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From Resource,
June 2005
Copyright by LOMA
LOMA's e-Learning Courses Break
New Ground
Online
learning is growing in popularity. Reaction to a prototype LOMA designation course
was very favorable.
By Jean Gora
Manager, LOMA Research
With the growth in popularity and availability of online learning, or e-Learning, LOMA has committed to putting its paper-based education content online. To gauge customer readiness and enthusiasm for e-Learning, last fall LOMA recruited more than 150 employees from 29 LOMA member companies to test a pilot e-Learning lesson based on a chapter of LOMA 280-Principles of Insurance: Life, Health, and Annuities. After viewing the prototype, the test subjects completed a survey and shared their reactions about the experience. The results were strongly favorable.
According to Nick Desoutter, FLMIS, LOMA Senior Associate involved in shaping LOMA's approach to online learning, one purpose of the pilot test was to help LOMA create online courses that provide an enjoyable, interesting, and valuable learning experience. "We feel like we are breaking new ground in several ways," explained Desoutter. "e-Learning is still a new concept for many people. And further, most of the e-Learning currently available is process-based-it teaches the learner how to do something-rather than information-based, like most LOMA courses. Before we hurled ourselves headlong into producing e-Learning, we wanted to see if our ideas resonated with our potential audience."
Pilot Test Results
LOMA's primary point of interest regarding online courses was "Will people take them?" So, the survey asked the test participants to indicate whether they would rather take a LOMA course composed of a series of online lessons or the traditional textbook version. Both formats lead to the same examination. About twice as many respondents (58%) indicated a preference for the online course as for the textbook version (29%). The remainder was undecided. Among testers younger than 30 years old, 70% preferred the online course vs. 26% who preferred the textbook version. Those over 50 were evenly split (41% vs. 41%) over online versus textbook.
Survey respondents-even those who preferred traditional paper texts-were overwhelmingly complimentary about the online learning experience. Nine out of 10 students (87%) thought the interactive features were valuable compared to a text-based lesson. Nine out of 10 (89%) reported that the presentation of information held their interest throughout the lesson. More than four out of five (84%) said the courses enabled them to master content.
In addition, testers provided a number of enthusiastic comments. "Very few people had strong negative feelings about the pilot lesson," said Desoutter. Most respondents who preferred paper textbooks mentioned practical reasons. Some cited a lack of access to a computer in their preferred study location (commuter train, vanpool, favorite "comfy chair," and so on). Others did not want to study online after spending much of the workday facing a computer. LOMA will continue to offer paper-based versions of all courses for the foreseeable future, even as the catalog of online offerings grows.
e-Learning Advantages
e-Learning offers numerous advantages to companies and their employees. For companies, e-Learning presents a relatively low-cost way to upgrade employee skills and integrate employee training into the company's competency models and performance management systems. As discussed below, LOMA is modifying its course content to help companies take advantage of these opportunities.
For students, computer-based learning provides for an active and dynamic learning experience. For example, the LOMA 280 textbook discusses the process of determining the correct recipient of a life insurance benefit when the insured dies. In the online pilot lesson, this discussion morphed into an interactive flowchart with multiple branches so that students could investigate various scenarios based on which beneficiary(ies) had or had not been named and had or had not survived the insured.
Further, on-screen animations can reinforce concepts that can only be described or illustrated statically on the printed page. In the pilot lesson, for example, animation was used to illustrate the various cash flows in and out of a financial services company.
An advantage cited frequently by test participants was the ability to scatter practice exercises throughout the online lesson for immediate assessment and feedback. Using the printed version of a course, a student would have to refer back and forth between the textbook and a separate test preparation guide containing exercises and practice questions. Finally, online learning lends itself to game-based learning. Research shows that presenting learning in the form of a game or a challenge increases retention. The LOMA pilot lesson included a game modeled on a popular television quiz show.
Next Steps
LOMA is launching an enhanced LOMALearn e-Learning portal in the fourth quarter of this year. The new site will feature LOMA's first online designation program course, LOMA 290-Insurance Company Operations, as well as several new learning tools and administrative capabilities. LOMA will continue to offer the courses available on the current LOMALearn in conjunction with partner RegEd, Inc., the leading provider of complete online compliance solutions for financial professionals. New designation courses will become available regularly, beginning with LOMA 280 by the fourth quarter of 2005.
With an eye to future learning, LOMA is developing its content in such a way as to be able to provide customized learning solutions that fit the specific needs of member companies. Each online course will be composed of reusable learning objects, which are independent learning modules that can stand alone or be repackaged with other modules to create entirely new courses or meet new learning needs. Companies will be able to purchase specific modules or full courses, to mix and match topics, and to customize LOMA offerings to match their specific business requirements.
This modularization also facilitates just-in-time learning. With just-in-time learning, an employee who has an urgent need to learn a specific bit of knowledge can call up the relevant learning module. Just-in-time learning improves knowledge retention because employees can immediately apply what they learn. LOMA is also developing its content to permit integration into company competency models and performance management systems. The lessons in every course will include pre-tests and post-tests. The pre-tests identify students who have already mastered the competencies developed in each lesson; if a company so chooses, these students can be excused from taking the course or lesson(s) that they have already mastered. The post-test indicates whether the students who have taken the lesson have gained new competencies; the company's performance management system can be updated accordingly. LOMA can also help companies develop their own competency models.
LOMA Partners with
WBT Systems to Offer
e-Learning Solution
LOMA's new e-learning initiative necessitated a new Learning Management System/Learning Content Management System (LMS/LCMS). After an extensive search, LOMA selected Dublin, Ireland-based WBT Systems as its LMS/LCMS partner in early 2005. WBT comes highly regarded. The company is recognized as a leader in both the e-Learning Suite and LMS Magic Quadrant Reports by the Gartner Group. In addition, a recent survey of 660 e-learning systems administrators and training managers gave WBT Systems the highest rating of all mid-market e-learning vendors with respect to overall satisfaction, quality of implementation, quality of implementation services, ease of ownership, quality of content integration, and quality of HR integration. [Bersin and Associates: LMS Customer Satisfaction 2005: Industry Analysis of the Customer Experience with Learning Management Systems; March 2005, Version 8.04]
WBT Systems already has a large, global, financial services customer base. Credit Suisse, the World Bank, Basler Insurance, the Liberty Group, and others are major users of WBT's products. The World Bank is using WBT to deliver training to 36,000 people in 109 countries. Credit Suisse integrates its online courses into its competency model.
The LOMA-WBT partnership will accommodate different levels of e-Learning management and content needs from clients. Companies with their own internal learning management systems will be able to license LOMA's online courses and offer them through their internal systems. Companies without their own learning management systems can work with LOMA in a number of ways. A company can send students to the central LOMALearn Web site, where students can take courses and tests. Alternatively, a company can use LOMA as an application service provider to set up a privately branded e-Learning Web site. Eventually, companies will be able to customize LOMA content to make it company-specific and/or to add their own e-Learning content to LOMA's content.
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