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Online Learning

Anaheim, September 2002
Report by Lars Hyland, Key Accounts Director, Epic Group plc

Integration, performance, collaboration

The Online Learning conference and expo in Anaheim, Los Angeles, is billed as the largest gathering of learning technology professionals in the world. As usual, the number and variety of sessions available on the conference programme was dizzying this year. The main themes were the move towards enterprise learning solutions (particularly popular with vendors) and the need to establish performance improvement as the core objective of any learning intervention.

There was also a rallying call to take a wider view, a more holistic approach encompassing all available delivery channels - technology or otherwise. In particular, the social side of learning came to the fore, highlighting the fact that simple solutions designed carefully around the people in the workplace can have a dramatic effect on productivity.

As a general rule, the US approach to e-learning tends to give more emphasis to an enterprise-wide LMS-driven view of the world than here in Europe, where the focus is more on content and implementation. The overriding impression left by the conference this year was that Europe (in particular the UK and Scandinavian countries) should not feel it has to continue to take its lead from the US. In fact, we believe the more interesting e-learning design work and implementation is happening closer to home.

What follows are edited highlights from the various sessions we attended.

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