that after reading this article you will agree with |
| is more than accessibility and availability: it must also be | | | | the fact that e-learning is not a revolution, and neither is |
| interactivity. Add MP3, videos, pictures... to your | | | | it a useless extra, but a real "plus". In my opinion, that's |
| exercises; communicate with the student from the | | | | the paradox of e-learning: it was introduced as the |
| correction of his exercises... let the students interact | | | | modern miracle to change everything in the teaching |
| together by sharing interesting multimedia content they | | | | world but we never gave it the chance to reach these |
| encounter in their daily lives... E-learning should be more | | | | too great and unrealistic expectations. And - what a |
| than the two dimensions of a sheet of paper: it | | | | surprise!- it failed in this revolution, so much so that it |
| depends on you to create as many dimensions as you | | | | can sometimes be considered as the bad word I was |
| want! (NB: but keep it simple, that's the basis!). | | | | speaking about at the beginning of this article. |
| 3. E-learning is not self-learning, or it shouldn't be (ever)! | | | | So yes, human relationships are the key point of any |
| Either as the core or as an extra of the training (the | | | | learning process (or prove me wrong!). |
| two extreme cases), e-learning is - unfortunately - | | | | And yes, if we keep this in mind, a smart electronic |
| often presented as a purely electronic way to learn: | | | | system can successfully support and even improve |
| the student faces a computer, alone with himself, his | | | | this learning process. |
| bravery and his motivation. Considered as a simple | | | | |