I have been in the training profession for the last 22 years. I started working as a training clerk in a statutory board known as Chartered Industries of Singapore Pte Ltd. I was then promoted to an Assistant Training Officer when I left this organization in 1990. During my initial 12 years of service with this organization, my achievements are conducting stand-up computer training for employees from operators to middle managers. In 1991, I was then headhunted to join Caterpillar Asia Pte Ltd that is my current employer. Having worked in Caterpillar for the last 10 years, I was promoted six times from training administrator to a Human Resource Development Manager.

My career achievements include developing and design management development program i.e. CDL2000; administering middle management program such as ‘Management for the 21^st Century’ program that is collaborating with Bradley-University in Illinois, USA; design and developing annual total company training plan and deliver training programs; initiated People Developer Standards to the organization drive by the Singapore Productivity & Standards Board and involved in company-wide organization development initiatives such as Business Process Improvements that helped the organization achieved US$5.2 million in this effort and facilitated the Employee Satisfaction Survey with working with Senior Management to develop action plan annually.

Recently, I was promoted again to a Senior Learning Consultant joining the Caterpillar University that was formed in February 2001. One of the charter of the university is to build a continual learning organization. I hope to take on greater challenges and contribute to this charter.

Both Ebnu Etheris and myself are joining as a team to complete this assignment. While Ebnu’s strengths are in web development, he has been nice to take on the leading role in designing and completing the multimedia resource below.

http://www.geocities.com/ebnuarabi/

So, you may be wondering what I do then. We discussed as a team and decided that I played the role of a learner receiving this information via e-learning. My written assignment below will covers two main parts. The first part will feature my learning based on the learner’s perspective when I received the above information on-line. The second part will cover our reflection team learning experience when we design, develop and complete the multimedia as a two-person team. This includes my critique as a learner.

Why learner like myself sometimes hesitates to do e-learning? This is because of the following concern as a learner.

• No one to answer my questions

• Who can I turn to for assistance if I have any questions during learning?

• No one to validate my learning

• So what if I have completed the training. Who will validate my learning?

• Fear of technology (depending on my knowledge proficiency)

• What if while learning, I’m stuck with the technicalities of technology. Who could help me then? Else I’ll be frustrated and will choose to stop learning then.

• Weakness in reading, writing or even typing skills

• Is my language proficiency good enough to go through the e-learning lessons? What if I don’t understand the meaning of the words provided?

To conclude the above learner’s concern, I felt that the website designed by us was informational enough but lacks interactivity. It would be ideal to add in audio and video to illustrate some adventurous training. But in view of resource constraints in terms of money, manpower, expertise, tools and equipment etc., we are unable to achieve this. However, these are challenges faced by many organizations while trying to introduce e-learning. The initial investment is definitely high but in the long run it may be more cost-effective.

• Poor design

• I must say that our website’s design is pretty good. It is important to ensure good design to get learner motivated to start going.

• Failure to understand the new medium

• Is e-learning the best medium or the only media? Or should it be a combination of different methodologies. In our case, using this website is not enough. E-learning will not be effective without any hands-on experiences with adventurous training. Hence, e-learning may serve as a pre-course informational knowledge prior to field training. This way, learning would be more effective.

• Not considering a variety of learning styles

• Learning styles (visual learning or learning through seeing, auditory learning or learning through hearing and kinesthetic learning or learning through physical activities. As stated by Alan Mumford (1995), "The learning styles model proposes that these individual reactions to the same learning experience are strongly associated with the four stages of the learning cycle. Activists will learn best from activities where they can engross themselves in short here-and-now activities such as business games and competitive teamwork tasks. Reflectors learn best from activities where they are able to stand back from events and listen and observe." Being an activists learner myself, I know that just visiting the website is not enough for me. I need field training to help reinforce my learning. Hence when designing e-learning, we need to be sensitive to a variety of learners’ learning styles. This way, we could design something more effective.

• Lack of supporting systems (technical capabilities and human coaching)

• First question would then be, "Is my computer capable to help me run e-learning?" If it is, who can help me if I run into the technical difficulties? Is my computer knowledge skillful enough to handle any technical capabilities issue? Do I have a computer coach when faced with problems? These are always questions learners have prior to taking their first step in e-learning. Sometimes learner are self-selecting content needs as well. At the same time, with e-learning there is no accountability for performance and managers are also not engaged in employees’ learning. Then, what motivates learners?

Basically, the web page is easy to read. At the end of surfing, I have a better understanding of Adventurous Learning. At the same time, I can feel the author’s passion in wanting to share his facilitation experience in this field. Again, is e-learning appropriate and most effective to deliver in this context or a face-to-face interaction training would be preferred. The answer is clear.

While such training is effective with both e-learning and interaction methodology, having cognitive knowledge is not enough. After I have visited the site, I can only acquire the knowledge i.e. cognitive domain which may not addresses my total learning outcome. Hence, when using e-learning, we must be mindful of the training context.

The other aspects that we need to understand adult learning theory on how adult learns. As stated by Knowles, "Andragogy makes the following assumptions about the design of learning: (1) Adults need to know why they need to learn something (2) Adults need to learn experientially, (3) Adults approach learning as problem-solving, and (4) Adults learn best when the topic is of immediate value." With this, I would expect to be given the opportunity to practice what I learned. This is especially so with adventurous training. This is true for me. While the web page shows some interesting picture to illustrate the fun of training. As an adult learner, I expect myself to be trying out those activities as illustrated. For training effectiveness, I believe this program should cover both experiential training (face-to-face) and e-learning to achieve its effectiveness.

Another issue we need to address is assessing the learner’s learning preference. I am a basically a concrete experiential learner. That means, I learnt best through experience. With my kind of learning preference, it would be ideal for me to gain the cognitive knowledge about facilitation via web site and get the actual field adventurous training. This way, I would learned much faster and grasp better as a learner.

Being a novice in web development like us, I think we have acquired some basic skills. This experience has motivated me to think of attending web design/development program after our BET program to acquire more technical expertise in this subject. With this, I would like to thank Ebnu again for his creative design and our great teamwork. 

Website: http://tip.psychology.org/knowles.html

Mumford, Alan (1995). Putting learning styles to work: an integrated approach. Industrial and Commercial Training, 27 (8), 28-35