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From Resource, June 2006
Copyright by LOMA
Online
Learning--What’s in it for You?
Think online learning is
just another flashy gimmick, left over from the late-1990s dot-com feeding
frenzy? Maybe it’s time to take another look.
By Nick Desoutter,FLMI, AAPA,
PCS
Senior Associate, e-Learning Standards and Technology, LOMA
Most people who lived through the 1990s would probably agree that the Internet
was at least somewhat overhyped. After all, not enough people were willing to do
their grocery shopping over the Internet to save several now-defunct dot-com
companies. And what ever happened to that charming sock puppet who asked us to
buy pet supplies online? We haven’t seen him recently. Furthermore, reports of
the death of the shopping mall were greatly exaggerated. It turns out that many
people like to try on clothes before they buy them and to take them home that
day. In fact, apparently some people seem to enjoy going to the mall.
Nevertheless, the Internet has
profoundly changed life for most people. The mistake some pundits made was to
think that the Internet would change everything for
everybody. After the initial hype, we started to
find out—or figure out—who would use the Internet and for what purposes.
A smaller version of this saga
played out in the arena of corporate training, education, and professional
development. According to some of the loftier early predictions, online learning
was destined to render classrooms and books obsolete. Corporate trainers feared
for their jobs! As in the domain of Internet shopping, the online learning
futurists overreached with their initial predictions. Online learning clearly
has not spelled the death of the old ways, but it certainly has changed the
learning and development environment. Even now, training and development
professionals are in the process of discovering the types of learning situations
to which online learning is best suited, and what types of employees are most
likely to embrace online learning.
To investigate the evolving
role of online learning in corporate training and development in the insurance
and financial services industry, LOMA spoke to a variety of people who have
direct experience with the subject, including corporate training designers and
administrators—both at insurance companies and at insurance technology and
business solution providers—and learners. This article summarizes what they
had to say about the role of online learning at their companies.
One type of scenario in which
many companies find online learning to be indispensable is when the trainee
population is geographically dispersed. Such is the case with IBM’s insurance
group. IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with
approximately 329,000 employees. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key
Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and
technologies to clients, large and small, in the insurance industry. According
to Reena Batra, knowledge manager for IBM Global Insurance: “We have people
all over the world needing to get education on insurance.” In this business
reality, face-to-face training is costly and difficult and has therefore become
a rarity for IBM Global Insurance. IBM offers insurance education almost
entirely through online learning, taking advantage of LOMA’s online courses
and supplementing them with some courses created in-house as well as some Web
lectures.
The geographical dispersion of
the trainee population is also a factor in the growing appeal of online learning
at Sun Life Financial’s
U.S.
operation, according to Laura Gillenwater, FLMI, ACS, senior training
consultant and e-Learning specialist. “The big push toward online learning
came when we opened remote sites for customer service and insurance
administration in
Canada
and
Ireland
,” she said. In addition to reducing travel costs, online learning gives Sun
Life a way to achieve “consistency of message and delivery across sites.”
Although the opening of two
remote sites provided much of the initial impetus for Sun Life’s foray into
online learning, the company has realized other advantages from the online
delivery method. For one thing, online learning allows changes to training
material to be made efficiently and consistently for all audiences. In addition,
online learning has gone over well with the company’s trainers, according to
Gillenwater. Nevertheless, Sun Life has continued to deliver significant amounts
of its training through the traditional instructor-led method. The term
typically used for combining online learning with other types of pedagogical
approaches—such as instructor-led training—is “blended learning.”
Online learning “gives our
instructors some breathing space and added flexibility,” Gillenwater said.
Once instructors realize that online learning “isn’t going to put them out
of work, they love it. They realize it’s another tool they can use.”
In fact, Gillenwater added, it
sometimes turns out that the classes that are well-suited to online learning are
some of the ones the instructors didn’t particularly enjoy teaching.
Gillenwater said the format of these courses could be described as an
“information dump.” Employees are happier now that the material is available
in a more interactive, online format.
Shannon Scott, AAPA, PCS,
e-Learning specialist at Protective Life, agrees that information-heavy courses
work well in an online format. Although Protective continues to deliver the
majority of its training through an instructor-led approach, Scott said the
company favors online learning when it needs to get a lot of information out to
a lot of people quickly and track whether employees have completed the training.
Therefore, Protective has been using online learning for mandatory compliance
training on topics such as anti-money laundering and diversity.
It may be stating the obvious, but it is
still worth saying that not all online learning is created equal. Protective’s
Scott mentions the importance of finding or developing online learning that
engages the learner. Without such learner engagement, online learning is
unlikely to achieve its teaching objectives or be well-received by employees.
Sun Life’s Gillenwater stressed that the most important ingredient of
high-quality online learning is sound instructional design. Visual
attractiveness and the latest technology are nice extras, but it’s much more
important to ensure that the content is engaging, well-organized, well-written,
and “chunked” appropriately (in the e-Learning field, the word “chunk”
is often used to refer to the discrete modules into which learning content is
divided). Technology may enhance good instruction, but it can’t replace it.
When it comes to identifying the types of people that prefer learning online, it
may come as no surprise that the same people who make their living in the
electronic realm are more than comfortable with learning in an electronic
environment. The almost complete migration of IBM Global Insurance to online
learning would seem to support this contention, as does Sun Life’s Gillenwater:
“Systems folks love e-Learning. Most of them would be happy if they could do
all their learning that way.”
Gillenwater said she also believes that the age of her learner population has a
lot to do with their acceptance of e-Learning. Much of the learning her
department creates is for new-hire training in customer service and insurance
administration. Many of the employees are freshly out of college and relatively
young, with many of them having grown up with computers as an accepted part of
their lives. LOMA research supports the proposition that younger employees are
likely to be more accepting of online learning than older ones. In a survey
involving a pilot version of one of LOMA’s online courses, those aged 30 and
under were most likely to react favorably to the online course, with those aged
over 50 being the least likely to act favorably. However, it might be a mistake
to assume that only the young will accept online learning: The reaction to
e-Learning was generally positive for all age groups.
Your organization’s approach to online learning could mean taking the route of
blended learning, as Sun Life and Protective have done; or it could mean
following IBM Global Insurance’s example and embracing it as the be-all and
end-all of your learning solution. But whatever approach you choose, your
decision should be based on three factors: the nature of your business
situation, the type of training you need to provide, and your employee
population. However, evidence suggests that good online learning that is used in
the appropriate situation will be successful and well-received. Batra points to
a high participation rate and a high number of repeat customers as evidence of
the success of online learning at IBM Global Insurance. In addition, Gillenwater
said she has witnessed firsthand how learners and trainers embrace the role of
e-Learning in Sun Life’s new hire training program, and Scott said employees
at Protective enjoy the ability to study at their own pace, either at work or at
home.
LOMA’s experience with its own program seems to confirm the potential of
online learning. Of the initial group of employees that studied and took the
exam for the online version of LOMA’s course 280, Principles
of Insurance: Life, Health, and Annuities or course 290, Insurance
Company Operations, in the first quarter of 2006—the first quarter that
both were available online—all the employees said they would take their next
LOMA designation course online if it were available. One employee admitted that
he signed up for the online version of LOMA 290 by accident, thinking he was
ordering the textbook. When he realized his mistake, he decided to go ahead and
try it. Now that he has completed the online course, he says he is “raving
about it to his co-workers.” The employees who were surveyed said the facets
of LOMA’s online courses that they enjoyed include the easy access without the
need to carry around a heavy textbook, the repeated practice exercises, the
concise writing style, the small chunks of information that accommodated the
small and scattered chunks of time they had available to study, and the ability
to easily find where they had left off studying after they had been interrupted,
among other factors.
So if you were skeptical of the “irrational exuberance” surrounding online
learning back in the heady days of the dot-com craze, you may have been wise.
But while online learning is unlikely to displace all other types of
instruction, it does have an important place in the learning environment, today
and in the future.
*****
For more information about LOMA’s online courses, please e-mail lomalearn@loma.org;
call 1-800-ASK-LOMA, option 1; or visit www.lomalearn.org.
*****
SIDEBAR:
About LOMALearn Online
LOMALearn
Online offers LOMA’s award-winning content in an online format that is
convenient, cost effective, and flexible to meet both individual learning goals
and organizational performance needs.
Advantages
for Students …
LOMALearn Online is the
e-Learning solution for busy professionals who are looking for a self-directed
learning experience that offers complete flexibility without sacrificing content
quality. Specific advantages include:
In-Depth Training
LOMALearn Online is the
one-stop shop for all of your professional development needs, with an extensive
library featuring over 180 courses developed by the industry’s leading
educators.
Flexibility and Convenience
LOMALearn Online allows you to
learn on your own schedule, offering 24/7, on-demand access to all courses.
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LOMALearn Online provides a
self-paced learning experience to help you reach attainable goals quickly and
easily.
Interactive Learning
LOMALearn Online engages you
with an interactive format that reinforces your understanding of course material
through a variety of activities, demonstrations, and games.
Online Testing
LOMALearn Online allows you to
measure your learning quickly and effectively through online tests that provide
instant feedback.
Advantages for Companies …
If managing your
organization’s learning and development programs is a challenge, consider
LOMALearn Online as a solution. As a leader in delivering learning solutions to
financial services organizations around the world, LOMA can help you implement a
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Extensive Course Catalog
Whether your organization needs
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interpersonal skills, LOMALearn Online offers customizable, ready-to-use content
to address your specific needs.
Customizable Learning—
On Demand
Custom programs are
made-to-order, and development and delivery is fast and easy. If there is a
topic covered in a course that doesn’t fit your product mix, we can modify the
course so that the topics covered match the products your organization sells and
services. Plus, with online delivery, you can reach employees spread over
multiple locations at a lower cost than classroom training.
Learning Management System
LOMA understands the need for
organizations that have their own Learning Management System (LMS) to provide a
common central access point for its learners. To this end, we offer an LMS
integration solution that allows companies to leverage their LMS investment by
accessing LOMALearn Online content directly. Learners are able to launch
LOMALearn Online courses and view course progress seamlessly from their
organization’s LMS application.
Organizations
without an LMS can utilize LOMA’s powerful LMS to provide unprecedented levels
of course delivery and exam tracking to ensure training is completed in a timely
manner, all through one interface.
Custom Web Portal
Development
LOMA can create a custom Web
site for your organization’s exclusive use to make a strong brand impact with
e-Learning in your organization. Your e-Learning site may include your logo,
custom product catalogs, registration steps, and additional information tailored
to your organization’s needs.
Find out more about
LOMALearn Online and how you can
Click a
little…….Learn a lot!
Contact lomalearn@loma.org
Call 1-800-ASK-LOMA, option 1
or visit www.lomalearn.org
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