An interesting post from Janet Clarey a Brandon Hall Research Blog. Up until now I didn’t know that there wasn’t any significant difference between on line learning and face to face learning. I’m far away from designing on line learning courses however my Streetjibe blog is designed to foster learning amongst youth work practitioners so this post is quite interesting for me. Her post is a response from Daniel Lemire who wrote a recent post, some myths about online teaching, based on his experiences in higher ed.

My mythical experiences with online learning in corporate education include:

• Myth: It takes less time to create an online course than a face-to-face course.Some courses I was involved in creating lasted longer than labor and delivery (and all I got was a lousy t-shirt). But wait! That’s because they needed to be. They were highly interactive with branching, audio, video, etc. And they were long. A different learning intervention might require less production. IT DEPENDS.
  However, if you want some facts and figures, Bryan Chapman’s post, how long does it take to create learning provides some comparison ratios between ILT and various levels of e-learning that you will find helpful.

• Myth: You can “repurpose” [definition: to use or convert for use in another format or product] a face-to-face course and put it online. (look, the book is now on CD!)This, to me, is copy-and-paste e-learning. I can go to Amazon.com and order a book and read it. Or I can order a recorded book and have someone read it to me. It’s not learning. Reading the “script” of an ILT course is not online learning. However, creating a learning environment where people can discuss, rate, do additional research, etc. based the book….well, not so crazy.)

• Myth: Online learning costs less than face-to-face training. This got me thinking about Tom Kuhlmann’s excellent (as always) post several weeks ago, here’s why rapid e-learning is so darn cool, about empowering subject matter experts (SMEs). (Tom writes for Articulate, an e-learning authoring tool that can be used to create rapid e-learning).In Tom’s post and in the comments (in addition to my ‘who you callin’ a pundit?’ comment) there was some discussion of the cost of “custom content” created by an outside source (i.e., the “evil” vendor bwah-ha-ha-ha!). I shot off an email to my colleague Tom Werner, director of the Brandon Hall Research Excellence in Learning Awards, because I thought he could quickly get his hands on some numbers related to past custom e-learning entries (of which some are not expensive-to-produce-type e-learning courses that are often the subject of criticism). Tom gave me some figures and some variables to consider. (variables = the asterisk that is the common denominator of instructional design for online learning.)Some of Tom’s considerations relative to cost:
• whether the raw content itself is already available.
• the number of hours in the course.
• the level of interactivity.
• the type of media in the course (especially if video, games, or virtual environments are used).
• the size of the audience that the cost is spread over In the corporate environment.

Some Figures:

• On the high end, one of the gold award winner’s course cost $90K
• Customer Content Developers in our Custom Content KnowledgeBase report these averages for a hour of finished content (n = 110)
  • Level 1 Interactivity (content with interactive test questions): average $15,067
  • Level 2 Interactivity (content with at least 20% very interactive learning activities): average $24,672
  • Level 3 Interactivity (simulation-based content): average $41,138
• Myth: Online learning = course / class. This suggests that all learning is ‘formal,’ something that is scheduled with a start/stop time. Online learning is so much more.
• Myth: You can teach anything online. Maybe you “can” (are able) but that doesn’t mean you should. Learning is not about the delivery channel.
• Myth: Face-to-face instruction is more effective than online learning. Actually, the research says there is no significant difference.

What myths have you encountered?

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