aLearning Podcast Interview
Posted by Ellen on July 8, 2009
Jeff Cobb at Mission to Learn was gracious enough to invite me to be a guest in his ongoing podcast series, and has now made the link to our conversation available via his blog.
It would be great to hear from you, so here are some of the questions Jeff asked me for your input and opinions!
What do you think makes a successful elearning program?
How do you see the relationship between social media/social  networking and elearning? How can they complement each other?
What do you think keeps some associations from succeeding in their elearning efforts? Why?
If you’ve incorporated elearning, what would you do differently now, if anything? What do you know now that you didn’t know then?
And here’s a new one: whether you have an elearning program or not, what resource do you wish you had that you haven’t been able to find, can’t afford, or otherwise isn’t available to you? Why? What would you do with it?
This entry was posted on July 8, 2009 at 6:56 pm and is filed under aLearning Strategies, aLearning Trends, Online Learning in General, Social Learning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Jon Aleckson said
Excellent interview, Ellen! Chunking aLearning in five minute increments? Can you provide an example of this? Price? What is best pricing for Association members? Can you give an example? “Timing– story” — Association that held time dependent webinar participation is a good lesson. Even though this did not work, do you like a course that provides a mix? Doesn’t time dependent sessions encourage participation if held at the right time?
Ellen said
Jon — Thanks for tuning in to the podcast (and a big thanks to Jeff for inviting me! Shame on me for not including those thanks in the original post)!
Your questions are terrific — I’ll address them in future posts as well because (never one to be particularly succinct) they will need a bit more space to cover well.
Associations are accustomed to providing 45 – 60- 90 minute in-person interest sessions, multiple-day face-to-face events, etc. So quick, immediate learning interventions are a new way of thinking. With apologies to the medical community for stepping outside my industry expertise, but to using my liver example from the podcast, five minute learning episodes could each cover:
— how to identify a healthy liver
— what the liver’s function is
— how to identify liver damage
— primary causes of liver damage
— primary cause one: how to repair or treat this type of damage
— primary cause two: how to repair or treat this type of damage
Etc.
However they’re set up, the point is to provide immediate, short bursts of content and training, each self-contained so someone who’s already covered the basic liver function episode could pop into primary cause two if they know that’s what they need now.
Pricing for associations vary from organization to organization — some need to offer all training free; others can charge hundreds of dollars; others have a much lower price point. Some organizations are able to off-set association expenses through sponsorships. Some see elearning as a revenue-generator; others as an outright service and are willing to break even or lose money as long as it serves the members.
As to the timing-story aspect of your comment, see the new blog post, coming soon!
Thanks again, Jon!