E-Learning
:
Quality
Reviews
March 30th, 2001
By Paul Stacey
Now
that there are thousands and thousands of course
offerings available over the Internet, we need help in
choosing which is the right one for us to take. This
column is a plea for e-learning providers to adopt
expert and end user product quality reviews like those
available from such online companies as Amazon and
E-Bay.
Not
sure what I'm getting at, well lets say I am a student
looking for the "best" e-learning course in
marketing. How do I find it and what level of confidence
will I have of its quality?
I
recently had the opportunity to hear Carol A. Twigg from
the Center for Academic Transformation http://www.center.rpi.edu
speak on this subject and make some recommendations
which I thought were right on. Carol let me know by
e-mail, her monograph "Quality Assurance for Whom?
Providers and Consumers in Today's Distributed Learning
Environment" should be available on the Center for
Academic Transformation web site this week or next. I
echo many of her ideas in this column and highly
recommend her monograph for anyone wanting to explore
this topic more.
If
it is a university or college type marketing course I'm
looking for I might turn to one of the online e-learning
databases that list such offerings. Have a look at the
database maintained by Petersons at http://www.lifelonglearning.com
or the one from New Brunswick's TeleCampus which only
lists offerings that are 100% online http://telecampus.edu.
You
will find hundreds and hundreds of marketing courses
listed by institution and course number. Page after page
of courses flash by as you scroll through the list. How
do you choose?
The
fact is these listings are not very learner centred. A
course number only has relevance to those enrolled as
students in undergraduate or graduate programs at that
institution. There is little if any information on what
the prerequisites are and whether they can be fulfilled
by courses taken elsewhere. Amazingly most listings
don't even identify who the instructor is or what's
involved in taking the course. As you drill down into
the description you are faced with "No Data
Given" There is no information on quality and no
information comparing any of the courses to each other.
Universities
and colleges looking to be players in the e-learning
marketplace and portals aggregating learning offerings
should adopt online customer relationship management
principles. When I go to Chapters http://www.chapters.ca
or Amazon http://www.amazon.com
and search for a book, I can read reviews of that book
submitted by other readers. I can read professional
reviews by experts. I can see a star rating. I can see a
ranking. All of these act as quality indicators that
help me decide whether to buy or not. This is the kind
of information consumers need to make e-learning
choices.
Historically
universities and colleges have never had to publish such
information. Students enrolled in undergraduate or
graduate programs were more or less locked in to that
particular institution's program offerings. However, one
of the major benefits of the e-learning marketplace is
the greater choice and flexibility offered learners.
E-learning changes the rules of engagement. Each
institution will have to make a greater effort at
convincing me to take course from them. It will be
incumbent on them to differentiate themselves from
others.
There
are some who argue that learners will buy from the
"brand" name institutions. At this point there
is little merit in this strategy. From what I can see
most of the brand name institutions are entrenched in
traditional notions of place-based education and show
remarkably little interest in changing. Confident in
their superiority they hold themselves aloof and see
little reason to engage in the e-learning market. It is
the young upstarts that hold the greatest promise
especially those that are net-centric and learner
focused.
Another
strategy which I find more compelling is to buy based on
the "brand name" of the instructor. UNext.com http://www.unext.com
is pursuing this strategy using notable scholars from
multiple universities to develop its line of e-learning
courses. It will be interesting to see to what extent
this deliberate strategy entices learners. I'd be more
interested if I was assured the instructor will
participate not only in the development of the course
but its delivery also. With UNext that remains to be
seen.
Ninth
House http://www.ninthhouse.com
is also pursuing a brand name instructor strategy. Ninth
House seeks out best-selling authors like Tom Peters and
invites them to develop a media rich course on their
ideas. I've been impressed with some of the
methodologies Ninth House is pursuing. While their rich
media strategy creates a high bandwidth need for the
learners, ultimately that bandwidth will be there.
As
an aid in choosing e-learning I subscribe to the
Learning Guide, Lguide for short - http://www.lguide.com.
Lguide has a staff of experienced editors and analysts,
as well as a large body of contract reviewers with
highly specialized skills who provide vendor neutral
expert reviews of e-learning. Courses are assessed
against a set of evaluative criteria in three areas:
content, design and delivery, and value. Reviews state
the pros and cons of a course, what was frustrating,
what was helpful and give a 1 to 5 star rating.
Comparative reviews of similar courses from multiple
vendors can also be found at the Lguide site.
I
also subscribe to Training Media Review http://www.tmreview.com
a service company offering content, online communities,
and consulting to trainers, human resource
professionals, and managers in corporations, government,
and nonprofits. While Lguide focuses on e-learning,
Training Media Review evaluates all kinds of training -
print, video, audio, CBT and on-line using a star rating
system and variety of categories.
I'm
really hoping these evaluation sites and portals expand
their quality reviews to include end-user input. For
example why not ask end-users these kind of questions:
-
did
you receive adequate information prior to
enrollment?
-
how
reliable was the technology used?
-
was
the technology easy to use?
-
did
you receive adequate tech support?
-
was
course flexible enough to meet your needs?
-
was
course relevant to your education/
professional goals?
-
was
course content up-to-date?
-
was
course content challenging? (too easy?, too hard?)
-
did
course contain interactive learning exercises?
-
was
their sufficient interaction between students?
-
-
was there sufficient interaction with instructor?
-
did
you receive sufficient help with course content?
-
did
you receive sufficient feedback?
-
were
your questions answered in a timely fashion?
-
did
you have access to learning resources?
-
was
evaluation fair?
-
did
course meet your expectations?
-
was
course worth the cost?
The
proliferation of e-learning choices calls for a more
robust identification, evaluation, and selection
process. Integrating expert and end-user reviews of
e-learning into portals and evaluation sites will build
on an already proven Internet practise of empowering the
individual to have a voice. For private sector providers
accustomed to market scrutiny this will be business as
usual. For educational institutions accustomed a more
captive audience this will be a new, and for some, scary
prospect.
Paul
Stacey is the Director of Corporate Education and
Training at the Technical University of British
Columbia, a long time education professional in the high
tech private sector, and an e-learner.
Contact: Paul
Stacey
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