Where Are We Going … and Why? Free

For decades, technologies such as satellite communications, personal computers, the Internet, and learning management systems have been primary drivers in the evolution of distance learning. These electronic technologies have simultaneously challenged and changed how learning is viewed by students, instructors, managers, CEOs, and others. From where we learn and when we learn, to how we learn and what we learn, these and other technologies continue to challenge our perspectives of learning, frequently turning many of our perceptions upside-down.

For students and instructors alike, numerous benefits have been the consequence of these technical innovations. The Internet, for instance, offers educational and training opportunities to millions of people who would otherwise be disadvantaged by their geographical location, physical disabilities, and/or competing obligations. Similarly, personal computers provide millions of users with the capacity to create and share information more easily than at any other time in history.

Yet, as I have discussed in previous Ends and Means columns, advancements in these technologies have outpaced advancements in conceptual technologies (such as theories, procedures, frameworks, and models) for creating effective learning experiences. This lag has left instructors, learners, researchers, instructional designers, and others without clear answers to where they are headed with distance learning and why.

Instead, we seem to be on a never-ending merry-go-round of electronic technologies. As soon as we grab one gold ring (e.g., podcasting, compact streaming media, wikis), a new technology is released and we are once again grabbing for the next technology. Often, we are striving to integrate the newest technologies before we have even discovered the potentials of the earlier technologies. And, more often than not, we are applying new technologies without any theoretical or foundational frameworks for relating technologies to learner performance.

Without strategic objectives to answer the questions about where we are going and why (and lacking conceptual technologies to guide our practice) we just keep grabbing for the next gold ring without knowing if it is going to help us achieve our goals. Frequently, we can’t even describe how we will measure our success beyond the boundaries of the next fiscal quarter, let alone two, three, five or even ten years down the road. And getting off the merry-go-round to catch your breath is difficult, if not impossible. All of this leaves us with little time, and few opportunities, to reflect on “where we are going, and why?”

Advances in technological hardware and software are not likely to end, nor should they. By no means do I advocate that the marry-go-round should stop. These advances continue to expand our capacity to deliver valuable learning experiences to learners around the world. But we must also find time in our busy schedules to ask basic questions about what results we are trying to accomplish and why those results are of value to our students, organizations, and communities. These answers, after all, should guide our decisions to a much greater degree than the technology tools we may (or may not) use to achieve our objectives.

Take a few minutes now to reflect on where are you and your organization are going with distance learning. Then ask yourself “why?” Can you identify the strategic objectives that distance learning is intended to accomplish for your organization, its clients, and your societal partners? Is distance learning simply an option to cut production and delivery costs, or is distance learning intended to guide colleagues, clients, organizational partners, and others in the accomplishment of useful results? Are advances in distance learning technologies leading your daily decisions, or are the strategic objectives of your organization and its partners you guide?

For most of us, these are challenging questions to answer. Frequently, we are too busy trying to achieve loosely defined goals to question and discover why they are our goals in the first place. The daily tasks associated with designing, publishing, and revising e-learning tutorials, for example, take the place of any time we may have had for adequate pre-design planning, needs assessment, and needs analysis. Strategic plans routinely gather dust on the shelf while our daily to-do list grows in length and complexity.

Yet, these are essential questions for everyone in all organizations to ask and answer. Without clear answers to these, we are left to continually chase the latest in technological advances, not knowing which are going to truly help us achieve valuable results for our internal and external partners. After all, if you don’t know where you are going, then any path (or technology) will do.

If you don’t have clear answers to the questions of where you are going and why, now is the perfect time to find them. With the answers, you can then ensure that all of your daily decisions are made on the basis of accomplishing long-term goals and objectives, letting strategic ambitions replace new technologies in deciding where to go next and why.

Begin by reviewing the strategic plans of your organization and its partners. Include the long-term goals of your organization along with the strategic goals of clients, clients’ clients, the communities you service, suppliers, and others. Building a comprehensive understanding of where your efforts fit in this mosaic is critical to determining where you are headed, and why.

If you can’t find answers in current strategic planning documents, then this is likely an indication that it is time for your organization to undertake practical strategic planning. Every department, division, and person within an organization should be able to look to the strategic plans of their organization to identify their contributions and guide their decisions. From maintenance crews to software engineers, the strategic plan of an organization should provide answers to where they are going and why.

Useful strategic plans develop out of collaborations with internal and external organizational partners. These collaborative efforts help you define the valuable results that your organization, together with its partners, is working to accomplish for clients, clients’ clients, and others in society. Consequently, practical strategic planning begins outside of the organization and provides a foundation for answering the question “why?”

Begin strategic planning outside of your organization and then move inward as you look to define the desired results of the individuals, departments, units, and other colleagues that make up your organization. This outside-inside approach ensures that the goals and objectives within the organizations are aligned with the desired results of your external partners. For instance, if your clients’ clients are looking to use your products in a safe and effective manner, then any internal training and education for new customer service representatives should include skills related to answering the safety questions of indirect clients. This external alignment then replaces old planning processes where you may have started with off-the-shelf e-learning modules on customer service and then looked for “problems” that these resources could address.

Even when your direct-clients are internal to your organization (for example, new employees or the manufacturing division), your strategic goals and objectives should be informed by the external clients. This ensures that your decisions are aligned with the long-term objectives of all organizational partners rather than those of discrete factions within the organization. Focus first and foremost on the desired results of your external partners (including clients, suppliers, and community members), and you will quickly learn where you are heading and, more importantly, why.