Book review
E-learning strategies: how to get implementation
and delivery right first time
John Wiley, May 2003
Author: Don Morrison
Review by Mark Harrison, Consultant, Epic Group plc
Don Morrison has taken on a tough task, namely to reflect
on the many trends and directions that e-learning is taking
whilst giving useful model for practical implementation. And
by and large he is equal to the challenge. The end result
is a valuable resource to dip into - however, if you are looking
for clear direction or some simple steps to follow, you may
be disappointed.
What Morrison does well in this book is to give you a sensible
and very well written tour of the issues you face when developing
and implementing any kind of e-learning strategy. Under the
loose structure of sections on the core principles (an 'E-learning
Primer', 'Learning Strategy', 'Implementation' and 'Delivery')
he draws together a range of ideas that should inform the
development of any modern learning strategy. Everything is
here from learning objects to knowledge management, from testing
to ROI.
Morrison is to be applauded for gathering together so many
sensible collections of things you should remember when implementing
technology-based solutions.
It works well as introduction to the main issues of e-learning
implementation. Even experienced practitioners will also find
value in the wealth of planning tools scattered throughout.
The book is worth purchasing just for his exhaustive LMS evaluation
checklist and his SWOT analyses on learners and senior managers.
Inevitably, however, given the scope of his endeavour, he
has to spread his insights fairly thinly. For many of the
topics, Morrison can only take quite a high level view of
the subject. For the average e-learning implementer there
are many more questions that need answering. How can the secrets
of instructional design, for instance, be adequately covered
in 20 pages? Where he does go into some detail, the result
is some highly useful references - as with the four case studies
from PwC, BP, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Dow Chemicals.
Maybe it's a question of timing (like all books in this
area it runs the risk of being out of date the moment it is
published) but its concentration on e-learning alone also
misses a trick or two. It suffers a little from a rather too
evangelistic a commitment to e-learning, Morrison's view being
that blended learning 'lacks the transformational power of
e-learning, satisfying itself with incremental change instead'.
Those readers who feel blended learning is the ultimate goal
(or at least close to it) and feel incremental change is a
more realistic strategy to deal with deep-seated models of
traditional learning, might be disappointed by this attitude.
Many organisations are looking to build 'blended learning'
strategies, not just 'e-learning' strategies, and it would
have been more useful if there was a broader remit within
the book.
Having said that, there are not many books that attempt
to fill this increasingly important space, so it is easy to
recommend it as essential reading. Everyone seems to be developing
or refining their overall learning strategies at the moment,
and if you are in this position then reading E-learning strategies
won't give you many ready-made answers - but it will certainly
give you the right questions to ask.
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