Book review
Getting the Most from Online Learning
Pfieffer, August 2003
Author: George M. Piskurich
Review by John Helmer,Epic Group plc
In the plethora of books that have appeared over the last
few years on the subject of e-learning, the learner has often
seemed like something of an afterthought. There has been much
discussion of the change process organisations need to go
through to make themselves 'e-learning ready', but relatively
little about the undoubted challenges that learners themselves
face in acclimatising to this new learning medium.
So this work, a companion volume to 'Preparing Learners for
E-learning' (reviewed in Epic
Thinking July 2003) fills a clear gap in the market.
Following on where the previous work left off - literally:
the last chapter of 'Preparing Learners for E-Learning, recording
the reactions of e-learners themselves, forms the basis of
the first chapter here - this book covers similar ground,
but from a learner's point of view. And editorially, it has
a similar format, with chapters contributed by a variety of
authors, under the over all editorship of George M. Piskurich.
This format, which avoids the limitation inherent in sole
authorship, given the tendency of this particular subject
area to sprawl somewhat, allows the book to cover a lot of
ground. We have chapters on everything from asynchronous to
synchronous forms of learning, from virtual classroom to chat,
from self-directed learning to learning as a group.
However, the very uniqueness of the endeavour makes the size
of its authors' achievement in doing this a little difficult
to measure. What do you compare it against? Perhaps this was
also a problem for the writers. I find it hard to picture
an ideal reader for this book, and much of the advice seems
of a very general nature to me. Not to put too fine a point
on it, far too much time is spent stating the blindingly obvious.
Learners have two main problems in getting to grips with
e-learning, we are told early on: making sure they are ready
technologically for e-learning, and making sure they are ready
for self-directed learning. According to Lucy M. and Paul
J Guglielmino's piece, 'the former is usually quickly mastered
and very seldom reduces e-learning completion rates'. Logically,
therefore, one would expect more attention to focus on the
latter. It is a little disappointing therefore to find so
much of the book taken up with technical information of an
extremely rudimetary kind such as, 'make sure you are familiar
with using a mouse'.
Concrete, practical advice of the sort given in Bill Knapp's
chapter on 'How to Prepare to Attend a Synchronous E-Learning
Course' is undoubtedly useful. As someone who has experienced
- on both Centra and Interwise - the extreme psychological
disorientation produced by one's first encounter with the
'virtual classroom', I can attest to the number of minor technical
difficulties one ought to prepare for.
And it is uncontestably true that many potential users of
e-learning will have a very low level of computer knowledge.
I admit that I am not in the target market. The read-my-lips
style used here, patronising as it might sound to my ears,
could well be a godsend to someone who wants to learn online,
but who feels less than comfortable with techno-speak and
isn't familiar with computers.
However there are times when the obviousness of the advice
here breaks through to a new dimension of banality, and where
a simple thing is explained with such braindead ponderousness
that it eludes meaning altogether, beginning to resemble one
of the more arcane proofs from string theory:
'Visualize the content by using the visuals and animation
as a guide and starting point for your own visualization of
the subject-matter expert's or designer's illustration'.
A bottle of Tizer to any reader who can tell me what that
means.
Then again, the advice we do get on the subject of becoming
a self-directed learner is couched in the rather fluffy and
self-consciously 'motivational' language familiar to readers
of self-help literature:
'When problems and barriers occur, do I feel overburdened
or defeated, or do I remind myself that overcoming obstacles
is just a natural part of the learning process and quickly
begin to mentally play with ways of meeting the challenge
and accomplishing my learning goal?'
So okay, US business prose is a soft target - but this sort
of stuff, which seems intended to not-so-subtly suggest to
any new e-learner that if they don't like what they are getting
then the problem is probably with them (rather than being
just another case of bad instructional design) patently will
not wash.
A gauntlet is thrown down early on in this book - 'successful
e-learning requires a high commitment and drive, as well as
acceptance of responsibility to work alone' - which the rest
of the volume fails to pick up. That quote says it all: the
problem, as far as organisational learning is concerned, lies
with culture and motivation.
In the UK, at least, these questions are being seriously
addressed by the learning community. Learner support is a
burning issue, as are the marketing, evaluation and assessment
of learning within organisations. Blended learning is more
or less tacitly accepted by all as being the way forward (tellingly,
blended learning doesn't get a single mention here).
So if you are the head of learning and development for (let's
take a random example) a chain of northern retail outlets,
this is probably not the book you will want to give to your
learners to fire them up with the potential of e-learning.
And for me its shortcomings are not just about the cultural
differences between here and the US.
The real problem is that the debate has moved on.
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