E-Learning: The Product of a Risk Is a Lesson

Libraries’ staffs and users alike are showing a keen interest in e-learning. Fortunately, there is no shortage of books, peer-reviewed journal articles, and online materials and internet-based resources about best practices in e-learning. However, a review of these sources suggests that libraries are far behind other organizations in developing effective and comprehensive e-learning programs.

If we mistakenly believe that e-learning is all about using technology in workplace learning and performance, we will not be successful in providing effective learning opportunities. Excellent e-learning practices that produce measurable results are rooted in the same foundations of the best classroom-based training-teaching-learning programs. These include good planning and follow-up; support and involvement from organizational leaders; better-than-adequate resources; engaged instructors and learners; and a variety of delivery methods.

Trainer-teacher-learners who are conducting research and documenting the results also cite the importance of providing enough time for learners to absorb the lessons being offered; an organizational commitment to creating, nurturing, and sustaining a community of learners; and effective assessment and evaluation systems that provide the likelihood of improvement at the earliest possible moment in the learning process.

Effective e-learning, like the best classroom-based instruction, is collaborative, occurring through a variety of formal and informal means. There are one-time sessions and lesson series, each building on previous sessions. Coaching and mentoring, on-the-spot (face-to-face or online) sharing of information among colleagues, learner-initiated reading and research—including use of websites as well as in-house resources—and a variety of other options are becoming prevalent through online social networking tools.

When we think about e-learning, we often mimic our overall approach to technology: We either allow it to inspire us with a sense of awe or we are overwhelmed by it. It is possible to lose sight of the fact that technology is a tool, a means to an end, and not the controlling factor that determines our goals and objectives. Workplace learning and performance need to lead to positive change that benefits organizations—libraries—and the people they serve in measurable ways.

If we see the tools of e-learning—the computer network, the learning management system, the programs, and the online social networking tools that help create effective, creative communities of learners—as resources, we realize that we must look at how learning occurs in our libraries. Only then can we produce and engage learners with first-rate e-learning offerings that produce results in line with libraries’ mission, vision, and value statements.

We also need to recognize that e-learning technology is evolving so quickly that those of us who are involved in training, teaching, and learning will remain in a perpetual state of learning, which we can turn to our advantage as trainer-teacher-learners. Nothing will make us more effective than developing the ability to move comfortably between each of these three interrelated roles; we can use our own experiences and insights to develop and provide what those who rely on us need most. Attempting to master any one e-learning tool is secondary to having a clear understanding of how e-learning tools function.

With all of this in mind, we can argue—and we might even agree—that best practices in e-learning will avoid making the technology the center of our efforts. While we need a basic understanding of what is currently and technologically possible, we also need to take the broader view of what our learning colleagues need, what must be in place within an organization to support their learning efforts, and what can be done to promote the greatest possible returns for all the time and money we invest in our training-teaching-learning efforts.

Bringing e-learning to life

Libraries are currently in a paradoxical situation. They are the free community centers to which learners increasingly turn when they need help using technology, but they are often far behind what is happening in the training industry as it has developed outside of libraries. Because library staff and patrons often need to use online resources to gain access to what libraries provide, they are at a tremendous disadvantage if they do not have access to training in how to use the tech tools that libraries offer.

One significant issue facing library administrators and staff as they consider engaging in e-learning is whether to utilize existing e-learning offerings, either purchased or available at no cost; produce their own; or use a combination of both options. A survey commissioned by WebJunction in 2005 and later published by OCLC suggested, not surprisingly, that e-learning products were more likely to be produced by larger library systems, state libraries, and vendors than by smaller library systems. The Iowa and Maryland state libraries were already making e-learning work by providing content for libraries in their service areas, and a number of statewide training organizations including LibraryU in Illinois and Infopeople in California, regional networks including Amigos and SOLINET (which, in 2009, merged with PALINET to become Lyrasis), and WebJunction (which absorbed the LibraryU learning modules in February 2009) were active content providers of e-learning for library staff.