Comments on: Taking the step

By: Internet Time Blog : 195 posts about MOOCs

Internet Time Blog : 195 posts about MOOCs — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 05:02:01 +0000

[…] Taking the step CLARK QUINN | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 2012 […]

By: Dave Ferguson

Dave Ferguson — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 12:12:16 +0000

“If you’re providing knowledge and a knowledge test…it’s not going to make a difference.”
Probably not–but consider the practices of many organizations. They misperceive processes that seem to lie outside their main concerns. Thus Blockbuster for a long time was in the business of renting physical objects (videotapes, followed by DVDs) and didn’t seem to see how they might have been in the business of delivering visual entertainment.
“It’s still possible to see well-produced but not well-designed material, but that can’t last.”
Not forever, but like the Pontiac division of GM, it can last a hell of a long time past the point where it makes sense to the organization.
I wonder if part of the resistance / reluctance comes from the client’s sense of what’s at risk? The Fleembogler Project has to accomplish X, Y, and Z by 1, 2, and 3. The project connects to lots of things in the organization, and training (or learning, or performance improvement) seems like a supporting character compared with the changes in, say, the engineering, sales, and service functions. So there may be a sense that there are higher negative consequences to trying something new and falling short.
In the same way that no one ever got fired for hiring IBM, no project gets in (much) trouble for an attractive-looking though eventually ineffective online course.

By: Amir Elion

Amir Elion — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 05:06:12 +0000

Hi Clark,
I do sympathize greatly with the feelings you describe. Sometimes when I get a look at the results of a design effort (done either by an internal unit or a supplier) I ask myself how they do not see it’s absolutely ineffective (due to poor design).
Why does that happen?
For one – I think people are not aware that it could be done differently. There is too little well designed elearning around for people to know what a good program looks and feels like.
When people are aware that there are better ways they do want to change but even then there are fears of change, there’s an illusion that change is not urgent, there is lack of knowledge how to move forward and other pressures as well. We have seen clients who know what good design looks like (well…after we worked with them on it…:-)), and have seen incredible feedback on the things produced, that still sometime go for the old ways of doing things as they sink back to their ‘comfort zone’ or because they lack the strength to fight to do things differently internally.
I think a workshop might not be enough as a remedy. I think this involves a true change process. A change in policy and strategy, in motivation, in processes and practices and only then in skills and tools.
We need to keep on demonstrating and calling for that change – because as you say – those who do not change will not survive nor thrive. They are already being cut as irrelevant all around us.