This post originated from an RSS feed registered with .NET Buzz by Brendan Tompkins. Original Post: Is eLearning the $500 Toilet Seat of the Technology Industry? Feed Title: Brendan Tompkins Feed URL: /error.htm?aspxerrorpath=/blogs/brendan.tompkins/Rss.aspx Feed Description: Blog First. Ask Questions Later. Latest .NET Buzz Posts Latest .NET Buzz Posts by Brendan Tompkins Latest Posts From Brendan Tompkins

This is something that I’ve always wanted to rant about, but never had quite the right reason to post.   Well, this morning I noticed a link on Computer Zen.com - Scott Hanselman's Weblog to the new Microsoft eLearning site, and the door was opened.

In my previous life, I used to develop eLearning courseware.  My post-graduate degree is in eLearning, (well, technically my degree is in instructional technology but it’s the same thing) and I also worked for a time creating this crap for one of the biggest US eLearning vendors.  I tried to start a company with the bright idea of delivering this crap on tiny devices. What did I learn from my experience?

eLearning is Condescending Fluff

Most of the eLearning content out there is cranked out by IDs (instructional designers) who don’t know the content.  They try to quickly learn the material using SMEs (subject matter experts). The end result is usually content that is bland and boring at best. At worst, the student is presented with content that is insulting to their level of knowledge of the subject.

Students Hate It 

If they’re not totally insulted, they hate the entire experience nonetheless.  Tell someone that they have to complete some eLearning, and you'll hear an audible groan. I was part of a roundtable discussion for a popular industry magazine in 1999.  I asked all the experts at the table “Does anyone here actually use this stuff?”  A few of the “experts” admitted that they use eLearning, but I’m not sure I believed them.  I never spent any real time  eLearning, and by the same token, not one person I knew in the industy did either. In my experience, the eLearning industry doesn’t dog food their products.  If they did, they’d realize how truly crappy it is.

HR Departments Love It

Compared to “butts in seats” training it’s cheap.  And since the results of learning can’t really be accurately measured no one is the wiser to the fact that no one is really learning anything.  For the HR person who heads up training, eLearning it's like a present from above. Their costs go down.  They get to report to the president that they’ve managed to train all 3000 employees on the latest and greatest technologies.  Everyone wins!  (er, except the employees, who don’t get trained, but who can tell?)

It’s a Huge Waste of Time and Money.

If the world only knew how much money and time was wasted on this stuff, it’d make the front page of all the newspapers.  This stuff is relatively expensive to create, it’s costed in terms of  an “hour” of courseware, and costs about 25–35 K per hour.  It’s a big industry.  It’s thriving because of basically a flaw in the structure of corporate spending and the inability to accurately measure the products of learning.

If you want to teach someone how to do something, sit down next to them and show them.  If this is impractical, get them in a classroom for a week with someone who is passionate and knows their stuff.   If you can’t do this, send them to a conference for a week.  If this is too costly, send them to a code camp. If all else fails, buy them a library of books.  

If you don’t care about true learning, but need to spend your training budget anyhow, then eLearning is for you.

-Brendan