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Migrating
Face-To-Face Courses
Factors and considerations
Case Studies
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Here's
the situation …
You
have an existing face-to-face course. It's a pretty good course, from
what the students say. The instructors say the course is in good shape,
too. You need to be able to offer the course more often, sometimes to
only a few students each time, and it would be great if it could be close
to the students' location, not at your training centers. You're looking
at travel and expenses and the staff of instructors you'll need to do
this.
Why
not take the course and put it on-line?
You've
said a mouthful!
Those
three little words, "put it on-line", represent a Pandora's
box of possibilities, some positive, some negative. Without some carefully
considered analysis, you are almost certainly going down an expensive
path which may not give you what you want.
OK,
what's in the analysis?
Here
are a few of the big questions to answer to your satisfaction before you
approve a conversion project.
- What is
the need?
- What are
the learners' motivations and desires for interaction with other students
and/or instructors?
- What is
the degree of learner variety, and can e-Learning compensate for the
lack of instructor?
- What computing
resources are available to your intended learners?
- Do your
staff have the necessary skills and resources available to perform the
conversion?
What
is the need?
- Sometimes
there is pressure to do the "latest and greatest" thing. As
with any other business decision, what is the business need to offer
this course via e-Learning?
- What are
the measurable business goals to be accomplished by this project?
- What is
the bottom-line benefit of this undertaking?
What
is the learner motivation and desire for interaction with other students
and/or instructors?
- When considering
e-Learning, what teaching and learning methods will work best for your
intended audience?
- Do they
need/want the personal attention from a face-to-face instructor?
- Are they
sufficiently self-motivated to make the transition to e-Learning?
- Is e-Learning
a good fit for the subject and situations being taught?
What
is the degree of learner variety, and can e-Learning compensate for the
lack of instructor?
- E-Learning
is most effective when the learners have roughly similar backgrounds
and knowledge. Does your target audience fit that profile?
- The wider
the range of learner backgrounds, the more material has to be designed
into the course, which increases costs and development time.
What
computing resources are available to your learners?
Depending
on the amount of multimedia content in your proposed e-Learning conversion,
you need to make sure that your target learners will have the necessary
computing resources available for taking the e-Learning course. Factors
included in your design considerations include:
- Access
to the Internet (available at all locations, able to send and receive
e-mail, able to run a compatible browser, etc.)
- Bandwidth
of access (dial-up, DSL, cable, T-1, etc.)
- Computer
speed, disk space, and available RAM
- Size of
monitor and available color depth and resolution (also a function of
the video card)
- Sound
capabilities (speakers, microphone, sound card, etc.)
- Printer
(color or black and white, are students going to be printing out a lot
of materials)
- Necessary
software (browsers, e-mail programs, instant messaging programs, word
processors, etc.)
- Lab equipment
that will be available to students at their locations (what, if any,
will be needed)
Does
your staff have the necessary skills and resources available to perform
the conversion?
- E-Learning
development and conversion requires a different set of skills from developing
an instructor-led class. In many ways, e-Learning development is more
comparable to developing other self-paced courses, such as computer-based
training (CBT) or video courses. Does your staff have the abilities
and the time available for this project? Remember that e-Learning development
often takes considerably longer that developing a face-to-face course.
The last thing that you want to do is copy the instructor's notes and
slides onto web pages and end up with an electronic page turner.
- Your course
developers need to understand adult learning theory and basic instructional
design prior to designing, much less re-engineering a course. Even if
a course is to be re-engineered for e-Learning delivery, your staff
needs to approach it as a new course. Never assume that the original
class is instructionally sound, especially if you're planning a major
effort (and expense) based upon it.
- Designing
activities and user interaction is critical to the success of e-Learning
courses. When migrating a course for e-Learning delivery, you must carefully
evaluate the existing activities and interactions. Do they relate to
the content? Do they enhance learning? After answering those questions,
then you can consider if and how to migrate them on-line.
Holy
e-Learning, Batman!
Not
to scare you off, but "Yes!", there are a lot of things to consider
before embarking on course conversion (or development.) It may be a cost
effective solution and it may save you money, but you need to have a considered
and thoughtful approach to the decision.
Now
you've seen some of the considerations to keep in mind when evaluating
a face-to-face course for conversion to e-Learning. Click here
to see several examples and case studies.
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