E-Learning Leadership An opinionated monthly column exploring the current use, future potential, and commercial value of e-learning in BC’s high tech sector. E-Learning Leadership: August 9, 2002 By Paul Stacey A changing economy and downturn in the high tech sector has resulted in downsizing, layoffs and displaced workers. Thousands require career transition. B.C. is a case in point.   The e-learning sector is not immune to these hard times. The biggest company in the corporate e-learning market has seen its stock plummet six fold. Sales are down. Venture capital investment in education has dropped from $2,943 million in 2000 to $90 million for Q1 of 2002. IPO's for "knowledge services" companies have fallen from a high of thirteen in 2000 to zero for Q1 in 2002. (For a good overview of the state of the education marketplace check out Jeff Fromm of Knowledge Quest's presentation available at the World Education Market web site http://www.wemex.com.)   In hard times such as these we need leadership. Not just slash and burn leadership as exemplified by the current BC government but constructive leadership that inspires.   Cisco has long been held in high esteem as a model company in the way it uses e-learning. When Cisco was faced with having to layoff employees for the first time in company history they worked with a group of Bay area employers, educators, e-learning vendors and the city of San Jose to create a career transition centre where, among other things, employees could take online courses for new careers in areas of expected growth.   When United Airlines announced plans to place 20,000 pilots, flight attendants, customer service agents, baggage handlers and other employees on leave of absence as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks, VCampus http://www.vcampus.com, an e-learning provider in Reston, Va., volunteered to create an online university for laid-off United workers. Ex-employees could choose from 32 online courses on topics ranging from Web technologies to desktop applications and telecommunications technology. Los Angeles e-learning provider Quisic http://www.quisic.com also donated courses on leadership, business basics and e-business.   When 1400 workers lost their jobs in a mining town in Minnesota, Capella http://www.capella.edu, an online university in Minneapolis offered $500,000 in tuition grants to the displaced employees, their families and others whose jobs were lost in connection with the shutdown.   Leaders like these convert a negative to a positive and believe that learning is the key to human progress.   For more on the use of e-learning to support outplacement check out Online Learning Magazine http://www.onlinelearningmag.com and Kim Kiser's article The New Outplacement Benefit.   Sure would be great if the B.C. government, industry and e-learning community could pull together and offer e-learning help to the thousands of B.C. workers in a similar position.   Leaders are increasingly establishing e-learning's viability as both a public service and commercial entity. In hard times many turn to education and training to upgrade and enhance their marketability. Couple this with the increasing value of education in the knowledge economy and the importance of education as a national policy issue and you can argue that e-learning may be recession proof.   E-learning leaders are committed to the principle that access to learning for all people is a human right. The challenge is to provide access in times of increasing budgetary constraint.   In developed and developing countries educators and trainers are expected to achieve more with less at every level. Leaders are increasing learning access and equity while achieving economies of scale through e-learning. Leaders are transforming conventional face-to-face classrooms into dual mode by mixing e-learning with traditional instruction. Leaders are forming e-learning consortia, partnerships, and alliances. Leaders are creating corporate and virtual institutions entirely reliant on e-learning.   E-learning is transforming education. Transformation and change require leadership. As e-learning grows and plays an increasingly central role more and more e-learning leaders are needed.   In a general sense e-learning leaders are needed in every part of the e-learning market. This eLearning Leadership Diagram identifies where leaders will shape e-learning agendas and developments at the international, national, regional and local level through organizations in the private and public sector.   For more on e-learning leadership including some great case studies I recommend you read Leadership for 21st Century Learning, edited by Colin Latchem and Donald Hanna. Quoting Bernadette Robinson, from this book, in reply to a question asking her what skills are required to work as a leader in open and distant education in developing countries she replied: "I'd say technical expertise, appropriate 'hands-on' experience (not just 'book knowledge'), good interpersonal and analytical skills, engergy, integrity, a sense of humour, an ability to work under pressure (and with little sleep), patience, cultural sensitivity, organizational skills, a capacity to motivate, to cope with the unexpected and juggle priorities, skills in digesting large amounts of information and evaluation sources, in using interpreters, diagnosing problems and negotiating solutions, avoiding or mediating conflict and producing relevant reports quickly."   Here in B.C. e-learning leadership is emerging in the form of the eLearning BC Alliance. Building off successful work of the New Media BC eLearning SIG and with the support of Industry Canada and the BC Trade & Investment office, many of BC's e-learning organizations have joined forces to form an eLearning BC Alliance. The alliance will strengthen the BC eLearning sector through an ever-improving shared development of capabilities, markets, and public advocacy.   Sub-groups have been formed for Alliance Development, Sector Development and Market Development. Early discussions from an initial meeting July 25th identify a number of activities each sub-group will pursue.   Alliance development will: develop the membership develop an alliance identity - logo, web site. define the alliance organizational structure create operating procedures develop communication and strategy approaches Sector development will: create a database of alliance company capabilities develop standards disseminate education programs for the sector Market development will seek to: identify market needs and opportunities form alliance partnerships for specific project opportunities attend strategic trade shows and conferences as a team participate in e-learning trade missions gather market intelligence promote the alliance e-learning capabilities This eLeearning BC Alliance is about making the e-learning pie bigger, speaking with one voice, initiating programs to drive e-learning in B.C., and ultimately increasing the business opportunities and revenues of B.C. e-learning companies.   Already a consortia of ten organizations in the Alliance have banded together as TeamBC to attend the Online Learning 2002 Conference in Anaheim. Teaming together and sharing a booth has made it affordable for these organizations to attend and made the possible return on this investment more reasonable.   The ten organizations are: Serebra http://www.serebra.com Odyssey Learning http://www.odysseylearn.com Trimeritus http://www.trimeritus.com Ingenia Training http://www.ingenia-training.com TAP Ventures http://www.tap.ca Now International http://www.nowinternational.com Fluid Perception Media http://www.fluidperception.com Justice Institute http://www.jibc.bc.ca Open Learning Agency http://www.ola.ca BC Trade & Investment http://www.gov.bc.ca/cse   The eLearning BC Alliance hopes to model itself after, and build on, some of the successes of other B.C. alliances such as those in the BC wine industry and the Team Vancouver alliance for English as a Second Language (ESL) schools. This latter alliance tripled the number of ESL companies operating schools, expanded the business of each company, and made Vancouver a world centre for ESL.   If you want more to participate in the eLearning BC Alliance contact Chris Bywater at Industry Canada's Vancouver office. Bywater.Chris@ic.gc.ca.   Working together makes everyone stronger.   Paul Stacey is an e-learning specialist in the corporate and higher education sectors. Paul is the Canadian correspondent for LearningWeek Live http://www.learningweek.com an interactive webcast from New York featuring stories about the people, technology, and business of learning. Contact: Paul Stacey What Do You Think? Talk Back To Paul Stacey E-Learning: An opinionated monthly column exploring the current use, future potential, and commercial value of e-learning in BC’s high tech sector. E-Learning Archive: An index and links to all the E-learning columns Paul has written for T-Net going back to April 2000.