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eLearning and ‘soft’ skills To the eLearning Network (www.elearningnetwork.org) conference “Can soft skills be delivered effectively using eLearning?”: a day of definition, demonstration and discussion. ‘Soft skills’ - imprecise, but in Dr Peter Honey's framework could embrace skills with ideas and skills with people. That's why I went: because most of what we might want to achieve in nurturing growth in the ministry of whole people of God is certainly ‘soft’ rather than ‘hard’ (Honey's “skills with things”). Donald Clark, CEO of Epic (an eLearning developer) argued a broad “yes” to the title question. ELearning is ideal for soft skills because it offers the opportunity to practice handling scenarios over again, video and audio are easy to use and “... the machine is anonymous” - people are more willing to risk making mistakes when interacting with a computer. He described a number of examples in the fields of sales, recruitment interviewing, appraisal and counselling. His demonstration was, however, disappointing - training UK Department of Work and Pensions staff to interview clients. The learning system used video followed by a multi-choice question and a simple branching program with little remedial teaching, the only interaction being between learner and machine. A head-to-head between an eLearning specialist and an industrial psychologist led to agreement that there are limitations to eLearning soft skills, in particular in regard to the nuances of the inter-personal, but that there is much that can be done and value for money is very high. Peter Honey's following presentation chimed. Mastering any skill is a 5-stage process, he suggested. ELearning (particularly if blended with some face-to-face) can take people from novice through beginner to competent (‘conscious competence’). But proficiency and mastery (‘unconscious competence’) require real-life practice with timely feedback. I found much common cause with Peter Bentley (Shell, working with the OU), developing material for use in 100 countries, in a context summarised by: “the learner in today's corporate world doesn't have the time to learn, and there isn't the budget.” He spoke of technical, business and people skills, the latter two being ‘soft’. Each ‘Shell learning nugget’ has a clearly defined learning outcome and leads to an investigative or practice activity of some kind, with feedback expected. A nugget needs to be long enough to engage the learner, introduce something new, and brief the activity. Research has shown that 20 minutes is about the right length. Video material (which would take forever to download in the many parts of the world where connections are of limited bandwidth) is not used, and everything is written in English as if it is the learner's second language. A great deal of coaching and mentoring takes place, with course staff responding to learners’ findings and responses on a flexible individualised basis - sometimes on-line, sometimes by telephone, sometimes by contacting a local manager or aide. Success is evidenced by Shell's often learning-averse oilmen (sic) now wanting learning. Things here to encourage current eLearning practice in adult Christian education, as well as some ideas for the future.
Yours in Christ, |
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