Individual Preferences in E-learning
Individual Preferences in E-learning
Howard HillsGower2004ISBN: 0 566 08456 2£55
To read some of the research sponsored by suppliers of e-learning, addressing the growth of this medium of training and learning, one could be forgiven for thinking that very soon it will have swept all before it. We should not forget,however, that we are dealing with what is still very much a “new”technology of learning. Scratch beneath the surface and considerable scepticism remains. I recently asked a group of 30+ HR managers their view of a relatively up-to-date, “Web based”, interpersonal skills programme. Only a handful were impressed enough to even consider investigating further.
Hills asks a fundamental and timely question in this book: “How can we make e-learning more appealing to more people?”. Organisations have experienced problems with information and communication technology (ICT) applied to training. The hype has often masked poor content, sluggish take-up and significant drop-out. As with open and distance learning more generally what can appear to an organisation as an easy and cost-efficient training solution often ignores the complexities of the management of training including, importantly,individual differences.
Much of the book might be described as addressing contextual issues. Hills does an excellent job drawing the reader’s attention to the growth of the Internet and a range of issues associated with its impact upon individual and organisational learning. He highlights the work of Pask (research on the way learners used frame-based material) and Carroll (observations of people using computer systems), for example, as significant in helping us understand the application of technology to learning. It is, however, to personality differences and the Myers Briggs Inventory (MBTI) that Hills looks to base his proposition that e-learning can, cost-effectively, be geared most appropriately to the individual. The book provides a description of each of the 16 MBTI learner categories; each description containing information on how category types learn, what stimuli they respond to, what conditions they thrive in and the suitability of e-learning for each group. Hills is quick to acknowledge that 16 different e-learning courses is wholly unrealistic. Instead, he bases his design implications on the four “functions” which are critical to the MBTI theory (iNtuition, sensing, thinking, and feeling), arguing that each item of e-learning can be mapped against the preferences to one of the four MBTI functions.
The latter third of the book is devoted to drawing the practical implications for the e-learning designer. Important issues are discussed surrounding what might be called “structured choice” for the learner and how this can be built into the e-learning course. For example, decisions making routes, the involvement of others and the extent to which the learner is encouraged to search for information, either within or outside the course. Interestingly, one example is developed focusing upon interviewing skills – the very theme on which many HR managers were sceptical about the application of ICT to learning. I am not sure of the extent to which Hills’ model and justification would change their minds. In part this is because the author’s analysis and argument becomes a little muddied in the latter parts of the book. Although the basis remains the MBTI theory, efforts are made to embrace the somewhat different ideas of Pask, Kolb and Honey and Mumford in terms of learning styles and cyclical learning cycles. In part, also, because Hills conveys a veneer of simplicity to the design implications of his model, which I feel may belie reality, however sound the underpinning theory.
Of course the proof will be in the efficacy of material that seeks to take on board Hills’s ideas and here we must be patient. In the meantime the book deserves to be read by anyone interested in technology-based training, whether or not specifically engaged in e-learning design. It is an important book. If e-learning is to become a “mass” training vehicle, operating effectively beyond its current niche areas (IT, complex simulation) more imaginative and thoughtful applications are surely key to increased demand. The book offers a valuable resource in such a development.
