Wednesday, October 21, 2015

The meaning of E-Learning



I had a really interesting conversation with my new boss the other day.
We were talking about which learning outcomes are best approached by different types of learning.
I threw out a comment about what eLearning was not good for and she stopped me.
She pointed out that to her, eLearning meant way more than the sort of self-paced self contained eLearning I was thinking about.
To her, and far more importantly to the learners we serve, eLearning means lots of things.


  • It means googling a concept when you come across it
  • It means reading an e-book
  • It means watching a TED talk
  • It means attending a webinar
  • It also means taking the kind of self contained eLearning module that I'm creating for my current project.


There is no way I can know what it means to an individual learner when they hear the term. There is also no way I can know about their experiences with what they call eLearning and the connections, positive or negative, that the word brings to them.

I'm reminded of the fact that as a Learning Professional I'm often having to catch myself in the use of the jargon in my profession. Our learners don't really care what it's called.

As long as it works for them.

Happy Learning
Alan

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