Has the age of e-Learning 2.0 arrived? If so, why should you care? The technologies such as blogs and wikis that are known as Web 2.0 make it possible to turn Brian’s advice into reality. In this article, Laura Ross explores how and why to make best use of these technologies in the interests of both your learners and your organisation. I’m sure you’ll find her ideas stimulating and challenging.

1. 22
Vive la Révolution: e-Learning 2.0
What does 2.0 mean?
If you haven’t heard of e-Learning 2.0 yet, you soon will. The e-learning industry is part of a wider social
and cultural revolution that is fast determining the way we access, share and create information. That
revolution has its origin in the term Web 2.0.
Web 2.0 started as just a whisper among media folk back in 2004, but now it is a cry of deafening
proportions in almost every technology-based industry. Everyone is talking about it, from the most junior
programmer to the biggest movers and shakers in software development. And it isn’t a technological
revolution that has brought this about, but a social one.
Advance, © Saffron Interactive 2008 1

2. So the term itself is a little misleading – there’s show you that this is no longer the case. The
no real update as such to the World Wide Web, Times website, hardly holding true to its printed
but rather in the ways in which people are using page roots, offers blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, news
it. Of course, there have been advances and feeds and mobile news.
improvements to software, but that is almost
incidental to a wider cultural change. Anyone, Let’s take blogs as an example of how Web 2.0
not just software developers, can now make their works. Taken from the shortening of the term
mark on websites. ‘weblog’, blogs are a lot more than the simple diaries
their name would suggest. An entry by the blogger
Originally, the web used one-directional is not the end point for transfer of information, but
communication similar to that used by other actually the start. It is a stimulus to a wider debate.
media. So an individual or organisation would set Readers can make comments; subsequent visitors
up a website containing information. That would to the site can post a response to those comments
then be taken in by readers and the process would just as easily as they can to the original content of
stop. Knowledge flow from publisher to consumer the blog. When you consider that many of these
for the most part ended there. It’s perhaps not posts will contain links to other blogs, websites
quite as clear cut as that – a reader could forward and articles, the scale of the information being
some of the information to a friend, or email the shared becomes truly staggering. All of that comes
creator of the webpage if that facility were available. from a single starting point, and the Times website
Even accounting for that, the number of lines of alone currently has more than 30 active blogs. For
communication any one of those starting
was small, and not points, what unites the
visible to other contributors? Nothing
readers. But now? more (or less) than an
Browsing through interest in a particular topic
many popular and a willingness to share
websites will quickly their knowledge and opinion.
2 Advance, © Saffron Interactive 2008

3. What is the result of all this?
Web 2.0 represents a steady but seemingly unstoppable move away from publisher created content to user-
contributed content. It is a shift from one-to-many to many-to-many communication. Each blog has the potential
to be a community, a network of people involved in multi-directional sharing of data, information and opinion.
This interactive capability is seen by many as the defining characteristic of Web 2.0.
Social networking takes this idea further. Sites such as Facebook have enjoyed stunning growth since their
inception. Facebook itself began as a simple communication tool just for Harvard University students but
via other universities, first in America then
each blog has the potential to be a community,
abroad, it has become a truly worldwide
a network of people involved in multi-directional
online community. One number perhaps
sharing of data, information and opinion
helps to illustrate the point – there are
more than 70 million active users of Facebook worldwide. And there can be little doubting its user-contributed
credentials. Since it became open source, many thousands of applications have been developed by users. Some
of them sink without a trace, while many people will testify that others are infuriatingly ubiquitous. Either
way, there is a clear and widespread willingness to be involved and contribute to something that has long since
passed out of its original owner’s practical control and is now in the hands of all of its users.
So where does e-learning fit into to this?
e-Learning has long followed in the footsteps of web innovation so it hasn’t taken long for those in the industry
to start asking what does this mean for e-learning? With the ever increasing emphasis on interactivity and learner
participation, people are asking how can we use the features of Web 2.0 to progress e-learning? This has led to the
coining of the phrase ‘e-Learning 2.0’. The first question to ask is can e-learning realistically follow in the footsteps
of Web 2.0; the second is why should those in our industry want this to happen? The first of these questions is
the easier to answer. As the change that has occurred in web use is predominantly a social one, rather than a
technological one, there is no practical reason why e-Learning 2.0 cannot become a reality. In fact, there is an
established base of potential learners who need no introduction to blogging, social networking and the like; by now
it is a part of their everyday lives. The groundwork has already been done by Web 2.0, so e-learning just needs
to take advantage of that.
The very fact that e-Learning 2.0 is new is also a big factor in its favour. Being able to introduce a learning topic
in a previously unseen fashion can do much to dispel e-learning fatigue – the learners’ feeling that they have seen
and done something much like this before. With e-Learning 2.0 learners are receiving information from a variety
of sources and are then able to share and expand upon it in ways they haven’t been able to before. With a Web
2.0 savvy target group, there is no reason why this communication should stop.
Advance, © Saffron Interactive 2008 3

4. Apart from novelty value, what can 2.0 add to
e-learning?
So, we’ve established that there is no reason why e-Learning 2.0 cannot become a reality. Let’s move on to
consider why this would be desirable for those in our industry.
It has long been known that people learn best when they are motivated to teach themselves and, crucially, to
teach others. Our aim as training professionals should be to cultivate a community of self-motivated learners and
teachers. How to create such a community in a business environment has hitherto eluded trainers the world
over; e-Learning 2.0 has the potential to change that. For the first time we have a viable way of establishing and
maintaining a community of learners, a community actively posting and sharing information in a self-perpetuating
learning environment.
Establishing a community of learner-teachers is all very well but what exactly will they be learning? With so much
technology at our disposal and so many possible ways of utilising it, how do we begin to make the best use of
it? The starting point, as with any training solution, has to be the learner. e-Learning 2.0, like any other training
programme, can only be truly effective at the point where a business need intersects with an individual’s desire
for personal development. This is where the innovations of Web 2.0 offer clear advantages. In the same way that a
blog acts as a springboard for further discussion, so can a business direct the learning of its employees who strive
to develop professionally. And it can do this in a manner that is engaging, flexible and ongoing.
What would an e-Learning 2.0 training
programme look like?
As a training mechanism, e-Learning 2.0 is still at an experimental stage and we are not yet in position to say with
any certainty what will work as a learning tool and what will not. One thing that is certain however is that, above
all, e-Learning 2.0 is blended learning, taking advantage of many different forms of communication.
Let’s look at an example of what an e-Learning 2.0 course could look like. The course will be on project
management, a clear case of business need allied to personal development. Both company and learners stand to
gain from an effective learning programme and so there is already a high level of motivation. An e-Learning 2.0
course can take advantage of that and build upon it by doing things that conventional e-learning courses do not.
4 Advance, © Saffron Interactive 2008

5. This could start with a podcast, referenceware and can test a learner’s knowledge immediately after a
a corporate wiki, sent to learners to give them a programme, but does that test behaviour or just
taste of things to come. This can be followed by memory? Even if you then test the learners again at a
a more traditional later date, in most cases,
if you can see learners continuing to share
e-learning course, it is probably the latter.
information long after they have finished
where learners If you measure effects
a program it shows that the learning has
can build up a solid on the business, you can
made an impact
knowledge base. And never be sure exactly
that is normally the end of an e-learning course. A what factors are influencing your figures. But if you
knowledge base is established and the learners are can see learners continuing to share information long
then left to their own devices. after they have finished a programme, it shows that
the learning has made an impact and is continuing
The challenge is then to continue the learning to do so.
process and here e-Learning 2.0 can replicate some
elements of classroom training. Social networking The effectiveness of the training can be further
or blogging leads to discussion, which can then be assessed by observing the nature and content of the
formalised into group work, to be presented in a online discussions. A trainer will be able to see at a
classroom session. Once this is finished, there is glance how learners have interpreted the content of
no reason for this sharing of information to stop. the training programme and to what extent that is a
Discussion should continue, perhaps aided by reflection of what was intended.
further podcasts, with learners continuing to share
So e-Learning 2.0
their opinions and experiences.
To maximise the potential of interactivity, those who is the trainer’s Holy
have finished the course can act as mentors to those
learners partway through. And with the technology Grail?
at their disposal and the social phenomenon of
online communities, the location and schedule of Despite its many advantages, e-Learning 2.0 is not
mentors and learners is no longer an obstacle. the answer to every training need. If it is to be
effective, it must be used in the right way and, at this
That vision would also go some way to solving one stage, we do not yet know what that right way is.
of the problems of e-learning: how do you know
it’s working? It is notoriously difficult to judge the The first thing to consider is the learners – will
true effectiveness of an e-learning programme. You they respond effectively to a new form of learning?
Advance, © Saffron Interactive 2008 5

6. Certain demographics will be almost automatically interested. Younger generations of learners, already familiar
with social network websites, will have no problem understanding or adapting to an e-learning social network.
Indeed, many companies use a group on Facebook as an informal induction and online academic discussion
forums, such as WebCT, are already a fixture in some universities. But to sustain that initial interest and to
attract older generations, there must be a real purpose behind the use of e-Learning 2.0.
For some learning solutions, it may not be appropriate. For example, with a health and safety course, is there
practical benefit in creating a forum for further discussion, for opinions to be exchanged? Health and safety
involves information that must be understood by learners straightaway, otherwise their safety is at risk. Adding
numerous other forms of communication could simply confuse matters with no worthwhile benefit gained.
Even if the content is appropriate, SMEs may be unwilling to relinquish control of the content. While they may be
able to see what learners are discussing, they cannot in any practical way control the learning. Can they be sure
that the original objectives of the course are still being met? So it can’t fully replace more traditional e-learning,
but rather should be used in conjunction with it, to enhance it, as part of a blended learning programme.
So there are dangers and despite the revolution, e-Learning 2.0 isn’t going to provide learning professionals with
all the answers. Without real benefits to its use, e-Learning 2.0 would be destined to become a footnote, or
a foolish diversion from the business of learning. But those benefits are real and can add new possibilities to
what e-learning can do. The true value of e-Learning 2.0 is when it can be used to exploit a desire for personal
development to fulfil a business need. It then allows learners to take responsibility for their own ongoing learning
in a manner that is truly interactive. Social change is here – the e-learning industry cannot ignore it.
6 Advance, © Saffron Interactive 2008

7. Laura is an Instructional Designer at Saffron Interactive
where she specialises in blended learning programmes.
Projects that she has designed and led include those for:
KPMG, Roche and Red Bull. She has also worked with BT
and Microsoft on a range of projects.
She is currently researching the possibilities new media
offers to training and business communications, of which
Web 2.0 forms an important part.
Before joining Saffron, Laura taught English as a foreign
language, both in the UK and abroad. She has a degree in
English and Linguistics from the University of Manchester.
Laura can be contacted via
laura@saffroninteractive.com
www.saffroninteractive.com
Advance, © Saffron Interactive 2008 7

8. www.saffroninteractive.com
Third Floor, Grays Inn House
127 Clerkenwell Road
London
EC1R 5DB
Design by Jenni Grove
t: 020 7092 8900
ISNN: 1478-7641
1748-7633
© 2008 Saffron Interactive f: 020 7242 2757
All rights reserved e: info@saffroninteractive.com