Seven E-learning Pitfalls to Avoid

There has been a lot of misunderstanding and assumptions around what e-learning is and what it isn’t. Some organizations see e-learning as the magic bullet that can solve the problem of underperformance (or misperformance); while others use it as a way to cut cost and increase access. Many leaders wish to showcase e-learning as the way their organizations are embracing the future of training, along with the shiny new technologies that associated with it. However you look at it, e-learning has increasingly been on the front-and-center of the learning and development professionals’ mandate, and part of the daily HR vocabulary. If one is to continue to invest e-learning in an organization, there are a few common misconceptions that need be clarified. Below are seven e-learning pitfalls that practitioners and managers should aim to avoid:

1. Thinking that e-learning is solely about self-paced e-courses
2. Implementing e-learning outside an organization’s business strategy
3. Putting all your focus into technology
4. Believing that e-learning can be deployed quickly and cheaply
5. Thinking e-learning will completely replace face-to-face training
6. Assuming that e-learning will be embraced by your staff immediately and with open arms
7. Measuring only your learners’ satisfaction and test scores

1. Thinking that e-learning is solely about self-paced e-courses. While self-paced online courses are a good start to acquire knowledge and support performance gap, it is not nearly enough. E-learning is more than just a large catalogue of courses and programs listed by subjects/domains; it is a rich set of formal and informal learning methods/tools/activities (such as discussion forum, webinars, wikis, virtual classroom, games, virtual reality, etc.) that encompasses collaboration, knowledge sharing, simulation, experimentation, and co-creation. Learning is inherently social, and to isolate e-learning at the individual course level is to miss out on opportunities to foster a strong learning community.
2. Implementing e-learning outside an organization’s business strategy. E-learning must addresses a real business need and align with the organization’s strategy. E-learning practitioners must be able to translate learning outcomes to business outcomes, particularly when pitching the case to the executives. E-learning needs to be directly integrated into business process and job performance, and ultimately be able to demonstrate the metrics that management cares about: revenue, expenditure, productivity, customer satisfaction, and other quantifiable measurements.
3. Putting all your focus into technology. While the “e” in e-learning takes the front seat, e-learning should not be technologically driven. Often times, organizations rush to buy an Learning Management System (LMS) and an array of e-learning authoring tools first before figuring out what to do with them and to what purposes these technology should serve. Confusing the mean (technology) to the end (serving/supporting business outcomes) will only lead toward failure of e-learning implementation and generate resentment from stakeholders all around. Understanding the learning & performance gaps, as well as the business needs for which e-learning might be a solution would serve you well and increase the chance of your project success.
4. Believing that e-learning can be deployed quickly and cheaply. Much of the hype about e-learning from a business’ perspective is the promise to quickly push out training (we need to meet the deadline for safety training mandate by the end of this year!) and to save money/increase revenue (we can trains hundreds of staff instead of putting 20 people in a classroom at a time). While it is possible to employ a rapid instructional design methodology for e-learning, it is by no mean a replacement for a proper needs assessment. Additionally, if one were to think beyond e-courses, e-learning needs to be architectured into the wider learning and performance scheme with thoughtful consideration, and that process takes time. Giving thoughts to how e-learning can best deployed upfront will save time and headache later on down the road, and it is well worth the effort.
5. Thinking e-learning will completely replace face-to-face training. Both e-learning and face-to-face training are important and they complement each other. E-learning is useful when learners are geographically dispersed and there are a large number of learners that required flexibility both in terms of access, and in the pace they go about absorbing content. Furthermore, e-learning offers many new and innovative opportunities for learners to acquire information and practice new skill. However, facilitated classroom training has its own merit and should not be replaced by e-learning without understanding the context. For many subject matters, face-to-face training benefits from the interaction with an expert, and the real-time individualized feedback that learners get in a small group setting. There are also times where it makes sense to blend the two approach - augmenting classroom learning with digital tools, resources, and interactions.
6. Assuming that e-learning will be embraced by your staff immediately and with open arms. No e-learning initiative is complete without change management. E-learning (and for that matter, any new approaches or processes) represents a new way of doing things that people need help and support to adjust to it. Comprehensive change management effort needs to focus not just on communicating the change, but also how the culture and environment will be shifted, and what kind of ongoing support people will get. People might grudgingly agree to use e-learning, but without true buy-in, e-learning will only be seen as something they have to do, instead of their preferred method of learning.
7. Measuring only your learners’ satisfaction and test scores. Too often evaluation is conducted to justify the existence of the training program (people seem to like the program so we should keep doing it) or to meet compliance requirements (we have a 95% pass rate so it must be working). However, evaluation should go beyond that. As practitioners and managers, we need better insights on what is working, not working, and what could be better in the realm of learning and performance. Evaluations could potentially include content audit, learning analytics (monitoring user access data, tracking learning progress, visualizing the learning paths, etc.), user experience, system usability and diagnostic, and the much talked about return-on-investment (ROI). Until we can make use of a richer set of data and be able to assess learning in a holistic way, it is not possible to articulate what kind of impact e-learning has to the organization.

Avoiding these pitfalls would significantly increase the odd of your e-learning initiative’s success and to help bring values to your organization. As e-learning gets more complex and the demand increases, it is ever more important to be able to clarify these misconceptions and to set forth your project with a clear vision.