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Effective e-learning helps to migrate people to rapid learning models, offers significant cost saving possibilities and additional revenue generation. So why are South African organisations not rushing to this medium of learning management and delivery?
According to the American Society for Training and Development, [in 2005] only 6% of training in South African organisations is done via e-learning compared with 29% in the USA. South African companies should be following this global trend, yet they are hampered by a litany of cultural, technical, and cost constraints.
The first problem is that South African companies are still largely trapped in the training paradigm. Our view of training requires us to have experts, classrooms and relatively passive learners. We don’t believe adults are mature enough to learn on their own.
Most of our training programmes continue with a memory model – expecting staff to learn complex information that will change in a few months. As the world moves faster, training departments simply speed up efforts to “velcro” information into already overloaded brains - despite average retention rates of less than 20%. Retraining has become the norm, not the exception.
Technology has long out-competed the brain in its ability to store information, and is increasingly making jobs redundant in operational, clerical, and even managerial roles where people need to follow defined processes. Yet, we still spend 80% of our corporate training efforts pursuing this memory model.
It is clear that our current learning approach needs a complete overhaul. We need to stop treating our brains like information storage warehouses and build intelligent technologies that take on this role. Companies should then empower their learners with the skills and support systems needed to access knowledge on demand. E-learning plays an important role in this regard, by introducing just-in-time learning and by teaching valuable lessons through simulation. It is an integral part of a total learning solution.
Sadly, most trainers still define e-learning in terms of pdf files, e-books and online assessments, and don’t have a vision of the intelligent learning experience it can provide. For instance, instead of holding endless management courses, e-learning technology can capture the logic of the processes, patterns and principles that we want learners to use. Creating a strategy without having to sit through a 3-day specialist course is then feasible. You simply review the key concepts, and then access the online tools that help you build an effective strategy. In this way, talented young people could fast-track their careers without having to go through an entire curriculum of management courses.
Technology is another major stumbling block to developing a South African e-learning culture. E-learning to date has been dominated by powerful, but technically demanding international tools that most local companies cannot support. The cost is often prohibitive – both in terms of the software itself and the highly specified machines required to support it.
Global e-learning software does not generally operate within the technical limitations presented in the developing world – a world of limited bandwidths, irregular connectivity, disparate technical platforms and low-spec hardware. This is complicated by the fact that training teams are often inexperienced in IT systems and are daunted by technical demands. South African companies would prefer to start slowly with e-learning technologies, and to scale up as they grow.
Lack of sufficient bandwidth in the developing world has been a particular stumbling block. Local organisations often need to deliver e-learning at under 30KB per click, which international products cannot provide. Given that branch offices are often connected via dial-up modem, many South African companies struggle to offer e-learning outside of the head office environment. Global technology is also incompatible with local HR and performance management platforms, battles to cope with diverse browser technology, and does not support legislative reporting requirements, such as NQF.
What is required is a Proudly South African solution – e-learning that is adapted to outdated hardware and software, restricted bandwidths and unstable network connections – at a cost that makes it viable for our local needs.
Currently local learning software is being developed specifically to resolve these challenges. This new software is highly configurable, scalable, and capable of delivering e-learning within complex technical environments. Such solutions can lower the barriers to entry for e-learning by enabling content rich and bandwidth light learning across geographically remote locations. (A major South African bank is already using satellite technology to take e-learning software to many different locations simultaneously.)
With technical barriers now being addressed, will e-learning finally take off in South Africa? The prognosis lies in corporate South Africa’s overall approach to learning. Are we ready to encourage true organisational learning, or will we remain forever trapped in the training room?
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