Waarom e-learning zo moeilijk is

Patrick Lambe, consultant bij Straits Knowledge, een research en consultancybureau op het vlak van e-learning, kennismanagement en innovatie, heeft een artikel geschreven over de uitdagingen bij het implementeren van e-learning.

E-learning is een onderwerp dat meestal bij de afdeling IT of bij de afdeling HR opgepakt wordt. Boeiend is z’n observatie dat niet deze aanpak, maar juist projecten die gestuurd worden door het lijnmanagement het meest succesvol zijn.

To do enterprise e-learning really well, beyond the technical competencies present already in HR and IT, you have to be able to marry deep understanding of the operational needs at the front line, strategic direction, consulting and change management skills, quality and performance metrics, information architecture and usability design, workflow analysis and process redesign, culture influencing, and superb communication and negotiation skills.

The problem with IT and HR is that they have for too long become entrenched in their battle for strategic status, and have often adopted the rhetoric of such competencies, without the ability to demonstrate them. The best e-learning projects I’ve seen have been small scale efforts owned by operational managers near the front line, or large scale efforts owned by the senior leadership. The managers of the small scale operational initiatives knew what they wanted, they educated themselves on what they needed to know, and they managed their constraints, relationships and resources effectively to get something useful done. They told HR and IT only what they needed to know and avoided excessive dependency. The leaders of the large scale implementations sidestepped the too-easy HR/IT decision, treated the project as a strategic initiative, resourced it with a talented and influential team, and made sure all the stakeholders (operations, HR and IT included) all played nicely together to make it work.