Thread:Four of the eLearning guidelines and why they are important in my organisation (from Alex) (1)

Hi everyone,

My response to our activity around the eLearning guidelines - I found ths to be a quite good reflective/evaluative process in itself!

1.1	Teaching staff/Learning design TD1: Is the use of eLearning the best way to achieve the intended learning outcomes?

This is often a battle for me as an instructional designer as many of our management prefer to ‘throw’ some eLearning at their people to solve an issue. It takes effort and persistence to convince them to do otherwise as all they see is the cost and time savings associated with it rather than the needs of the learner or the best way to achieve the learning outcomes.

1.2	Teaching staff/Other support TO2: Are staff provided with the opportunities to learn online so they experience eLearning from a student’s perspective?

Apart from myself, none of our training staff have engaged in professional development around eLearning. Therefore they have a very limited sphere in which they work and are not fully abreast of best practice methodology.

2.1 Managers/Learning Design MD4: Do stakeholders such as employers, students, teaching staff, library and other support staff have opportunities to give feedback on the eLearning and to be involved in the development and review of the learning outcomes?

We have a very robust design process where we engage subject matter experts from early on in a project and have representation from all affected business units plus pilot groups within that process. This is essential to ensure we are not waiting time or money during the delivery phase.

2.1 Managers/Learning Design MD6: Does the institution value the work of eLearning innovators by supporting, celebrating and disseminating their work?

Not at this stage, they are simply not aware of the true potential eLearning holds for an organisation such as ours. It’s our job as L&D professionals to communicate and champion such innovation.

Comment welcom!

Cheers, Alex