How E-Learning

-XCH A N
Professionals Learn About E-Learning http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/mar2003/cross.htm
-XCH A N
F GE F GE
PD PD

!
W

W
O

O
N

N
y

y
bu

bu
to

to
k

k
lic

lic
C

C
w

w
m

m
w w
w

w
o

o
.d o .c .d o .c
c u-tr a c k c u-tr a c k

How E-Learning Professionals Learn About E-Learning

By Jay Cross Jay Cross is co-author of
Implementing E-Learning and
Learning Circuits Blog facilitator Jay Cross recently asked readers about their informal principal of the Internet Time
learning practices. Here's what respondents had to say.
Group.
Many of us dedicate a lot of time implementing e-learning to help our colleagues learn. Are
we eating our own dog food? Or, more politely, do we eat our own cooking?

Marc Rosenberg, Allison Rossett, and Bill Horton have taught me a lot about e-learning. I’ve
read their books, attended their presentations, and kept up with their articles. In the closing
session at ASTD TechKnowledge 2004 in Orlando, Lance Dublin asked Marc, Allison, and
Bill how they learn about our ever-changing field. Marc’s most important source of
information is email from friends and colleagues. Allison relies on listservs and mailing lists.
Bill is wary of starry-eyed evangelists, so he likes to try things out on his own machines.

Think about it. How do you learn what’s happening? What sources do you trust? What’s
important to you? Conferences? Books? Articles? Email? Colleagues? Blogs?

Recently, I asked readers of the Learning Circuits Blog how they keep up with what's going
on in e-learning. Here’s how readers rated the importance of various sources of information
about learning and e-learning.

Most Important Least Important

• friends or colleagues • supplier guidance

• Google • e-learning courses
• Learning Circuits (of course!) • mentors or bosses
• email and listservs • magazines
• blogs • conference sessions
• books
• peer interaction at
conferences--between sessions

It’s important to note that only eighteen people participated in the survey. Granted, that’s a
small sample, but the results are sufficiently clear-cut to suggest that they’re reliable. But
how representative are these findings? When you take an online survey, it’s hardly a surprise
to attract people who value gathering information online. For example, we wouldn’t have
found as many people who hated conferences if we had waited to conduct the survey at
ASTD International Conference & Exposition 2004 in San Diego. Therefore, it stands to
reason that people who read the LC Blog value blogs more than conferences and
magazines as important information sources.

Here’s a closer look at some of their comments about specific information sources.

Most of the respondents said that they place a higher value on information from individuals:
friends, fellow bloggers, authors, and people who send them email or that they meet at
conference. As a group, they didn’t put much stock in information from organizations:
suppliers, magazines, and conference sessions. Note: E-learning courses and
mentors/bosses ranked low in part because half of the respondents marked them as “Not
Applicable.”

What’s even more interesting but not surprising is that with the exception of books, the most
important sources are all free. For example, Saba, Docent, SmartForce, NetG, Click2Learn,
DigitalThink, IBM, and dozens of other suppliers have poured plenty of money into teaching
buyers about how to be informed e-learning consumers. But it appears that suppliers can’t
buy credibility. Advice to suppliers from poll participants: Read and live The Cluetrain

1 of 2 1/8/2005 10:49 AM
How E-Learning
-XCH A N
Professionals Learn About E-Learning http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/mar2003/cross.htm
-XCH A N
F GE F GE
PD PD

!
W

W
O

O
N

N
y

y
bu

bu
Manifesto, and talk with customers and prospects in a tone they will understand and
to

to
k

k
appreciate. Start a useful blog of your own, but don’t let the sales department write it! Spend
lic

lic
C

C
w

w
m

m
w w
w

w
o

o
.d o .c .d o .c
c u - t rfewer
ack resources on hype and more on developing research and white papers. c u-tr a c k

Not to toot our own horn (but why not?), Learning Circuits, which carries little in the way of
advertising, is ranked higher than magazines such as Training, T+D, and e-learning, which
are chock full of ads. And for the most part, because it’s online, Learning Circuits is able to
distribute information faster than print publications.

In addition, the survey asked about the importance of some specific blogs, including Stephen
Downes’s OLDaily, e-learningpost, Internet Time Blog, and elearnspace. This question led
to an apples-and-oranges comparison about individual blogs compared to all magazines as
a category. Three-quarters of the respondents seemed to value blogs as information
sources. They stated that blog are responsive and capsulate reviews and opinions that save
the readers time. Stephen Downes’s OLDaily received the most praise for cogent pointers
and balanced opinions. Several people noted that e-learningpost is particularly good. Ed
Tech, elearnspace, and Kairosnews were also mentioned.

With regards to printed sources, there was little agreement beyond recognizing that there’s
no single source. Whitepapers, T+D, e-learning, Fast Company, Wired, Harvard Business
Review, and O’Reilly technical books were mentioned. Other recommended books were

E-Learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age by Marc J.

Rosenberg
The ASTD e-Learning Handbook : Best Practices, Strategies, and Case Studies for
an Emerging Field by Allison Rossett
Planning and Design for High-Tech Web-based Training by David E. Stone,
Constance L. Koskinen
Designing Effective Instruction by Jerrold E. Kemp, Steven Ross, Gary R. Morrison

Conferences in general took a beating. Indeed, one respondent exclaimed, “I hate

conferences. All of them.” However, Training Directors Forum and TechLearn were praised
for being less “vendor-like.” Online Educa in Berlin was praised for being small yet able to
cover the important fields.

Bottom line
How can those involved in e-learning stay up to speed? Poll participants recommend the
following:

Read blogs. Write a blog. Start a group consolidation blog. Get a syndicated
blog-feed.
Subscribe to e-learning mail lists.
Scan lots of Websites every day.

Most importantly, develop a network of people you trust, and share information with them.

Published: March 10, 2003

2 of 2 1/8/2005 10:49 AM