Preparing Learners for E-Learning - Books in Brief - Book Review

HR Magazine, July, 2003

Edited by George M. Piskurich, Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 2003,180 pages

List Price: $50, ISBN: 0-7879-6396-8

In the late 1990s, Motorola University officials assessed their online training system and found a troubling trend: Only 7 percent of employees who used the system completed the courses for which they registered. Motorola's experience isn't unusual, according to Preparing Learners for E-Learning, a collection of essays. Yet business keeps increasing its use of online training, with the market for such courses expected to reach $11.5 billion this year.

Many employees and managers are unprepared to learn on a computer, because they lack the comfort and security they feel in a traditional classroom setting, the essays say.

The book's audience is anyone who creates and delivers e-learning in the business sector, says editor George M. Piskurich, an organizational learning and instructional design consultant. The essays help designers and instructors prepare learners to succeed at online training.

The book includes examples from businesses in which online training is widespread. Rick Rabideau of Prudential Financial provides a list of web sites about e-learning, tips on how to select contractors and advice about pricing and testing online training systems. Training firm president Ronnie Kurchner-Hawkins also laces her essay with employers' experiences, from the company that successfully launched a new online program with posters, e-mail messages and prizes to the company that rolled out a program without telling employees how to locate their passwords.

Other authors provide strategies, such as helping people identify ways they already teach themselves daily, that encourage self-directed learning.

Essayists also outline:

* How to determine the skills and knowledge essential to anyone who will be an online instructor.

* How to set up continuing technical support and support from subject matter experts.

* How to get managers and supervisors to buy into e-learning.