In the late 90s, eLearning was being hyped as the greatest invention since the wheel.  Article after article was being written about corporations implementing online training.  If your organization wasn’t using eLearning, you were made to feel like you were stuck in the Stone Age.  It was so simple that, “even a caveman could do it.” 

Yet the truth is, it was mostly early adopters that were diving head first into eLearning.  Most organizations were content to continue training using methods they had been using for years while keeping a curious eye on eLearning.  As the technology evolved and became simpler to implement, many more organizations took the plunge.

Today, the same thing seems to be happening with the use of social media in training.  

If you spend time on the Internet reading about technology, you can come away with the impression that everyone is using new methods and technology for staff education.  There are numerous articles on the Internet about integrating social media into training activities.  You may think that you are the only one not using mobile learning, discussion forums, blogging, video blogging, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or YouTube for your training activities.

As a learning professional or administrator responsible for staff training, you might think, “Am I doing the right things?  We don’t use Social Media to train our staff, we don’t have online discussion groups, we don’t post updates on Facebook or Twitter or have videos on YouTube for staff education or really even have any plans to.”

Some organizations even prohibit the use of social media at work.  How would your administrators feel if employees were updating their Facebook status during work hours?

The current hype around social media has led to the belief that every aspect of our lives is dependent upon social media.  For training organizations, this view of the world is similar to the hype when eLearning was first introduced.  The actual rate of adoption of eLearning was much slower than anticipated and it’s only now, some 15+ years later that most organizations are adopting eLearning and we see widespread usage.  Even now, HCCS works with organizations that are implementing online training for the first time.

So what methods are training professionals and administrators with staff education responsibilities actually using?  Funny you should ask!  It turns out that the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) recently compiled a survey asking those same questions.  And the results really aren’t that surprising, unless you believe the social media hype machine.

The survey shows that most organizations are using eLearning in the way that it was originally envisioned – self-paced learning environments where knowledge and skills are transferred and tested.  Tried and true eLearning methods developed over the last 15 years are still holding up well for the majority of staff learning activities.  The main improvement has been in the area of instructional design and interactivity.  eLearning is moving beyond static text and graphics to more engaging multimedia and interactive content.  Scenario-based learning also made an appearance in the most frequent current eLearning practices.

Click on the image above to see the "Most Frequently Occurring eLearning Practices" from the ASTD survey 

In addition, the survey asked about the future and what methods learning organizations believe they will be using.  According to the survey, the future of eLearning is even cloudier and more difficult to predict.  Of the top ten desirable future capabilities, not a single approach garnered even a 25% response rate.  What does that mean?  It means that most organizations are still getting comfortable with delivering high quality, cost effective online training to their staff in the “traditional” manner.  Most of the focus we see is on the development of engaging high quality multimedia content.  There will be a time for mobile learning, social media, blogging, etc. in staff training, but the tools and methodologies that make sense for most healthcare facilities need to mature.  If history is a guide, that time may still be many years in the future.