Using Technology to Foster a Collaborative Training Environment

The scenario outlined in Example 1 poses a number of challenges to an instructional designer.  The first challenge is that the staff is separated by geography and time.   This makes it impossible to gather everyone together for any time of synchronous training event.  The other challenge is how to foster collaboration.  Collaboration across office locations will be a critical factor in making sure the new software is adopted and used effectively across six office locations.  Thus, technology is needed to enable asynchronous training as well as asynchronous discussion and collaboration.


The first challenge to be addressed is how to deliver the training. Because the training must be delivered asynchronously, this requires that an online learning material be hosted in a location where the staff has flexible access to those materials.  Thus, I have chosen Slideshare to host the training presentation.  Since it is an external website, the staff can access the materials from any computer or mobile device with web access.  In addition to hosting the presentation, Slideshare offers some features for discussion and collaboration.  One useful feature is that the staff can leave comments on each page of the presentation.  This allows the staff to have asynchronous discussions on individual slides in the presentation.  Another  helpful feature of Slideshare is called Zipcast.  This feature allows students to get together for a synchronous discussion of specific parts of the presentation.     Author Beth Kanter  discusses the use of Slideshare in a blog post.  In the post, she advocates using Slideshare for ongoing training in nonprofit organizations.


The other challenge to be address is collaboration.  To assist in this area, I recommend creating a wiki on Wikispaces.  Wikispaces offers several features that would facilitate collaboration among the staff.  One way to insure that staff understands how to use the new staff information software is to have them create a wiki to catalogue the best practices of using the software in their workflow.  This will help reinforce the lessons from the training as well as providing a job aid the staff can use in an ongoing basis.  In addition, Wikispaces allows comments on individual pages as well as discussion forum for threaded discussions on individual topics.  Thus, the staff can collaborate on creating the best practices wiki as well other topics that may come up in training.  Thomas Chau and Frank Maurer of the University of Calgary did a case study  of how a wiki-based experience repository supported knowledge sharing in distributed software development company.  The study concluded that wiki made it easy to share best practices, thus important shared knowledge was rapidly disseminated through the organization.

In conclusion, Slideshare and Wikispaces are two technologies that can address the challenges posed by training staff in six different locations.  Slideshare provides a mechanism to deliver the training asynchronously.  Wikispaces provides a forum for documenting best practices as well discussion of software deployment issues.

Evolution of Distance Education

Prior to taking this class, the strongest image that came to mind when thinking of distance education was attending a class from a remote location.   In the 1980’s, I took a graduate level course in computer architecture.   The company I was working for had a satellite link to a local university.  We would attend the lectures via satellite TV and ask the professor questions via a two way intercom.  Thus, I had thought of distance education as any situation where the learner is geographically separated from the instructor.

Considering this week’s resources has broadened my understanding in a couple of ways.   First, the Distance Learning Timeline Continuum showed that the history of distance education goes back to correspondence courses and those college courses you saw on public television on Saturday mornings.  Thus, distance education has evolved as communication technology has evolved.

Distance Education Mind Map

In terms of defining distance education, in this week’s video presentation, Dr. Simonson gave a succinct definition of distance education.  He defined distance education as “formal education where a learning group (students, instructor, resources) are separated by geography and/or time.  Technology is used link the resources and the learning”.  Further, Dr. Simonson stated that distance education consists of two main components – distance teaching and distance learning.   I think that this is an important distinction to make, that there is a teacher involved, keeping the students on track and accountable.   Thus, self-study e-learning courses do not qualify as distance education.

 

What factors will drive the future of distance education?    The first is technology.  Technology will make distance education more accessible.   The Horizon Report discusses two technologies that will have significant impact on the distance education.   The first is eBooks.   The widespread adoption of eBooks and eReaders (like Kindle and iPad) will make it much easier to access textbooks and other course materials while the learner is “on the go”.   Another technology that will impact distance education  is mobile devices (e.g. smart phones).    For example, learners will be able to collaborate with each other or get timely feedback from an instructor via texting or social media.

The other driving factor is economics.  In the corporate world, a tight economy means that corporations are looking to improve the productivity of their workforce.  Thus there is less time and money to spend on training.  It has been my experience in the corporate environment that companies are less will to send their employees away for a week of training.   Rather, they moving more towards “just in time” training – giving employees only the training they need, when they need it.

References:

Johnson, L., Smith, R., Willis, H., Levine, A., and Haywood, K., (2011). The 2011 Horizon Report.

Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Simonson, M.  Distance Learning: Timeline and Continuum   Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4894950&Survey=1&47=8276485&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Simonson, M.  :Distance Education: The Next Generation.  Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4894950&Survey=1&47=8276485&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Greetings to my Distance Learning Classmates

I haven't done much since I used this blog for Learning Theories.  I look forward to updating this blog over the next 8 weeks.