ASTD,TechKnowledge,Rapid eLearning,eLearning suite

I’m just back after attending the first two days of ASTD TechKnowledge 2009. We had good traffic at the Adobe booth on both days. The new Adobe eLearning Suite trial DVDs disappeared like hot cakes.

I thought there were a much higher percentage of people who were just starting to adopt eLearning, compared to eLearning veterans at TK 2009. This is very unlike the eLearning Guild conference, where most of the people I meet are folks who’ve been using Captivate or some other eLearning authoring tool for multiple releases. The people I met were moving from ‘Classroom based training’ to eLearning– as a means to adjust to budget cuts in their training departments. This seems to be in line with the just concluded Learning Technologies experience Clive Shepherd blogged about. Another new survey report by ‘Towards Maturity’ also indicates that while the total training budgets will be cut, the e-Learning spend as a percentage of this budget will increase significantly. But this is contrary to the latest Bersin report– which talks about a growth in the share of training that is delivered via Classroom based training (Instructor led training in their terminology), compared to a falling share in eLearning… I’ll do a separate post on this.

TK-2009 focused on Web2.0 and it’s implications on Learning. The keynotes and many sessions talked about all the new Web2.0 technologies and trends. Most of this was basic 101 on web2.0 technologies and firms, with some new interesting anecdotes weaved in.

Yes, I understand that web2.0 tools help users obtain up-to-date information on a subject in a format that is easier to access than sifting thru library cards, and finding the specific encyclopedia entry. They also streamline the process in which a student can reach out to his teacher or peers for further information.

But will the sole responsibility of future training departments be to point their employees to the latest tools that can be used to dig up information (either from a DB or from their peers)? The keynotes or the sessions I attended did not expand beyond this; nor did they provide a context on how web2.0 can be used potentially to supplement other training—as a means of ongoing learning.

Also, in today’s day and age, do corporates conduct classroom training for the sole purpose of disseminating information? Bersin’s ‘High Impact Programs’ (areas where most of the training investment will be focused on) lists: Business Critical Skills, Competencies, and Processes for your organization. If there is a way to move from Classroom training to Learning2.0 to support these high impact programs—I did not hear this in any of the sessions.

So, in summary, I believe a new majority is now adopting eLearning, and they were at the conference to try and obtain some help with this adoption; but our thought leaders have moved on to Learning 2.0. In times of an economic crisis, do organizations bet on proven methodologies like rapid eLearning, or do they try their hands at as-yet unproven technologies– like those in the Learning 2.0 basket?