Corporate eLearning is underperforming. Common gaps between
actual performance and potential upside gains:
30% of employees told to attend mandatory in-house eLearning never
register. (65% invited to voluntary eLearning never sign in!)
At least 10% of eLearners drop out due to interruptions, e.g. the phone
call or cubicle conversation that pulls them away, never to return.
One in five eLearners hits a roadblock and gives up in frustration.
Many so-called "mentoring" systems are really email addresses.
That email may get answered once a day. If a learner is stymied, he
or she needs an answer right way, not a day later and not a form email
that may or may not answer the question.
Another one in five drops out because he or she does not see the relevance
to the job. In a time-obsessed world, there's no time to waste on irrelevancy.
Another 20% bail out because eLearning is not among their priorities.
Most often, this occurs when mangers fail to support learning (do it
on your own time) or senior management makes no commitment (let them
study at their desks).
Most of those who are left learn suboptimally. Lacking knowledge of
their personal learning style, how to perform content triage, effective
study habits, learning with others, keeping the goal in mind, and other
metacognitive skills, participants take away a small fraction of what
they might learn were this not the case.
Finally, the learner who makes it through this gauntlet may forget
what she has learned before cementing it in through application.
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Typical corporate eLearning today achieves only
9% of its potential.
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What to do
Presently, nine-tenths of the potential of eLearning performance gains
goes right down the tubes. Worse still, the nine out of ten who have a
bad experience with eLearning are unlikely to return for more. Dropping
out of eLearning is like dropping out of high school. The one bad experience
that sparked the dropping out creates a situation that downgrades the
experience of an entire lifetime. The human cost is enormous.
Second, organizations could be achieving many times more than they do.
As the capacity of human capital becomes the competitive differentiator
in this era of knowledge businesses, the organization that squanders 90%,
or even half, of its growth potential is not long for this world.
The application of meta-learning principles throughout a corporation's
learning programs can improve learning throughput at least five-fold.
Components of a meta-learning invention might include:
Helping learners improve their individual process of learning.
This big-picture approach would cover discovering how to assess "what's
in it for me," overcoming obstacles and interruptions, taking advantage
of one's own learning style, multiple paths to learning, the process
of mastery, social learning, teaching others, and so on. The goal is
self-empowered learners with the spirit to succeed.
Helping managers direct their subordinates' learning. As Peter
Henschel pointed out in LiNEzine,
"Bottom line: The manager's core work in this new economy is to
create and support a work environment that nurtures continuous learning.
Doing this well moves us closer to having an advantage in the never-ending
search for talent."
Helping developers apply more enlightened approaches, e.g. problem-based
instruction in lieu of telling-as-teaching; learning games; easy opt-outs;
etc.
Helping implementers improve the learning process through better
scheduling (to avoid the "forgetting curve" dropoff), true
blends of reality and instruction, and reinforcement that works.
Helping executive management conceptualize and buy into a more
scientific, progressive human capital management practices and strategy.
By cutting no-shows, overcoming roadblocks, eliminating sources of interruption,
raising the priority of learning, giving learners control of their own
learning process, improving learning-to-learn skills, decreasing knowledge
atrophy, building meaningful manager facilitation, and gaining senior
management support, Meta-Learning Lab can double the effectiveness of
most eLearning programs.
Meta-Learning technology can improve learning effectiveness
500%. |
The Meta-Learning Lab goes beyond lofty averages and saving abstract
millions of dollars. Our technology build stronger customer relationships,
boost sales force productivity, improve service, streamline procedures,
eradicate corporate fat, and create a nimble organization.
We are change agents. Our goal is to achieve the most benefit from application
of our beliefs and technology. Unlike consultants and service organizations
that seek to maximize billable hours, the Meta-Learning Lab prefers to
do as little as it takes for maximum gain.
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