Book review
Blended elearning: Integrating Knowledge, Performance Support and Online learning
Human Resource Development, October 2002 (355pp)
Authors: Larry Bielawski, David Metcalfe
Review by Donald Clark - Epic
Blended learning has variously been described
as a saviour, what we've been doing all along, turning back
the clock - even as an empty vessel. But in practice, little
serious thought has gone into the theory of blended learning.
There is a tendency to go with gut feel and take face-to-face
training, e-learning and other delivery mechanisms, then stick them
together with Velcro.
The good news is that a slew of books on 'blended'
have appeared that attempt to put some shape into the concept.
Blended eLearning by Bielawski and Metcalfe takes a very specific
line. In short, their recommended blend is:
- e-learning
- knowledge managment
- performance support
The good news is that this is sound theory and practice.
The training world is in danger of limiting the implementation
of blends to the traditional delivery mechanisms of the classroom,
online learning, workbooks and coaching. Many of the current
implementations of blended learning turn out to be crude 'oil
and water' mixtures of e-learning and the classroom. It is
heartening to see the authors of this book looking beyond
the boundaries of training departments and HR into knowledge
management and performance support.
The bad news is that they don't go far enough.
Bleeding e-learning into corporate communications, workplace
learning, marketing, customer learning, searches on the web
and the real world, offers lots of scope for exciting new
approaches to blended learning. Learners blend anyway. They'll
learn through lots of different encounters in the classroom,
on the web, in the workplace, watching TV, reading a book
etc. Playing to these natural behaviours was always going
to be successful. The danger was in being too 'single channel'
in focus. Note that the main culprit here is classroom delivery,
still by far the most unblended solution in training. E-learning
practitioners are also guilty. However, I'm not sure that
anyone ever believed that the classroom or e-learning was
a single solution to any learning problem.
The first chapter sets the scene with an overview of the
e-learning industry. Here we see the usual IDC data, but you
get the feeling that this is already out of date. However,
the general points are sound. Chapters two and three then
lay out the basics on performance support and knowledge management
in a credible fashion.
Having set out the theory in these opening chapters, chapters
four, five, six and seven move into integrated solutions,
systems design, case studies, best practice, analysis, profiling
and change. I wasn't wholly convinced by the case studies,
which are largely from huge companies such as IBM, BAE, Northrop
Grumman and others. Their approaches, at times, seemed far
from innovative.
It was in chapter eight that things got strange. There is
still an uncritical loyalty to the LMS found in much of this
book, which in chapter eight shifts to the LCMS. This is a
little odd, as much of the theory points away from these restricted
solutions. Luckily, chapter 10 opens up into a broad canvas
on blends. There is a good essay on 'Achieving Success in
Blended Learning' that has been taken from another source.
Chapters one, 12 and 13 are the weakest in the book, dealing
with authoring, e-books, wireless and mobile applications.
Here the personal obsessions of the authors come to the fore.
I found myself speed-reading through these chapters, although
the final chapter, on resources, contains some useful sources.
If the book has one over-riding fault it is in being at times
a little simplistic. There is also has a tendency to throw
in topics (such as twenty pages on e-books) without much justification
from the core argument. Indeed, the best material in the book
is the content that the authors have cut and pasted in from
other sources. There are some excellent (acknowledged) articles
that suddenly appear in the middle of chapters, on the implementation
of e-learning and other thoughts on blended learning. I found
myself bookmarking almost all of these.
At 350 pages, this book would have benefited from some editing.
However, it is the first and credible attempt to move the blended
learning debate beyond the training bubble into other spheres of
influence. Well worth buying, well worth reading, but skip the bits
you find irrelevant - another type of blended learning!
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