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eLearning That Starts With the Learner, Not the "e"

by Maria Capozzi

eLearning today has many definitions and interpretations. For Buckman Laboratories, a private specialty chemicals company based in Memphis, Tennessee, eLearning means using technology for what it does best--learning programs are technology-assisted, not technology-based.

and more comfortable with technology. The bad news is that people are becoming inundated with technology.

Buckman Laboratories used a sys- tematic approach to understanding employee needs, questions, fears,, and preferences over the past several years. The result has been the development of a multilingual Learning Center that serves more than 1,300 associates in over 100 countries. Let's look at its his- tory over the past several years.

JUST ASK In 1997, Buckman Laboratories em- barked on a plan to create a learning center for its distributed, global work force using the corporate Intranet. "The Buckman Laboratories Learning Center" would provide central access to all educational and learning opportunities available to associates world- wide, including registration, tracking, and access to all courses (classroom and online) in multiple languages.

Sheldon Ellis, Manager of Learning Systems, discusses Buckman's chal- lenges in late 1997:

Our greatest challenge in developing the Learning Center was learning to

listen to our associates and then translating what we learned into content and delivery. The demand for learning in the organization out- strips our ability to supply learning opportunities using traditional in- structional design methods. We needed to break out of this paradigm and deliver content at a speed more consistent with the demands of our industries. We will also needed to in- corporate learning from a variety of sources to meet the content demands of the company. We found external online content to be very limited, and what was available was often poor or inconsistent. And there were very few organizations to benchmark against. We often invented the wheel before we delivered new content. Technology was only just arriv- ing at a level that facilitates Web deployment of mission-critical training through a dial-up connection.

RAPID PROTOTYPING AND FOCUS GROUPS An early prototype (alpha version) of the Learning Center was quickly developed in a few weeks by the technology team. This prototype allowed for quick and iterative design sessions among project team members and for the preparation of associate focus groups.

A series of 12 global focus groups was held. Focus group participants varied in job position, job level, gender, age, nationality, and length of time with

the company. The selection process was random so that findings could be gen- eralized. One-hour associate focus group sessions were structured as follows:

Part #1: Associates were told noth- ing more than that they were here to test and provide feedback on a new internal education initiative and that all of their feedback would be kept in the aggregate and not directly associated with them individually. They were then asked to navigate through the alpha version of the Learning Center at their own pace and their own discre- tion. Focus group facilitators observed and noted online behaviors from the back of the room.

Part #2: After about a half an hour of navigating through the Learning Center, associates were asked to provide feedback, observations, and thoughts. Following the general feedback discussion, specific questions were asked. Questions included a combina- tion of usability and value questions designed to elicit responses about not only what the participants liked and disliked about the interface design, but how, why, and when they might use the system. Questions were also designed to give an understanding of cur- rent behaviors, opinions, and attitudes as well as processes: �9 How do you currently find out about

required education and training for your job?

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�9 How do you currently find out about other educational offerings that might be of interest to you?

�9 Have you ever taken a distance education course? Would this be of interest to you?

�9 In what situations would you be mo- tivated to take an online course (e.g., CD-ROM or Internet/Intranet)?

�9 What type of courses would you like to be offered by Buckman to support your job/career or in support of personal interests?

�9 Would you see yourself using short modules to get up to speed and learn about critical topics if they were available to you online?

�9 Are educational goals part of your performance appraisal?

�9 What is your view of the role of education with regard to your career at Buckman?

�9 What role does learning play as part of your daily work?

�9 Where do you currently access the majority of the information you need for decision making, problem solving, presentations, customer meetings, etc. ?

�9 If you cannot find critical information, what do you do?

�9 How frequently do you access the Buckman Intranet ?

�9 When you do access the Intranet; give a few examples of the types of reasons/situations ?

�9 How frequently do you participate in the collaborative, online forums? Why, why not? What purpose do they serve for you in your work?

The good news is that people are becoming more and more comfortable with technology. The bad news is that people are becoming inundated with technology.

Focus GROUP RESULTS Associates believed that Buckman was initiating a valuable and useful tool for their productivity and growth. How- ever, all focus group participants indicated that they would be afraid of failure as well as afraid of who would

become aware of their failure. Many associates also indicated that they believed the majority of their colleagues would also be afraid to take an online course for the same reasons.

Specific focus group comments from associates related to fears, anxieties, and unanswered questions included: �9 We are already sitting in front of a

PC for well over 25 hours a week; this will only increase time spent at the computer.

�9 What if we are not able to connect to the system when we need to? What if we have technology-related problems, would this affect our performance as students and our poten- tial grades?

�9 We won't have anyone to answer our immediate questions. What if we don't understand something? Where will we go for help and support?

�9 I would have a general fear of failure-personal ly and having others find out.

�9 Will I be allowed to take another course should I fail or do poorly?

�9 Will my online learning activities affect my raise?

�9 What about privacy and security, since our performance would be documented and tracked? Who will see this information and why?

�9 What type of time commitments are required or expected? I know that a class takes one or more days.

�9 Not everyone in the company has a laptop. Will those people who don't be allowed to participate in online activities during the workday? �9 Will I get a letter saying

that I've spent too much time learning?

�9 I've just never done it [online learning] before; I don't know what to expect.

ANALYSIS AND APPLICATION OF RESULTS Buckman quickly realized that for the majority of its associates, their first on-

line learning experience would be through the Learning Center. For this reason, the designers knew that they

�9 . . all focus group participants indicated that they would be afraid of failure as well as afraid of who would become aware of their failure.

had to plan for early successes as well as to create a safe and comfortable en- vironment for associates. The first set of online courses available would be critical to the long-term success of the Learning Center.

It was also clear that the level of technology competence varied. This needed to be addressed with regard to consistent delivery vehicles (software) and simplicity of the Learning Center design.

The focus group feedback and analysis have had an impact on and been directly applied to: �9 redesigning the Learning Center in-

terface, including layout, colors, and identity

�9 acquiring and selecting online content from vendors

�9 selecting university programs and courses that will be "recommended" to associates based on certain quality standards and criteria such as support and collaboration

�9 establishing an internal service and support strategy for associates

TWO YEARS LATER--YEAR 2000 The Learning Center is now fully op- erational and tightly integrated with the knowledge management and shar- ing activities of the company. In 1999 the company delivered or facilitated over 24 hours of learning per associate. Associates take responsibility for development of their learning plans and managers are more qualified to help. The Learning Center developed What's in it for me?--The Career Fitness Cen- ter, which is an associate development tool for managers that provides them with the tools they need to successfully steward learning plans for associates. In

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addition, learning activity costs have been significantly reduced.

Now that associates have been ex- posed to various methods of learning, Buckman Laboratories has created a new series of feedback tools to better understand how people prefer to learn, what topics are most important to them, and from what sources they would like to receive their education. In addition, the company has developed online tracking and reporting tools for associates and managers to analyze where time is spent and perfi~r- mance impacts are made. Table 1 shows what associates had to say a few years after launch.

Table 1. Associates' opinions.

In addition, Buckman management and Learning Center staff believe that people learn best in their native languages, and support four languages (En- glish, German, Spanish, Portuguese).

WHERE HAVE ALL THE CLASSROOMS GONE? They are still around--just more effec- tive than in the past. Ellis comments, "To get the most out of class time, we use distance-learning modules to teach background material and conduct online assessments prior to the live ses-

sion. As a result, instructors are gener- ally free of the familiar problem of try- ing to accommodate novices and veterans in the same class."

In summary, learning is all about people, not technology. Just ask Buck- man Laboratories. �9

Maria Capozzi works for McKinsey & Company as Director of Product Development for a new service line that is creating new models of professional ser- vices by leveraging technology. Maria was the Senior Research Manager for the research and development of the Lotus LearningSpace product.

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