LA 059: e-Learning is dead! Why We Need to Flip The Corporate Classroom Now!

Beyond Blended Learning, today's leading organisations are flipping the corporate classroom. Are you going to be sidelined? Let's throw up some startling statistics. [caption id="attachment_38738" align="alignright" width="300"] Preferred format for learning in the Henley Business School 2016 Survey[/caption] The Henley Business School Corporate Learning Survey in 2016 shows that: Desire for online only executive development remains very low at less than 12% Desire for project-based l&D stays steady at 33%, similar to experiential programmes at 29% Blended learning is gaining in popularity up to 43% whilst in-classroom workshops are also gaining up to 45%. With coaching showing the strongest popularity at 66%. So why are so many corporate adding more online only programmes in a bid to save money at the expense that learners will continue to dislike it as a method? 62% corporates plan to offer online learning in 2017. Meantime, of technology assisted learning that is used, 67% are accessing via a mobile device! According to LinkedIn's 2017 Workplace Learning Report. Worldhub Learning looked at trends in 2015 showing that Australian companies at least were balancing face to face, online and on the job training noting that at least 70% of l&d involved some face to face development. Corporate Learning Strategy Trends in 2015 - World Learning Hub The CIPD in 2015 noted the trend towards more in-house programmes with significant growth in the use of in-house coaching, eLearning and on the job training. Organisations see that coaching (in-house) mentoring and buddy schemes together with on the job training and increased use of mobile learning in particular, in a blended format with face to face training will dominate as the most effective methods. So the demand for blended learning continues to increase, but will this be developed entirely in-house? If you are in the business of delivering face to face training and are neglecting the use of technology you are soon going to find yourself hunting for ever smaller scraps of work. Even the lucrative speaking business is taking a major hit with a major drop in demand for external conferences and events. So why the hype and massive investment in something that appears to be less than popular? It helps to consider a brief history of how we got here. [caption id="attachment_38744" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Technology that supports learning is evolving at an ever increasing rate and organisations are quick to adopt new tech as it becomes available. Nowadays, the choice of tech is massive and confusing and not always what learners want to use.[/caption] Back in the late 80’s and early 1990’s, the very early days of computer-based training  (CBT) as it was known then, perhaps it was the novelty that made people excited to use and complete CBT courses. CBT had been around since the 60’s but very few people had their own computer and CBT was taken in classes or computer rooms with a technology teacher around who would help out when needed. Meantime, The Open University in the UK teamed up with the BBC and started broadcasting courses on TV and radio in 1971 and distance learning took off enabling students from anywhere in the world to study for a degree at home. The 80’s saw the dawn of the first Mac and the IBM PC. People began to buy and use a PC at work and at home first with Visicalc then Lotus 123. Finally, non-technically minded people could use and benefit from this technology. Everyone got very excited about how books would be replaced by computer books and the universities began to take Arpanet (the forerunner to the Internet) seriously for collaborative research. Then in August 1991 the real opportunity for what we now know as eLearning, began. Yes, Bryan Adams was top of the Billboard charts but perhaps, more importantly, the World Wide Web was open to the public. Email began to take off and CBT became eLearning in 1999. The first course delivered over the Web came from Penn