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The First Wave of e-Learning
In 1995, a few learning professionals with a passion for technology in learning were listening to a multimedia-based presentation led by Brandon Hall, who heads one of today’s leading e-learning research companies. The participants had worked on CD-ROM-based training in the United States and Europe and were interested in knowing more about the latest technologies and applications. Brandon Hall presented his latest CD-ROM library and shuffled one CD-ROM after another into his computer. Everybody was excited with the level of instructional design and different applications. This alone characterized the status of technology-based learning in that year; no word was said about the use of the Internet for future technology-based learning. In 1996, the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) devoted only one workshop during their annual seminar to Internet-based training. However, 1996 was really the launch of a deeper and broader interest in the application of e-learning to training and development requirements. In fact, the first article on Internet-Based Training appeared in Training Magazine in 1997, the same year that Elliott Masie founded the TechLearn Conference. A new industry was born! New e-learning vendors, backed up by an infusion of venture capital and the dream of a successful initial public offering (IPO), sprung up everywhere offering solutions, such as learning management systems, authoring tools, portals, academic degree programs, and testing and assessment tools. The height of the e-learning visibility hype was in 2000 when John Chambers, the Chairman of Cisco Systems, Inc., declared that “e-learning is the next killer app.” At seminars, sales demonstrations, and in magazines, everybody could learn about the new paradigm: e-learning! At that time, exuberant predictions of e-learning impact and anticipated results were expressed, including:
All classroom training will be replaced by e-learning.
It is very easy and cheap to design and develop e-learning courseware.
e-Learning technologies are easy to use and integrate.
e-Learning technology infrastructure is easy to implement.
Employees from almost all cultures like e-learning.
e-Learning is mostly about how to use technology.
Significant costs savings can be made by adoption of e-learning.
The e-learning market will at least quadruple annually.
Many organizations quickly jumped on the e-learning bandwagon and purchased and/or developed their first generation of e-learning technologies and courseware. The e-learning market grew from a few million dollars in 1995, to US$3.4 billion worldwide in 2000 (IDC 2003). These were amazing results for such a new industry, but the data did not support the over-hyped expectations projected earlier for the industry. The stock market fell sharply in 2000, followed by a crash of stock prices in 2001, and the decline continued in 2002. The economy slowed down, venture capital disappeared, and many e-learning vendors had to close their door because of shortfalls in planned revenue and/or lack of profitability and future growth probabilities. The consolidation in the e-learning industry had started. A time flow depicted in Chief Learning Officer (CLO) magazine, and shown in Figure 1-1, illustrates this progression through the stages of early excitement, inflated expectations, and gradual disappointment into the trough of disillusionment that was experienced in 2002.
Figure 1-1: e-Learning Visibility Hype 1996 to 2002
The last event in the time flow is the merger in the e-learning industry between SmartForce and SkillSoft in 2002. This merger created the largest global e-learning vendor in the industry, and it is viewed by CLO magazine as the beginning of the trend toward Enlightenment and Productivity. It is the premise of this Fieldbook that this view of the future is accurate, and that the experiences and contributions of the 25 case study organizations verify this upward lift.
What did we learn during the intervening years about the application of e-learning to training and development initiatives in enterprises around the world that is now allowing us to move into this period of productivity? During the first wave of e-learning, research was undertaken and published by institutions such as The Masie Center, ASTD, Brandon-Hall, and market researchers including IDC, Gartner, Forrester, and Eduventures. This research and a significant number of case studies have provided us with valuable insights and intelligence from these experiences in developing and deploying e-learning. It is the hope of the author of this Fieldbook, that the dedication and hard work of the e-learning pioneers recounted in the company cases will add to this body of knowledge on when, how, and why to employ e-learning to best advantage.
