by Steve Wexler
As many of you who follow this blog are aware, the Guild is on the precipice of publishing its 360-degree report on e-Learning 2.0.
One of the theses of the report is that younger workers, because they are so much more comfortable with Web 2.0 tools and technologies, will demand Web 2.0 approaches to learning As part of our analysis we compare what co-author Jane Hart calls learner preparedness for Guild members that are 30 and younger with those that are over 30.
But Heidi Fisk, co-founder of the Guild, asked to see a comparison among responses from Millennials/Generation Y, Generation X, and Baby Boomers+. Hey Heidi, is one of my bosses, so you think I’m going to say no?
(The way to read the percentage difference part of the chart is as follows: Members that are 30 and younger read blogs 17.7% more often that members that are 30+ to 45. This second set of members in turn read blogs 14.5% more often that members older than 45).
Look for the full report on September 25th.
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September 16th, 2008
by Steve Wexler
I’m working on the Guild’s 360-degree report on e-Learning 2.0, and something just “clicked”. Most of the time we don’t bother to filter survey responses by gender because there is little or no difference between responses from men and women. Not so with this next question:
Look at the first statement. 31.8% of men somewhat or strongly agree while 44.5% of women somewhat or strongly agree.
That’s a big difference. And where else have we seen differences that are this large? With anything that has to do with cost, ROI, or salary (there’s a big gender gap in salary)
I strongly suspect it all comes down to a confidence issue, and if you were to ask a question like “how confident are you that you have the ability to learn new things very quickly” or “how confident are you that your opinion will be taken seriously” you’d see very different responses from men and women Guild members.
Hmm. Sounds like a really cool Ph.D thesis. Or is that an oxymoron?
One more thing: If I filter results and just show responses from mangers or director, the difference is even more pronounced.
More to come…
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September 10th, 2008
by Steve Wexler
I love working with Tony Karrer on Guild research reports as he really knows his stuff and he pushes me to build more useful visualizations. He’s recently posted his musings on some Guild training methods trend data. I’d like to follow up on his earlier-this-year prediction and recent “affirmation” that serious games would not be coming to a theater near you any time soon.
Yes, the use of games, simulations, and virtual labs is down over a year ago. But what about Serious Games / Immersive Learning Simulations? We don’t specifically track this data as part of a Guild member’s profile, so I decided to take a look at the data in our dedicated survey on simulations, games, and immersion learning. Here’s the question we ask:
And what do we see for this month vs. a year ago? Mini games are down 3.33%, Simulations/scenarios are down 1.75%, but Serious games are UP 10.34%
So, yes, data from this survey suggestions that ILS use is up compared to a year ago, but its penetration is still fairly modest. And ILS has many more barriers to adoption than Web 2.0 approaches, as we’ll discuss in The eLearning Guild’s upcoming report in e-Learning 2.0.
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September 9th, 2008
by Steve Wexler
I’m working on the upcoming eLearning Guild 360 report on e-Learning 2.0 and decided to build some new visualizations around learning modality trend data so wee which approached Guild members are adopting and which they are abandoning.
Background
We ask members to provide the Guild with information by updating profile information and completing/updating surveys. A portion of the Learning/Training modalities profile screen is shown below:
As of this writing, 2,999 members have updated this profile in the past 365 days.
Here’s a portion of a visualization that compares results from September 1, 2008 with September 1, 2007:
This visualization makes it a little hard to see whether use increasing or decreasing, so… using the following weightings
Often = 5
Sometime = 3
Rarely = 1
Never = 0
I built something that looks like this (yes, classroom training is UP from a year ago).
So, which modalities are increasing and which are decreasing? And by how much? The chart below shows some of what’s going on, but BE CAREFUL! This is based on responses from members from all industries, working in organizations of all sizes, with all levels of experience. Filtering by industry, organization size, experience, job level, etc., make a big difference.
I’m not going to show ALL the modalities we track as the chart is really large, but here are the four modalities that have grown the most since a year ago:
Note: We don’t have any trend data for Social Networking as we only started tracking that in June. If you’re curious about how the various modalities stack up against each other as of September 4, well, here you go…:
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September 4th, 2008
by Steve Wexler
While still in the throes of the e-Learning 2.0 report (and while working on the presentation for next week’s webinar for our just-published report on Measuring Learning Success) I’ve started thinking about the new edition of the Guild’s report on authoring and development tools.
I had the privilege of working with Brent Schlenker, Betsy Bruce, Paul Clothier, Dawn Adams Miller, and Frank Nguyen on this report last year. If possible I’d like to find two more people to weigh in on this subject. (I wouldn’t mind publishing a case study, too.) So, any ideas on who might add to the discussion? If you’re a Guild member you can see the first edition of the report here.
Also, what should we focus on this time around? I’d like to address the challenges of managing content as the Guild hasn’t published any research on this since I joined the organization in May 2006. Do realize that the use of LCMS ’sis not terribly pervasive in Guild organizations (more on this in a second), but I find it hard to believe that content management and single sourcing isn’t a big pain point for Guild members.
So, do you think this is a good addition to the report, and who should pen the essays?
As for LCMS penetration within the organization, Guild member organizations only use an LCMS sometimes or often 43.8% of the time, as shown here:
BTW, this is based on up-to-date responses from 2,995 Guild members.
Also, of the 6,119 Guild members have told us what types of tools they personally use, only 857 use a LCMS. As a reference point, 2,738 us an LMS (this is based on member profile data that has been updated at least once in the past 365 days.)
So, I don’t think we have enough data to do a rock-solid LCMS tools roundup (and we won’t publish anything that isn’t rock solid) but addressing this issue in an essay or two is probably warranted.
But what do YOU think…?
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August 28th, 2008
by Steve Wexler
I’m toying with the idea of building a mechanism to determine which industries are the “best” in terms of opportunities for e-Learning professionals.
So, what data points should make up the foundation of this type of assessment? With the understanding that this is very much a work in progress, I plan to look at the following three elements:
- Working with fun, challenging, and leading-edge approaches to learning
- Compensation
- Satisfaction with current job
We already have a TON of information for the second element, and know that e-Learning professionals in Pharmaceuticals/Biotech, Consulting/Business Services, and Computer Manufacturing lead the way (for a complete run down on this, click HERE.)
So, what about the first item? Like compensation data, the Guild has a TON of information on which learning approached Guild members use. What we have not defined is just which of these approaches are fun, challenging, and leading-edge approaches to learning. So, my question to you is, which of the following would you put into this “yes, that is indeed hip” category:
Blogs
Chat rooms
Classroom instruction
Communities of Practice
e-Learning (asynchronous)
e-Learning (synchronous)
e-mail
Electronic Performance Support Systems
Games
In-person mentoring / tutoring
Instant Messaging
Knowledge management systems
Learning content management systems
Learning management systems
Mobile Learning
Online assessment and testing
Online mentoring / tutoring
Online references
Podcasts
Portals
Print-based materials
Simulations
Social networking
Video broadcasts
Virtual labs
Wikis
Note: You don’t have to pipe in how classroom instruction or other more traditional approaches can be fun, challenging and leading-edge. I’m seeking things that our community, as a whole, regard as inherently more interesting/hip.
Oh, as for “satisfaction with current job” I suppose this is something we should add to our member profile data page or perhaps create a dedicated survey to the issue as I would like to know just what it is that organizations that have satisfied workers do differently than organizations with dissatisfied workers. But for now, let’s just focus on the “which of these approaches are hip” question.
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August 24th, 2008
by Steve Wexler
The team working on the upcoming e-Learning 2.0 report has been having A LOT of heated exchanges regarding this question and some of my co-authors take issue with the survey results we’ve received so far. Consider the chart below, based on responses from 1,060 Guild members:
The number one spot is occupied by member that believe that they will drive this adoption. At the bottom of the list is the idea getting on a train that is already moving (i.e., existing or soon-to-be-implemented Web 2.0 initiatives).
Before chiming in, let’s see what happens if we break the data down by organization size:
Some interesting differences, no?
So, are e-Learning professionals leading the charge as these charts suggest, or are they in fact unaware of larger initiatives within their organizations? What do you think?
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August 18th, 2008
by Steve Wexler
Again, I’m working with a great team of e-Learning professionals on The eLearning Guild’s upcoming 360-degree report on e-Learning 2.0.
I’ve just finished reading a first draft of an essay by co-authors Michele Martin and Sanjay Parker and one of their theses is that the so-called digital natives — the millennial generation that grew up with the Internet — will DEMAND Web 2.0 approaches to learning in the workplace. Indeed, in our survey we ask Guild members to indicate the degree to which they agree/disagree with various statement and the statement they agree with most is that younger workers will demand 2.0 approaches to performance support:
Jane Hart ,who is working on a killer essay on learner preparedness for the report, wanted to gauge Guild member preparedness for Web 2.0 approaches by seeing to what extent members use these approaches themselves. Here’s a snippet from the survey:
I decided to combine Jane’s question with Michele and Sanjay’s thesis and compare use/preparedness of Guild members 30 and younger with members that are over 30, and we get the following chart (note: I hope that now Guild members understand why we ask their gender, year of birth, industry, etc.):
Note: If you are a Guild member and have not taken the survey, take it today! You can access it here: http://www.elearningguild.com/profiles/surveys/?sid=113.
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August 13th, 2008
by Steve Wexler
I’m working with an absolutely killer team of e-Learning professionals on the Guild’s upcoming e-Learning 2.0 report (due out in late September).
Mark Oehlert, one of the report authors (and a true uber-geek) wanted to compile a white list / black list of social networking sites.
Here are preliminary findings, based on responses from 825 Guild members.
I’m aghast at how many "no"’s there are, especially in larger organizations as these companies are unwittingly doing themselves great harm.
Note to Guild members: This is one of the reasons why we ask you for all the demographic stuff when you join/renew your membership; it allows us to break down the information in meaningful ways.
Further note to Guild members: If you have not taken the survey, please do so TODAY as we’ll be taking snap shots of the data for the report soon. You can access the survey here: http://www.elearningguild.com/profiles/surveys/?sid=113.
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August 13th, 2008
by Steve Wexler
The Guild just published its latest 360 report, this one on Mobile Learning. Over 1,350 Guild members completed the survey, so we definitely have great data to tell you where things are and where things are going with respect to m-Learning.
So, where are things? 17.3% of Guild members use Mobile Learning sometimes or often within their organizations, and 8% have personally been involved with creating m-Learning content. While this may seem like a blip on the e-Learning radar, think about where synchronous learning was five years ago and where e-Learning as a whole was ten years ago.
And where are things going? Here are Guild Members’ plans for the next 12 months:
How to get a free copy of the report.
If you are a paid member of The eLearning Guild you can download a copy of the report by clicking HERE:
And if you are an associate member you can download a free copy by completing the Mobile Learning survey. You can access the survey HERE.
Finally, I’ll be presenting a free webinar along with two of the report co-authors (David Metcalf and David Rogers) on July 31 at 8:30 AM, Pacific Time. The webinar is open to the public. You can register for the webinar by clicking HERE.
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July 17th, 2008
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