The Practicality of Online Learning

As I suggested almost ten years ago in the book "The Future of Learning: Insights and Innovations from Executive Development”, education has experienced its biggest shift in millennia over the past few years, moving away from the paradigm of a teacher at the front of a classroom imparting their knowledge and being the ‘sage on the stage’.  Facilitation of learning, or the ‘guide on the side’ is how executive education tends to aim at try and make the learning stick, and with the advent of social technologies, there has, of course, been a big shift towards the ‘crowd in the cloud’ where the barriers to imparting knowledge have crumbled and individuals learn from each other, where anyone can set themselves up as an expert and help others on subjects ranging from strategy and corporate responsibility to maths and mentoring.

An important feature of all these learning delivery methodologies (or ‘teaching’) is that they revolve around ‘knowledge’.  Knowledge, of course, is essential, but one doesn’t need a teacher to acquire the knowledge - one can sit quietly with a textbook or one’s favourite websites and read the knowledge.  The way people used to.

What none of these methods are really good at doing is teaching ‘skills’ - both soft skills and hard skills.   They can teach you the theories about teamwork, or influencing skills. You can learn everything about leadership that has ever been written and expose you to great political and business leaders who can explain their own theories on what made them great.  But it is still knowledge.  Knowing the knowledge does not mean you will know how to use it. 

They can teach you the principles of creating a Net Present Value for an investment or developing a strategy for expanding markets, but things would still simply remain theory, with the only practical side being case studies of successful, or unsuccessful situations that other firms have experienced in the past.  With the world of business changing at the pace it is, where some estimates suggest that up to 85% of the jobs in 2030 do not yet exist, reading about the past is not always going to be relevant for the future and the knowledge of a dozen PhD theses will not help a manager actually manage better until they have seen what works when, how and why.

Hult International Business School’s mission is to be the most relevant business school in the world, and there have been many discussions on what ‘relevance’ means.  On the undergraduate program this means preparing students for their future careers, by not just teaching theories and business frameworks (which they do need to know) but, more importantly, giving them a practical experience of applying the knowledge they learn in real-life business challenges with clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 brands such as Unilever, Amazon, Ferrari, McLaren, Virgin, UBS and Micron.  What this does is convert the knowledge into skills, the skill of analysing a client’s problem, researching the organisation, the environment and the competition, recommending solutions, delivering those recommendations and thinking about stakeholder management throughout.

Online learning, as we all know, can be an excellent way of transmitting knowledge.  The textbooks of the past can be read online, of course, but the larger publishers have, for a long time, provided an online environment accessible to purchasers of the textbook, where students can go through quizzes and simple games to test their understanding of the materials.

Transmitting lectures online is not new – the Open University in the UK made high-level knowledge on a wide range of subjects available to the entire population by filming academics, predominantly with bushy beards and woolly jumpers (starting, as they did, in 1971), and broadcasting the lectures on the BBC.  Move on almost fifty years and everyone is able to record anything on their phone and post it on YouTube, from lectures on quantum physics from the world’s top universities, to individuals explaining how to calculate a Net Present Value, or use the business model canvas, or change the inner tube on a bicycle.  Once again, however, whilst very useful, this is all about transmitting and imparting knowledge.  But how do we teach skills through online learning?

The acquisition of skills, of course, can only come through practical experience.  It is one thing to know how a piano works, but it takes practice to play it well, converting the knowledge into a skill.

And so it is with all relevant and practical learning – creating opportunities for the student to practice the knowledge they have learned and, in so doing, acquire the skill.

The worldwide web has revolutionised our lives by giving everyone instant access to the world’s knowledge from their mobile phone.  Delivery of that knowledge is through text, pictures, audio and video.  The knowledge can be tested through online quizzes or online submissions (such as reports or videos) can be assessed by peers around the world, showing how the ‘crowd in the cloud’ can be both teacher and student at the same time. 

The challenge for online learning, however, is how to provide the practice needed to turn the knowledge into skills.  How to ensure students are engaging online with a project the way you can be sure they do in the classroom, when they are face-to-face with the client and the mentor.  How to ensure everyone is listening to the brief – in short – how can you be sure that the student through online learning is paying attention and not, for example, on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WeChat or Twitter?  At least in the classroom you can walk around and see what everyone is up to.  And environments like MOOCs are great in theory but have a very low completion rate.  A challenge for educators everywhere is far more urgent for online educators: how to engage the disengaged?

The most common way to engage students in an online practical challenge is through a business simulation, where individuals or teams work on a ‘fake’ challenge and the ‘sim’ regularly gives feedback on their performance via the virtual stakeholders.  Simulations are great for practicing with new-found knowledge in a safe environment where the worst that happens is that you lose the ‘game’. There are no real clients to disappoint and no real cash to lose.  The best sims provide opportunities for blended learning, where the participants have an offline element, such as talking to investors to request funding, or presenting to a board.  This approach can work very well in small, local environments (such as at business school where all the students are in the same building) and whilst the meetings and presentations can take place through a virtual meeting tool such as Skype, GotoMeeting, Citrix or Zoom, it is again too easy for the underperformers to hide, quite literally, off camera.

All of the online media described above are very two-dimensional.  The ultimate goal of online learning is not to recreate the offline experience (mainstream education has also always struggled with the question of how to engage the disengaged and deliver practical learning experiences to scale) but find a consistent way to deliver both knowledge and skills to a large virtual audience and know that it has been received, acquired and absorbed by the students or participants.

Virtual worlds have been a promising opportunity for over 15 years but they have been the preserve of technology evangelists, geeks and early-adopters.  A very large percentage of millennial and Generation Z (such as one would find in an undergraduate student body) are surprisingly, shockingly, ill prepared for online interactions. There is a false but widely held belief that young adults are digital natives and therefore completely comfortable with all technology, when the reality is that many confine themselves to a small selection of apps on their mobile. They don’t necessarily know, for example, how to use Microsoft Office efficiently, or use the shortcuts that will help them use their laptops. They do not always know how to add an email address to their mobile phone and they have not all experienced virtual reality.

In summary, while online learning is a godsend to all of us to quickly clarify confusions and enable self-paced learning for the busy executives, empowers those far from a major seat of learning to experience the wisdom of the world’s greatest thinkers and allows the crowd in the cloud to share their expertise (we are all experts in something in our own little way), it faces the same problems the traditional educational systems have always faced.  Even when we get to the stage that we can implant a chip in our brains which instantly accesses all the knowledge in the world, we still need to learn how to use that knowledge and convert it into a skill. On a personal level, I cannot wait for the chip, and am fascinated to see how the educators of the future will focus on the practical.

           

When did the 'internet' become 'digital'?

The time has come, the walrus probably never said but was misquoted as saying, to think of other things.

However, rather than shoes and ships and sealing wax, I have began to think of the next stage in my career...and this has provoked a lot of questions for me that I thought might be useful to share:

When does a  job or work become a career?

Do 'kids' come out of university now with clear ideas about their 'career' (doctors, lawyers and accountants notwithstanding) - or do they get what looks like an interesting job and then see where that takes them? As some of my contemporaries can attest, it is easy to follow the dream - but when do you decide to abandon the dream (realising you're getting nowhere) and get a job that will pay the bills? Everyone has their own limit, depending on their dream, their pride, and the size of their bills.

  How many careers are you allowed to have previous to your current one?  


A headhunter recently told me that my twenties, when I had a 'portfolio career' of doing voiceovers for cartoons and sales videos, a radio programme, mis-managing local bands (mis-managing because I wasn't able to retire on the earnings), effectively running a small indie record label as well as doing some teaching and translating to make ends meet. What I hadn't realised until the kindly headhunter told me is that that was my 'first career' - which in retrospect of course it was. I was trying to have a life in 'music' and 'voice'... but music lead to the internet and what has now become my 'second career'.

How long do you have to be in the same line of work for it to become a career path?

Which is another way of asking:

Are you working in a particular function, or a particular sector? 

This is very much on my mind now, as I have been working in the internet for around 13 years - since the late nineties - covering all areas of the internet from technology selection, specification and design, user experience, e-commerce, online marketing, digital communications and online or virtual learning. So, which is more important, that I can work in any area of the internet, or that I have x years working in a particular sector?
This seems to be an important distinction in the minds of some recruiters.  They will see, for example, that I have spent the past 5 years in the education sector (sub-branch: executive education); and therefore assume that I am unable and incapable of working in, for example, the retail sector, or consumer electronics, or financial services.

Fundamentally the strategies one develops and the tools one uses on the internet, whether it is to sell, market, communicate, educate or collaborate, are the same.  It makes no difference whatsoever if you are selling a programme on leadership, a pair of jeans, an Android tablet or an insurance policy - you do the same things. As with any area of marketing and communicating, you have to think about your audience and change tactics accordingly.  With pharmaceuticals and accounting/auditing firms, for example, there are specific regulations as to what one is and is not allowed to do, but those regulations take all of half-an-hour to learn.

Furthermore, I have found that some firms are looking for a square-peg for a square hole, rather than a malleable peg that will fit any hole.  It is no good, for example, being in e-commerce if you do not understand user experience architecture.  It is no good, for example, trying to do online marketing if you do not understand social media.  And it is no good thinking about online learning without also thinking about how one communicates, how one uses the AIDA framework (for those that don't know, the steps that you must go through on a communications campaign:

• Awareness - make the target audience aware of what your message or product is
• Interest - get them interested in it
• Desire - make them want it
• Action - make sure they actually do something about it...

As I discussed in my post on Learning through Advertising and Porn a fundamental part of getting the learning to stick is using the same techniques that are used for advertising and pornography: getting the message across quickly (using advertising techniques) and making the user want to see said communication (porn - although please note that the world would be a better place without porn - this does not condone - but observes and notes its popularity).

And so to the title of this blog:

When did the 'internet' become 'digital'?

When I started creating and managing websites 13 years ago, everyone talked about the internet.  With the increase in various forms of communications through the same use of broadband (such as email marketing) we  began to refer to it all as online: as opposed to offline (using print or traditional broadcast media).

Now every single job I have seen advertised uses the word digital.  This is, no doubt, to cover the range of tools one must now employ online, from websites and email marketing, through to viral marketing, social media, virtual worlds and video conferencing and more.

Fundamentally, though, it all comes down to online stuff and y'know...the internet.  And it is shocking at the huge divide emerging between those who have just understood the need for an internet presence, and those who understand that to engage with anyone, be it customers, potential clients, suppliers, employees, management, unions or old media - one has to use the full range of digital tools available.  The sector doesn't mater.  The industry doesn't matter. 

All that matters is that you understand that all things are connected.  Understand that, and the rest follows naturally.

The death of business travel: the birth of virtual working

Virtual working has been around for many years now, with many people specialising in helping virtual or distance workers to keep connected, helping managers to manage virtually, and helping ensure virtual customers do not suffer from the lack of face-to-face contact.

I am lucky enough to work virtually on a regular basis, and it has its benefits and drawbacks.  It is easier to get things done without the distractions of the office, but the flip side of that same coin is that I can easily go a whole day without saying one word to anyone.

However, the question many have now been asking, is whether or not the problems travellers have experienced throughout Europe recently due to the Volcanic Ash Cloud will affect the way we do business in the future?

Many of us have rejoiced in the peace and quiet of not having planes screaming overhead when trying to enjoy the sunny outdoors.

Many of us have thought about how our lifestyle may revert to the 1950s, with air travel restricted to the very rich and the rest of us mere mortals enjoying the slower, quieter things in life, such as a train journey, or holidaying within our own country.  There are many areas of the UK I have not visited because, sad to say, it is cheaper to fly to Italy for the weekend, for example, than it is to get to the Lake District (quicker too!).

Despite the disruption to friends and colleagues over this period, and wary of the damage to business that the reduced (or removed option of) air travel might bring, it does also suggest a brave new world, stepping away from environmental catastrophe, stepping back from the relentless pace of modern business and leisure, and stepping smoothly over to a more intelligent way of doing things.

Back in the 1950s and since, business people travelled because they had to if they wanted to see their clients. The recent improvements in modern technology, with video conferencing, virtual seminars and virtual worlds allowing users to interact in every way except using touch (and that will surely come) provide the opportunity for technology companies to show what they're made of.  To show organisations of every size that you can save huge amounts of money by not travelling, but without losing those international clients.  To show individuals and organisations that you can trust someone online... not just face-to-face.

The only problem I see (and contrary to what Harold Jarche says) is that too many people have no idea what virtual worlds are, they don't concentrate on virtual seminars (because they carry on working on the computer) and they haven't properly tried video conferencing.  The majority of people I meet through business are not techies.  They don't use modern technology unless provided to them by their IT departments (despite having all the latest gadgets at home).  They certainly aren't 'power users'.

Consequently, there is a great opportunity here for both the tech. companies to provide the means for virtual working and virtual business; but also a great opportunity for those involved in training and education to help organisations embrace the new technology; to change their working methods and their mindset so that they understand the value of it in the same way they understand the value of a telephone.


The biggest opportunity of all is when you get the complete solution: new technology with coaching and change consultancy combined, to make sure the new stuff sticks.

The Future of Learning Conference... what did we learn?

The Future of Learning Conference has just finished at Ashridge Business School, in conjunction with the University of Cape Town's Graduate Business School and Mount Eliza Exec. Ed., from the Melbourne Business School.

So, lot's of business school and executive education people talking about the future of learning in the business school and executive education environment - including yours truly presenting on Classroom 2.0 - how Web 2.0 stuff can be (and is) used in learning in the exec. ed world.

The main issue we have with integrating more technology in Executive Education is that the participants are often only with us (the educators) for a week. They may come back for other week-long modules over an 18 month period, but that doesn't always happen.

And so many of the participants on courses are unaware of Web 2.0/Social Media and technology in general. Thems that know, know. Them's that don't, have no idea.

So one could set up brief induction sessions at the beginning of modules, but there is an issue of learning curves getting people using this stuff in such a short space of time that makes it far harder to introduce than in, say, an undergraduate programme where the students are with the institution for 3 years + at a time.

SecondLife is the biggest problem, once again. It's too unintuitive... I'm not sure how and when we'll be able to actually put participants in the space for their learning. Certainly, when we do try it it will be slowly and with very small reduced groups.

But there are other issues of technology that are equally unembraced in current executive education. Social networks - for example - through corporate intranet systems are sorely underused to map competency frameworks to individuals according to their annual appraisals, future development needs, the needs of the organisation and so on.

The sessions in the conference were all insightful and very interesting - some people, such as Ashridge, are already facilitating Virtual Action Learning and even run a course for others to learn how... but no one seems to be using virtual worlds in executive education and I'm still looking for someone who might.

There were two sessions that particularly stood out for me. Well, three...

First of all, a session summarising research that shows that 10% of audio teaching (i.e. hearing) is remembered, compared to 65% if there is some visual stimulation as well. So the idea of downloading podcasts to listen to in the car isn't as effective as, in theory, watching them on the computer.... although there's a big issue as to how the podcast is created. Talking heads won't stimulate anyone, but judicious use of good powerpoint slides (and video and other materials) might make it work. It seems the brain likes to receive the same information via different senses and mix it all together to make sense of it. Good to know... and it explains why I like 'visual' powerpoints (images, photos, big bold (not pastel) colours).

Secondly, a talk last night after dinner by Professor Kevin Warwick on the future of Cybernetics. He famously had a chip implanted in his arm in 2002 (was it?) becoming the first Cyborg and working on the way the human nerve system can interact with electricity. So, on the medical level, we can enable amputees to operate robotic prosthetics from their brain; and it shows how Parkinsons sufferers can already chips implanted in their brains that are able to counter the brain-freeze that seems to cause the shake-attacks of Parkinsons.

Of course the 'fun' part is the suggestion that one day we'll be able to operate everything from our brain with no need to physically handle a control. I'm sure the military have long been interested in this, but it opens the gates to 'telepathy' (or transmitting from brain to brain with no external output such as speech, text or eye contact); faster implementation of thoughts into actions (useful, I'm sure, for the military too, but maybe it will help us otherwise); and the idea of having chips in our brains that will hold all the information we need. No need to learn by rote, try and memorise and regurgitate in exams.

What education would then need to concentrate on (which some places already do) is cognition (understanding and interpreting the information); communication and relationships.

And if we all spent less time on learning information and more time on relationships, in the words of Sam Cooke: "What a wonderful world it will be!"

Finally, the first keynote session this morning by Robert Burke was about Futures Thinking. In short - everything is moving so quickly, how on earth will we know what to teach next? One of the quotes (which I'll probably misquote here) was that 40% of what technical students will learn at university now will be obsolete more or less by the time they finish their course. He also recommended the following video on Youtube which has some lovely stats to make you think: "Really? Oh shit!". I recommend it: Shift Happens

What I will love to see is how much technology is used by exec. ed institutions in the coming months and years. Next year's iteration of the conference should be interesting to see if there have been any major changes in that direction.