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E-learning News and More

Issue # 012002

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This issue of Competence News contains:

• Editorial - E-learning or E-litter?
• Article - Learning Management Systems - What are they?
• Column - Ask the Experts - Where does Learning Management fit with Enterprise Priorities?
• Controversy - Enron's Retirement Funds - Where's the money and who is responsible?
• Contact Us

e-learn·ing n. Learning that is assisted by using computer and information technology as a tool to help transfer knowledge.

Visit our sponsor — Competence Software, Inc. Over 500,000 e-learning courses in Finance, Investing and Computers delivered to individuals and corporations large and small. Our online training tutorials (also known as "e-Learning") can train virtually anyone to be competent in these three areas:

• Understanding Computers — the basics of computer technology
• Financial Competence — the basics of business finance
• Investment Competence — the basics of investing

Editorial - E-learning or E-litter?

by Larry Byrnes, Editor

Research firm IDC, says the e-learning market will grow from $2.3 billion in 2000 to $14.7 billion by 2004. Worldwide, the market will exceed $23 billion. Growth thus far has been driven by the high cost of travel and time away from the job. According to IDC, that growth is now being accelerated by a weak economy and travel restrictions in the wake of 9-11.

OK guys and girls - where is this money being spent? What results are we getting for our billions? Huge sums are being spent on "Learning Management Systems" which match up an inventory of employees with an inventory of courses needed so that vital skills are mastered. There are dozens of such systems. Before dot crash there were hundreds. But where's the beef?

Learning is all about duplication for application. The result you want is A-C-T-I-O-N. And, as a result of that action, a positive, observable change.

Question - What benefits a corporation if it spends millions on learning management systems without at the same time insisting that knowledge gets transferred so that the knowledge may be applied to bring about a desirable result?

Answer - very little.

The objective of all learning must be to get the student to apply knowledge (application obviously implies action) and bring about a competent result. This applies to learning how to ride a bike as well as learning how to conquer gravity and put a human being in orbit.

Jack Welch, legendary CEO of General Electric Company (under whom I received my initial business learning experience more years ago than I care to mention) put it very well at a recent tech learning conference where he was interviewed by Elliot Massie.

"That, in essence, is if GE had one secret, it opened its boundaries to learning from anywhere. Ideas are fleeting, but an organization's thirst to learn and to share that learning - and then not just to let it lie there but to act on it is absolutely critical... The company's only competitive sustaining value is its ability to learn, to share that learning and to act on that learning." - Jack Welch retired CEO General Electric.

http://www.techlearn.net/intranet2001/results/sessions/299/jackwelchtranscript.htm

Technology and the internet give us one major breakthrough resource - the ability to duplicate material and distribute that material rapidly and accurately. Technology facilitates distribution and presentation. It is a communication system. As such, it has great value. But it is not knowledge. It is the vehicle not the driver.

The emphasis today, in terms of expenditures of money and manpower allocation, is on designing and building learning management systems. This is the vital infrastructure needed to distribute educational material that can be duplicated and applied.

However, the ultimate success of the e-learning evolution will be determined by the quality of material input into these systems and the results brought about in the real world by distributing that material to students who learn for the purpose of applying.

So how do you measure quality? By tracking test scores and neatly filing them in the database of a multi million dollar learning system? I am afraid not.

The ultimate measurement is simple - can the student apply the material and bring about a desirable result. Can the child ride a bike? Can the astronaut navigate to the moon and beyond? And in the case of a business education - can the businessmen build a profitable expanding company and, together with his peers, build a sustainable affluence in the world economy?

So what is our grade as businessmen over the last year? How about our business schools - how do they rate on this basis? Don't ask the 401(k) participants at Enron. You'll have a riot on your hands. Jack Welch and GE passed with flying colors. Well done to Elliot Masie for interviewing him and publishing Jack's insight and straightforward recommendations.

The challenge technology faces when applied to learning is to steer the course towards measuring a demonstrable and provable result and avoid the shoals of implementing technology for technology's sake. Let's insist that the material that is input into any e-learning system delivers and measures an ability in the student to apply the material to a positive result.

And where do we get the resources to help on the input? Well one source is trainers who have been doing "standup" work successfully for years. Can we get these trainers to adopt this technology and make it improve their results? Let's ask them. Hey you trainers out there - send us your successes in applying e-learning to multiply and improve your results. We'll publish them and make you famous! No kidding, I really would love to see some feedback. I'll bet thousands of our readers would as well. Send me your story at mailto: [email protected].

Stay tuned for some success stories in using e-learning to achieve measurable positive results in future issues of the Competence News. They do exist. Until the next issue of Competence News™ - all the best!

Visit our sponsor — financialcompetence.com — provides a thorough understanding of the basics of business finance.

Article - Learning Management Systems - What are they?

This learning management phenomenon is not really difficult to understand. Of course we can get very high tech, very complex and very, very sophisticated but here are the basics:

learn·ing n.1. The act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skill. 2. Knowledge or skill gained through schooling or study

man·age·ment n.The act, manner, or practice of managing; handling, supervision, or control: management of a crisis; management of factory workers

sys·tem n.A group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a complex whole

The need:

Any enterprise has a product to get out or a service to deliver. Each employee in the enterprise needs to follow certain procedures in order to execute the basic functions of any business:

• Procure and train employees
• Establish and maintain facilities
• Promote a product or service
• Close orders for the product or service
• Collect and bank the money
• Spend less than is collected
• Build and ship the product or perform the service
• Make sure clients get what they ordered and paid for
• Correct things that go wrong
• Get the satisfied clients telling their friends and sending people your way
• Managing, coordinating and directing all these various activities

The training challenge:

Each of these activities require the application of certain skills. These skills can be listed out in great detail for any company and entered into a database.

The employees perform these activities with varying degrees of competence. To the extent that employees cannot perform the needed tasks at an acceptable level of quantity and quality, we have a skills gap. Existing skill level of employees can be entered into a data base. Skills gap data can be entered into the same database.

Quality training material AND THE ABILITY TO DELIVER the training material must exist for each of these vital activities if one expects the needed skills to be available in the employees. A detailed list of courses and training materials can be entered into a database along with data on the resources needed to deliver the courses to the students.

So let's get all this data into a computer, which is a very good tool for handling databases.

We put the computer to work and match up the list of employees who need more skills with the course material that they need to master in order to gain those skills.

Now let's let the computer help schedule delivery of the materials.

We have the computer help us schedule the training. Increasingly, this training is becoming a blend of instructor lead training (with live classrooms or via video conferencing technology) and self-paced, self-administered computer based training.

Now let's notify the students who need to do the training that they have been scheduled for course. Send them an email, nudge them a few times repeating the time and date and get them arrived for course or started at their own desk on a computer-based course that resides on a central computer.

Let's record their enrollment on the central computer, track their progress through the course, note any test results and upon successful completion of the course, have the computer print out a nice certificate and send it to the course graduate.

Let's then gather data on the results - can the employee now apply the data and bring about a product that helps forward the vital functions listed above.

Let's enter that data into the computer and use the data to improve the whole line up - skills needed, skills gap assessment, course inventory, course scheduling, quality of delivery, relevancy of testing, and, of course results - can the student apply what was learned to a beneficial result.

Now let's tie this all together into a smooth running system and make it real simple for anyone to understand and manage and develop simple standards that anyone can understand. In particular, let's make it easy for those invaluable educators who know how to transfer knowledge so that they can integrate their courses easily.

We will have a Learning Management System par excellence!

Does any one know of a Learning Management System that does all this? Let us know and we'll inform all our readers.

Mary Lou DeWynGaeert, VP Development
Competence Software, Inc.

Visit our sponsor — Software Shelf International — providing software tools that help the network administrator operate more effectively.

Column - Ask the Experts - Where does Learning Management fit with Enterprise Priorities?

by Dan Feeley, President, Software Shelf International

Q. Dan, your company is a leader in supplying software tools that help Network Administrators in large organizations operate more effectively and economically. What demand do you see for Learning Management Systems?

A. We have seen little direct demand for learning management systems with our public. However, we believe that this is an area where the flood gates are about to open and we are closely monitoring the progress of these systems so that we will be in a position to help Network Administrators handle the inevitable load on their enterprise systems.

Q. What are the current priorities of Network Administrators - what are they buying these days?

A. The events of 9/11 have made Information Technology professionals very security and disaster recovery conscious. Consequently we see an increasing demand for software products that protect corporate networks from cyber attacks - viruses, hacker attacks and the like. Right along with this comes a demand for disaster recovery products that automatically back up the vital data on networks so that if a network becomes disabled for any reason, the administrator can recover the data and reestablish his vital information technology functions relatively quickly. Following these two in priority are software tools that enhance system performance and help control costs across large networks.

Q. What solutions does Software Shelf provide to address these issues?

A. We distribute many software tools but, at the risk of sounding commercial, I can mention a few of our most demanded products. Addressing the security issue we have Stat and Stat Neutralizer which is a security system developed for and used by the US Government and the Federal Aviation Administration to protect against all forms of cyber attacks. To boost performance we distribute Diskeeper® from Executive Software which has been shown to increase performance of workstations on networks 300-500%. And we have our own line of products including Print Manager Plus, which helps control the cost of printing across networks.

Q. Printing costs - is this really an important issue?

A. Have you ever printed a large document, seen one mistake and then reprinted the whole document? Or perhaps printed a large job, did not pick it up right away and then, when you went to get it from the printer, found that someone had moved it and so you reprinted the whole job? Lots of people do this. It adds up to a very large paper, toner and ink cartridge expense as well as wear and tear on the printer. This is perhaps that last major area of uncontrolled Information technology expense.

Q. How do you see Software Shelf addressing the needs of those who will be saddled with the job of maintaining large e-learning networks?

A. Well, all the tools I have mentioned will certainly be vital for Learning Management Systems administrators, Security, disaster recovery, workstation and network performance. One of the major challenges we face in this industry is to get information technology professionals to communicate so that they are understood. I am referring here to the "technobabble" barrier. We also distribute products like "Understanding Computers" which is an excellent tool to improve computer literacy. It handles a large % of the basic information technology questions that deluge network admins and help desks daily. It can save the network admin large amounts of time and expense in addition to alleviating the frustration and impatience one gets from answering the same questions from computer "newbies".

Q. Where can someone get up to date vital information on network administrator priorities and the solutions that address these priorities.

A. There are many excellent publications available on the web today - that can be a problem as there is so much information that one can easily go into overload. Of course I recommend subscribing to EnterpriseWire, which is relied on my many information technology professionals for vital data on technology developments effecting corporate budgets and priority issues.

Controversy - Enron's Retirement Funds - Where's the money and who is responsible?

Introducing a classic case of closing the barn door after the horse has gone! And an obvious candidate for e-learning.

Check this news item from USA Today:

"WASHINGTON - The White House moved to get ahead of the growing Enron controversy as President Bush ordered a review of rules for retirement funds in the wake of the bankruptcy of Enron, the energy trading giant that collapsed after overstating earnings.

Enron employees lost millions in retirement savings, highlighting a growing concern that workers' 401(k) accounts are too heavily invested in their employers' stocks.

Regarding pension laws, Bush said the Treasury and Commerce departments would study them "to make sure that people are not exposed to losing their life savings as a result of a bankruptcy."…

Enron's failure hit employees and investors hard. Workers were prohibited from selling company stock from their 401(k) accounts as its price plummeted. Executives cashed out more than $1 billion in stock when it was near its peak."

Could this have been prevented?

You bet!

But it would have to start with education. The best defense against a disaster of this type is competence. Competence starts with a thorough training in the basics. In the Enron case, employees should have received basic business finance and investment training.

It looks like the executives of Enron could have used this training as well. Perhaps more importantly from the data that is now coming to light, this training should have been preceded by a thorough course in ethics.

Years ago when Ted Benna of Pennsylvania fathered the idea of tax incentives for retirement planning and fathered the 401 (k) section of the IRS code that provides these incentives, he envisioned that corporations would also take responsibility to protect their employees interests.

We once attended one of Ted's seminars where he recommended that employers not only inform their employees of risk but also provide employees some basic investment training. Additionally, he recommended some specific steps that corporate executives should take to document their actions to exercise their fiduciary responsibility. He mentioned that these actions may come in handy some day in a litigious society. How's that for an accurate prediction! For information on Ted's seminars, go to http://401kassociation.com/

No doubt the regulators will now be out in force and with them will come the need for even more education.

E-learning planners take note!

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