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E-learning the ropes
Companies turn to technology to train current, future employees
Before a newly hired leasing consultant for Post Properties sets foot on the grounds of the apartment community where he or she will work, there are two days of computer courses to give an overview of the business and the challenges ahead.
E-learning -- also known as technology-based learning or the delivery of content via electronic media, such as the Internet, intranets, audio/video recordings, interactive TV and CD-ROM -- has been growing in the workplace since the late 1990s.
"We incorporated courses from Grace Hill Inc. [a leading provider of online education for the multifamily housing industry] as part of our on-boarding process of new hires," said Lori Addicks, vice president of learning and development at Post Properties Inc. "Many of our entry-level leasing associates are fresh out of college. Sometimes they have had some residential-management background, but often they have not. This gives them an introduction to the business and market exercises. Because it's online, we're assured of the consistency of what they're learning."
New hires also learn about the company's structure and culture by taking an orientation program through the company's intranet.
Because Post operates in 10 markets, the company saves considerable time and travel expense by using e-learning.
"It enables us to spread some messages faster, more efficiently and with cost-efficiency," Addicks said.
E-learning is also highly compatible with the learning styles of new grads; they're used to reading, researching and communicating on the Internet.
Post provided its college interns with eight hours of training online before they reported to work last summer.
"They loved it, because they could do it on their own time and had a sense of what to expect from the internship. They told us they felt better-prepared and were able to form better questions," Addicks said.
Post Properties added e-learning to its training methods in 2005 and is implementing a learning management system that will allow the company to offer employees a larger of array of courses and to track their effectiveness.
"Our goal is to accelerate learning and get employees up to speed faster on the things they need to know [like fair housing laws], but it won't replace other kinds of learning," Addicks said.
After taking computer courses, new hires spend three days working one-on-one with trainers at their individual apartment communities.
"We see e-learning as a supplement, which makes the one-on-one training a richer experience. I'm a huge proponent of blended learning," Addicks said.
So is Suzie Price, principal of Priceless Professional Development, an Atlanta-based consulting firm.
"We may decide to offer online leadership training or sales training before we coach clients in the classroom -- sort of like you'd read the driver's manual before you learn to drive," she said. "We require clients to have scored 80 percent or better before they come to class. That way, we know they're coming with some baseline skills, and it makes class time more interactive and shorter. E-learning works well for teaching technical skills -- not so well for interpersonal skills -- so it's just a piece of our business."
Realizing potential
In the late 1990s, e-learning was touted as a way to reduce the labor-intensive, high cost of education, and venture capitalists began pouring money into companies that created e-learning products, said Paul Terlemezian, president of iFive Alliances, a consulting company that focuses on the training industry. He has been in the training business since 1973 and is president-elect of the American Society for Training and Development.
The hype was that e-learning would be faster, cheaper and better than traditional classroom learning. Technology companies wanted to create e-learning packages, and corporate training managers wanted to buy them, but the market wasn't quite there, Terlemezian explained. Neither the learner nor the technology was ready, and no one had looked at the impact of e-learning on the bottom line.
"Times have changed, and the dynamics have evolved," he said. "Look at how many people have access to computers now and how many workers have used them and the Internet practically their whole lives."
E-learning has created new occupations in the teaching field, such as technology course designers and instructors.
Shannon Crupi, who earned her degree in instructional technology in 1999 and is now online program manager for continuing education at Kennesaw State University, says that online learning has become more accepted.
"We have seen huge growth in our e-learning courses in the last few years. We offer many more courses for businesspeople and professional learning units for teachers, as well as personal-enrichment-type courses," Crupi said.
Corporations send workers to KSU's online offerings to learn technical skills, Microsoft Office, business writing, grant writing, Web page design, computer security and other skills. Continuing education at KSU had 1,800 online students in 2004 and 2,600 in 2006. Enrollments have exceeded 800 already this year.
The e-benefits
Crupi said that e-learning offers workers greater flexibility and convenience, that the cost is reasonable and that research shows online education to be effective.
"With so many online activities integrated into the workplace, from e-commerce to research to advertising, why wouldn't someone take a course online?" she said.
Especially since the technology and the necessary bandwidth are now in place to offer better learning experiences, Terlemezian said. "The very first e-learning was text, then we added sound, then pictures and, finally, video. But we're human, and we want to interact, not just read or watch or listen, so now there are live online courses where people interact and can affect what's going on."
New trends are merging e-learning course design with video gaming.
A 9-year-old can play a Web-based game in which he chooses the characters and their skills sets; creates his own character and capabilities; and then battles an enemy.
"Depending on whether he wins or loses, he reassesses his characters and skills and plays again," Terlemezian said. "At 9, he knows how to assemble a team and assess his strengths. We're starting to understand that people learn while playing games. People choose to play games, so imagine if we could bring those concepts to business training -- to bring that kind of stimulation, challenge and fun to the classroom."
PAUL TERLEMEZIAN
President, iFive Alliances
Avatar technology, which creates life-like cartoons, is bringing the benefits of animation to e-learning without the production costs of using live actors in simulated situations, while electronic performance and support systems allow learning to take place when it's needed. For example, a program could walk an accountant through capital expenditures as he's working on a company's books.
Along with advances in e-learning, there is now m-learning: mobile learning that can be downloaded to iPods and hand-held devices.
"E-learning is more effective, engaging and more accessible than ever, and businesses are spending more dollars on it than ever before, but they are also spending more on learning overall," Terlemezian said. "We're all getting smarter, because we have access to so much more knowledge -- e-learning has been a big part of that -- but we know a smaller percentage of what we need to know, because the world is changing so fast. Learning is never-ending."
E-learning shines in the areas of mandatory corporate training (such as workplace safety issues) and in technology skills and industry-specific certification standards.
Simulation can take a nurse through diagnosing an illness before she practices on a real patient, but "we're still social human beings, and we want to learn new things, meet new people and be known. Some things are better taught in the classroom, where people can interact and learn from each other," Terlemezian said.
Sixty-five percent to 75 percent of corporate training is still done in the classroom.
Significant investment
Investment in employee learning and in the technology used to deliver it has increased nationwide each year for the last decade, according to the American Society for Training and Development 2006 State of the Industry Report. It estimates that U.S. organizations spend $109.25 billion on employee learning and development annually, with nearly three-quarters of that amount spent internally and the remainder spent on external services.
"As organizations invest steadily in employee learning, and business leaders recognize the value of human capital, the learning function is more relevant than ever before," the report states.
To make sure the money spent on training is being used effectively, companies have been investing in learning management systems to measure education and its impact.
"I tell corporate trainers to develop their business acumen," Terlemezian said. "Corporations want to know that their trainers have current skills, that they understand the needs of the business and can translate that into learning activities that make a difference."
