How the design approach of an e-learning project derives from human needs: a concept that has not changed
E-learning and Innovation (for ELI friends). Why backwards?
This was the headline of the first version of ELI, dating back to 2005, created by Prof. Mauro Sandrini, co-founder of OC. Since then, a lot of progress has been made, including new ones, such as those recently paved at the Mechatronics Hub, where we opened the office of our latest laboratory in 2014. Here you see the first photo, you can see my mountain bike just put down to jump off and shoot, with absolute enthusiasm. In the other photo we see Mauro holding the floor at an international conference on e-learning, which was held at EURAC in Bolzano in 2007. I was there in the middle listening too. Many of the concepts expressed by Mauro remain absolutely valid, and their application would be truly desirable. For this reason I want to propose some of them again, taken from the article “Why upside down” which appeared in the first ELI blog.
Happy reading Roberto del Mastro
“Compared to the mainstream of e-learning, we think backwards. In fact, let’s start with people. People come first. The second is the problems that can be addressed with e-learning. Finally comes technology.
E-learning and Innovation is the professional community of those who deal with e-learning. Of those who know that e-learning can be very useful for an organization but also that the final goal is not obvious. To get there we must continue to learn, learn, learn… Like the artisans of the past we are forced to face reality on a daily basis. We think that to fly high you need to be able to look at the ground: where to take one step after another along the design process. We believe that to propose e-learning we must explain its usefulness. Without getting into the chair. As? Solving a problem. Those who do e-learning must, first of all, know how to solve the most urgent problem that those who enter their shop have. And knowing how to do it well. This is the crucial skill of those who work in e-learning. Not the software, not even the trendy methodologies. Just as the shoemaker must know how to make beautiful and economical, but also comfortable shoes, the same is true for those who do e-learning.
For example, these are some of the problems that can be addressed: how to ensure that sales managers know the product they are proposing (this is not to be taken for granted!) how to help school students understand difficult mathematical problems how to ensure that those who have to operate with people of various ethnic groups can communicate in a basic way with them while respecting their culture. When you manage to achieve a concrete goal that is consistent with your initial expectations, interesting things happen. First of all, resistance to innovation is drastically reduced. After demonstrating that a real problem has been solved, the difficulties in explaining what e-learning is disappear and, often, emulation and the desire to continue are ignited.
Some call this Change Management. For us it is simply common sense. In other words: after solving the first problem what happens is that the value of e-learning is recognised; we understand that it is not an abstract concept and that it can improve the life and work of the people involved. But that is not all. What happens after solving an initial problem with e-learning is that you leave a legacy. This legacy is an operating context for innovation. Not a software platform or a course, but an architecture of technologies and methods. A system that is ready to welcome other projects and, one after another, constitute the structure within which the organization’s knowledge can flow.
This is the “reverse” point of view of E-learning and Innovation. A point of view that favors what is needed in that precise moment and organizational context. We are not interested in the latest Internet fashions, even if we look at the powerful innovation pushes that come from the Internet with the interest of those who want to “touch it first-hand”. It’s the same with e-learning. Beyond technologies, fashions and gurus there are people and organizations. How you learn and spend your time is an important issue with great opportunities and some risk. The biggest of which is boredom: the antithesis of innovation. Solving a particular problem with e-learning means giving the buyer not only the shoes – as the shoemaker did with those who entered his shop – but also sharing the “how” of making shoes and accompanying him in the construction of the ” his” shop. When done well, e-learning becomes a path of autonomy and growth for individuals and organizations. Otherwise it becomes a tool to serve content to those who will use it reluctantly. But in this case: is it really worth it?”
